Method and system for accessibility and control of parameters in scenegraphs

1. A system for controlling a scenegraph during rendering comprising:

means for rendering an existing scenegraph;

means for identifying a subset of elements within a scenegraph for providing additional user control not provided by a scenegraph structure of the scenegraph;

means for generating a user interface for controlling at least one parameter of the identified elements, including creating a new graphical interface widget for controlling the at least one parameter through the user interface and creating a name for the parameter that is displayed in the new graphical interface widget and has a comprehensible description for the parameter that is different than a feature identifier in the scenegraph;

means for constraining control for at least one feature of the scenegraph, wherein the constraining of control for the at least one feature is based on the feature identifier for the feature; and

means for linking control information from the user interface to the scenegraph structure.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the means for generating the user interface redefine information from the scenegraph to be presentable to the user.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the means for generating the user interface provides an option at the user interface to reset a value of the parameter.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein resetting the value of the parameter changes the value of the parameter to a different value than in the scenegraph structure of the scenegraph.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the means for linking control information from the user interface to the scenegraph structure are configured to link the control information from the user interface to the scenegraph structure during rendering.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the additional user control is provided during rendering without modifying an original scenegraph description of the scenegraph.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein user control for the identified elements is not embedded in an original description of the scenegraph.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein control of the at least one feature is constrained from activation when the feature identifier for the at least one feature is not found at a parsing level in the scenegraph.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the means for identifying is configured to determine whether the scenegraph provides a generic field type and uses a largest domain in the scenegraph for said identifying when the scenegraph does not provide a generic field type.

10. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:

means for exporting the scenegraph from an authoring tool;

means for importing controls into the exported scenegraph;

means for saving the scenegraph with controls enabled; and

means for loading the scenegraph with enabled controls into an application.

11. The system of claim 1 , further comprising means for exporting the scenegraph to a module for adding controls, when the scenegraph does not include user control to access the identified elements.

12. An apparatus for controlling a scenegraph during rendering comprising:

memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to:

render a scenegraph;

identify a subset of elements within the scenegraph for providing additional user control not provided by a scenegraph structure of the scenegraph;

generate a user interface for controlling at least one parameter of the identified elements, including creating a new graphical interface widget for controlling the at least one parameter through the user interface and creating a name for the parameter that is displayed in the new graphical interface widget and has a comprehensible description for the parameter that is different than a feature identifier in the scenegraph;

constraining control for at least one feature of the scenegraph, wherein the constraining of control for the at least one feature is based on the feature identifier for the feature; and

link control information from the user interface to the scenegraph structure.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to link control information from the user interface to the scenegraph structure when the at least one processor renders the scenegraph.

14. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to provide the additional user control when the at least one processor renders the scenegraph without modifying an original scenegraph description of the scenegraph.

15. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein user control for the identified elements is not embedded in an original description of the scenegraph.

16. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to constrain control of the at least one feature of the scenegraph from activation when the feature identifier is not found at a parsing level in the scenegraph.

17. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine whether the scenegraph provides a generic field type and uses a largest domain in the scenegraph to identify the subset of elements within the scenegraph when the scenegraph does not provide a generic field type.

18. A method for providing additional user control during rendering a scenegraph, the method comprising:

rendering a scenegraph;

identifying a subset of elements within the scenegraph for providing additional user control not provided by a scenegraph structure of the scenegraph;

generating a user interface for controlling at least one parameter of the identified elements, including creating a new graphical interface widget for controlling the at least one parameter through the user interface and creating a name for the parameter that is displayed in the new graphical interface widget and has a comprehensible description for the parameter that is different than a feature identifier in the scenegraph;

constraining control for at least one feature of the scenegraph, wherein the constraining of control for the at least one feature is based on the feature identifier for the feature; and

linking control information from the user interface to the scenegraph structure.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising linking the control information from the user interface to the scenegraph structure during the rendering of the scenegraph.

20. The method of claim 18 , further comprising providing the additional user control during the rendering of the scenegraph without modifying an original scenegraph description of the scenegraph.

21. The method of claim 18 , wherein user control for the identified elements is not embedded in an original description of the scenegraph.

22. The method of claim 18 , further comprising constraining control of the at least one feature of the scenegraph from activation when the feature identifier is not found at a parsing level in the scenegraph.

23. The method of claim 18 , further comprising:

determining whether the scenegraph provides a generic field type; and

using a largest domain in the scenegraph to identify the subset of elements within the scenegraph when the scenegraph does not provide a generic field type.

24. A system for accessing and controlling parameters in a scenegraph, the system comprising:

a scenegraph node identifier configured to identify at least one node in the scenegraph for providing user control to access and modify at least one element at the identified at least one node in the scenegraph;

a parser configured to determine whether a feature identifier exists on a parsing level of the identified at least one node in the scenegraph;

a user interface generator configured to generate a user interface to modify one or more parameters of the at least one element, wherein control of the one or more parameters is constrained if the parser does not determine that the feature identifier exists on the parsing level of the identified at least one node in the scenegraph; and

a scenegraph element modifier configured to modify the one or more parameters of the at least one element at the identified at least one node based on user input instructions received by the generated user interface.

