Abstract:
A method of displaying and manipulating a digital image is presented. The system extracts information from an image and from the display and display drivers to determine presentation parameters. The user may select various functions to present the image in a desired manner.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This application claims priority to provisional application Ser. No. 61/125,739, filed Apr. 28, 2008. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    The present invention relates generally to digital image manipulation and, more particularly, to a method for displaying a digital image or portions thereof according to the monitor resolution and stored image resolution. 
         [0003]    The ability to enlarge or shrink a digital image is known in the art. Various software products are available that allow the user to zoom into/out of a digital image by enlarging or shrinking the image. These programs may take the image loaded and enlarge an area by spreading an image pixel over two or more display pixels to zoom into the image. Likewise, the program may zoom out of an image by dropping or not displaying a proportional number of image pixels for a particular desired display size. These programs, although allowing the user to zoom into and out of an image, do not display the image at the optimal resolution for the particular display, or not all of the available information is displayed thus providing poor or less than satisfactory results. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0004]    The present invention provides a method for displaying a digital image at a resolution selected by the user. Enlargement of the image is accomplished by extracting additional information from the high quality image and sized to match the monitor resolution. The method may be applied to any digital image regardless of the source or display software. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0005]      FIG. 1  is an illustration of an image source for manipulation by the present method. 
           [0006]      FIG. 2  is a diagram of an image divided into areas. 
           [0007]      FIG. 3  is a flow chart depicting the method of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0008]    Referring initially to  FIG. 1 , a user may access the internet or worldwide web  22  using a personal computer  23 , for example. Content from the internet is displayed on the user&#39;s monitor  24 . Images  26  may be shown as icons, links or thumbnails, along with text  27 . The thumbnail image may be enlarged by selecting the thumbnail. 
         [0009]    When the image  26  is initially accessed, all information about the image is gathered by the system. This information may include size, color depth and pixels, for example. Additionally, all information related to the capabilities of the monitor  24  and video drivers are also gathered by the system. 
         [0010]    The image resolution describes the information or detail that an image holds. Typically, for digital images, resolution is specified as a number of pixels, which can be specified as two numbers such as 640 by 480, or by a single number such as 3.1 megapixels, which is the total number of pixels. When two numbers are given, the first refers to the number of pixel columns (width of the image) and the second refers to the number of pixel rows (height of the image). The total number of pixels can be calculated from the two numbers by multiplying the pixel columns by the pixel rows. Sometimes image resolution is described as pixels per length unit or pixels per area unit, such as pixels per inch or per square inch. 
         [0011]    Generally, a pixel is the smallest single component of an image, which is displayed as a dot or square. In an LCD display, each pixel is a physical triad. When the monitor&#39;s resolution matches that of the image&#39;s resolution, it is referred to as a native resolution. Images will be displayed best when the image resolution is greater than or matches the native resolution. If the image resolution is less than the monitor resolution, the image may appear blurry. 
         [0012]    Other information describing a pixel is the number of distinct colors that can be represented by the pixel, which is the number of bits per pixel (bpp) or color depth. The maximum number of distinct colors that a pixel can represent can be determined by taking two to the power of the color depth. For example, a color depth of 24 is 2 24  colors or 16,777,216 colors, which is also known as Truecolor. A 24-bit depth allows 8 bits per RGB (red, green, and blue) component. 
         [0013]    Referring to  FIGS. 2 and 3 , an image  26  is selected  120  to be displayed at a resolution consistent with the capabilities of the monitor  24  and the image. The image information is gathered  122  along with the display information  124 . For example, the image  26  may be 3000 pixels by 2000 pixels as stored on the web-based server. When viewed on a monitor  24  with a resolution or setting of 800 pixels by 600 pixels, approximately every 12th image pixel is displayed even though additional information (i.e., resolution) is available for display. 
         [0014]    The image  26  may be divided into twelve areas on monitor  24 . It should be understood that any number of areas may be used and that the twelve areas are for illustrative purposes only. The user may select any area for enlargement  126  by moving a cursor  28  or other pointing device over the desired area  30  and right-clicking or otherwise selecting the area. A menu  32  may be displayed which provides the user with available enlargement and reduction choices  128 . 
         [0015]    For example, the user may select “Full”  34  for area  30 . The selected area  30  of the image  26  is resized  130  to display a 800 pixel by 600 pixel image  36 . The image  36  is approximately 500,000 pixels so it is displayed at the full resolution of the display without any distortion. 
         [0016]    If “Enlarge”  38  is selected, the selected area  30  is enlarged incrementally until the optimal image display is reached. Any further enlargement of the image will result in a single pixel from the image being displayed as two or more monitor 24 pixels. 
         [0017]    If “Optimal”  40  is selected, the selected area  30  is displayed in the native resolution matching the display resolution with the image resolution pixel for pixel. 
         [0018]    If “Reduce”  42  is selected, the selected area  30  is reduced incrementally until it is displayed as a thumbnail image. If “Thumbnail”  44  is selected, the selected area  30  is reduced to a thumbnail image. 
         [0019]    The enlargement/reduction function may be implemented as a separate program that is used to view digital images or more preferably as a plug-in to Internet Explorer, Mozilla FireFox or other internet browser. 
         [0020]    Accordingly, it should be understood that while certain forms of the invention have been illustrated and described, it is not limited thereto except insofar as such limitations are included in the following claims.