(12) (10) Patent N0.: US 7,260,789 B2 Hunleth et a]. (45) Date of Patent: Aug. 21, 2007

Transcription

1 Unied Saes Paen US B2 (12) (10) Paen N0.: US 7,260,789 B2 Hunleh e a]. (45) Dae of Paen: Aug. 21, 2007 (54) METHOD OF REAL-TIME INCREMENTAL 5,671,342 A 9/1997 Millier e a1. ZOOMING 5,745,710 A 4/1998 Clanon, III e a1. 5,790,121 A 8/1998 Sklar e a1. (75) Invenors: Frank A. Hunleh, Rockville, MD i ge hlrdd _... ggkgsimel 5 slmpkms Behesda,, 5,835,156 A e 11/1998 Blonsein e 31. 5,912,612 A 6/1999 DeVolpi (73)., _. 5,940,072 8/1999 Jahanghir e a1. Ass1gnee: Hlllcres Laboraories, Inc., Rockvllle, 5,955,988 A 9/1999 Blonsein e 31 MD (Us) 5,978,043 A 11/1999 Blonsein e a1. ( * ) Noice: Subjec o any disclaimer, he erm of his (Coninued) paen is exended or adjused under 35 U SC' 1546)) by 236 days FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS GB A 5/1991 (21) Appl. N0.: 11/064,310 wo Wo98/ /1998 (22) Filed: Feb. 23, 2005 OTHER PUBLICATIONS (65) _ Quesenbery, W., e 211., Designing for Ineracive Television, hp:// Pnor Pubhcalon Daa WWWWqusabiliy.com/aricles/iv-designhml, 1996, pp Us 2005/ A1 Aug Prasar, V., Technology o he aid of science popularisaion, hp:// Jan. 1999, Relaed US. Applicaion Daa pp 1'2 (60) Provisional applicaion No. 60/546,859,?led on Feb. (Coninued) ' Primary ExamineriRaymond J. Bayerl 51 I Cl Assisan ExamineriSajeda Muhebbullah ( ) 3-/048 (200601) gijigcaofi/ley, Agen, or FirmiPoomac Paen Group (52) US. Cl /858; 715/856; 715/857; 715/860; 715/764 (57) ABSTRACT (58) Field of Classi?caion Search /856e858, 715/764, 860 a mehod for navigaing a poiner on a graphical user See applicaion?le for complee search hisory. inerface (GUI) includes he seps of: scrolling an inpu (56) References Cied dev1ce o locae he pomer correspondmg o he mpu device on a poin of ineres Wihin he GUI, depressing an U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS acuaing buon associaed Wih he inpu device on he poin of ineres, obaining a deailed view of he poin of i guerbach ineres While cenering he poin of ineres on he GUI and,, 5,341,466 A ansen 8/ 1994 Perlin e a mamammg a pos11on of he pomer on he pom of meres. 5,359,348 A 10/1994 Pilcher e :11. 5,638,523 A 6/1997 Mulle e a1. 20 Claims, 3 Drawing Shees 500 Navigae poiner o 0 I510 poin of ineres away from cener of he GUI Acuae mechanism o /520 obain magni?ed view of poin of ineres Compue disance beween GUI cener and poin of ineres Generae deailed view of ain of ineres Display deailed view in cener of GUI Animae movemen of poiner wih he poin of ineres from he posiion away from he GUI cener o he GUI cener 560

2 US 7,260,789 B2 Page 2 5,982,369 6,002,394 6,005,578 6,016,144 6,037,933 6,049,823 6,057,831 6,088,031 6,092,076 6,154,723 6,175,362 6,181,333 6,191,781 6,195,089 6,268,849 6,295,646 6,314,575 6,330,858 6,349,257 6,385,542 6,397,387 6,411,308 6,412,110 6,415,226 6,421,067 6,426,761 6,429,813 6,452,609 6,529,218 6,577,350 6,621,452 6,735,777 6,753,849 6,765, / / / / U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 11/ / /1999 1/2000 3/2000 4/2000 5/2000 7/2000 7/ /2000 1/2001 1/2001 2/2001 2/2001 7/2001 9/ / /2001 2/2002 5/2002 5/2002 6/2002 6/2002 7/2002 7/2002 7/2002 8/2002 9/2002 3/2003 6/2003 9/2003 5/2004 6/2004 7/2004 8/2002 9/2002 5/2003 2/2005 Sciammarella e al. Schein e al. Cole Blonsein e al. Blonsein e al. HWang Harms e al. Lee e al. McDonough e al. CoX e a1. Harms e al. Chaney e al. Chaney e al. Chaney e al. Boyer e a1. Goldschmid Iki Billock e al. McDonough e al. Liu e al. Millingon Rosin e al. Blonsein e al. Schein e al. KoZak Kamen e al /719 Kanevsky e al. Fiegen Kainsky e al. Ogawa e al. Proehl e al. Knockear e al. Kim Curran e a1. Kim Kels Schein e al. Kaasila e al /613 Riegelman e al / / A1* 2/2005 Gannon /660 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Press Release, NeTV Seleced for 800 Kansas Ciy Classrooms, hp://wwwfno.org/mar98/nkcsdpr1.hml, Mar. 23, 1998, pp Fuers, J., e al., Ineracive Television: A Survey of he Sae of Research and he Proposal and Evaluaion of a User Inerface, hp://wwwaiwu-wienac.a/~l<och/sud/iv/paper.hml, Jun. 1996, pp Bier, E., e al., Toolglass and Magic Lenses: The See-Through Inerface, Proceedings of Siggraph 93, Compuer Graphics Annual Conference Series, ACM, Aug. 1993, pp Sone, M., e al., The