Systems and methods for managing seams

• US 7,570,227 B2
• Filed: 10/17/2003
• Issued: 08/04/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Mackinlay, Jock D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Chanh
• Assistant Examiner(s): MA, CALVIN
• Application Number:
  US10/687,487
• Publication Number:
  US 20050083331A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,118 Days
• Field of Search: 345/1.1, 345/1.3, 345/903, 353/48, 349/6
• US Class Current: 345/1.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1446 display composed of modules, e.g. video walls

Abstract

Techniques are provided to manage seams between discrete displays. Output image information is determined at the level of an application output call, an operating system output call, a device driver, a video controller level or at any other output level. Display layout adjustments are applied to the output image information based on user input and/or the type and/or location of the output image information. Interpolable output image information and non-interpolable output image information are determined. Display layout adjustments of non-interpolable output image information selectively move the non-interpolable output image information away from the seam. Display layout adjustments of interpolable output image information at the seam selectively redraw the interpolable output image information through the seam. Techniques for applying seam information as a constraint in the initial layout of the output image information are also provided. Techniques of maintaining context within text and other high context output image information are provided in which portions of the display immediately before a seam are replicated onto the display immediately following the seam.

Claims

1. A method of managing seams comprising the steps of:

determining a composite output display comprising at least two external displays, each display associated with a view into a contiguous virtual display space and being separated from an adjacent display by a seam that defines an area that cannot display output information;

determining seam information associated with the seam area between the at least two displays;

determining output information;

determining display layout adjustments for output information associated with views into the contiguous virtual display space, the display layout adjustments being based on the determined seam information and the output information; and

displaying the output information for each display based on the determined display layout adjustments,

where determining layout adjustments based on the determined seam information and output information comprises at least one of;

determining display layout adjustments based on seam constrained movement of object elements and output information by adjusting an object element originally determined to be output across two adjacent displays and the intervening seam area to move off the seam area for display on only one of the two adjacent displays; and

determining display layout adjustments based on output information and at least one virtual display space repetition area defined in a region around the seam by adjusting output information originally determined to be output in the at least one repetition area to be repeated in two adjacent displays to provide contextual guidance for the display.

2. The method of claim 1, where the seam information is determined based on at least one of:

a dynamic determination, retrieving stored display information, determined manually.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the seam information is dynamically determined based on sensor information.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein manually determining the seam information comprises measuring the area between the displays.

5. The method of claim 1, where determining the seam information based on retrieving stored display information comprises:

determining display information for the at least two displays; and

adding bezel based seam information for each of the at least two displays.

6. The method of claim 1, where determining the output information for each display associated with a view comprises intercepting output information from at least one of:

the application level;

the operating system level;

the device driver level; and

the video memory level.

7. The method of claim 1, where the repetition areas are based on at least one of pixels, characters, words and sentences.

8. The method of claim 1, where movements of seam constrained object elements are based on at least one of:

simulated annealing, constraint satisfaction, physical modeling, user history, nearest point-to-nearest-point, heuristics, and algorithms.

9. The method of claim 8, where the output information is displayed in the seam.

10. The method of claim 1, where the display layout adjustments are performed by the output information generator.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least two displays are discrete displays and every image on the at least two discrete displays is displayed.

12. A system for managing seams in composite display system comprising:

an input/output circuit;

a memory;

a processor for determining output information to be displayed;

a seam information determination circuit that determines seam information for a seam between at least two external adjacent output displays that cannot display output information;

a display layout adjustment circuit that determines display layout adjustments for the output image information associated with views into a contiguous virtual display space, the display layout adjustments being based on the determined seam information and the output information, and where the processor displays the output information for each display based on the determined display layout adjustments,

wherein the display layout adjustment circuit determines layout adjustment by at least one of;

(1) seam constrained movement of addressable object elements where the layout of addressable objects originally determined to be output across two adjacent displays and the intervening seam area is adjusted to move off the seam area for display on only one of the displays, and (2) defining of repetition areas around the seam and adjustment of the layout so that output information originally determined to be output in one of the repetition areas is repeated in two adjacent displays to provide contextual guidance for the display.

13. The system of claim 12, where the seam information is determined based on at least one of:

a dynamic determination, retrieving stored display information, determined manually.

14. The system of claim 13, where the seam information is dynamically determined based on sensor information.

15. The system of claim 13, where manually determining the seam information comprises measuring the seam between displays.

16. The system of claim 12, where the seam information determination circuit determines seam information by determining bezel based display information for the at least two displays and determining seam information by adding bezel based seam information for the at least two displays.

17. The system of claim 12, where determining the output image information for each display is based on intercepting the output information from at least one of:

an application level, an operating system level, a device driver level, and a video memory level.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the repetition area is based on at least one of pixels, characters, words and sentences.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein seam constrained movement is based on at least one of:

simulated annealing, constraint satisfaction, physical modeling, user history, nearest-point-to-nearest-point, heuristics and algorithms.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein adjusted output image information is displayed in the seam.

21. The system of claim 12, wherein the display layout adjustment determination is performed by the generator of the output image information.

22. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least two displays are discrete displays and every image on the at least two discrete displays is displayed.

23. A computer readable storage medium encoded with a computer program comprising instructions for:

determining a composite output display comprising at least two external displays, each display associated with contiguous views into a virtual display space and being separated from an adjacent display by a seam that defines an area that cannot display output information;

determining seam information for at least one seam area between the at least two displays;

determining output information;

determining display layout adjustments for each of the at least two displays associated with the views into virtual display space, the display layout adjustments being based on the determined seam information and the output information; and

displaying the output information for each display based on the determined display layout adjustments,

where determining layout adjustments based on the determined seam information and output information comprises at least one of;

determining display layout adjustments based on seam constrained movement of object elements and output information by adjusting an object element originally determined to be output across two adjacent displays and the intervening seam area to move off the seam area for display on only one of the two adjacent displays, and

determining display layout adjustments based on output information and at least one virtual display space repetition area defined in a region around the seam by adjusting output information originally determined to be output in the at least one repetition area to be repeated in two adjacent displays to provide contextual guidance for the display.

24. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the at least two displays are discrete displays and every image on the at least two displays is displayed.

25. A system of managing seams comprising:

a means for determining a composite output display comprising at least two external displays, each display associated with a view into a contiguous virtual display space and being separated from an adjacent display by a seam that defines an area that cannot display output information;

a means for determining seam information associated with the seam area between the at least two displays;

a means for determining output information;

a means for determining display layout adjustments for output information associated with views into the contiguous virtual display space, the display layout adjustments being based on the determined seam information and the output information; and

a means for displaying the output information for each display based on the determined display layout adjustments,

wherein the means for determining display layout adjustments determines the layout adjustments by at least one of;

(1) seam constrained movement of addressable object elements where the layout of addressable objects originally determined to be output across two adjacent displays and the intervening seam area is adjusted to move off the seam area for display on only one of the displays, and (2) defining of repetition areas around the seam and adjustment of the layout so that output information originally determined to be output in one of the repetition areas is repeated in two adjacent displays to provide contextual guidance for the display.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the at least two displays are discrete displays and every image on the at least two displays is displayed.