Patent ID: 7646937

Claim:
An image display method for downloading an image larger than a display region of a viewer from a server and displaying said image on said viewer, comprising: downloading an image to a viewer; dividing said image into a plurality of areas, so that each divided image may be transmittable from said server, determining each divided image at least a part of which is contained in said display region of said viewer in accordance with a relative position between said image and said display region of said viewer, and enabling the corresponding divided image to be preferentially transmitted from said server further comprising the steps of: setting a predetermined number of frame elements on said viewer which comprise a block, said frame elements corresponding to the display region to be fitted with and to display the divided images contained within a limited range of image area in a predetermined positional relation to the display region of said viewer, including the divided image at least apart of which is contained in said display region of said viewer, the divided image at a corresponding position being fitted into each frame element and displayed, and when a relative movement of the image in the display region is instructed, said viewer calculates the coordinates of the origin of said each frame element to be moved, and the origin of each frame element is moved to the calculated coordinates to implement said relative movement of said image in the display region wherein said divided image is obtained by dividing the image like a lattice in the transverse direction in which a predetermined number bf consecutive divided images in the transverse direction are fitted into said frame elements, said divided image is obtained by dividing the image like a lattice in the longitudinal direction in which a predetermined number of consecutive divided images in the longitudinal direction are fitted into said frame elements, or said divided image is the image divided like a lattice in the transverse and longitudinal directions in which a predetermined number of consecutive divided images in the transverse direction, a predetermined number of consecutive divided images in the longitudinal direction, or a predetermined number of divided images in the transverse direction and a predetermined number of divided images in the longitudinal direction are fitted into said frame elements.