Enhanced zoom and pan for viewing digital images

#The invention relates in general to a system and method for providing digital images over a communication network to an end user. More specifically, the invention relates to a system and method for providing digital images over a communication network, in which a zoom and pan feature is provided to enable a user to isolate and expand selected areas of a dynamically generated image incorporating dynamic imaging features, and further enables the tracking of user viewing characteristics, including zoom and pan operations, related to an individual user or a group of users.

#The establishment of the Internet has enabled the average individual to retrieve and manipulate vast amounts of information from sources throughout the world. In the beginning, the Internet was primarily used to transfer information in the form of text data due to limitations in the technology associated with the capture, storage, manipulation and transfer of digital images over the Internet. These limitations included, for example, the expense of electronic imaging equipment and electronic memory devices, limited computer processing speeds, and the limited data transfer rates associated with available communication networks.

#As technology has progressed, however, many of the limitations associated with the transmission of digital images described above have been overcome. The average home computer, for example, is now equipped with sufficient processing speed and memory to easily store and manipulate large numbers of high resolution digital images. Data transfer rates have also dramatically improved through the use of high speed DSL, fiber optic networks, cable modems and satellite links. Further, advances in image capture technologies have also lowered the price of digital cameras and digital scanners to such a degree that conventional silver halide imaging has essentially been rendered obsolete in the mass consumer market. Even the lowest priced electronic cameras and cellular telephones employ images sensors having resolutions unobtainable in the mass consumer market just a decade ago. The overall result of these technological advances has been an explosion in the use of digital images to convey information worldwide over the Internet.

#The invention will be described in detail with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof along with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

#FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating command processing in accordance with the present invention;

#FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a request supplied to a dynamic imaging server of the type illustrated in FIG. 1;

#The present invention is directed to a system and method that generates and transmits digital image over a communication network to an end user. The system and method includes a zoom and pan (ZAP) feature that offers a user the ability to see all available detail of a displayed image despite the limited image display area. Specifically, images presented within a zoom and pan interface allow the user to zoom in to a particular area of a displayed image to see additional detail, pan to view various areas of the displayed image, and to zoom out again to view the whole displayed image in context. Dynamic imaging features, such as hotspots, can be incorporated with the ZAP feature, the selection of which causes a further action to occur, and viewing-region-tracking which tracks and reports the locations within an image that are viewed by the user.

#The preferred embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to a dynamic imaging server of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,109,985 discussed above. FIG. 1 is a basic block diagram illustrating the command processing structure used to execute commands by a dynamic imaging server in accordance with the present invention. As one simple example, consider the display of an image in a web page within a space two hundred pixels wide and two hundred pixels tall. There are three steps required to process the image: 1) acquire the source image; 2) scale it to the desired size, and 3) send it to the requesting browser in a format the browser understands. These steps are graphically illustrated in FIG. 2, and will result in the creation of a single operator in the image chain as illustrated in FIG. 3.

#Image chains themselves are not directly created. Rather, they are represented as a sequence of commands, each with a list of optional arguments. Each command represents one or more operators, macros or metacommands. These commands, in turn, are interpreted to create the image chain. Image chains can be represented in many different ways including, but not limited to, http or xml.