System and method for content distillation

• US 20020073235A1
• Filed: 12/11/2000
• Published: 06/13/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Netosprey, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Netosprey, Inc.
• Inventors: Chen, Ken, Chen, Steve X.
• Application Number:
  US09/734,499
• Publication Number:
  US 20020073235A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/246
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A system and method is provided for transferring information, such as Internet content. The system may provide freeform browsing on a wireless limited-display device, Internet content distillation, targeted content delivery based on a user'"'"'s location, one-hop delivery of Internet content to a wireless limited-display device, Internet content flagging and synchronization of information between a wireless limited-display device and another device such as a personal computer (PC).

Claims

1. A content control server for controlling the transfer of Internet content to a limited-display device the content control server operable to communicate with a web server and the limited-display device, the content control server configured to store a customized parsing script, the content control server further configured to receive a user request for Internet content to be displayed on the limited-display device, the content control server further configured to execute the customized parsing script to parse items in the user-requested Internet content in real time, the content control server further configured to transfer parsed Internet content to the limited-display device.

2. The content control server of claim 1, wherein the items comprise a navigation link, a piece of text, or a graphic.

3. The content control server of claim 1 further configured to modify the items in the user-requested Internet content before transferring the items to the limited-display device.

4. The content control server of claim 1 further configured to format the items in the user-requested Internet content to at least one specification of the limited-display device before transferring the items to the limited-display device.

5. The content control server of claim 1 further configured to store one or more freeform parsing scripts, the content control server further configured to execute a freeform parsing script to parse items in the user-requested Internet content in real time.

6. A content control server for controlling the transfer of Internet content to a limited-display device, the content control server operable to communicate with a web server and the limited-display device, the content control server configured to receive a request for Internet content to be displayed on the limited-display device, the content control server being further configured to parse PC-formatted Internet content in real time, the content control server being further configured to transfer the parsed Internet content to the limited-display device.

7. The content control server of claim 6, wherein the requested Internet content comprises a web page.

8. The content control server of claim 6 further configured to separate the requested Internet content into a navigation link, a graphic, or a piece of text.

9. The content control server of claim 6 further configured to remove a navigation links from the requested Internet content to form the parsed Internet content transferred to the limited-display device.

10. The content control server of claim 6 further configured to group at least two navigation links together from the requested Internet content to form one navigation link in the parsed Internet content transferred to the limited-display device.

11. The content control server of claim 6 further configured to condense at least one navigation link in the requested Internet content to form the parsed Internet content transferred to the limited-display device.

12. The content control server of claim 6 further configured to remove a graphic in the requested Internet content to form the parsed Internet content transferred to the limited-display device.

13. The content control server of claim 6 further configured to reduce a size of a graphic in the requested Internet content to form the parsed Internet content transferred to the limited-display device.

14. The content control server of claim 6 further configured to preserve a center column of text in the requested Internet content and move text on left and right sides of the center column to a less prominent location to form the parsed Internet content for the limited-display device.

15. The content control server of claim 6 further configured to preserve a center column of text in the requested Internet content and distill text on left and right sides of the center column of text in the requested Internet content to form the parsed Internet content for the limited-display device.

16. The content control server of claim 6 further configured to preserve a center column of text in the requested Internet content and remove text on left and right sides of the center column of text in the requested Internet content to form the parsed Internet content for the limited-display device.

17. The content control server claim 6 further configured to determine relative sizes for a plurality of items in the requested Internet content and remove at least one smaller item to form the parsed Internet content for the limited-display device.

18. The content control server claim 6 further configured to remove a piece of text in the requested Internet content based on a font size of the piece of text to form the parsed Internet content for the limited-display device.

19. The content control server claim 6 further configured to remove an item in the requested Internet content based on a date when the item was added in the requested Internet content to form the parsed Internet content for the limited-display device.

20. The content control server claim 6 further configured to remove one or more items on left and right sides of a center item in the requested Internet content to form the parsed Internet content for the limited-display device.

21. The content control server claim 6 further configured to remove one or more items below a top item in the requested Internet content to form the parsed Internet content for the limited-display device.

22. The content control server claim 6 further configured to remove an item based on a color of the item in the requested Internet content to form the parsed Internet content for the limited-display device.

23. The content control server claim 6 further configured to remove an item based on a brightness of the item in the requested Internet content to form the parsed Internet content for the limited-display device.

24. The content control server claim 6 further configured to generate an abstract from a piece of text in the requested Internet content to form the parsed Internet content transferred to the limited-display device.

25. The content control server claim 24 further configured to generate an abstract from a piece of text in the requested Internet content if the piece of text is longer than a predetermined threshold length to form the parsed Internet content transferred to the limited-display device.

26. The content control server of claim 24, wherein the abstract comprises a first three to five sentences of the piece of text.

27. The content control server of claim 24, wherein the abstract comprises a first three to five sentences of the piece of text and the last three to five sentences of the text.

28. The content control server of claim 24, wherein the abstract comprises a plurality of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs that appear more than a predetermined number of times in the piece of text.

29. The content control server of claim 6, wherein the content control server groups together items in the requested Internet content that are not transferred with the parsed Internet content and provides a navigation link for a user to request the non-transferred items.

