Patent ID: 6650326
Filing Date: 2003-11-18
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
A method for displaying a zooming operation on a display screen of a client computing platform, the method comprising:obtaining a collection of data for displaying map images of geographic features; using said data to display on the display screen a first image showing geographic features at a first scale with a first level of detail and then to display on the display screen a second image showing the same geographic features at a second scale with a second level of detail, wherein the second scale is different from the first scale; and between the displaying of the first image and the displaying of the second image, displaying on the display screen an intermediate image that combines two component images showing at least some of the same geographic features, wherein the two component images in the intermediate image arm at the same scale, wherein the two component images in the intermediate image are registered so that the same geographic features represented in the two component images coincide, and wherein one of the two component images in the intermediate image includes at least a portion of the first image and is formed using data from a first layer of a geographic database and the other of the two component images in the intermediate image is formed using data from a second layer of the geographic database.