Basing non-linear displays on vector map formats

One approach to increasing the area coverage of small-screen map displays i s to exploit the elasticity' of the electronic display through use of non-l inear scaling. Although resolution is necessarily lost in areas of smaller scale, bitmap images lose important information when rescaled. This can ren der features unrecognisable and text unreadable. Vector maps are more toler ant to non-linear scaling because critical position information found in ve rtices of lines is distorted without being lost. Examples of non-linear sca ling are presented to demonstrate the effect on bitmap and vector images. O ngoing research examining the user performance benefits of non-linear displ ays is also described.