DISPLAYING VISUAL CONTENT USING MULTIPLE NODES
Display of visual content is disclosed which utilizes nodes that launch only when necessary. The nodes may be rendered and/or displayed in the coordinate system of another node, perhaps a parent node, when appropriate.
1 . A method of displaying visual content organized into nodes, the method comprising:
displaying visual content of a first node, wherein the first node contains information indicative of its own coordinate system, and wherein the first node is displayed in its own coordinate system until a predetermined navigation condition occurs; and
displaying visual content of the first node in a coordinate system of a second node after the predetermined navigation condition occurs, wherein the coordinate system of the second node differs from the coordinate system of the first node.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined navigation condition is a size of display of the first node.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined navigation condition occurs in response to navigation by a user.
4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the navigation comprises either zooming or panning.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the visual content of the first node is displayed in its own coordinate system during a first range of zooms and the visual content of the first node is displayed in a coordinate system of a second node during a second range of zooms.
6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the visual content gradually blends at a border between the first range of zooms and second range of zooms.
7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein at the border between the first range of zooms and second range of zooms, the visual content is displayed by blending from a first rendition to a second rendition.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first node is within the second node.
9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the second node contains a pointer to the first node.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the coordinate system of the first node is more precise than the coordinate system of the second node.
11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein a precision associated with a coordinate system is measured in number of digits, and wherein the number of digits is variable.
12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the precision associated with a coordinate system varies up to a maximum limited by storage capacity of a computer on which the method is operating.
13 . A method of substantially simultaneously displaying visual content associated with each of a plurality of nodes, each node having its own coordinate system, the method comprising each node deriving information, in its own coordinate system, indicative of its own position in a display, and displaying visual content associated with each of the nodes substantially simultaneously in the display area.
14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein deriving for at least one node comprises receiving position information from another node, and converting the position information from a first coordinate system to a second coordinate system.
15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the position information is a position associated with a predetermined location within the display area.
16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein visual content associated with each of the nodes is displayed using a rendering method associated with the particular node.
17 . A method of displaying visual content on a display, the method comprising displaying visual content associated with a plurality of nodes at a plurality of sizes, each of the plurality of nodes containing information indicative of its own coordinate system, the visual content of each of the plurality of nodes being displayed in a specified coordinate system, each coordinate system having a precision, the precision in which a coordinate system is displayed being dependent upon the size at which the node is displayed.
18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the precision is variable and increases when the coordinate system in which a node is displayed changes during navigation.
19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the precision is variable and decreases when the coordinate system in which a node is displayed changes during navigation.