Absolute Display Window Mouse/Mice

Publishing Venue

IBM

Related People

Abstract

Flat panel displays made movable on a large image surface can act as panning display window to provide improved spatial/visual coordination. A large drawing board is used to represent the actual size of the image were it to be displayed all at once;and one or more flat panel display(s) can be manually positioned over the expanse of said drawing board. The position (and perhaps orientation) of the display(s) on the board are sensed by digitizing devices,and this information is used to formulate what image information is shown on the display(s).

Absolute Display Window Mouse/Mice

Flat panel displays made movable on a large image surface can act as panning display window to provide improved spatial/visual coordination. A large drawing board is used to represent the actual size of the image were it to be displayed all at once;and one or more flat panel display(s) can be manually positioned over the expanse of said drawing board. The position (and perhaps orientation) of the display(s) on the board are sensed by digitizing devices,and this information is used to formulate what image information is shown on the display(s).

While a variety of locating devices, already known as conventional computer input devices, might be used to sense the display position/orientation, one can also employ one or more removable sound sensors. This would allow any sufficiently large, roughly even area, to be used as the image board. Display/Board contact can be smoothed by means of Teflon coatings to ease the windowing process. As one would not butt the active areas of two displays exactly together, precise calibration of the display locating/orienting devices is not necessary, making set-up and breakdown easy. The displays can be fitted with transparent touch input devices as desired.

For user-friendliness, the displays can be provided with thin cables or perhaps no cables at all if power and bandwidth considerations allow it. To minimize transmissions from the processor to the display while maintaining interactivity, each dis...