This invention relates to apparatus and methods for displaying, manipulating, and selecting multi-media or computer stored information in a window environment of a computer display system. More particularly, this invention relates to an improved user interface to provide a unified operator interface for a wide range of systems which must be coordinated and monitored in a multi-media production system.

Videotape editing environments have evolved from providing simple editing cuts to the incorporation of full featured graphics, film to tape and other processes to complete a video production. Consequently, computer controlled editing systems and integration methods have been used to incorporate and integrate various production media resources such as special effects, music, graphics or the like. However, due to the nature of film and video production, a variety of resources must be integrated, scheduled and coordinated with one another to obtain a completed product.

Historically, humans have interfaced with computers through a system of discrete commands which typically comprise a combination of both text and mathematical symbolic characters. Examples of such systems are numerous and include the programming languages of Fortran, Algol, Basic, etc., which transform a given set of user commands into machine executable "object" code. However, the ease with which a user becomes proficient in programming or interacting with a computer-based system is generally a function of how close the system models the logical thought of the user himself. If the user is able to enter commands in the order in which he would find most logically appropriate, rather than having to transpose his desired command into the code of a programming language, greater user efficiency in using the system is achieved.

A number of systems which have been developed to reduce the learning or acclimatization period which a user must go through to become proficient in the interaction with the computer system are referred to as "object oriented systems". A common object oriented interface approach utilizes multiple "windows" displayed on a cathode ray tube (CRT) in which combinations of text and graphics are used to convey information. Each window may take the form of an object such as a file folder, different operating environment, pages or layered bit maps to provide a separate display of video information in independent screen regions. (See, for example, Robson "Object Oriented Software Systems", Byte, August, 1981; United States Patents Nos. 4,414,628, 4,533,910, 4,450,442, 4,555,775 and 4,622,545; and L. Tesler, "The Small Talk Environment" Byte, August 1981, Volume 6, No. 8).

The use of modern computer systems incorporating object oriented window environments may be applied to multi-media production methods, such as videotape editing, audio mixing, etc. However, one unique problem associated with multi-media production is the necessity to provide the ability for a diversity of media professionals to collaborate and exchange project data in a consistent interface environment. By providing a consistent user interface, media professionals such as special effects engineers, animation specialists, music composers, and the like may provide both real time and non-real time input to exchange necessary project data, and effectively coordinate the production of the entire media work. Accordingly, one of the requirements of any common multi-media user interface is the ability to integrate multi-media types, and to provide the operator with the ability to manage large quantities of information in an understandable and efficient manner. The user interface must be intuitive and flexible to accommodate a variety of operator editing styles and personalities. For example, a music composer who thinks typically in terms of scores, notes and related music timing, should be able to work in that environment using a standard user interface, and not be required to work in terms of video time code or other non-music related external standards. Similarly, the film production director or special effects engineer should be able to utilize the user interface in a manner consistent with their work environment, which may, by way of example, be illustrated through the use of video time code signals (and not music).

Viewed from one aspect this invention provides a computer controlled display apparatus including at least one central processing unit, said CPU being coupled to a display for displaying data, and user input means, said display system being further coupled to a plurality of system resources having defined attributes, said display system comprising:

   means for generating a user interface for display by said display, said user interface including a display of representations of resources coupled to said display system with which a user interacts through said user input means, said representations of said resources being arranged in an N dimensional venue which may be viewed using said user interface from a plurality of view ports such that viewing said representations of said resources from different view ports results in the display of different attributes of said resources, said representations of said resources being arranged in said venue such that each of said resources is disposed relative to one another in time and space within said venue; and

   manipulation means coupled to said user input means for selectively positioning said representations of said resources within said venue.

Apparatus and methods for generating a multi-dimensional user interface for use in audio visual production are provided. A display system including at least one central processing unit (CPU) may be coupled through appropriate input/output (I/O) circuitry to input devices, such as a keyboard, digital pad and/or track ball. The CPU may be further coupled to a hard disk drive for the storage of programs and data, and may also be coupled to a network through which the CPU may communicate with a variety of system resource devices such as editors, music synthesizers, graphics generators, scheduling resources, audio enhancement resources, etc. The CPU is also coupled to a display device (for example, a CRT) on which the user interface is displayed to the user. A user viewing the interface on the display may utilize one of the input devices, such as by way of example, the keyboard, to select, incorporate or otherwise integrate the various system resources to develop a unified multi-media production.

