Controlling three-dimensional views of selected portions of content

• US 9,274,676 B2
• Filed: 09/11/2013
• Issued: 03/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bell, Denise A., Grigsby, Travis M., Jenkins, Jana H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dragoescu, Claudia
• Application Number:
  US14/024,180
• Publication Number:
  US 20140013281A1
• Time in Patent Office: 902 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/34 Stereoscopes providing a stereoscopic pair of separated images corresponding to parallactically displaced views of the same object, e.g. 3D slide viewers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

Some embodiments of the inventive subject matter are directed to determining that at least a portion of content would be obscured by a border of a graphical user interface if the content were to be presented in a two-dimensional state via the graphical user interface, and presenting the at least the portion of the content in a stereoscopic three-dimensional state in response to the determining that the at least the portion of the content would be obscured by the border of the graphical user interface, wherein a stereoscopic depth effect of the stereoscopic three-dimensional state makes the at least the portion of the content appear to extend beyond the border of the graphical user interface.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining that at least a portion of content would be obscured by a border of a graphical user interface in which the content is contained if the content were to be presented in a two-dimensional state via the graphical user interface; and

via at least one of one or more processors, presenting the at least the portion of the content in a stereoscopic three-dimensional state in response to the determining that the at least the portion of the content would be obscured by the border of the graphical user interface, wherein a stereoscopic depth effect of the stereoscopic three-dimensional state makes the at least the portion of the content that would be obscured appear to extend beyond the border of the graphical user interface.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining that the at least the portion of the content would be obscured by the border of the graphical user interface when presented in the two-dimensional state comprises determining that a size of the at least the portion of content would extend beyond a visible region of the graphical user interface in response to a request to modify the content.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the presenting the at least the portion of the content in the stereoscopic three-dimensional state comprises modifying visual elements of the at least the portion of the content to have the stereoscopic depth effect.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the content is a text string having a first portion presented in a window of the graphical user interface, wherein the border of the graphical user interface comprises a border of the window, wherein a length of the text string would increase in response to a change in state of the content, wherein the at least the portion of the content comprises a second portion of the text string that is obstructed by the border of the window when presented in the two-dimensional state, and wherein the presenting the at least the portion of the content in the stereoscopic three-dimensional state causes the second portion of the text string to be appear to extend beyond the border of the window when presented in the stereoscopic three-dimensional state.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the stereoscopic depth effect is perceptible by one or more of a three-dimensional viewing mechanism and an autostereoscopic display.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

detecting a change of state to the content after the presenting the at least the portion of the content in the stereoscopic three-dimensional state, wherein the change of the state would cause the at least the portion of the content to not be obscured by the border of the graphical user interface when presented in the two-dimensional state; and

presenting the at least the portion of the content in the two-dimensional state in response to the change of state of the content.

19. The method of claim 4, wherein the text string has a range of stereoscopic depth, wherein the first portion of the text string has a first size that indicates a first level of stereoscopic depth within the range of the stereoscopic depth, and wherein the second portion of the text string has a second size, larger than the first size, that indicates a second level of stereoscopic depth with the range of the stereoscopic depth.

7. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory storage unit configured to store instructions, which when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, cause the system to perform operations to

determine that at least a portion of content would be obscured by a border of a graphical user interface in which the content is contained if the content were to be presented in a two-dimensional state via the graphical user interface, and

present the at least the portion of the content in a stereoscopic three-dimensional state after determining that the at least the portion of the content would be obscured by the border of the graphical user interface, wherein a stereoscopic depth effect of the stereoscopic three-dimensional state makes the at least the portion of the content that would be obscured appear to extend beyond the border of the graphical user interface.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the operation to determine that the at least the portion of the content would be obscured by the border of the graphical user interface when presented in the two-dimensional state comprises an operation to determine that a size of the at least the portion of content would extend beyond a visible region of the graphical user interface in response to a request to modify the content.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the operation to present the at least the portion of the content in the stereoscopic three-dimensional state comprises an operation to modify visual elements of the at least the portion of the content to have the stereoscopic depth effect.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the content is a text string having a first portion presented in a window of the graphical user interface, wherein the border of the graphical user interface comprises a border of the window, wherein a length of the text string would increase in response to a change in state of the content, wherein the at least the portion of the content comprises a second portion of the text string that is obstructed by the border of the window when presented in the two-dimensional state, and wherein the presenting the at least the portion of the content in the stereoscopic three-dimensional state causes the second portion of the text string to be appear to extend beyond the border of the window when presented in the stereoscopic three-dimensional state.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the stereoscopic depth effect is perceptible by one or more of a three-dimensional viewing mechanism and an autostereoscopic display.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the memory storage unit is configured to store instructions, which when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, cause the system to further perform operations to:

detect a change of state to the content after the at least the portion of the content is presented in the stereoscopic three-dimensional state, wherein the change of the state would cause the at least the portion of the content to not be obscured by the border of the graphical user interface when presented in the two-dimensional state; and

present the at least the portion of the content in the two-dimensional state in response to the change of state of the content.

13. A computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to,

determine that at least a portion of content would be obscured by a border of a graphical user interface in which the content is contained if the content were to be presented in a two-dimensional state via the graphical user interface, and

present the at least the portion of the content in a stereoscopic three-dimensional state after determining that the at least the portion of the content would be obscured by the border of the graphical user interface, wherein a stereoscopic depth effect of the stereoscopic three-dimensional state makes the at least the portion of the content that would be obscured appear to extend beyond the border of the graphical user interface.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer readable program code configured to determine that the at least the portion of the content would be obscured by the border of the graphical user interface when presented in the two-dimensional state comprises computer readable program code configured to determine that a size of the at least the portion of content would extend beyond a visible region of the graphical user interface in response to a request to modify the content.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer readable program code configured to present the at least the portion of the content in the stereoscopic three-dimensional state comprises computer readable program code configured to modify visual elements of the at least the portion of the content to have the stereoscopic depth effect.

16. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the content is a text string having a first portion presented in a window of the graphical user interface, wherein the border of the graphical user interface comprises a border of the window, wherein a length of the text string would increase in response to a change in state of the content, wherein the at least the portion of the content comprises a second portion of the text string that is obstructed by the border of the window when presented in the two-dimensional state, and wherein the computer readable program code configured to present the at least the portion of the content in the stereoscopic three-dimensional state includes computer readable program code configured to cause the second portion of the text string to be appear to extend beyond the border of the window when presented in the stereoscopic three-dimensional state.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the stereoscopic depth effect is perceptible by one or more of a three-dimensional viewing mechanism and an autostereoscopic display.

18. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer readable program code is further configured to:

detect a change of state to the content after the at least the portion of the content is presented in the stereoscopic three-dimensional state, wherein the change of the state would cause the at least the portion of the content to not be obscured by the border of the graphical user interface when presented in the two-dimensional state; and

present the at least the portion of the content in the two-dimensional state in response to the change of state of the content.