Patent ID: 8681146

Claim:
A method for managing a display space for a 3D environment comprising: determining visible surfaces of a plurality of non-controllable scene objects in the 3D environment and representing the visible surfaces of the plurality of non-controllable scene objects as visible space in a view-plane representation, using a computer processor, wherein at least one of the plurality of non-controllable scene objects overlaps with another of the plurality of non-controllable scene objects in the view-plane representation; defining at least one controllable object to be placed in the 3D environment; for each controllable object, determining an available space in the view-plane representation; and determining a placement of each controllable object in the 3D environment in accordance with at least one placement parameter and the available space for the controllable object in the view-plane representation, wherein the controllable objects are displayed using a head-tracked display device, wherein a particular controllable object is associated with one of the plurality of non-controllable objects and wherein, if the particular controllable object fits within the visible space of the associated non-controllable object, then the placement of the particular controllable object is determined to be within the extents of the visible surfaces of the associated non-controllable object, otherwise, if the particular controllable object does not fit within the visible space of the associated non-controllable object, then the placement of the particular controllable object in the 3D environment is determined in accordance with at least one placement parameter and the available space for the controllable object in the view-plane representation.