Volume management system for volumetric displays

• US 20040001112A1
• Filed: 06/28/2002
• Published: 01/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Silicon Graphics Incorporated (Graphics Properties Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kurtenbach, Gordon Paul, Balakrishnan, Ravin, Fitzmaurice, George William
• Granted Patent: US 7,839,400 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/848
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/50 the image being built up from image elements distributed over a 3D volume, e.g. voxels
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04812 Interaction techniques based on cursor appearance or behaviour, e.g. being affected by the presence of displayed objects
• 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: G06T 15/00 3D [Three Dimensional] image rendering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/00 Three dimensional [3D] modelling, e.g. data description of 3D objects

Abstract

The present invention is a system that manages a volumetric display using volume windows. The volume windows have the typical functions, such as minimize, resize, etc., which operate in a volume. When initiated by an application a volume window is assigned to the application in a volume window data structure. Application data produced by the application is assigned to the windows responsive to which applications are assigned to which windows in the volume window data structure. Input events are assigned to the windows responsive to whether they are spatial or non-spatial. Spatial events are assigned to the window surrounding the event or cursor where a policy resolves situations where more than one window surrounds the cursor. Non-spatial events are assigned to the active or working window.

Claims

1. A method of managing a volumetric display, comprising:

creating one or more volume windows in the volumetric display; and

providing application data to the windows corresponding to one or more applications assigned to each of the windows.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the windows are delimited by visible boundaries.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the volume windows have a shape comprising one of cubic, cylindrical, pie wedges, and arbitrary shapes.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein input events are assigned to one of the windows responsive to input focus.

5. A method as recited in claim 4, wherein input focus comprises the window enclosing the cursor for spatial input events and the active window for non spatial input events.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the windows have window functions comprising one of open, close, resize, maximize, minimize, move, hilite, and hide.

7. A method as recited in claim 6, wherein the open function allocates three-dimensional region within the display for an application having an origin and highlights a three-dimensional boundary of the region the further comprising display outputs of the application in the region, and sending all the cursor events to the application when a cursor is within the region.

8. A method as recited in claim 6, wherein the minimize function substitutes a three-dimensional icon for a designated volume window and places icon at a designated position within the display.

9. A method as recited in claim 6, wherein the maximize function expands a designated volume window until the window contacts a boundary of the display and scales contents of the volume window in proportion to the change in volume.

10. A method as recited in claim 6, wherein the move function moves a three-dimensional volume window in accordance with a three-dimensional motion vector.

11. A method as recited in claim 6, wherein the resize function determines whether an active window encounters an inactive window in three dimensions.

12. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein application requests are mapped to corresponding windows responsive to the window assigned to the application.

13. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein an active window having a size can have the size changed and the method comprising resizing a window that abuts the active window responsive to the change in size of the active window.

14. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the user can designate volumes or sub-volumes using gestures.

15. A method of managing a volumetric display, comprising:

creating volume windows within a volumetric display; and

associating a process/thread with each of the volume windows.

16. A method as recited in claim 15, wherein the associating uses a data structure comprising a root node and a volume window node linked to the root node, the volume window node comprising pointers defining a boundary of the volume window and information identifying an application supplying output to the window and receiving input from the window.

17. A method as recited in claim 16, wherein each process operates with data of the associated volume window.

18. A method as recited in claim 16, wherein input events are assigned to one of the volume windows responsive to a display input focus.

19. A computer readable storage controlling a computer by creating one or more volume windows in a volumetric display, and providing application data to the windows corresponding to one or more applications assigned to each of the windows.

20. An apparatus, comprising:

a volumetric display apparatus having a volumetric display;

an input system producing input events; and

a computer creating volume windows within the display, assigning application data to the windows responsive to applications assigned to the windows, and assigning input events to the windows responsive to input focus.

21. A display, comprising:

a volumetric display space; and

a volume window positioned in the display space and having a three-dimensional boundary.

22. A display as recited in claim 21, wherein the volume window has a title bar indicating a window orientation and a front of the volume window.

23. A volumetric display data structure readable by a computer and controlling production of a volumetric display by the computer, comprising:

a root node defining a shape of a volumetric display space and three dimensional boundaries of the shape;

volume window nodes linked to an root node and each node identifying an application associated with the window, specifying a position of the volume window in the display space and specifying a boundary of the volume window.