Patent ID: 8407619

Claim:
A computer implemented method for selecting objects, comprising: (a) displaying in a client browser on a client computer, a rendered image containing one or more rendered objects; (b) receiving, from a server across a network, in the client browser, an already created run length encoded (RLE) selection buffer, wherein the selection buffer comprises a mapping of each pixel from the rendered image to one or more object identifiers corresponding to one or more of the one or more rendered objects; (c) accepting, from a cursor control device at the client computer, user input comprising a location of the cursor control device with respect to the rendered image; (d) determining, on the client computer, which of the one or more rendered objects has been selected based on the user input and the RLE selection buffer; and (e) displaying, in the client browser, the selected rendered object in a visually distinguishable manner wherein the displaying object in a visually distinguishable manner is associated with an associative array comprising one or more object identifications for each of the rendered objects, wherein each object identification is mapped to one or more lists of start run-stop run pairs of x,y coordinate values.