In preferred embodiments, the user interface includes a control frame which in practice substantially fills all of the display screen of the display. The control frame is comprised of control panels which surround a variety of subwindows, and acts as a consistent control area for all users of the interface. The control frame may include a construction area for all users of the interface. The control frame may include a construction area which corresponds typically to a front view port looking towards a three-dimensional element which is a representation of a resource. The control frame may further include a top view port which illustrates the time relationship between the various resources in a "venue". Effectively, the control frame provides a two-dimensional window to selectively view a three-dimensional "element".

In preferred embodiments, a user specifies mandatory and optional attributes which an element must have, and defines the element representing the resource within the construction area of the control frame. Once defined, the element may be selectively "dragged" down to an event horizon bar at which time, time data is displayed in the time view port of the control frame. Using the interface, elements may be created, edited, bundled, integrated and rearranged along the event horizon.

Viewed from another aspect the invention provides a resource control apparatus comprising:

a display,

user interface generation means for displaying on said display representations of a plurality of resources that may be coupled to said resource control apparatus, said representations being displayable by said user interface generation means from a plurality of view ports such that viewing said representations from different view ports results in the display of different attributes of said resources in a manner consistent with said representations being of N dimensional elements disposed within an N dimensional venue, and

manipulation means responsive to a user input means for selectively positioning said representations within said venue.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a conceptual illustration of an integrated multi-media user interface for integrating and manipulating a variety of multi-media functions.

Figure 2 is a functional block diagram showing one possible data processing system embodying this invention.

Figure 3 is a conceptual illustration of the use of venues to represent data sets of resources available to a user.

Figure 4 conceptually illustrates the use of venues and view ports by the user interface.

Figure 5 is a conceptual illustration of an element representing a resource, as viewed in three dimensions utilizing the user interface.

Figure 6 is a front view of a user display system utilizing the multi-media user interface.

Figure 7 is the same view as Figure 6 except that the element attributes window opened for venue selection.

Figure 8 is the same view as Figure 7 further illustrating the user interface in the display of a plurality of elements and venues selected for the production of a multi-media work.

Figure 9 is the same view as Figure 8 further illustrating the element attribute block opened and venue and resource selection.

The detailed descriptions which follow are presented largely in terms of graphics interfaces, algorithms, and in symbolic representations of operations of data bits within a computer display system. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art.

An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result. These steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical entities. Usually, though not necessarily, these entities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It proves convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, icons, characters, terms, numbers, windows or the like. It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical entities and are merely convenient labels applied to these entities.

The manipulations performed are often referred to in terms, such as adding or comparing, displaying, etc. which are commonly associated with mental operations performed by human operator. No such capability of a human operator is necessary, or desirable in most cases, in any of the operations described herein which perform part of the described embodiment of the present invention. In the present case, the operations are machine operations. Useful machines for performing such operations include general purpose digital computers or other similar devices. In all cases, there should be borne in mind the distinction between the method operations of operating a computer and the method of computation itself. This invention relates to method steps for operating a computer graphics system and processing electrical or other physical signal representing physical entities.

This invention also relates to apparatus for performing these operations. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purpose machines may be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structure for an embodiment of such a machine will appear from the description below. In addition, this invention is not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement this invention as described herein.

The following detailed description will be divided into several sections. The first of these will treat a general system arrangement for generating computer graphics. Subsequent sections will deal with such aspects as the general conceptual definition of a "venue" and "resource", and the structure in operation of the multi-media user interface.

In addition, in the following description, numerous specific details are set forth such as functional blocks representing data processing devices, window configurations, etc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of this invention. However, it may be obvious to one skilled in the art that this invention may be practised without these specific details. In other instances, well known circuits are structures are not described in detail in order not to obscure the present invention unnecessarily.

Referring now to Figure 1, an embodiment of this invention is conceptually illustrated. As previously discussed, there is provided an integrated user interface, such that media professionals may utilize a common interface and integrate various production processes such as animation, special affects, editing, mixing and production scheduling. Through the use of the user interface, a variety of resources may be accessed in the production of a feature film, videotape of the like. Unlike prior art systems in which separate special effects production facilities, live action facilities and music score editing facilities are required to work independently, and then be integrated at some later dated, there is provided a new editing facility to permit an operator to interact with each of the resources comprising a multi-media production and generate a final completed work. As will be described more fully below, this facility accesses, arranges and coordinates these various production resources through the use of an integrated user interface.

