Patent ID: 6366280
Filing Date: 2002-04-02
Classification: G06F,G06T

Abstract:
A data visualization method for displaying a selected region of a multi-dimensional data object, the data object comprising a plurality of data elements organized in a hierarchy of dimensions, each dimension being associated with an axis, each data element having a position in the data object defined by an index value for each dimension, the data visualization method comprising the steps of:A. receiving region identification information identifying the selected region, the region identification information including index range values along each identified axis which define the region of the data object to be displayed, the region identification information being updatable; B. using the region identification information to retrieve data elements from the portion of the data object corresponding to the region defined by the axis identifier information and index range values received by the interface, the data element retrieval step including the step of determining whether updated region identification information identifies a region that overlaps with previously-received region identification information and, if so, retrieving only data elements in the non-overlapping region; and C. displaying the data elements as retrieved by the object region retrieval element, the display being further configured to, if it receives only data elements in the non-overlapping region, display the data elements along with at least a portion of the previously-received data elements; wherein said region identification information receiving step includes the step of receiving a display mode identification, the display step including the step of displaying the data elements in one of a plurality of display modes as identified by the display mode identification; and wherein said region identification information receiving step includes the step of receiving a display angle value and one of said display modes is a graphical display mode in which the data elements are displayed as a surface, the display step including the step of displaying said surface at an angle related to a display angle value.