Expanding a 3d stack of floor maps at a rate proportional to a speed of a pinch gesture

Abstract

A digital map of a geographic area is displayed via a user interface, and a 3D representation of a multi-story building located in the geographic area is displayed on the digital map. The 3D representation includes multiple stacked floor maps corresponding to the floors of the multi-story building. In response to the detection of a pinch gesture applied to the 3D representation, a distance between floor maps is expanded to enable easier viewing of one or more internal features of the floor maps.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for providing an interactive display of multi-story buildings displayed on digital maps, the method comprising:
 displaying a digital map of a geographic area via a touchscreen;   displaying, on the digital map, an exploded-view of a three-dimensional (3D) stack of a plurality of floor maps corresponding to a plurality of floors of a multi-story building located in the geographic area, the plurality of floor maps including a first floor map for a first floor and a second floor map for a second floor positioned adjacently above the first floor;   detecting, via the touchscreen, a pinch gesture, wherein the pinch gesture is applied to the exploded-view of the 3D stack;   detecting a speed associated with a motion of a first point of contact of the pinch gesture relative to a second point of contact of the pinch gesture; and   modifying a distance between the first floor map and the second floor map at a rate proportional to the detected speed associated with the motion of the first point of contact of the pinch gesture relative to the second point of contact of the pinch gesture.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein displaying the 3D stack of the plurality of floor maps comprises:
 displaying the plurality of floor maps in the 3D stack in a partially overlapping manner;   wherein the method further comprises: displaying internal floor features for the first floor map when the distance between the first floor map and the second floor map is greater than a threshold value.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein displaying the internal floor features for the first floor map comprises displaying one or more of:
 (i) an internal wall layout,   (ii) a name of a businesses or individual occupying a portion of the first floor, and   (iii) an indication of building facilities for the first floor floor.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: modifying spacing between every pair of adjacent floor maps in the 3D stack at the rate proportional to the detected speed. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the spacing between every pair of adjacent floor maps is modified by a same amount. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: maintaining spacing between every pair of adjacent floor maps in the 3D stack, other than the pair including the first floor map and the second floor map, while modifying the distance between the first floor map and the second floor map. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 modifying spacing between every pair of adjacent floor maps included within a first subset of the plurality of floor maps in the 3D stack, the first subset including the first floor map, the second floor map, and any other floor map positioned between two points of contact of the pinch gesture; and   maintaining spacing between every pair of adjacent floor maps included within a second subset of the plurality of floor maps in the 3D stack, the second subset including every floor map in the plurality of floor maps positioned outside the two points of contact of the pinch gesture.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein displaying the 3D stack is in response to receiving a selection of the multi-story building via the touchscreen;
 the method further comprising: displaying a low-detail representation of the multi-story building when the multi-story building is not selected, the low-detail representation of the multi-story building not displaying individual floor maps.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein displaying the low-detail representation of the multi-story building includes displaying a 3D outline view of external facets the multi-story building. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein detecting the pinch gesture is subsequent to receiving a selection of the 3D representation of the multi-story building via a tap gesture. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein displaying the digital map comprises:
 displaying a plurality of map elements representing outdoor physical entities;   the method further comprising: providing a plurality of functions for changing the display of the plurality of map elements.   
     
     
         12 . A method in a computing device for providing digital maps of outdoor and indoor locations, the method comprising:
 displaying an exploded-view of a three-dimensional (3D) stack of a plurality of floor maps corresponding to a plurality of floors of a multi-story building located in a geographic area of a digital map,   detecting a pinch gesture applied to a touchscreen, wherein the pinch gesture is applied to the 3D stack and wherein the detecting includes:
 (i) detecting a first point of contact overlaying a first floor map from the plurality of floor maps, the first floor map corresponding to a first floor from the plurality of floors; and 
 (ii) detecting a second point of contact overlaying a second floor map from the plurality floor maps, the second floor map corresponding to a second floor from the plurality of floors, wherein at least one of the plurality of floors is not between the first floor and the second floor; 
   detecting a speed associated with a motion of the first point of contact relative to the second point of contact; and   modifying distances between pairs of floor maps in a range between the first floor map and the second floor map at a rate proportional to the detected speed associated with the motion, including not modifying distances between one or more pairs of floor maps outside the range.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein displaying the exploded-view of the 3D stack comprises:
 displaying the plurality of floor maps in the 3D stack in a partially overlapping manner;   wherein the method further comprises: displaying internal floor features for a particular floor map in the range when a distance between the particular floor map and an adjacent floor map is greater than a threshold value.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the distances between the pairs of floor maps in the range are modified identically. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein displaying the exploded-view of the 3D stack comprises:
 displaying the plurality of floor maps in the 3D stack on a plurality of respective planes arranged in a stack and displayed in a perspective view.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein displaying the exploded-view of the 3D stack comprises:
 displaying a respective contour for each of the plurality of floor maps without displaying internal features of the corresponding floor when none of the floors of the multi-story building is selected.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising: displaying, within the digital map, outdoor map elements, including roads. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the digital map includes a plurality of map elements that are represented with a one-point perspective. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising: providing a plurality of functions for changing a display of a plurality of map elements in the digital map, the plurality of functions including one or more of: pan, zoom, and rotate. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the detected pinch gesture includes a motion in a direction substantially along a vertical axis of the 3D stack.