Iconographical virtual polyhedrons for constructing graphical user interface

There are many applications that require a large number of icons on their user interface. Such applications share the same problem: the icons use up too much screen space. As a solution to this problem, we propose a new concept: the use of iconographical virtual polyhedrons (in short we refer to them as "lV-polyhedron(s)"), which are polyhedrons created in 3D virtual space, with the usual 2D icons being mapped onto their polygonal faces. Users are enabled to rotate the IV-polyhedron in virtual space and select one of the icons mapped on it. Such IV-polyhedrons have proved to be efficient for saving screen space and increasing the enjoyment of using the graphical user interface. In the present paper, first we will describe the previous research related to graphical user interface to show the importance of IV-polyhedrons. Secondly, we will describe the problems we encountered in the implementation of the IV-polyhedrons. We also introduce several prototypical applications using IV-polyhedrons for children\´s educational purposes