Method and system for navigating a virtual environment

Details Method and system for navigating a virtual environment Method and system for navigating a virtual environment

G - Physics

06

T

G06T 3/00 (2006.01) G06F 3/033 (2006.01) G06F 9/455 (2006.01)

Patent

CA 2281229

A method and system for navigating in a three-dimensional virtual environment is provided. The present invention is particularly suited towards three-dimensional graphs representing computer programs, where nodes represent objects or other programming structures, and arcs in between the nodes represent function calls or other types of relationships between the structures. The collective nodes and arcs represent a specialized type of virtual environment. At least a portion of the virtual environment is displayed on a monitor, the virtual environment portion being represented by a frustum, the frustum having a narrow portion at the front of the monitor and diverging towards the back of the monitor to give the perception of depth to a user. The frustum remains stationary, and has a focal point, usually at the centre of the monitor screen. When a user selects an object displayed on the monitor, the scene on the monitor is scaled by a predetermined amount. In addition, the scene is moved such that the selected object is translated towards the focal point. The scaled and moved scene is then displayed on the monitor. The steps of scaling and moving are repeated until the desired navigation is achieved. Rates of scaling and translating are preferably chosen so that the animation of the navigation is smooth. By making the navigation rapid, a user can be provided with both focus and context when viewing a three-dimensional graph. Other navigational features can be. included, such as automatic selection of the entity, or rotation of the virtual environment about the focal point.

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