Patent ID: 8713460

Claim:
A method of displaying one or more graphical objects, the method being carried out in an electronic device, the device having processing circuitry, memory and a display device, the method comprising: obtaining first image data, the first image data defining at least one two-dimensional graphical component; performing a transformation operation on the first image data to generate second image data, the second image data defining, for the or each graphical component, a modified form of the graphical component; and using said second image data, displaying the modified form whereby the or each graphical component has the appearance of having a component of dimension perpendicular the plane of the display device; wherein performing the transformation operation includes determining whether a first graphical component that is in modified form intersects with a concurrently displayed second graphical component that is in modified form and, if they are intersecting, determining whether to merge the first and second intersecting graphical components based on an area of the merged components; wherein determining whether to merge the first and second intersecting graphical components comprises: (a) determining if both of the first and second intersecting graphical components comprise dirty regions; (b) if the determination in (a) is positive, then determining whether merging the concurrently displayed first and second intersecting graphical components would be more efficient than leaving them as concurrently displayed, intersecting graphical components; and (c) if the determination in (b) is positive, then merging the first and second intersecting graphical components to form a merged region that comprises a geometrical union of the first and second intersecting graphical components.