Referring now to Figure 2, one possible computer graphics system employing the teachings of this invention is shown. As illustrated, the graphics system includes a computer 20, which comprises six major components. The first of these is a central processing unit (CPU) 22 which is coupled to a memory 24. The CPU 22 and the memory 24 are further coupled to a user interface circuit 26 and a disk input/output (I/O) circuit 28, for communicating with a hard disk drive 30 for mass storage of data. The computer 20 further includes a serial input/output (I/O) circuit 32 for communication with serial devices over line 34, such as by way of example a digitizing pad 36, a keyboard 38, and track ball input device 40. The computer system 20 further includes a network interface circuit 42, which is coupled to a network 44 and a gateway circuit 48, which permits the computer system 20 to communicate with other communication systems over telephone lines, optical fibres and the like.

In addition, a display monitor 50 is illustrated which is used to display an integrated user interface, and is coupled to the user interface circuit 26. As also illustrated, a variety of resource devices such as a video tape recorder (VTR) 52, a music synthesizer 55, an audio tape recorder 60 and a production switcher 62 are coupled to the network interface circuit 42 over the network 44, through device translators 64, 66, 68 and 70, respectively.

As will be described more fully bellow, the arrangement illustrated in Figure 2 permits data from resources such as the VTR 52, the music synthesizer 55 and the audio tape recorder 60 to be coupled to the user interface. A user viewing the interface on the display 50 may utilize one of a variety of input devices, such as by way of example, the keyboard 30 or the track ball 40 to select, incorporate and otherwise integrate the various system resources to develop a unified multi-media production.

It will be appreciated that the embodiment illustrated with reference to Figure 2 is only one possible embodiment of many. For example, although only one computer 20 is shown, embodiments may include multiple CPU's and/or computers coupled to the network 44. Each of these CPU's and/or computers coupled to the network 44 may execute separate programs, and support different versions of the user interface. Alternatively, it is contemplated that the use of multiple computers and/or CPU's may support a system of distributed computing, wherein multiple versions of the user interface may be supported concurrently, each of the multiple user interfaces executing different processes but having access to a common data base of resources. As such, it will be noted that the embodiment shown in Figure 2 is a simplified embodiment for purposes of illustration, and is not meant to limit this invention's utility.

Referring now to Figure 3, the described embodiment of this invention conceptually permits a variety of media resources such as special effects 90, editing sequencer 92 and video resources 95 to be viewed by a user 100 through a "view port", relative in time, along an "event horizon" 104. As will be described, a view port provides a perspective view of data contained in a "venue", wherein a venue may include in a plurality of resources such as audio resources 102, video resources 95, etc.

Referring now to Figure 4, the concept of venues is described in relation to three-dimensional space. The venue concept allows the user 100 to view data represented in alternative view ports of a venue. Relationships between a variety of resources are apparently based on the view which the user 100 chooses. As illustrated in Figure 4, a venue is a three-dimensional space in which object "elements" reside. An "element" is a three dimensional representation of a resource coupled to, for example, the network 44 depicted in Figure 2. Depending on the view port which is chosen, the elements identify themselves in various ways. For example, in Figure 4, element 110 may comprise a graphics resource, element 114 may represent an audio resource, element 116 may represent a textual planning resource, and element 118 may represent a music or other audio resource. Viewing a venue through a top view port reveals the relative placement of the various elements in time, both the duration of time that an element represents (such as a film "take") and the relationship between the resources to a reference time, which may be a recording machine, finished film or other multi-media piece. Viewing the right side view port reveals versions of the elements, for example, the audio element 118 includes two versions, namely, a version 120 and a version 122, along with the relative time lengths of the versions. In addition, it should be noted that the user interface permits the use of multiple venues, wherein some or all of the venues may share the same time period, and each venue includes its own elements.

For sake of example, assume that the elements illustrated in Figure 4 represent resources for the production of a soap opera. In this example, assume that a production crew photographed a variety of scenes, transferred these scenes to video tape, and that these scenes comprise scene 1, take 1, etc.

