Patent ID: 7818690

Claim:
A method, having applicability to a UI, for transforming an interactive object operable in a 2-D space into an interactive object that is operable in a 3-D space, the method comprising: defining a 2-D visual tree comprising a plurality of nodes, respective nodes in the 2-D visual tree comprising one or more 2-D visual objects, of the interactive object operable in 2-D space, that are renderable in the 2-D space; mapping a 3-D visual tree to the 2-D visual tree so that nodes in the 3-D visual tree follow a parallel structure to respective nodes in the 2-D visual tree; and providing a 3-D representation by which at least one 2-D visual object is interactively manipulated in the 3-D space, based at least in part upon the mapping, through one or more properties that are defined on the at least one 2-D visual object, the one or more properties belonging to a static class that exposes a plurality of 3-D functionalities.