Fast and accurate rendering of pliable display technology distortions using pre-calculated texel coverages

1. A method for generating a presentation of a region-of-interest in an information representation for display on a display screen, comprising:

determining a mapping of original texel corner coordinates in said representation to distorted texel corner coordinates for a lens initially located at a first location in said representation, said distorted texel corner coordinates produced by applying a two-dimensional distortion function defining said lens to said original texel corner coordinates, said lens for rendering within said presentation a magnified region for said region-of-interest at least partially surrounded by an at least partially compressed region where said magnification decreases to that of said representation surrounding said lens to provide context for said magnified region with respect to said representation, said representation having uniform texels, each texel having at least three corners, and each corner having a respective original texel corner coordinate;

calculating a displacement from said first location to a second location in said representation, said second location being that of said region-of-interest;

adjusting said mapping with said displacement to produce an adjusted mapping to thereby relocate said lens to said second location;

copying texel information from said representation to said relocated lens at said second location according to said adjusted mapping to thereby generate said presentation of said region-of-interest; and

displaying said presentation on said display screen.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said texel information includes at least one of texture information and colour information.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said determining a mapping is performed by a first software thread and said calculating a displacement, adjusting said mapping, and copying texel information are performed by a second software thread.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said first and second software threads are run on separate processors.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein said first and second software threads monitor one another.

6. The method of claim 1 and further comprising storing said mapping as a file.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein said file is at least one of a compressed file and an encrypted file.

8. The method of claim 7 and further comprising transmitting said file over a network to a remote processor for generating a local presentation.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said remote processor is at least one of a PDA and a cellular telephone.

10. A system for generating a presentation of a region-of-interest in an information representation for display on a display screen, comprising:

a processor coupled to memory and the display screen; and,

modules within the memory and executed by the processor, the modules including:

a module for determining a mapping of original texel corner coordinates in the representation to distorted texel corner coordinates for a lens initially located at a first location in the representation, the distorted texel corner coordinates produced by applying a two-dimensional distortion function defining the lens to the original texel corner coordinates, the lens for rendering within the presentation a magnified region for the region-of-interest at least partially surrounded by an at least partially compressed region where the magnification decreases to that of the representation surrounding the lens to provide context for the magnified region with respect to the representation, the representation having uniform texels, each texel having at least three corners, and each corner having a respective original texel corner coordinate;

a module for calculating a displacement from the first location to a second location in the representation, the second location being that of the region-of-interest;

a module for adjusting the mapping with the displacement to produce an adjusted mapping to thereby relocate the lens to the second location;

a module for copying texel information from the representation to the relocated lens at the second location according to the adjusted mapping to thereby generate the presentation of the region-of-interest; and,

a module for displaying the presentation on the display screen.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the texel information includes at least one of texture information and colour information.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the module for determining a mapping is performed by a first software thread and the modules for calculating a displacement, adjusting the mapping, and copying texel information are performed by a second software thread.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the first and second software threads are run on separate processors.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the first and second software threads monitor one another.

15. The system of claim 10 and further comprising a module for storing the mapping as a file.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the file is at least one of a compressed file and an encrypted file.

17. The system of claim 16 and further comprising a module for transmitting the file over a network to a remote processor for generating a local presentation.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the remote processor is at least one of a personal digital assistant (“PDA”) and a cellular telephone.