Movable Filer as a User Inerface Tool, Proceedings of CHI 94, ACM, Apr , 1994, pp Bier, E., e al., A Taxonomy of See-Through Tools, Proceedings of CHI 94, ACM, Apr , 1994, pp Fishkin, K., e al., Enhanced Dynamic Queries via Movable Filers, pp Bederson, B., Quanum Treemaps and Bubblemaps for a Zoomable Image Browser, UIST 2001, ACM Symposium on User Inerface Sofware and Technology, CHI Leers 3(2), pp Inernaional Search Repor for PCT/U S04/ Wrien Opinion of he Inernaional Searching Auhoriy for PCT/ US04/ Inernaional Search Repor for PCT/US05/05376, mailed Jan. 23, Wrien Opinion for PCT/US05/05376, mailed Jan. 23, Verhoeven, A., e al., Hypermedia on he Map: Spaial Hypermedia in HyperMap, Inernaional Conference on Informaion, Commu nicaions and Signal Processing, ICICS 97, Singapore, Sep. 9-12, 1997, pp Inernaional Search Repor for PCT/US01/08377, mailed Jul. 25, Inernaional Search Repor for PCT/US01/08331, mailed Nov. 13, Inernaional Search Repor for PCT/US01/08261, mailed Aug. 5, * cied by examiner

3 U.S. Paen Aug. 21, 2007 Shee 1 0f 3 US 7,260,789 B2 FIG / \ I FIG "a, A [ _ l. 404 I 1 I

4 U.S. Paen Aug. 21, 2007 Shee 2 0f 3 US 7,260,789 B2 FIG. 3A \/ \, Q Lxi, g : 7018 I FIG. 3B K502 3/ R104" L., $1,: 708

5 U.S. Paen Aug. 21, 2007 Shee 3 0f 3 US 7,260,789 B2 FIG Locae poiner on poin of ineres Obain deailed view; cener poin of ineres on GUI Mainain posiion of poiner on poin of ineres 470, 420 Click buon on /\/ poin of ineres I FIG Navigae poiner o a poin of ineres away from cener of he GUI Acuae mechanism o obain magnified view of poin of ineres Compue disance beween GUI cener and poin of ineres Generae deailed view of poin of ineres I Display deailed view in cener of GUI Animae movemen of poiner wih he poin of ineres from he posiion away from he GUI cener o he GUI cener 5.30

6 1 METHOD OF REAL-TIME INCREMENTAL ZOOMING RELATED APPLICATIONS This applicaion claims prioriy from US. Provisional Paen Applicaion No. 60/546,859?led on Feb. 23, 2004 and eniled A Mehod of Real-ime Incremenal Zooming using Poining. This applicaion is also relaed o US. paen applicaion Ser. No. 10/768,432. The subjec maer of each of hese applicaions are incorporaed in is enirey herein by reference. BACKGROUND The presen invenion is direced o user inerfaces and more paricularly, o a mehod of navigaion and ineracion Wih a user inerface. Such ineracion and navigaion involve operaing an inpu device such as a mouse, a rackball or a hree-dimensional (hereinafer 3D ) poining remoe device. The operaion of he inpu device includes a leas one of poin, click, scroll, ec. User inerfaces, such as graphical user inerfaces (GUIs) are Well known. Virually all compuers include (or, enable) a graphical user inerface in order o make he ineracion Wih he compuer more user friendly. This is accom plished by reducing, if no eliminaing, he number of keysrokes a user is required o ener in order o perform a funcion such as launching an applicaion residing on he compuer. An increasing number of oher elecronic devices, from cell phones o user conrols on appliances, rely on various graphical user inerfaces ha faciliae a user iner acion Wih he paricular device. Tradiional mehods of using a GUI (on a compuer for example) include he use of an inpu device such as a mouse or a rack ball. A movemen of he mouse or he rack ball resuls in a corresponding poiner moving on he graphical user inerface. The poiner can hus be navigaed o an objec (represened by an icon) on he GUI ha corresponds o an execuable ask such as launching a sofware applicaion for example. Once he poiner is navigaed o an icon, he corresponding ask can be execued by clicking (depressing) on an acuaing buon ha is inegraed Wihin he inpu device. For example, if he icon on he GUI corresponds o a Word processing applicaion, clicking on he icon resuls in launching he Word processing applicaion. The poiner can also be used o rapidly scroll hrough pages of ex Wihin a Word processing documen for example. The inpu device can be used o perform various asks depending on he applicaion being execued on he com puer. In a map sofware program (generically referred o as locaion informaion program) for example, maps of a geographic area can be displayed. While displaying a map, he acuaing buon of he poiner can be depressed on a