DISPLAYING VISUAL CONTENT USING MULTIPLE NODES

• US 20070182743A1
• Filed: 04/18/2007
• Published: 08/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: AGUERA y ARCAS, BLAISE
• Application Number:
  US11/737,001
• Publication Number:
  US 20070182743A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/440
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/20 Drawing from basic elements, e.g. lines or circles

Abstract

Display of visual content is disclosed which utilizes nodes that launch only when necessary. The nodes may be rendered and/or displayed in the coordinate system of another node, perhaps a parent node, when appropriate.

Claims

1. A method of displaying visual content organized into nodes, the method comprising:

displaying visual content of a first node, wherein the first node contains information indicative of its own coordinate system, and wherein the first node is displayed in its own coordinate system until a predetermined navigation condition occurs; and

displaying visual content of the first node in a coordinate system of a second node after the predetermined navigation condition occurs, wherein the coordinate system of the second node differs from the coordinate system of the first node.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined navigation condition is a size of display of the first node.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined navigation condition occurs in response to navigation by a user.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the navigation comprises either zooming or panning.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual content of the first node is displayed in its own coordinate system during a first range of zooms and the visual content of the first node is displayed in a coordinate system of a second node during a second range of zooms.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the visual content gradually blends at a border between the first range of zooms and second range of zooms.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein at the border between the first range of zooms and second range of zooms, the visual content is displayed by blending from a first rendition to a second rendition.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first node is within the second node.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the second node contains a pointer to the first node.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the coordinate system of the first node is more precise than the coordinate system of the second node.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein a precision associated with a coordinate system is measured in number of digits, and wherein the number of digits is variable.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the precision associated with a coordinate system varies up to a maximum limited by storage capacity of a computer on which the method is operating.

13. A method of substantially simultaneously displaying visual content associated with each of a plurality of nodes, each node having its own coordinate system, the method comprising each node deriving information, in its own coordinate system, indicative of its own position in a display, and displaying visual content associated with each of the nodes substantially simultaneously in the display area.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein deriving for at least one node comprises receiving position information from another node, and converting the position information from a first coordinate system to a second coordinate system.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the position information is a position associated with a predetermined location within the display area.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein visual content associated with each of the nodes is displayed using a rendering method associated with the particular node.

17. A method of displaying visual content on a display, the method comprising displaying visual content associated with a plurality of nodes at a plurality of sizes, each of the plurality of nodes containing information indicative of its own coordinate system, the visual content of each of the plurality of nodes being displayed in a specified coordinate system, each coordinate system having a precision, the precision in which a coordinate system is displayed being dependent upon the size at which the node is displayed.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the precision is variable and increases when the coordinate system in which a node is displayed changes during navigation.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the precision is variable and decreases when the coordinate system in which a node is displayed changes during navigation.