System and method for creating and navigating a linear hypermedia resource program

• US 20050102378A1
• Filed: 07/01/2004
• Published: 05/12/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hypermedia Navigation LLC (IPValuation Partners, LLC)
• Original Assignee: SBC Properties, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bossemeyer, Robert Wesley Jr., Stuckman, Bruce Edward, Sullivan, Barry James, Heinmiller, Wayne Robert, Light, Jordan Howard, Morse, James Richard, Genin, Kent E., Omanson, Richard
• Granted Patent: US 7,216,155 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/60 of audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/20 Education
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1432 Metric aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1485 Tariff-related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26258 for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02

Abstract

A method and system for creating and navigating linear hypermedia resource programs are disclosed. The system includes a distributed hypermedia resource network having a plurality of hypermedia resources residing on one or more remote information nodes. A common remote information node is in communication with a subscriber station and the remote information nodes in the distributed network. The common remote information node contains at least one linear hypermedia resource program consisting of pre-selected media elements from one or more hypermedia resources linked with exclusive linear links, each media element in the linear program having only one forward link to the next media element. The method includes the steps of downloading and displaying a media element in the linear program and responding to user commands to download and display the next media element in the linear program.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for navigating a linear Web tour on the World-Wide Web, the linear Web tour including a plurality of websites at respective remote information nodes, the plurality of websites associated by a series of exclusive forward links, each website having a plurality of individual media elements, including a base media element, the computer executable instructions comprising instructions for:

downloading and displaying a first base media element of a first website of the linear Web tour on a display device at a user location;

responding to commands of a user to download and display selected individual media elements of the first website of the linear Web tour on the display device, the first website having an exclusive forward link to a second website of the linear Web tour;

displaying a forward link button on the display device;

receiving a first signal in response to an action of the user indicating an activation of the forward link button;

downloading and displaying a second base media element of the second website on the display device; and

responding to commands of a user to download and display selected individual media elements of the second website of the linear Web program on the display device at the user location, the second website having an exclusive forward link to a third website of the linear Web tour.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the instructions for responding to commands of a user to download and display selected individual media elements of the first website comprise instructions for displaying the selected individual media elements of the first website in a framed window.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 3 wherein the instructions for displaying the forward link button comprise instructions for displaying the forward link button outside of the framed window.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 4 further comprising instructions for:

displaying to the user a plurality of indicators, each indicator representative of a respective website of a selected portion of the linear Web tour.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 5 wherein the instructions for displaying to the user the plurality of indicators comprise instructions for displaying text indicative of the respective website.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 5 further comprising instructions for:

receiving a second signal in response to an action of the user indicating selection of a selected website of the selected portion of the Web tour;

downloading and displaying a base media element for the selected website on the display device; and

responding to commands of a user to download and display selected individual media elements of the selected website of the linear Web tour on the display device at the user location.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 7 wherein the instructions for receiving the second signal comprise instructions for recognizing an action of the user to select an indicator corresponding to the selected website.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the second website comprises a home page and wherein the instructions for responding to commands of a user to download and display selected individual media elements of the second website includes instructions for displaying the home page of the second website.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the instructions for responding to commands of a user to download and display selected individual media elements of the first website comprise instructions for downloading selected individual media elements stored at a remote information node.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10 wherein the instructions for responding to commands of a user to download and display selected individual media elements of the second website comprise instructions for downloading the selected individual media elements of the second website from a second remote information node.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 1 further comprising instructions for:

displaying a back link button on the display device; and

receiving a first signal in response to an action of the user indicating an activation of the back link button.

2. (canceled)

13. (canceled)

14. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for creating a linear Web tour comprising a linear linked-sequence of program elements on the World-Wide Web, the World-Wide Web including a plurality of websites at respective remote information nodes, each website having a plurality of individual media elements, the computer executable instructions comprising instructions for:

selecting a first base media element corresponding to a first Web page;

selecting a second base media element corresponding to a second Web page; and

incorporating the first base media element and the second base media element as program elements in the linear linked-sequence of program elements.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 14 further comprising instructions for:

editing a location of program elements of the linear linked-sequence of program elements.

15-16. -16. (canceled)

18. (canceled)

19. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for navigating a linear Web tour comprising information obtained on the World-Wide Web, the linear Web tour including a plurality of Web pages from websites at respective remote information nodes, the plurality of Web pages cached at a common remote information node and websites associated by a series of exclusive forward links, each website having a plurality of individual media elements, including a base media element, the computer executable instructions comprising instructions for:

downloading from the common remote information node to a user location a first of the plurality of Web pages cached at the common remote information node, the first Web page associated with a base media element of a first website of the linear Web tour;

displaying the first Web page on a display device at the user location;

responding to commands of a user to download and display selected individual media elements of the first website of the linear Web tour on the display device, the first Web page having an exclusive forward link to a second of the plurality of Web pages of the linear Web tour cached at the common remote information node;

displaying a forward link button on the display device;

receiving a first signal in response to an action of the user indicating an activation of the forward link button; and

in response to a user activation of the forward link button, downloading from the common remote information node to the user location and displaying a second Web page of the linear Web tour, the second Web page associated with a second website of the linear Web tour, wherein the forward link button activates the exclusive forward link regardless of which individual media element is currently displayed at the user location.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19 wherein the instructions for responding to commands of a user to download and display selected individual media elements of the first website comprises instructions for displaying the selected individual media elements of the first website in a framed window.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 19 wherein the instructions for displaying the forward link button comprises instructions for displaying the forward link button outside of the framed window.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 19 further comprising instructions for displaying to the user a plurality of indicators, each indicator representative of a respective website of a selected portion of the linear Web tour.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 21 further comprising instructions for displaying media elements in a first region of the display device and for displaying the forward link button in a second region of the display device, wherein displaying the forward link button comprises persistently displaying the forward link button on the display device in the second region.