paricular area of he map o Zoom in on he seleced area o provide addiional deail While displaying a smaller overall geographic area. The acuaing buon herefore can be used o Zoom in on an area of ineres. Referring o FIG. 1, a map of he Unied Saes 114 is illusraed. Cener poin 108 represens he cener of bound ing box 102 (Which could also represen he user inerface) ha includes map 114. User inerface 102 can represen a WindoW corresponding o he map sofware program similar o a WindoW ha represens a Work area of a documen in a Word processing program for example. The user can hen reques a more deailed view of a poin of ineres 105 on he map (such as NeW York Ciy) by moving he poiner 104 o poin of ineres 105 and depressing he acuaing buon. The poins of ineres displayed on a graphical user inerface may be hough of as objecs. US 7,260,789 B The Zooming in on he poin of ineres (i.e. NeW York in his example) resuls in map 314 of FIG. 3A being included Wihin user inerface 102. As illusraed, NeW York (poin of ineres 105) is now displayed in he cener of user inerface 102. Cener poin 108, sill represening cener of he user inerface 102 (bu no longer represening cener of map 114), now coincides Wih poin of ineres 105. The poin of ineres 105 and cener poin 108 represen he same locaion on map 314. Poiner 104, previously poining o he poin of ineres 105 (in FIG. 1), however remains a he same physical locaion Wihin he user inerface 102 bu no longer poins o he poin of ineres 105 (in FIG. 3A). Tha is, he relaive disance of poiner 104 Wih respec o he side and op of user inerface 102 in FIG. 3A is idenical o he relaive disance of poiner 104 Wih respec o he side and op of user inerface 102 in FIG. 1. If a user now Wishes o Zoom in furher on NeW York, he user has o move he mouse unil poiner 104 poins o he poin of ineres 105 (or, cener poin 108) prior o depress ing he acuaing buon. The poiner locaion does no coincide Wih or, is no synchronized o, he poin of ineres When Zooming occurs according o curren implemenaions. If a user Wishes o Zoom in a few imes (o a number of Zooming levels), a cumulaive delay facor is inroduced ino he process as he poiner has o be locaed and moved o he poin of ineres for each desired Zooming level. The cumu laive delay facor is a sum of delays each of Which is associaed Wih having o re-cenering he poiner afer each Zooming funcion. Some embodimens provide a synchronizaion (or, coor dinaion) beween he Zooming funcion and he poiner locaion on a user inerface. SUMMARY Mehods according o he presen invenion address hese needs and ohers by providing a mehod for mainaining he posiion of poiner on a cener of a graphical user inerface According o one exemplary embodimen of he presen invenion, a mehod for navigaing a poiner on a graphical user inerface (GUI) includes he seps of: scrolling an inpu device o locae he poiner corresponding o he inpu device on a poin of ineres Wihin he GUI, depressing an acuaing buon associaed Wih he inpu device on he poin of ineres, obaining a deailed view of he poin of ineres While cenering he poin of ineres on he GUI and mainaining a posiion of he poiner on he poin of ineres. According o anoher exemplary embodimen of he presen invenion, a mehod of cenering a poiner on a graphical user inerface (GUI) includes navigaing he poiner o a poin of ineres away from a cener of he GUI, acuaing a mechanism for obaining a magni?ed view of he poin of ineres, compuing a disance beween a cener of he GUI and a locaion of he poin of ineres, generaing a deailed view of he poin of ineres, displaying he deailed view Wih he poin of ineres cenered on he GUI and animaing a movemen of he poiner from he posiion away from he cener of he GUI o he poin of ineres. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings illusrae exemplary embodimens of he presen invenion, Wherein: FIG. 1 depics a graphical user inerface corresponding o an exemplary locaion informaion program; FIG. 2 illusraes a?rs magni?ed view of a porion of he user inerface of FIG. 1 in exemplary embodimen; FIGS. 3A and 3B depics a second magni?ed view of a porion of he user inerfaces of FIGS. 1 and 2; and

