Abstract: A substitute image is generated by dividing a full image into panels defined by a center (or focus) panel, for use in applications where the full image is not entirely displayable on a given display device at a necessary resolution. The full image is bounded by a bounding rectangle, the focus panel is a rectangle with sides parallel to the sides of the bounding rectangle, and the focus panel defines eight other panels, four side panels and four corner panels. The substitute image is the focus panel, with the side panels folded into a smaller cross section, but remaining continuous with the focus panel, and the corner panels folded and sheared to remain continuous with the side panels in a three-dimensional ("3D") space in which a viewpoint and a view plane representing the display surface is also located.

Abstract: A method for displaying an image on a display surface which preserves context and detail information when the image is compressed to fit onto a display surface. The image is transformed from a plane onto a truncated pyramid, and then a three-dimensional perspective projection of the pyramid is taken. This perspective provides a detailed view of portions of the image underlying an image lens panel, and context view of remaining portions of the image, which underlie side panels. The side panels are rotated and expanded to fill the remainder of the view after the detailed image under the image lens is expanded.

Abstract: A method and processor-controlled system are disclosed for transporting a selected display object, presented in a graphical image of an n-dimensional, navigable workspace where the selected display object is perceptible as viewed from one of a plurality of viewpoints in the workspace, by coupling the selected display object to a first viewpoint of the workspace. A display object perceptible as viewed from a first viewpoint and selected for transport is coupled to the first viewpoint so that the display object appears to maintain the same relative position to the first viewpoint as the system user changes viewpoints in the workspace, while other display objects in the workspace are perceptible as viewed from the changed viewpoints. This results in the selected display object always being perceptible in the workspace even if the selected display object would not have been perceptible from one of the changed viewpoints in the workspace.

Abstract: A Document Card (DocuCard) for storing documents and which is content revealing. The DocuCard is a transportable unit having a nonvolatile storage means for storing information in a digital form, a control processor for processing user initiated functions; an I/O port for interfacing to external devices for reading and writing digital information, and a user interface for allowing a user to directly interact with the DocuCard. The user interface on the DocuCard includes a display for displaying lists of functions and documents and information responsive to user invoked functions and a user input portion for allowing a user to traverse the lists of functions and documents, as well as information generated responsive to an invoked function. The control processor of the present invention include features for controlling access to documents stored therein.

Abstract: In response to user signals requesting motion of a displayed object, a system presents a sequence of images, each including an object perceptible as a moved continuation of the previously displayed object. The user can independently request radial motion and lateral motion, and the system presents a sequence of images in which the object is displaced radially by the requested radial motion and laterally by the requested lateral motion. The user can request lateral motion by operating a mouse and can request radial motion by operating keys on a keyboard, with one key requesting motion toward a radial source and another key requesting motion away from the radial source. The radial source can be the viewpoint. The object's motion toward the viewpoint includes two phases.

Abstract: Interactive animation is performed in cycles, between which detail control data is communicated so that oscillation of detail can be avoided by maintaining detail. A cycle obtains data indicating the speed with which it renders an image and stores detail control data that depends on the rendering speed. The detail control data indicates a level of detail at which an image is presented in a following cycle. The level of detail can be used in rendering the image by producing data defining the image from data defining a scene. The data defining the scene can include level defining data indicating a rendering at each of a set of levels. The detail control data also includes maintenance information for use in determining whether to maintain detail. In one approach, the maintenance information indicates whether a level of detail is being maintained and a hold speed; the current rendering speed is compared with the hold speed and with a threshold speed in deciding whether to maintain detail.

Abstract: In response to user signals requesting motion of a displayed object, a system presents a sequence of images, each including an object perceptible as a moved continuation of the previously displayed object. The user can independently request radial motion and lateral motion, and the system presents a sequence of images in which the object is displaced radially by the requested radial motion and laterally by the requested lateral motion. The user can request lateral motion by operating a mouse and can request radial motion by operating keys on a keyboard, with one key requesting motion toward a radial source and another key requesting motion away from the radial source. The radial source can be the viewpoint. The object's motion toward the viewpoint includes two phases.

