Surface-surface graphical intersection tools and primitives for data visualization, tabular data, and advanced spreadsheets

摘要

Graphical tools and primitives are provided for interactively intersecting graphical surfaces in a spreadsheet or visualization to produce surface intersection data. The invention can be used for simple business analysis as well as advanced engineering and science, and provide numerical solution for simultaneous spatially-manipulated interactive equations.;Visualizations of two-dimensional surfaces are rendered from provided data according to position, orientation, and viewpoint, some or all of which can be controlled by a user interface so as to create or control the intersection of surfaces. The provided data can be from an electronic spreadsheet, and the overall visualization can be displayed together with the display an electronic spreadsheet or other tabular data representation. Visually rendered surfaces can comprise symbols, colors, textures, or glyphs representing data, and virtual illumination. Intersection data corresponding to the mathematical intersection of the surfaces is computed and provided to further computation. Intersection computation can comprise interpolation and resampling.

主权项

1. A method for interactive orienting and computing the intersection between a pair of surfaces representing provided data, the method comprising:
obtaining at least a first plurality of data values and a second plurality of data values; rendering a first visualization of a first two-dimensional surface, the first visualization computed from the first plurality of data values and further computed from first position data, first orientation data, and first viewpoint data; rendering a second visualization of a second two-dimensional surface, the second visualization computed from the second plurality of data values and further computed from second position data, second orientation data, and second viewpoint data; and computing intersection data corresponding to the mathematical intersection of the first two-dimensional surface and the second two-dimensional surface, the computation responsive to the first position data, first orientation data, second position data, and second orientation data, wherein the first visualization and second visualization are rendered to form a common visualization in a common visual display area, the common visualization being representative of an intersection between the first visualization and the second visualization, wherein the computed intersection data is provided to an external computation, and wherein the common visualization is formed based on the computed intersection data.