7 3 FIGS. 4 and 5 illusrae mehods in accordance Wih exemplary embodimens. DETAILED DESCRIPTION The following deailed descripion of he invenion refers o he accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers in differen drawings idenify he same or similar elemens. Also, he following deailed descripion does no limi he invenion. Insead, he scope of he invenion is de?ned by he appended claims. In exemplary embodimens, incremenal Zooming may be uilized o coordinae poiner locaion Wih a poin of ineres on a user inerface. Referring back o FIG. 1, a user may navigae poiner 104 o a poin of ineres 105 and depresses he acuaing buon of an inpu device o obain a more deailed view of poin of ineres 105. An incremenal Zooming may ake place in a series of Zooming levels from FIG. 1 o a desired Zooming level for he poin of ineres 105 as illusraed in FIGS. 3A and 3B. The number of Zooming levels may be Wo for exampleiha is, an iner mediae Zooming sep may exis beween user inerface in FIG. 1 and ha of FIGS. 3A and 3B. Having Wo Zooming levels is speci?ed for exemplary purposes; he number of Zooming levels may be greaer han Wo in preferred embodimens. By navigaing poiner 104 and depressing acuaing bu on a he poin of ineres 105 on FIG. 1, a user may idenify he locaion for Which a deailed view is desired. The deailed view may be obained from pre-sored informaion conained in he sofware program for example; i may also be generaed. The program may be sored in he compuer, in a compuer medium (such as a compac disc) or accessible o he compuer over a nework such as he ineme. A disance 106 beween cener 108 and poin of ineres 105 may be compued. Avirual line (represening 106) may be drawn beween saring poin 108 and poin of ineres 105. The virual line may represen he linear disance beween poins 108 and 105 of FIG. 1. An inermediae Zooming level (or sep) may be illusraed in FIG. 2. The cener 108 of user inerface 102 has now moved (along he virual line represening disance 106) o approximaely a midway poin beween cener 108 in FIG. 1 and cener 108 of FIG. 3A or 3B. The cener 108 of he user inerface 102 remains?xed a one physical locaion on he inerface as long as he size of he inerface (represened by he WindoW) remains consan; he geographic poin represened by he cener may vary based on he Zooming level. For example, in FIG. 1, cener 108 may represen some poin in Nebraska While cener 108 of FIG. 2 may represen some poin in Ohio. The poiner, designaed by 104, remains on he poin of ineres 105. The original locaion of poiner 104' (a poin of ineres 105 in FIG. 1) is also shown in FIG. 2 o disinguish exemplary embodimens over exising implemenaion mehods. A deailed view desired by Zooming in poin of ineres 105 of FIG. 1 is illusraed in FIGS. 3A and 3B. A second Zooming level may be illusraed Wih respec o FIGS. 3A and 3B. Saring from FIG. 2, he disance represened by line 206 (Which is one half of he disance 106 of FIG. 1) beween cener 108 and poin of ineres 105 may be reduced o Zero as cener 108 of FIGS. 3A and 3B coincides Wih poin of ineres 105. As Wih FIG. 2 above, poiner 104 is now locaed over poin of ineres 105 in FIG. 3B. The locaion of poiner 104" (a poin of ineres 105 in FIG. 2) is also illusraed in FIG. 3B o disinguish exemplary embodimens over exising implemenaion mehods. US 7,260,789 B In some embodimens, he inermediae Zooming level, he resuls of Which are illusraed in FIG. 2, may no be needed. Tha is, he Zooming can ransiion from FIG. 1 o FIG. 3B. Poiner 104 Would be posiioned over poin of ineres 105 afer he ransiion. Oher embodimens may include addiional Zooming levels (addiional o he Wo levels illusraed). Cenering he poin of ineres 105 Wihin user inerface 102 While Zooming in may be achieved by combining he Zooming funcion Wih a simulaneous panning funcion. Panning refers o ranslaing he view in eiher he verical horizonal dimensions. As a resul of he panning process, he poin of ineres 105 coincides Wih cener 108 of he inerface 102. As he acuaion buon of he inpu device is depressed o achieve Zooming, he poin of ineres 105 may move along he doed disance line 106 o cener 108 of he inerface 102. A progress of he poiner s movemen along his line may be illusraed in an animaed manner. In preferred embodimens, panning in order o make he poin of ineres 105 coincide Wih cener 108 of user inerface 102 may be compleed a he same ime he desired Zooming level is achieved. The amoun of movemen (or