Resizing internet document for display on television screen

• US 20050149878A1
• Filed: 02/07/2005
• Published: 07/07/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/1996
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rovi Technologies Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: WebTV Networks Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Goldman, Phillip Y., Anderson, David R., White, Christopher M., Ohlfs, Keith R., Leak, Bruce A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,350,155 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/784
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0236 using selection techniques to select from displayed items
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04812 Interaction techniques based on cursor appearance or behaviour, e.g. being affected by the presence of displayed objects
• 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 3/04892 Arrangements for controlling cursor position based on codes indicative of cursor displacements from one discrete location to another, e.g. using cursor control keys associated to different directions or using the tab key arrangements for controlling cursor position based on coordinate signals G06F3/038
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04897 Special input arrangements or commands for improving display capability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/027 Arrangements and methods specific for the display of internet documents
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 9/0235 specially adapted for remote control, e.g. of audio or video apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/22 Automatic class or number identification arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/46 Embedding additional information in the video signal during the compression process H04N19/517, H04N19/68, H04N19/70 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2383 Channel coding or modulation of digital bit-stream, e.g. QPSK modulation arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received by adapting the channel coding H04L1/0009; analogue front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42212 Specific keyboard arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 : involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4314 : for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 : for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 : Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4355 : involving reformatting operations of additional data, e.g. HTML pages on a television screen optimising the visualization of content for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/9577; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/066; media handling at the source in data packet switching networks H04L65/764
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4356 : by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. to reformat additional data on a handheld device, attached to the STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4382 : Demodulation or channel decoding, e.g. QPSK demodulation analog front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4396 : by muting the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44012 : involving rendering scenes according to scene graphs, e.g. MPEG-4 scene graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440263 : by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for displaying on a connected PDA
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 : Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4516 : involving client characteristics, e.g. Set-Top-Box type, software version or amount of memory available
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/454 : Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 : Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 : End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 : Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4852 : for modifying audio parameters, e.g. switching between mono and stereo
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4858 : for modifying screen layout parameters, e.g. fonts, size of the windows
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8113 : comprising music, e.g. song in MP3 format
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8166 : involving executable data, e.g. software arrangements for executing specific programs G06F9/44; broadcasting computer programmes in broadcast systems H04H20/91; involving the movement of software or configuration parameters H04L67/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 : using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/445 : for displaying additional information H04N5/50 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/45 : Picture in picture , e.g. displaying simultaneously another television channel in a region of the screen
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/602 : for digital sound signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 : Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q

Abstract

Methods and systems for scaling down a Web page image enables the image to be displayed on a standard television without horizontal scrolling of the image. A Web page image that initially has a horizontal dimension larger than the horizontal dimension of a television display is received from a web server and subsequently scaled down by a scaling factor that is based only upon the amount of scaling that is necessary to fit the image within the horizontal dimension of the television display. This scaling factor is used to scale the image horizontally and vertically, thus preserving the aspect ratio of the image. When a hyperlink from the scaled down Web page image is selected, coordinates to the hyperlink are scaled up based on the same scaling factor so that they will correspond with the server-side image map of the Web page image.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for implementing a method in a web-accessing client system in communication with at least one server system, the client system being coupled to a television display device, wherein the method is for providing a user interface for enabling a user to access the at least one server system, the method comprising:

receiving a Web page image from the at least one server system, wherein the Web page image has a horizontal dimension that is larger than the horizontal dimension of the television display device;

scaling down the Web page image horizontally and vertically according to a scaling factor, that is defined by only the amount of scaling necessary to fit the Web page within the horizontal dimension of the television display device;

displaying the scaled Web page image on the television display device within the display environment, such that the entire horizontal dimension of the Web page image is visible within the horizontal dimension of the standard television display device without horizontal scrolling.

2. A computer program product as defined in claim 1, wherein the Web page image comprises a hypertext icon having an address, and wherein the act of scaling the Web page image produces a scaled hypertext icon, the method further comprising the acts of:

receiving a user input specifying scaled icon coordinates that correspond to the scaled hypertext icon;

up scaling the scaled icon coordinates to produce icon coordinates, wherein up scaling the scaled icon coordinates is based on dividing the scaled icon coordinates by the scaling factor; and

transmitting the icon coordinates to one of the plurality of server systems to access information corresponding to the address of the hypertext icon.

3. A computer program product as defined in claim 1, wherein the scaling factor comprises the exact amount of scaling that is necessary to fit the Web page image within the horizontal dimension of the television display device.

