Navigation methods, systems, and computer program products for virtual three-dimensional books
View Patent ↗A system is described for displaying images of a virtual three-dimensional book having one or more virtual pages. The system comprises a display system capable of executing a display program wherein images of the virtual three-dimensional book are produced on the display system. A degree of interest (DOI) function is provided for allocating available space on the display system. A page selection function may provide a user-selectable scale along a long axis of the virtual book for selecting virtual pages. Virtual chapter tabs may also be provided for navigating within the virtual book. The display system may also include a page flipping function with several different page flipping speeds and several different page flipping animations for moving between virtual pages in the virtual book. Moreover, a scroll bar function provided to facilitate page navigation wherein space on the scroll bar is allocated using a DOI function. Finally, a computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable code embodied therein for producing images of a virtual three-dimensional book is also disclosed.
1. A system for displaying images of a virtual three-dimensional document with virtual objects and sections, the system comprising:
a display system capable of executing a display program,
wherein images of the virtual three-dimensional document are produced on the display system, and
wherein a scroll bar function for page navigation is provided, the scroll bar function comprising:
computing degree of interest values for sections of the virtual three-dimensional document and assigning degree of interest values to the sections of the virtual three-dimensional document as a function of a currently displayed section of the virtual three-dimensional document;
generating a scroll bar; and
automatically allocating space on the scroll bar based on a the assigned degree of interest function such that portions of the scroll bar are accorded to sections of the virtual three-dimensional document according to the degree of interest of each of the sections, so that greater proportions of the scroll bar are correlated to sections of higher interest.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the degree of interest function comprises an intrinsic degree of interest value and a distance-based degree of interest value for each virtual object to be displayed.
3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the degree of interest function for a virtual object comprises adding the intrinsic degree of interest value of a virtual object and the distance-based degree of interest value.
4. The system of claim 2 , wherein the distance-based degree of interest value considers the recency in time since the virtual object was last displayed.
5. The system of claim 2 , wherein the intrinsic degree of interest value is determined by an object type of the virtual object.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein virtual section information is displayed on the scroll bar.
7. The system of claim 6 , wherein sub-section information is displayed on the scroll bar for virtual sections with higher degrees of interest.
8. The system of claim 1 , wherein a location for each of one or more tables within the document is visually indicated on the scroll bar.
9. The system of claim 1 , wherein a location for each of one or more figures within the document is visually indicated on the scroll bar.
10. The system of claim 1 wherein a table locator is added to the scroll bar based on the degree of interest function to indicate a table location in the document.
11. The system of claim 1 wherein a figure locator is added to the scroll bar based on the degree of interest function to indicate a figure location in the document.
12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the virtual three-dimensional document is a virtual book.
13. A computer program product comprising:
a computer usable medium having computer readable code embodied therein for producing images of a virtual three-dimensional document with virtual objects on a display device, the computer readable code comprising:
a scroll bar function for displaying a user-selectable small bar for document navigation, wherein the scroll bar function comprises:
computing degree of interest values for sections of the virtual three-dimensional document and assigning degree of interest values to the sections of the virtual three-dimensional document as a function of a currently displayed section of the virtual three-dimensional document;
generating a scroll bar; and
automatically allocating space on the scroll bar based on the assigned degree of interest function such that portions of the scroll bar are accorded to sections of the virtual three-dimensional document according to the degree of interest of each of the sections, so that greater proportions of the scroll bar are correlated to sections of higher interest.
14. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the degree of interest function comprises an intrinsic degree of interest value and a distance-based degree of interest value for each virtual object to be displayed.
15. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the degree of interest function for a virtual object comprises adding the intrinsic degree of interest value of a virtual object and the distance-based degree of interest value.
16. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the distance-based degree of interest value considers the recency in time since the virtual object was last displayed.
17. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the intrinsic degree of interest value is determined by an object type of the virtual object.
18. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein virtual section information is displayed on the scroll bar.
19. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein sub-section information is displayed on the scroll bar for virtual sections with higher degrees of interest.
20. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein a location for each of one or more tables within the document is visually indicated on the scroll bar.
21. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein a table locator is added to the scroll bar based on the degree of interest function to indicate a table location in the document.
22. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein a figure locator is added to the scroll bar based on the degree of interest function to indicate a figure location in the document.
23. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the virtual three-dimensional document is a virtual book.