System for delivering and enabling interactivity with images
A system is disclosed for delivering and displaying images on web pages and enabling and implementing various interactive functions with respect to the images, so as to give a user the illusion that objects or scenes depicted in the images are rotating, being zoomed in on, changing color, being measured, or having certain areas of the objects or scenes highlighted with enlargement and/or text, among other things. Various methods of enabling and implementing the interactive functions are described, including enabling the interactive functions by displaying and hiding image layers by manipulating the width and height parameters of image layers or adjusting width and height styles associated with image layers and enabling the interactive functions by associating image layers either directly or indirectly via a grid with strips defined by styles. The system includes a graphical user interface (GUI) that a user can use to configure his or her own images for interactive functions, including an interface that invites a user to supply parameters corresponding to those necessary to enable and allow to be carried out the interactive functions and/or parameters corresponding to data about the images, for example, specifications for an object depicted in a set of images.
1. A computer server for supporting a method of presenting images on a display associated with a computerized device accessing a website, comprising:
(a) a set of images stored in a common file on the server;
(b) a set of links stored on the server associating each of the set of images with at least one strip of a page of the website;
(c) set of styles stored on the server, one associated with each strip;
(d) wherein each of the set of images depicts a 3-D object viewed from a different perspective than the other images of the set of images;
(e) a set of computer instructions stored on the server that, when executed by a processor, invokes the style associated with each strip in response to interaction with the strip by a user of the computerized device accessing the website;
(f) wherein the styles and computer instructions are defined to cause a series of images of the set of images to be visible on the display at a given location on the web page, one at a time, when a user of the computerized device accessing the website interacts with a sequence of the strips that are linked to the series of images, so that the user, when viewing the display, perceives an illusion of motion of the object.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the strips are arranged in a grid.
3. A computer system capable of carrying out interactive functions with respect to a set of images of a 3-D object, the system comprising:
(a) a processor;
(b) a local computer-readable storage medium coupled to the processor;
(c) a set of 2-D images stored in the storage medium;
(d) a display coupled to the processor and capable of displaying the images;
(e) a pointing device coupled to the processor and capable of accepting user-designated locations on the display; and
(f) a set of computer instructions, including at least one style, stored in the storage medium, that when executed by the processor, for each of the images, causes the image to be viewable at a defined location on the display, based on user designations, using the pointing device, of locations within a strip that is associated with the image,
(g) wherein the set of computer instructions are defined so that, when the pointing device designates a sequence of locations within strips associated with a series of the images, the series of images are visible, one at a time, thereby generating on the display an illusion of motion of the object.
4. A method for presentation of images on a display associated with a computerized device accessing a web page of a website, comprising automatically:
(a) downloading from the website to the computerized device a file containing a set of images, wherein each of the set of images depicts an object viewed from a different perspective than the other images of the set;
(b) detecting a first location defined by a pointing device associated with the computerized device, and based on determination that the defined location is within a first strip consisting of a first defined area of the web page, selecting from the file a first image associated with the first strip;
(c) using a style associated with the first strip and the first image to cause display of the first image, to the exclusion of the other images of the set, in a select area of the web page;
(d) sequentially, for at least one subsequent location defined by the pointing device and determined to be within a second strip consisting of a different defined area of the web page, repeating steps (b) and (c) and consequently using a second style associated with the second strip to cause display in the select area of a second image associated with the second strip;
whereby the sequential display of the first and second images in the select area gives a viewer the appearance of motion of the object depicted in the set of images.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein the first and second styles associated with the first and second strips, respectively, cause the first and second images, respectively, to be displayed to the exclusion of other images of the set by setting visibility characteristics of at least one image of the set.
6. The method of claim 4 wherein the first and second styles associated with the first and second strips, respectively, cause the first and second images, respectively, to be displayed to the exclusion of other images of the set by sizing at least one image of the set to a small number of pixels.
7. The method of claim 4 wherein the first and second styles associated with the first and second strips, respectively, cause the first and second images, respectively, to be displayed to the exclusion of other images of the set by setting depth (Z-axis) characteristics of at least one image of the set.
8. The method of claim 4 wherein the file contains a set of images of an object viewed from different angles.
9. The method of claim 4 wherein the file contains a set of images of an object viewed from different distances.
10. The method of claim 4 wherein the strips are arranged in a grid.
11. The method of claim 4 wherein at least one of the first and second styles further control the display of a partially transparent overlayer containing a tool bar.
12. The method of claim 4 wherein the select area of the web page can be moved by detecting select commands entered by the pointing device.
13. A computer-readable storage medium storing a set of computer instructions that, when executed by a processor coupled to a display and a pointing device, performs the following automatic method:
(a) downloading from the website a file containing a set of images, wherein each of the set of images depicts an object viewed from a different perspective than the other images of the set;
(b) detecting a first location defined by the pointing device, and based on determination that the defined location is within a first strip consisting of a first defined area of the web page, selecting a first image associated with the first strip from the file;
(c) using a style associated with the first strip and the first image to cause display of the first image, to the exclusion of the other images of the set of images, in a select area of the web page shown on the display;
(d) sequentially, for at least one subsequent location defined by the pointing device and determined to be within a second strip consisting of a different defined area of the web page, repeating steps (b) and (c) and consequently using a second style associated with the second strip to cause display, in the select area of the web page shown on the display, of a second image associated with the second strip;
whereby the sequential display of the first and second images in the select area gives a viewer the appearance of motion of the object depicted in the set of images.
14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the first and second styles associated with the first and second strips, respectively, cause the first and second images, respectively, to be displayed to the exclusion of other images of the set by setting visibility characteristics of at least one image of the set.
15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the first and second styles associated with the first and second strips, respectively, cause the first and second images, respectively, to be displayed to the exclusion of other images of the set by sizing at least one image of the set to a small number of pixels.
16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the first and second styles associated with the first and second strips, respectively, cause the first and second images, respectively, to be displayed to the exclusion of other images of the set by setting depth (Z-axis) characteristics of at least one image of the set.
17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the strips are arranged in a grid.
18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein at least one of the first and second styles further control the display of a partially transparent overlayer containing a tool bar.
19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein, when executed by a processor responsive to detection of select commands entered by the pointing device, the set of computer instructions further automatically moves the select area of the web page.