Patent ID: 6476823
Filing Date: 2002-11-05
Classification: G06F,G09G

Abstract:
Method for displaying a set of images and movies on a graphics display device, said method comprising the following steps:a. providing a display space divided up into a grid of tiles each of which are a small fraction of the display space; b. providing one or more view screens which show sub-regions of the display space, with each view screen being large enough to display at least several tiles; c. associating with each image a function which either maps each point in the display space to a point of the image or maps each point in every view screen to a point of the image; d. providing one or more â€œspreadingâ€  functions which are functions which over time tend to increase the number of tiles tied to a particular image; e. providing a list of active â€œspreadersâ€  which are closures containing a spreading function and data including a starting location in the display space, a particular image, and a time of origination; f. providing one or more input station each of which has a pointing device and associating with each pointing device a cursor which display that cursor on at least one view screen; g. monitoring the position of each cursor and changing the image tied to the tile to another image in the set whenever the cursor has been over the same tile and image for a predefined amount of time; h. responding to each click on a tile by creating a â€œspreaderâ€  closure by associating a spreading function with the location of the tile clicked, the image clicked on, and the time of the click and putting that closure into a list of active â€œspreadersâ€ ; i. calling each â€œspreaderâ€  functions in the list of active â€œspreadersâ€  at a predetermined rate; j. drawing the images onto the view screen whenever there is a change by determining which tiles correspond to the sub-region of the display space shown on the view screen and then determining which image is associated with each tile and then using the function associated with that image to determine which points of the image get displayed for each point of the display space contained in the tile.