As shown in Figure 5, viewing an element through the front view port reveals the type of resource through the use of an icon label. For example, in the case of an audio resource, the icon label may comprise a graphic representation of a musical note. In addition, the various versions are illustrated, as in the case of the element 118 in Figure 4, by darkened lines traversing the longitudinal length of the rectangular element image. With respect to Figure 5, the version may be activated, and thereby run, by placing a cursor on the screen of the display 50 over one of the activation buttons 130 on the element, and providing an activation signal, such as for example from a "mouse", to run that particular version of the resource. Returning to the present example of a soap opera production, the versions 120 and 122 of the audio element 118 as shown in Figure 4 and the versions 135 of the element 140 shown in Figure 5 may comprise musical options for use during the particular time associated by the length of the elements. Similarly, if the resource comprises scenes, then, as is common in the industry, each of these scenes may have associated time codes (such as SMPTE) which comprise the time in and out for each scene. Accordingly, by viewing the element representing the resource in terms of time, the time length of each scene would be represented on the element by the length of the particular version lines, for example the lines 135, or alternatively, by the duration lines 140 defining the beginning and end time of each scene of the resource.

Referring now to Figure 6, the integrated user interface of this invention will be described. As shown in Figure 6, the user interface includes a basic control frame 150 which in practice fills substantially all of the display screen of the display 50 as depicted in Figure 2. The control frame 150 is the primary context for interacting with the user interface and is, primarily, comprised of four control panels which surround a variety of subwindows. Three of the panels are visible to the user at all times, and the bottom panel (not shown) is displayed on an as needed basis. The mode specific action panel 152 comprises, in the displayed embodiment, a plurality of direct action buttons, or icons, which change with the program mode. As shown in the illustration of Figure 6, the mode specific action panel 152 comprises a visual element 155, an aural element 158, a text element 162, a graphic element 164, and a process element 166. Although buttons 155, 158, 162, 164 and 166 are illustrated in Figure 6, it will be appreciated that the mode specific action panel buttons/icons change to support and reflect the current activities of the user for a particular venue.

The control frame 150 further includes a major mode panel 170, which comprises an edit button 172, a graphics button 174, an audio button 176, a plan button 180, and a set up button 182. It will be noted that although throughout this description icons, buttons, and the like are described, that the reference to buttons, icons, etc. represents any class of displayed items which result in some executable action when chosen by a user. Therefore, although an edit button 172 is disclosed as part of the control frame 150, it will be appreciated to one skilled in the art that the edit button 172 may comprise an icon in the form of some edit feature or the like which achieves the same result. In the presently preferred embodiment, the buttons comprising the major mode panel 170 are always present for the user no matter which venue or other option is selected.

In general, the major code panel 170 permits a user to access different venues than the venue currently displayed. The specific buttons/icons used in the major mode panel 170 are a function of the particular project in which the user interface is implemented. A menu bar panel 190 generally displays labels for pull down menus. Standard labels such as "organize", "modify", etc. are provided and are present no matter which venue or resource is accessed. Other context specific menu labels will be displayed, e.g. "element", "edit style", "utilities", "setup", etc are provided for specific applications.

The application specific construction area 200 comprises an application area of the display for a selected program mode, and is available for subwindows, user views in the display of other elements of work such as time lines, scripts, scores, preview monitors, etc. As shown in Figure 6, the construction area 200 is designated as a resource manager. As will be described, a top view port 215 is also provided in the control frame 150. As previously illustrated in Figure 4, elements representing resources may be viewed and operated upon by appropriately selecting a view port. Although the control frame 150 displays objects in two dimensions, by appropriately selecting the view port, the elements may be viewed from all three dimensions. The elements directly represent the objects that make up a production, such as scripts, segments of video tape, score, scenes, director notes, sound tracks, etc., and are identified by an icon on the front face of the element as previously described with respect to Figure 5. Elements can be viewed from the front, side, or from the top, or in multiple views. As previously discussed with reference to the concept of "resources", the front view of the element displays the icon label and the type of element may be determined from the icon as on its face (see Figure 5). Viewing an element from the top view port illustrates the relative length in time the elements may have. A view from a side port illustrates any different versions and their relative lengths. The element/resources may comprise several individual elements, and may be bundled into a new compound element much like current users may group graphical elements using a graphics editor.

Referring once again to Figure 6, the top view port 215 is used to position elements relative to time by placing them on a time line. As will be described in more detail below, placing an element on a bar referred to as the "event horizon" 220 integrates the element into the overall time line for the production and results in the display of time data in the area identified in Figure 6 as 218. Moving an element from the construction region 200 to the event horizon 220 results in the element being assigned a time assignment in the view port 215. It will be noted that the view port 215 corresponds to the top view port of an element in the three-dimensional representation of resources described with reference to Figure 4.