displacemen) he poin of ineres 105 undergoes for each Zooming sep may be compued. As described above, cener 108 of he inerface represens he poin of ineres as a resul of his movemen. The?nal level of deail available for Zooming in may be deermined by a designer of he paricular sofware program being used. For example, a designer of a map sofware program migh choose o faciliae Zooming in o a block level or a sree level, ec. This may assis in deermining he number of available Zooming levels beween a saring poin 108 of FIG. 1 and ending poin 108 of FIGS. 3A and 3B for example. The number of available Zooming levels may also deermine how long i akes o ge from he saring poin o he ending poin. While he number of Zooming levels illusraed is Wo and one inermediae frame is illusraed in his example, a higher number of Zooming levels Will resul in more iner mediae frames being shown. If four levels are available in an embodimen, hen he number of inermediae frames may be hree. Tha is, a?rs inermediae frame may depic poin 108 being locaed beween poin 108 of FIG. 1 and poin 108 of FIG. 2; a second inermediae frame may be idenical o FIG. 2; a hird inermediae frame may depic poin 108 being locaed beween poin 108 of FIG. 2 and poin 108 of FIG. 3A (or 3B) and a fourh frame may be idenical o FIG. 3A (of 3B). If he number of available Zoom levels is N, hen he number of inermediae frames may be N-l. Exemplary mehods may also faciliae Zooming ou from a poin of ineres. In Zooming ou, he poiner may remain on he poin of ineres bu he cener may no longer coincide Wih he poiner. In FIG. 3B for example, if Zooming ou is indicaed via he user inpu device, a porion of he user inerface may illusrae he Alanic Ocean eas of NeW York for Which no daa may be available. In his case, he cener 108 may be moved WesWard While poiner 104 remains on poin of ineres 105. Each of he?gures also shows a scale (designaed by 112, 212 and 312) o depic Wha one uni may represen (such as disance for example) in he corresponding?gure. In some embodimens, a hisory of Zooming levels ha Were illus raed (frames) may be mainained in order o enable a user o visi previous frames. In some embodimens as described above, he animaion or ransiion beween a saring poin (such as FIG. 1) and he

8 5 ending poin (FIGS. 3A and 3B) may occur in a linear manner. Tha is, if only one inermediae frame is shown, he inermediae frame may be he midway poin beween he saring and ending poins; similarly, if hree inermediae frames are shown, hey may represen poins ha are one quarer of he Way, one half of he Way and hree quarers of he Way beween he saring poin and he ending poin as he inermediae frames. In oher embodimens, he animaion may ake place a a differen rae (or a a varying rae). The?rs few inermediae frames may be shown slowly, he nex several inermediae frames may be shown a a faser rae and he las few inermediae frames may be shown slowly for example. Exemplary embodimens may be implemened on a gen eral purpose compuer such as a deskop, a lapop, a pocke PC, personal digial assisan (PDA) or oher similar devices having he processing capaciy. Mehods described may be encoded on a compuer readable medium as a series of execuable insrucions or on an applicaion speci?c ine graed chip (ASIC). Mehods in accordance Wih exemplary embodimens as described above may be illusraed as process or How chars 400 and 500 in FIGS. 4 and 5 respecively. While he descripion has focused on Zooming in on a map, exemplary mehods may be equally applicable in oher scenarios such as in virual our programs (i.e. real esae viewing for example) and in gaming, ec. The mehods can also be used in menu selecion Wihin an enerainmen/pay per-view environmen. For example, humb nail images represening various movies available for viewing or on a pay-per-view basis may be displayed o a user on a display or screen. The user may uilize a 3D poining device such as ha developed by Hillcres Laboraories of Rockville, MD o selec one of he images. As a resul of his selecion, more deailed informaion corresponding o he seleced image may be displayed o he user. Inpu devices may also include a graphic able, a racking surface such as a rack pad or a 3D poining device. The above-described exemplary embodimens are inended o be illusraive in all