30. The content control server of claim 6, wherein the limited-display device is a wireless phone.

31. The content control server of claim 6, wherein the limited-display device is a personal digital assistant (PDA).

32. The content control server of claim 6 further configured to communicate with a computer, the content control server further configured to receive a request from the computer for Internet content to be displayed on the limited-display device.

33. A method of transferring Internet content to a limited-display device, the method comprising:

receiving a first request for Internet content to be displayed on a limited-display device;

transforming PC-formatted Internet content into limited-display-formatted Internet content in real time; and

transferring the limited-display-formatted Internet content to the limited-display device.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

determining whether there is a customized parsing script for a PC-size web page with the requested Internet content;

if there is a customized parsing script for the PC-size web page with the requested Internet content, using the customized parsing script to transform the PC-size web page into a limited-display web page; and

if there is no customized parsing script for the PC-size web page with the requested Internet content, using a freeform parsing script to transform the PC-size web page into a limited-display web page.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising formatting the limited-display web page to at least one specification of the limited-display device before transferring the limited-display web page to the limited-display device.

36. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

caching the limited-display-formatted Internet content;

receiving a second request for Internet content to be displayed on a limited-display device;

determining whether the second request for Internet content matches the first request for Internet content; and

if the second request for Internet content matches the first request for Internet content, transferring the cached limited-display-formatted Internet content to one or more limited-display devices.

37. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises removing at least one navigation link in the PC-formatted Internet content to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content.

38. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises grouping two or more navigation links together in the PC-formatted Internet content to form one navigation link in the limited-display-formatted Internet content.

39. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises condensing one or more navigation links in the PC-formatted Internet content to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content.

40. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises omitting a graphic in the PC-formatted Internet content to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content.

41. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises reducing a size of a graphic in the PC-formatted Internet content to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content.

42. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises:

preserving a c enter column of text in the PC-formatted Internet content; and

moving text on left and right sides of the center column in the PC-formatted

Internet content to a less prominent location to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content.

43. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises:

preserving a center column of text in the PC-formatted Internet content; and

distilling text on left and right sides of the center column of text in the PC-formatted Internet content to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content.

44. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises:

preserving a center column of text in the PC-formatted Internet content; and

removing text on left and right sides of the center column of text in the PC-formatted Internet content to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content.

45. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises removing a navigation link or graphic in the PC-formatted Internet content to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content.

46. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises:

determining relative sizes of items in the PC-formatted Internet content; and

removing one or more smaller items to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content.

47. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises removing a piece of text based on a font size of the piece of text to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content.

48. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises removing an item based on a date when the item was added in the PC-formatted Internet content to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content.

49. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises removing one or more items on left and right sides of a center item in the PC-formatted Internet content to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content.

50. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises removing one or more items below a first item in the PC-formatted Internet content to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content.

51. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises removing one or more items based on a color of the items in the PC-formatted Internet content to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content.

52. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises removing one or more items based on a brightness of the items in the PC-formatted Internet content to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content.

53. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises generating an abstract from a piece of text in the PC-formatted Internet content to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content, if the piece of text is longer than a predetermined threshold length.

54. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises generating an abstract from a piece of text in the PC-formatted Internet content to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content, wherein the abstract comprises a first three to five sentences of the piece of text.

55. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises generating an abstract from a piece of text in the PC-formatted Internet content to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content, wherein the abstract comprises a first three to five sentences of the piece of text and the last three to five sentences of the text.

56. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises generating an abstract from a piece of text in the PC-formatted Internet content to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content, wherein the abstract comprises a plurality of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs that appear more than a predetermined number.

57. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

grouping together omitted items in the PC-formatted Internet content that are not used to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content; and

providing a navigation link in the limited-display-formatted Internet content for the user to request the omitted items.

58. The method of claim 33, further comprising transforming items in the PC-formatted Internet content into non-English items to form the limited-display-formatted Internet content.

59. The method of claim 33, further comprising transforming items in the PC-formatted Internet content into audio samples to be output by the limited-display device.

60. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

recognizing the limited-display device Internet content; and

inserting advertisements related to the limited-display device Internet content on-the-fly to be sent to the limited-display device.

61. The method of claim 33, further comprising

comparing a software-parsed abstract of a piece of text with a human-written abstract of the piece of text;

and

adjusting a weight of certain words or phrases in a parsing software based on the comparison of the software-parsed abstract and the human-written abstract.

62. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises distilling a video piece.

63. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content comprises distilling an audio piece.

64. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content into limited-display-formatted Internet content in real time comprises distilling an email.

65. The method of claim 33, wherein transforming PC-formatted Internet content into limited-display-formatted Internet content in real time comprises distilling an attachment from an email.

66. The method of claim 33, wherein the limited-display device is a wireless device, further comprising displaying the limited-display-formatted Internet content on the limited-display, wireless device.

67. The method of claim 66, wherein the limited-display wireless device is a PalmPilot.

68. The method of claim 66, wherein the limited-display wireless device is a Research In Motion (RIM) device.