Viewing tabular data on small handheld displays and mobile phones

• US 20050086259A1
• Filed: 10/16/2003
• Published: 04/21/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Eschbach, Reiner, Rainero, Emil V.
• Granted Patent: US 7,200,615 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/915 Image
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

What is disclosed is a method for presenting spreadsheets and other documents on client-side devices with limited resources and tiny display screen area. The present invention involves the user, on a client-side device, scrolling through a condensed image view of a document with the user'"'"'s viewpoint of the image repeatedly computed server-side. A split-bar is stitched into a composite view of the user'"'"'s current viewpoint. The user clicks a scroll-bar or scroll-points to indicate an intended change in direction of their current viewpoint. The client-side device provides the server with information as to where and how the next viewpoint is to be updated. Responsive to the received client information the server updates the viewpoint currently displayed with the transmission of images therefor and provides the same back to the client. In such a manner, the computing power and resources of the server are utilized for the image manipulation, cropping, etc. rather than that of the client'"'"'s handheld device.

Claims

1. A method for effectuating document viewing on a client-side device with limited resources, smaller display screen areas, and without a scrolling capability, comprising:

a) a server receiving user data communicated from the client-side device regarding a document viewed and a user'"'"'s current viewpoint thereof;

b) in response thereto, said server generating a left and right image of that portion of said document viewed;

c) the server generating a split-bar image to indicate a line of separation between said left and right image sides;

d) the server creating a composite image by stitching said right, left, and split-bar images together;

e) the server communicating said composite image to the user for display; and

f) responsive to user scrolling with the scroll bar, repeating (A-E) until done.

2. A method, as in claim 1, wherein said data communicated by the client-side device to said server additionally comprises information about the client-side device and the capabilities thereof.

3. A method, as in claim 1, said client-side device additionally communicating to said server data as to where and how the image is to be next rendered.

4. A method, as in claim 1, wherein a WEB browser interface is utilized to display said image on said client-side device.

5. A method, as in claim 1, said server further providing on said image additional images.

6. A method, as in claim 1, said server embedding information in said image prior to transmitting the image to said client-side device.

7. A method, as in claim 1, the server responding to a mouse-over event occurring on said client-side device.

8. A method, as in claim 1, wherein said image includes a scrolling capability therewith.

9. A method, as in claim 1, said server, responsive to user data regarding one pane of said split image, updating only that portion of the image.

10. A method, as in claim 9, said server communicating to said client only a portion of said composite image for display.

11. A method, as in claim 10, said server only communicating pixels of said update portion of said image to said client for display.