25. The system of claim 24 , wherein the user interface generator is configured to generate the user interface to include displaying in the generated user interface a name for the one or more parameters that has a comprehensible description for the one or more parameters that is different than the feature identifier existing on the parsing level of the identified at least one node.

26. The system of claim 25 , wherein user control for the at least one element at the identified at least one node is not embedded in an original description of the scenegraph.

27. The system of claim 25 , wherein the parser is further configured to determine whether the scenegraph provides a generic field type and uses a largest domain in the scenegraph to identify the at least one element in the scenegraph when the scenegraph does not provide a generic field type.

28. The system of claim 24 , further comprising a control linking module configured to link the generated user interface to a scenegraph structure of the scenegraph such that the user input instructions automatically modify the at least one element at the identified at least one node in the scenegraph.

29. The system of claim 28 , further comprising a scenegraph rendering module configured to render the scenegraph, wherein the control linking module links the generated user interface to the scenegraph structure of the scenegraph when the scenegraph is rendered by the scenegraph rendering module.

30. A system for accessing and controlling parameters in a scenegraph, the system comprising:

an element identifier configured to identify at least one element in a scenegraph for providing user control to access and modify at least one parameter of the identified at least one element;

a feature identifier determination module configured to identify at least one feature identifier on a parsing level of the identified at least one element in the scenegraph;

a control constraint module configured to control the accessing and modifying of the at least one parameter of the identified at least one element based on the identified at least one feature;

a user interface generator configured to generate and activate a user interface separate from the scenegraph for modifying the controlled at least one parameter, such that the generated user interface is configured to receive user input instructions to modify the controlled at least one parameter of the identified at least one element in the scenegraph; and

a scenegraph element modifier configured to modify the at least one parameter of the at least one element in the scenegraph based on user input instructions received by the generated user interface.

31. The system of claim 30 , wherein the user interface generator is configured to generate the user interface to include displaying in the generated user interface a name for the at least one parameter that has a comprehensible description for the one or more parameters that is different than the feature identifier existing on the parsing level of the scenegraph.

32. The system of claim 30 , further comprising a control linking module configured to link the generated user interface to a scenegraph structure of the scenegraph, such that the user input instructions automatically modify the at least one element in the scenegraph.

33. The system of claim 32 , further comprising a scenegraph rendering module configured to render the scenegraph, wherein the control linking module links the generated user interface to the scenegraph structure of the scenegraph when the scenegraph is rendered by the scenegraph rendering module.

34. The system of claim 30 , wherein user control for the at least one element at the identified at least one node is not embedded in an original description of the scenegraph.

35. The system of claim 30 , wherein the control constraint module is further configured to determine whether the scenegraph provides a generic field type and uses a largest domain in the scenegraph to identify the at least one element in the scenegraph when the scenegraph does not provide a generic field type.

36. A system for controlling parameters in a scenegraph, the system comprising:

a scenegraph rendering module configured to render a scenegraph;

an element identifier configured to identify at least one element in the scenegraph to be modified by a user;

a scenegraph parser configured to parse the rendered scenegraph to identify at least one syntactically-restricted feature identifier at a parsing level of the identified at least one element;

a user interface generator configured to generate a user interface that includes a widget that is activated and controlled based on the identified at least one syntactically-restricted feature identifier and that is configured to modify the identified at least one element; and

a scenegraph element modifier configured to modify the identified at least one element in the scenegraph based on user input instructions of the widget received by the generated user interface.

37. The system of claim 36 , wherein the user interface generator is configured to generate the user interface to include displaying in the generated user interface a name for the identified at least one syntactically-restricted feature identifier that has a comprehensible description that is different than the identified at least one syntactically-restricted feature identifier on the parsing level of the scenegraph.

38. The system of claim 36 , further comprising a control linking module configured to link the generated user interface to a scenegraph structure of the scenegraph, such that the user input instructions automatically modify the at least one element in the scenegraph.

39. The system of claim 38 , wherein the control linking module links the generated user interface to the scenegraph structure of the scenegraph when the scenegraph is rendered by the scenegraph rendering module.

40. The system of claim 36 , wherein user control for the identified at least one element at the identified at least one node is not embedded in an original description of the scenegraph.

41. The system of claim 36 , further comprising a control constraint module configured to determine whether the scenegraph provides a generic field type and uses a largest domain in the scenegraph to identify the at least one element in the scenegraph when the scenegraph does not provide a generic field type.

42. The system of claim 36 , further comprising a video display configured to concurrently display the rendered scenegraph and the generated user interface.