Importance

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Abstract

A user-directed method for operating a processor-controlled machine permits a user to operate on an object-based model data structure from which a first image has been produced in order to produce a second image for display in the spatial context of the first image, and then to interact with objects in the displayed second image. The method is cooperates as cooperating with the functionality of an application program, such as a graphical object editor. The user requests the display of a viewing operation region (VOR) coextensively with a first image segment of the first displayed image. In response to the user's request signal, a viewing operation associated with the VOR operates on the object-based model data structure that produced the first image to produce an output model data structure from which is produced a second view, or image, of the portion of the first image coextensively positioned with the VOR, displaying the second view in the VOR. The second image includes an output object that represents data item in the output model that is mapped from and linked to a first object data item in the original object-based model. Then, the user is permitted to access the first object data item in the original model data by interacting directly with the output display object in the second image via the functionality of the application program that produced the first image. The method provides spatially defined access to information in a complex model in an intuitive and easy to use manner.

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First Claim