Referring now to Figure 7, assume for sake of example that a user desires to define an element using the user interface. An element attribute box 250 is displayed by the computer 20 depicted in Figure 2 once a selection identified as "element" 252 is chosen by a user. Although in the presently preferred embodiment, the element 252 comprises a pull down menu (not shown) having a plurality of items for selection, conceptually the element 252 is selected by a user through the use of a cursor control device (see for example, United States Patent Reissue ko. 32633). Although a cursor control device, such as a "mouse" may be used to selected the element 252, it will be appreciated that the actual selection may be made using a variety of display input devices known in the art. It will also be appreciated to one skilled in the art, that other mechanisms for selecting the element 252 the like are known. Accordingly, the particular mechanism for selecting functions, items, icons and the like within the control frame 150 will not be described in detail.

Once the element 252 is selected, the computer 20 depicted in Figure 2 displays the element attribute box 250 as shown in Figure 7. A user then either selects from a preprinted list of elements, or defines elements within the element attribute box 250, the nature of the resource required for the particular production. Examples of such element attributes which a user may select include, but are not limited to the following:

Once the element attributes have been defined, the computer 20 illustrated in Figure 2 utilizes appropriate network connections over the network 44 to the various resources, such as the VTR 52, music the synthesizer 55, the Audio tape recorder 60, the Production switcher 62, etc. to access the resource via the user interface. Accordingly, a direct connection via the computer 20 has been created between the user interface comprising the control frame 150 as displayed on the display 50, and the particular element/resource coupled through the network interface 42. Referring to Figure 7, within the top view port 215, time elements corresponding to the particular resource have additional information that is revealed in the time line associated with the top view port 215. Tracking buses 265 provide additional information regarding the recording of audio channels 1 to 4, and a video channel 1. In practice, a source tape machine (not shown) supplies audio to a tape record machine wherein the channels are coupled to one another. It has been found that it is quite useful to display audio channels in the time view port 215, in order to correlate the audio channel and time interval versus resource.

Once the element attributes have been defined, an element representing a resource is created based upon those attributes, and displayed within the construction area 200 of the control frame 150. Referring now to Figure 8, the user interface is illustrated wherein a plurality of elements identified as Record VTR 300, Scene I 310, Scene II 312, Dissolve 314, Open Title 316, and Key 320 are shown. As illustrated in Figure 8, an element such as Record VTR 300 includes an icon image (for example, the planet Earth in Figure 8) which describes some aspect of the element for identification purposes. Viewing elements disposed in the construction area 200 normally correspond to viewing a venue and associated resources through a front view port as shown previously with respect to Figure 4. An element, for example, Record VTR 300, may be moved within the construction region 200 at will by a user through the use of an appropriate command sequence, or by simply dragging the element around the construction area using a cursor control device such as a mouse. However, once an element such as Scene I 310 is brought, dragged, or otherwise manipulated downward to the event horizon 220, the element is automatically given time significance which is represented along the time lines of the top view port 215.

As illustrated in Figure 8, the event horizon 220 comprises a horizontal bar with arrows 221 and 222 at each of its opposite ends. By placing a cursor (not shown) over the arrows 221 or 222, and presenting the computer 20 with an activation signal, resource elements such as Scene I 310, Scene II 312, Dissolve 314, etc. may be moved left or right, respectively, and other elements may be viewed which are currently not visible on the event horizon 220 in the control frame 150. The use of the arrows 221 and 222 permits a user to scan through elements disposed on the event horizon 220 and view the elements not only in relative position, but in relative time. This view corresponds to that of a user 100 in Figure 3 scanning the resources in that Figure, such as special effects 90, editing 92, video 95, etc. In addition, it will be appreciated that the relative position of the element may be changed by simply "dragging" an element such as Scene I 310 off the event horizon 220, moving other elements into that time slot along the event horizon 220 and replacing Scene I 310 at some other location along the event horizon 220. A redistribution of the element's relative position along the event horizon 220 would correspond in Figure 4 to, for example, swapping the element 110 for the element 116 and vice versa.

