Techniques to manage map information illustrating a transition between views

Abstract

Techniques to manage map information illustrating a transition between views of a digital map. The transition may refer to a visual transition from a three dimensional map view and a two dimensional map view or vice versa. For each map location, the map information may include a set of spherical coordinates that corresponds to intermediate map views. This set of spherical coordinates enable presentation to a user the visual transition such that user is able to switch between viewing spatially correct surface locations and substantially all surface locations. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

1 . An apparatus, comprising:
 a logic circuit; and   a map transition component operative on the logic circuit to render a set of views of a digital map for presentation on a display element in which a three dimensional view comprises data representing a spatially correct surface and at least one intermediate view corresponds to a transition between views, each intermediate view to comprise mapping data between the spatially correct surface and a substantially spherical coordinate system.   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the map transition component operative to generate the mapping data based upon a projection between one set of spherical coordinates and another set of spherical coordinates. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus of  claim 2 , wherein the set of spherical coordinates and the other set of spherical coordinates correspond to different points in time in the transition. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus of  claim 3 , wherein corresponding coordinates of the set of spherical coordinates and the other set of spherical coordinates are represented by a color. 
     
     
         5 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one intermediate view corresponds to at least a portion of a transition between the three dimensional view and a two dimensional view of the digital map. 
     
     
         6 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the map transition component operative on the logic circuit to modify a projection from the spatially correct surface to a two dimensional surface using a time value. 
     
     
         7 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the set of views comprise a sequence of views corresponding to an animated transition between a view representing the digital map as a three dimensional surface to a view representing the digital map as a two dimensional surface. 
     
     
         8 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the map transition component operative to determine a transition rate associated with presenting the set of views. 
     
     
         9 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the map transition component operative to render a view of a surface in which at least one region of the surface corresponds to a color of a range of colors. 
     
     
         10 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the map transition component operative to render a number of time-bound categorized data points on a view of the set of views. 
     
     
         11 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
 processing a unit sphere representing a three dimensional view of a digital map;   generating, by circuitry, a number of intermediate spheres from the unit sphere in which each intermediate sphere corresponds to a different radius; and   processing the number of intermediate spheres to illustrate a transition between the three dimensional view and a plane view.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , comprising assigning tasks related to the generation of the number of intermediate spheres to a plurality of processors. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , comprising processing a control directive to switch between the three dimensional view and the plane view, the plane view depicting substantially all map data as a two-dimensional surface. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11 , comprising projecting data represented by the unit sphere into data representing the plane view of the digital map, and using a desired radius of an intermediate sphere to transform the data representing the plane view into data representing a view in a substantially spherical coordinate system. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11 , comprising generating a progression of intermediate views corresponding to the number of intermediate spheres in which each intermediate sphere increases or decreases in radius between points in time along the progression. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 11 , comprising transforming a view of a first intermediate sphere and a time value into a view of a second intermediate sphere having a radius greater in size than a radius of the first intermediate sphere. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , the radius of the second intermediate sphere is computed from the time value. 
     
     
         18 . At least one computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a system to:
 perform a projection of geographic locations to a two dimensional map;   generate data to represent an inverse between the two dimensional map and locations on a three dimensional map having a desired radius; and   transform the data into spherical coordinates on the three-dimensional map that correspond to the geographic locations.   
     
     
         19 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 18 , comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:
 perform a Mercator projection between a unit sphere and the two-dimensional map;   modify data representing the Mercator projection according to time values that correspond to sequence of intermediate spheres, the sequence of intermediate spheres represent a visual transition between the unit sphere and the two-dimensional map; and   perform an inverse Mercator projection between the two-dimensional map and each intermediate sphere.   
     
     
         20 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 18 , comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:
 assign colors representing categories to each intermediate sphere.