Stretching the rubber sheet: a metaphor for viewing large layouts on small screens

We propose the metaphor of rubber sheet stretching for viewing large and complex layouts within small display areas. Imagine the original 2D layout on a rubber sheet. Users can select and enlarge different areas of the sheet by holding and stretching it with a set of special tools called handles. As the user stretches an area, a greater level of detail is displayed there. The technique has some additional desirable features such as areas specified as arbitrary closed polygons, multiple regions of interest, and uniform scaling inside the stretched regions.