Once an element is placed upon the event horizon 220, position data relative in time to other elements is illustrated along the time lines of the top view port 215 as shown. Conceptually, the reader is directed to Figure 4 which illustrates in three dimensions the placements of elements relative to one another in time. However, due to the limitations of the display 50 depicted in Figure 2, the time view port 215 is utilized to display time along the ± Y direction, with time being T_o being at the lower portion of the display as illustrated in Figure 8. In addition, as shown in Figure 8, the number of versions, of, for example, Scene I 310, is also displayed as versions 351 to 354. It will be appreciated by the reader that the display of an element such as Scene I 310 corresponds to the prior description of a resource having multiple versions which may be activated by selecting (for example, by placing a cursor over the version 354 and providing an activation signal) a version such that the version is "run" within the window of the Scene I 310. Accordingly, a user may view the entire version of Scene I which has been selected, within the icon window comprising the scene. In general, in the present and preferred embodiment, and throughout this specification, placing a cursor over an icon or other executable function and "double clicking" using a cursor control device such that two consecutive signals are provided to the computer 20 depicted in Figure 2, executes the function which has been selected, and, more particularly, reveals any attributes and/or contents of the icon. Double clicking on a time function such as the time block 400 for Scene I (Figure 8) may be configured such that time code (i.e. SMPTE) is displayed. More particularly, in the present example, SMPTE time code for the beginning and end of each version within Scene I 310 may be displayed within the time line view port 215.

Referring now to Figure 9, the control frame 150 is illustrated in which a new Scene I 400 has been "dragged" upward into the construction area 200. As illustrated in Figure 9, once an element, in the present example Scene I 400, is moved off of the event horizon 220, timing information viewed through the top view port 215 corresponding to Scene I 400 is no longer displayed. Elements such as Scene II 404, Dissolve 406, Open Title 408 or key 410 may be repositioned along the event horizon 220 and/or modified in terms of time sequence as viewed through the top view port 215, relative to one another. Alternatively, and as shown in Figure 9, the element attribute box 250 may be selected and the attributes of Scene I 400 may be modified, or an entirely new element may be defined, to replace Scene I 400 along the event horizon 220.

It will be appreciated that a user utilizing the interface defines elements in the construction area 200 by specifying attributes of the element in the element box 250. In addition, multiple elements may be created within the construction area 200. The created elements may then be selectively dragged to the event horizon 200 in an arrangement and order selected by the user. It will further be appreciated from the above discussion by one skilled in the art that the user interface permits the utilization of resources within the system illustrated in Figure 2, permits selective modification of the resources, and through the use of the interface provides a consistent interface for the production of an audio visual work. The user interface through the use of the common control frame 150 as displayed on the display 50, allows artists, musicians, and other media professionals to create, modify, and rearrange resources comprising a production with flexibility heretofore unknown in the art. The concept of venues, and the ability to operate on resources in three dimensions, provide a user with flexibility not present in any prior user interface for computer display systems, we well as multi-media production systems known in the past.

This embodiment of the invention has been described and illustrated with reference to the figures as applied to a display 50, and using input devices, such as the digital pad 36, the trackball 40 and the keyboard 38 as shown in Figure 2. However, numerous other display devices and input mechanisms may be used. For example, embodiments of this invention may be practised using what are known as "virtual reality" input devices, such as but not limited to, a data input glove, a body glove input device, etc. In addition, embodiments of this invention may utilize eye goggle displays which are worn by a user and coupled to the computer display system via fibre optics, wires and the like. When embodiments of this invention utilizes a virtual reality system, the user interface would be viewed by a user through input goggles as being suspended in space. Interaction with the interface by the user may be done using an input glove or other virtual reality device worn by the user. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that the user interface is not limited to conventional input or display devices. The reader is referred to the following references for a further description of existing and proposed virtual reality systems. Computerised Reality Comes of Age, NASA Tech Briefs, page 10, August 1990 (Vol. 14, number 8); Iwata, Artificial Reality with Force -Feedback; Development of Desktop virtual Space with Compact Master manipulator, ACM SIGGRAPH, August 1990 (Volume 24. number 4); Nash, Our Man in Cyberspace Checks out Virtual Reality, Compterworld, October 15, 1990; Daviss, Grand Illusions, Discover, June 1990.

At least preferred embodiments of this invention provide a multi-media user interface with may be utilized by a variety of multi-media professionals in the production of film or tape works. Unlike prior art window based display systems, a three-dimensional representation (known as an "element") of information to be manipulated is provided. Each element comprises a three dimensional representation of a "resource". A resource is a three dimensional object which may have data represented in either two or three-dimensional form. A window comprises a "venue" which may be configured for specific activities, such as music production, special effects, scheduling and the like. However, the user interface shares common fundamental tools and the same data base, such that each media professional, such as a videotape editor, audio editor, producer, etc. may utilize the interface in a consistent manner.

While this invention has been described in conjunction with a few specific embodiments identified in Figures 1 to 9, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many alternatives, modifications and variations as may fall within the scope of the invention as disclosed.