4. A computer program product as defined in claim 1, wherein the method further comprises receiving a user input that is entered by a user from a remote control device for causing the image to be scrolled vertically on the display device.

5. A computer program product as defined in claim 1, wherein the television display device complies with Phase Alternating Line standards.

6. A computer program product as defined in claim 1, wherein the television display device complies with National Television Standards Committee standards

7. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for implementing a method in a web-accessing client-server system that includes a client in communication with at least one server through a proxying server, the client using a standard television display device to display an image to a user, the standard television display device having a plurality of borders, wherein the method is for scaling an image that initially has a horizontal dimension larger than the horizontal dimension of the standard television display device such that the entire horizontal dimension of the scaled image is visible on the standard television display device without horizontal scrolling, the method comprising:

at the proxying server, scaling the image horizontally and vertically according to a format of the standard television display device, such that the entire horizontal dimension of the image will be visible within the borders of the standard television display device when the scaled image is displayed on the display device;

at the proxying server, scaling the coordinates of the image such that the image will be properly positioned on the standard television display device when the scaled image is displayed on the standard television display device; and

transmitting the scaled image from the proxying server to the client such that the entire horizontal image can be displayed on the standard television display device without requiring horizontal scrolling.

8. A computer program product according to claim 7, wherein the display device comprises a television.

9. A computer program product according to claim 7, wherein the display device is an RGB (red-green-blue) monitor.

10. A computer program product according to claim 7, wherein the display device is a window on an RGB (red-green-blue) monitor.

11. A computer program product according to claim 7, wherein the scaled image further comprises a scaled selection icon corresponding to a hypertext object having an address, the method further comprising:

receiving a user input specifying scaled coordinates within the scaled selection icon;

reversing, at the proxying server, the scaling performed on the scaled coordinates to produce icon coordinates; and

transmitting the icon coordinates to one of the at least one server to access information located at the address.

12. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for implementing a method of providing a user interface for accessing a server system in a web-accessing client system that is in communication with a plurality of server systems through a proxying server, the client system being coupled to a standard television display device, the method comprising:

causing a display environment to be displayed on the standard television display device such that images displayed on the standard television display device can be scrolled only vertically;

receiving an image from one of the server systems through the proxying server, the image having a horizontal dimension, wherein the image has been scaled horizontally and vertically at the proxying server according to a format of the standard television display device; and

displaying the image in the display environment on the standard television display device, such that the entire scaled horizontal dimension of the image fits within the display environment without horizontal scrolling.

13. A computer program product according to claim 12, wherein the display device is a television.

14. A computer program product according to claim 12, wherein the display device is an RGB (red-green-blue) monitor.

15. A computer program product according to claim 12, wherein the display device is a window displayed on an RGB (red-green-blue) monitor.

16. A computer program product according to claim 12, wherein the image is a hypertext image having an address, the method further comprising:

receiving a user input specifying coordinates within the scaled image;

scaling the coordinates based on the step of scaling the image, to generate scaled coordinates; and

transmitting the scaled coordinates to one of the server systems to access information corresponding to the address.

17. A computer program product according to claim 12, wherein the method further comprises receiving a user input entered by a user from a remote control device for causing the image to be scrolled vertically on the display device.

18. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for implementing a method in a proxying server that is included in a web-accessing system that also includes a client and at least one server, wherein the client can communicate with the at least one server via the proxying server, wherein the method is for scaling an image that initially has a horizontal dimension larger than the horizontal dimension of the standard television display device such that the entire horizontal dimension of the scaled image is visible on the standard television display device without horizontal scrolling, the method comprising:

at the proxying server, selecting a scaling factor based on the horizontal dimension of the image and the horizontal dimension of the standard television display device;

at the proxying server, horizontally and vertically scaling the image by the factor such that the entire horizontal dimension of the image will be visible on the standard television display device without horizontal scrolling when the image is displayed on the standard television display device;

scaling, at the proxying server, icon coordinates of a selection icon contained in the image by the factor such that the icon coordinates are accurate within the scaled image; and

transmitting the scaled image, including the scaled icon coordinates, to the client.

19. A computer program product as defined in claim 18, wherein the display device is a television.

20. A computer program product as defined in claim 18, wherein the display device is an RGB (red-green-blue) monitor.

21. A computer program product as defined in claim 18, wherein the selection icon corresponds to a hypertext having an address.

22. A computer program product as defined in claim 21, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a user input specifying scaled coordinates within the scaled image;

reversing the step of scaling the scaled coordinates such that the icon coordinates are produced; and

transmitting the icon coordinates to the server to access information located at the address.