respecs, raher han resric ive, of he presen invenion. Thus he presen invenion is capable of many variaions in deailed implemenaion ha can be derived from he descripion conained herein by a person skilled in he ar. All such variaions and modi?ca ions are considered o be Wihin he scope and spiri of he presen invenion as de?ned by he following claims. No elemen, ac, or insrucion used in he descripion of he presen applicaion should be consrued as criical or essen ial o he invenion unless explicily described as such. Also, as used herein, he aricle a is inended o include one or more iems. Wha is claimed is: 1. A mehod of navigaing a poiner on a graphical user inerface (GUI), said mehod comprising he seps of: scrolling an inpu device o locae he poiner correspond ing o he inpu device on a poin of ineres Wihin he GUI; said poin of ineres being away from a cener of he GUI; depressing an acuaing buon associaed Wih said inpu device on he poin of ineres; obaining a deailed view of he poin of ineres While cenering he poin of ineres on said GUI; and mainaining a posiion of he poiner on he poin of ineres. 2. The mehod of claim 1, Wherein he inpu device is one of graphic able, a racking surface and a 3D poining device. US 7,260,789 B The mehod of claim 1, Wherein he deailed view of he poin of ineres is obained While Zooming in on he poin of ineres and simulaneously panning over he GUI. 4. The mehod of claim 1, Wherein he deailed view is obained in a series of inermediae Zooming levels. 5. The mehod of claim 4, Wherein he poiner posiion is mainained over he poin of ineres a each Zooming level. 6. The mehod of claim 4, Wherein he number of Zooming levels is a leas Wo. 7. The mehod of claim 1 furher comprising: compuing a linear disance beween he cener of he GUI and he poin of ineres; drawing a virual line represening he linear disance; animaing a movemen of he poiner along he virual line in a series of inermediae Zooming levels. 8. The mehod of claim 1, Wherein he graphical user inerface corresponds o a locaion informaion program. 9. The mehod of claim 1, Wherein he graphical user inerface corresponds o a menu selecion in a pay per view environmen. 10. The mehod of claim 1 furher comprising soring informaion for each inermediae Zooming level as a hisory. 11. A mehod of navigaing a poiner on a graphical user inerface (GUI), said mehod comprising he seps of: navigaing he poiner o a poin of ineres away from a cener of he GUI; acuaing a mechanism for obaining a magni?ed view of he poin of ineres; compuing a disance beween he cener of he GUI and a locaion of he poin of ineres; generaing a deailed view of he poin of ineres; displaying he deailed view in he cener of he GUI; and animaing a movemen of he poiner Wih he poin of ineres from he posiion away from he cener of he GUI o he cener of he GUI. 12. The mehod of claim 11, Wherein he animaion akes place concurrenly Wih he generaion and display of he deailed view. 13. The mehod of claim 11, Wherein he compued disance is represened on he GUI by a pah. 14. The mehod of claim 13, Wherein he animaion of he poiner movemen occurs along said pah. 15. The mehod of claim 11, Wherein he graphical user inerface is a WindoW represening a Working area of a sofware applicaion program execuing on a compuer. 16. The mehod of claim 11, Wherein he ransiion o he deailed view occurs over a pluraliy of inermediae Zoom ing levels. 17. The mehod of claim 16, Wherein he poiner is locaed on he poin of ineres a each Zooming level. 18. The mehod of claim 17, Wherein he ransiion occurs in a linear manner Wih each inermediae level represening a nex Zooming level. 19. The mehod of claim 18, Wherein he ransiion occurs in a combinaion of linear and non-linear levels. 20. A compuer readable medium conaining execuable insrucions, When execued in a processing sysem, cause he sysem o perform a mehod comprising: navigaing he poiner o a poin of ineres away from a cener of he GUI; acuaing a mechanism for obaining a magni?ed view of he poin of ineres; compuing a disance beween he cener of he GUI and a locaion of he poin of ineres; generaing a deailed view of he poin of ineres; displaying he deailed view in he cener of he GUI; and animaing a movemen of he poiner from he posiion away from he cener of he GUI o he cener. * * * * *