Abstract: A processor presents a sequence of images of a workspace that is stretched to enable the user to view a part of the workspace in greater detail. The workspace includes a middle section and two peripheral sections that meet the middle section on opposite edges. Each of the sections appears to be a rectangular two-dimensional surface and they are perceptible in three dimensions. When the user is viewing the middle section as if it were parallel to the display screen surface, each peripheral section appears to extend away from the user at an angle from the edge of the middle section so that the peripheral sections occupy relatively little of the screen. When the user requests stretching, the middle section is stretched and the peripheral sections are compressed to accommodate the stretching. When the user requests destretching, the middle section is destretched and the peripheral sections are decompressed accordingly.

Abstract: An image is presented that includes a node-link structure. The nodes are in rows, and each row extends across a centering line. The rows are in sequence along the centering line, with links between nodes in adjacent rows. When a user requests a centering operation for an indicated node, a sequence of images is presented, each including a row that appears to be a continuation of the row with the indicated node and that includes a continued indicated node that appears to be a continuation of the indicated node. The rows appear to be shifted, bringing the continued indicated nodes toward the centering line, until a final shift locks the continued indicated node into position at the centering line. The positions of the indicated node and a subset of the continued indicated nodes together can define an asymptotic path that begins at the position of the indicated node and approaches the centering line asymptotically until the final shift occurs.

Abstract: A processor presents a sequence of images of a hierarchical structure that is perceived as three-dimensional. The hierarchical structure includes conic substructures that can have vertical or horizontal axes. Each cone has a parent node at its vertex and children nodes along its base, each with a link to the parent node. Each child can in turn be at the vertex of another cone. The cones can be rotated in steps that produce the perception of object constancy for each node. For example, if the user requests that an indicated node be moved to a primary viewing position, each of the cones along the path from the indicated node to the root node is rotated in the direction that most directly moves the indicated node to the primary viewing position. Each node can include a selectable unit for indicating it, and a node can also include a grow tab that can be selected to request presentation of its children nodes and links to them. The user can request that the children nodes of a node be replaced by a grow tab.

Abstract: Images are presented on a display to produce the perception of viewpoint motion in a three-dimensional workspace. The user can indicate a point of interest (POI) or other region on a surface in an image and request viewpoint motion. In response, another image is presented from a viewpoint that is displaced as requested. The user can request viewpoint motion radially toward or away from the POI, and can also request viewpoint motion laterally toward a normal of the surface at the POI. Radial and lateral viewpoint motion can be combined. The orientation of the viewpoint can be shifted during lateral motion to keep the POI in the field of view, and can also be shifted to bring the POI toward the center of the field of view. In a sequence of steps of viewpoint motion, the radial viewpoint displacement in each step can be a proportion of the distance to the POI so that the radial displacements follow a logarithmic function and define an asymptotic path that approaches but does not reach the POI.

Abstract: A message packet router is describes that performs the functions of determining if a message packet is addressed to circuitry associated with the router, of routing message packets to their destination if possible and of storing message packets that cannot be routed on because of circuit conflicts. The router also provides additional functions of merging message packets addressed to the same destination, of saving the state of the router at each significant point in the message routing cycle, and of running the entire routing cycle backwards. This later feature makes it possible to broadcast message packets selectively to certain processors in the array.

Abstract: In accordance with the invention, each element or mode in the n-dimensional connection pattern is assigned a unique binary number or address by numbering the elements. Next, the individual binary digits of the address associated with each element are assigned to the different dimensions of the connection pattern of m dimension according to a fixed rule. Each set of binary digits that is so assigned to a dimension is then treated as the address of the node in that dimension in a gray code space; and the nodes that are its nearest neighbors in that dimension are those nodes that bear the Gray code values immediately before it and immediately after it in the Gray code sequence. Data are then routed to the nearest neighbor in one direction in a dimension by forwarding them from one node to the node bearing the next succeeding (or preceding) Gray code address and a node can be conditioned to receive such data by having it look for data from the node with the next preceding (or succeeding) address.

Abstract: A message packet router is described that performs the functions of determining if a message packet is addressed to circuitry associated with the router, of routing message packets to their distination if possible and of storing message packets that cannot be routed on because of circuit conflicts. The router also provides additional functions of merging message packets addressed to the same destination, of saving the state of the router at each significant point in the message routing cycle, and of running the entire routing cycle backwards. This later feature makes it possible to broadcast message packets selectively to certain processors in the array.