Wireless communication device with markup language based man-machine interface

• US 20020078143A1
• Filed: 07/16/2001
• Published: 06/20/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Access Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Access Company Limited
• Inventors: De Boor, Adam, Eggers, Michael D.
• Granted Patent: US 6,470,381 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9562 Bookmark management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2748 by matching character strings
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72445 for supporting Internet browser applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72469 for operating the device by selecting functions from two or more displayed items, e.g. menus or icons
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/56 including a user help function
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access

Abstract

A wireless communications device with a markup language based man-machine interface provides a user interface for telecommunications functionality, including dialing telephone numbers, answering telephone calls, creating messages, sending messages, receiving messages, establishing configuration settings defined in markup language such as HTML, and accessed through a browser program executed by the wireless communication device. This feature enables direct access to Internet and World Wide Web content, such as Web pages, to be directly integrated with telecommunication functions of the device, and allows Web content to be seamlessly integrated with other data types, since all data presented to the user via the user interface is presented via markup language-based pages. The browser processes an extended form of HTML that provides new tags and attributes that enhance the navigational, logical, and display capabilities of conventional HTML, and particularly adapt HTML to be displayed and used on wireless communication devices with small screen displays.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of operating a wireless communications device having a plurality of keys, comprising:

receiving a first markup language page containing a tag, the tag defining a new association between one of the keys and an action;

receiving a user selection of the key; and

effecting, with the wireless communication device, the action associated with the user selected key.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the action is a URL having a data component, further comprising:

responsive to the data component of the URL specifying a second page to be fetched, fetching the second page, and displaying the second page.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the action is a URL having a data component, further comprising:

responsive to the data component of the URL specifying a telephony command of the wireless communication device, executing the telephony command.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the tag specifies a URL, and further comprising:

responsive to user input selection of the key, fetching content associated with the URL and displaying the content.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the tag specifies a label associated with the specified key, and further comprising:

responsive to decoding the page, displaying the label.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving the first markup language page additionally comprises:

decoding the first markup language page including the tag specifying the key and the action; and

storing the association between the key and the action.

7. A browser program product for controlling the operation of a wireless communication device by execution of the browser by a processor of the wireless communication device, the wireless communication device having a plurality of keys, the browser executing the operations of:

receiving a first markup language page containing a tag, the tag defining a new association between one of the keys and an action;

receiving a user selection of the key; and

effecting, with the wireless communication device, the action associated with the user selected key.

8. The browser program product of claim 7, wherein the step of receiving the first markup language page additionally comprises:

decoding the first markup language page including the tag specifying the key and the action; and

storing the association between the key and the action.

9. The browser of claim 7, wherein the tag specifies a URL, and responsive user input selection of the key, the browser fetches content associated with the URL and displays the content.

10. The browser of claim 7, wherein the tag specifies a label associated with the specified key, and the browser responsive to decoding the page, displays the label.

11. The browser of claim 7, wherein the action is a URL having a data component, further comprising:

responsive to the data component of the URL specifying a second page to be fetched, fetching the second page, and displaying the second page.

12. The browser product of claim 7, wherein the action is a URL having a data component, further comprising:

responsive to the data component of the URL specifying a telephony command of the wireless communication device, executing the telephony command.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 15, further comprising storing a reference to the created embedded object.

17. The computer implemented of claim 16, wherein invoking the embedded object further comprises locating the stored reference to the created embedded object.

13. A method of configuring a wireless communication device having a screen display and a plurality of user selectable keys, the method comprising:

receiving a data file including content and markup language tags defining an arrangement of the content on the screen display, a portion of the content associated with a URL;

responsive to at least one of the markup language tags, displaying the portion of the content associated with the URL on the screen display in a visually distinguished manner;

responsive to at least one of the markup language tags, assigning the URL associated with the visually distinguished content to one of the user selectable keys;

receiving a user selection of the assigned user selectable key; and

accessing a data file or function associated with the URL assigned to the user selected key.

14. A computer implemented method of processing a page of data encoded in a markup language, the page including a reference to an embedded object, the method comprising:

receiving a user selection of a displayed user interface element in the page, the element associated with a command encoded within the page; and

invoking the embedded object, and providing the command to the embedded object for processing, the embedded object processing the command using an internally defined function.

15. A computer implemented method of processing a page of data encoded in a markup language, the page including a specification for an embedded object, the method comprising:

creating the specified embedded object;

receiving a user selection of a displayed user interface element in the page, the element associated with a command encoded within the page; and

invoking the embedded object, and providing the command to the embedded object for processing, the embedded object processing the command using an internally defined function.

18. A computer implemented method of automatically displaying help data to a user, comprising:

displaying a window having a title in a title bar area;

incrementing a counter of an amount of time elapsed since a last user input; and

responsive to the counter equaling or exceeding a threshold amount of time, replacing the title with help data in the title bar area.