Abstract: Effectively displaying the results of a search, or identifying a specific object in a collection when the user only has a vague recollection of the properties of the object or is uncertain of the best search terms to use, is a difficult problem. To address such difficulties a method for displaying a collection of objects in three dimensions (3D) is described. Each object is represented using an image or icon and has associated metadata. Common metadata attributes such as colour (RGB, Brightness), creation date, title etc, between the objects are used to define a data space and each object is assigned a point in the dataspace. The dataspace is then projected down to a 3D viewing space where a representation or image of the object will be displayed in. To improve the visualisation of the objects, the projected points are adjusted so as to reduce the clustering of points whilst maintaining or preserving the order of the points.

Abstract: Effectively displaying the results of a search, or identifying a specific object in a collection when the user only has a vague recollection of the properties of the object or is uncertain of the best search terms to use, is a difficult problem. To address such difficulties a method for displaying a collection of objects in three dimensions (3D) is described. Each object is represented using an image or icon and has associated metadata. Common metadata attributes such as colour (RGB, Brightness), creation date, title etc, between the objects are used to define a data space and each object is assigned a point in the dataspace. The dataspace is then projected down to a 3D viewing space where a representation or image of the object will be displayed in. To improve the visualisation of the objects, the projected points are adjusted so as to reduce the clustering of points whilst maintaining or preserving the order of the points.