METHOD FOR PARTITIONING, MANAGING AND DISPLAYING A COLLABORATION SPACE AND INTERACTIVE INPUT SYSTEM EMPLOYING SAME

• US 20150279071A1
• Filed: 12/22/2014
• Published: 10/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smart Technologies ULC (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Smart Technologies ULC (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: XIN, Min
• Granted Patent: US 9,471,957 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/60 Memory management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 9/40 Tree coding, e.g. quadtree, octree

Abstract

A computerized method of managing a collaboration space comprises partitioning the collaboration space into a plurality of tiles in a tree structure; and associating each graphic object with a tile in said tree structure; said tile being the smallest tile in the tree structure that substantially accommodate said graphic object.

Claims

1. A method of controlling one or more memory devices for storing a collaboration space, said collaboration space having one or more graphic objects therein, the method comprising:

partitioning the collaboration space into a plurality of tiles distributed at a plurality of levels in a tree structure representing a recursive subdivision of the collaboration space, the union of tiles at each level spanning the collaboration space, each tile at a level either being a leaf node or being subdivided into a plurality of smaller tiles at the next level; and

associating each graphic object with an object tile in said tree structure, said object tile being the smallest tile in the tree structure that substantially accommodates said graphic object; and

storing at least the object tiles in a first memory device of said one or more memory devices, wherein each object tile is stored in said first memory device as a separate record that may be independently accessed.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein each tile at the same level has the same size.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein each tile at a level either is a leaf node or is subdivided into four smaller tiles at the next level.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said object tile is the smallest tile in the tree structure that accommodates the entirety of said graphic object.

5. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

for each graphic object;

determining a tile level L in the tree structure such that the size each tile at said tile level L is larger than that of at least the predefined major portion of said graphic object; and

determining the object tile as a tile at said tile level L that overlaps with at least the predefined major portion of said graphic object.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said tile level L is determined as the tile level of the smallest tile that whose width is larger than or equal to the diameter of a bounding circle of the graphic object weighted by a weighting factor C_d.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein said tiles are square tiles, and said determining a tile level L comprises:

iterating from the level having largest tile width to the level having the smallest tile width, to determine the tile level L having the largest tile width W_L that satisfies R>

C_wW_L, where R is the radius of the bounding circle of the graphic object, C_w is a weighting factor, and C_d=1/(4C_w).

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said weighting factor C_w is 0.25.

9. The method of claim 5 wherein determining the object tile as a tile in said tile level that overlaps with at least the predefined major portion of said graphic object comprises:

determining the object tile as a tile in said tile level that overlaps with the center of a bounding circle of said graphic object.

10. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

determining the position of a viewport, said viewport displaying a display image of at least a portion of said collaboration space;

determining a set of tiles in said tree structure required for rendering a display image to be displayed in said viewport; and

loading the determined set of tiles from the first memory device to a second memory device.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein determining a set of tiles comprises:

for each tile in the tree structure;

defining a zone for said tile as an area concentric with said tile with a dimension equal to that of said tile weighted by a weighting factor C_b;

determining if the view port overlaps with said zone; and

marking the tile as a required tile of said set of tiles if the view port overlaps with said zone.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein said weighting factor C_b is 2.

13. An interactive input system for managing a collaboration space having one or more graphic objects, comprising:

a processing structure;

a memory functionally coupled to said processing structure and storing at least a portion of said collaboration space;

wherein said processing structure executes computer-executable code for;

partitioning the collaboration space into a plurality of tiles distributed at a plurality of levels in a tree structure representing a recursive subdivision of the collaboration space, the union of tiles at each level spanning the collaboration space, each tile at a level either being a leaf node or being subdivided into a plurality of smaller tiles at the next level; and

associating each graphic object with an object tile in said tree structure, said object tile being the smallest tile in the tree structure that accommodates at least a predefined major portion of said graphic object.

14. The interactive input system of claim 13 wherein each tile at the same level has the same size, and wherein each tile at a level either is a leaf node or is subdivided into four smaller tiles at the next level.

15. The interactive input system of claim 14 wherein said processing structure further executes computer-executable code for:

storing, in a first memory area, at least the object tiles, wherein each object tile is stored therein as a separate record that may be independently accessed.

16. The interactive input system of claim 15 wherein said processing structure further executes computer-executable code for:

determining the position of a viewport, said viewport displaying a display image of at least a portion of said collaboration space;

determining a set of tiles in said tree structure required for rendering a display image to be displayed in said viewport; and

loading the determined set of tiles from the first memory area to a second memory area.

17. The interactive input system of claim 16 wherein said computer-executable code for determining a set of tiles comprises computer-executable code for:

for each tile in the tree structure;

defining a zone for said tile as an area concentric with said tile with a dimension equal to that of said tile weighted by a weighting factor C_b;

determining if the view port overlaps with said zone; and

marking the tile as a required tile of said set of tiles if the view port overlaps with said zone.

18. A computer-readable storage device comprising computer-executable instructions for managing a collaboration space having one or more graphic objects, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause a processor to perform actions comprising:

partitioning the collaboration space into a plurality of tiles in a tree structure representing a recursive subdivision of the collaboration space, the union of tiles at each level spanning the collaboration space, each tile at a level either being a leaf node or being subdivided into a plurality of smaller tiles at the next level; and

associating each graphic object with an object tile in said tree structure, said object tile being the smallest tile in the tree structure that substantially accommodates said graphic object.

19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 18 wherein each tile at the same level has the same size, and wherein each tile at a level either is a leaf node or is subdivided into four smaller tiles at the next level.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 19 wherein said instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to perform actions comprising:

storing, in a first memory area, at least the object tiles, wherein each object tile is stored therein as a separate record that may be independently accessed.

21. The computer-readable storage device of claim 20 wherein said instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to perform actions comprising:

determining the position of a viewport, said viewport displaying a display image of at least a portion of said collaboration space;

determining a set of tiles in said tree structure required for rendering a display image to be displayed in said viewport; and

loading the determined set of tiles from the first memory area to a second memory area.

22. The computer-readable storage device of claim 21 wherein determining a set of tiles comprises:

for each tile in the tree structure;

defining a zone for said tile as an area concentric with said tile with a dimension equal to that of said tile weighted by a weighting factor C_b;

determining if the view port overlaps with said zone; and

marking the tile as a required tile of said set of tiles if the view port overlaps with said zone.