System and method of displaying content on small screen computing devices

• US 20060036955A1
• Filed: 08/12/2004
• Published: 02/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Xie, Xing, Baudisch, Patrick Markus, Wang, Chong
• Granted Patent: US 7,721,197 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/747
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• 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 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a system, method, and computer-readable medium for viewing Web pages on small form factor computing devices. More specifically, the present invention layers Web browsing in a system where a Web page is first displayed in an overview mode at a predetermined magnification. From a Web page displayed in overview mode, the user may issue adaptive viewing commands that cause relevant content to be displayed using additional screen space.

Claims

1. In a computing device that includes an operating system and a Web browser, a method of displaying content from a Web page, comprising:

(a) dividing the Web page into a set of cells; and

(b) in response to receiving a user-generated command to display a subset of cells;

(i) identifying cells from the Web page that will be displayed; and

(ii) displaying the subset of cells using additional screen space that was previously allotted to cells that will not be displayed.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising replacing cells that will not be displayed with placeholders.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising displaying cell summaries inside placeholders that replace cells that will not be displayed.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the cell summaries are generated by analyzing a cell and identifying content that is designed to be displayed in a prominent manner.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising displaying a cell that was previously represented with a placeholder in response to a second user-generated command.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing visual feedback that identifies the command that will be generated given the direction that a pointer is being moved.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the visual feedback is a rectangular selection rectangle outlined in a color indicative of the command that will be generated.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the user-generated commands accepted include:

(a) a collapse cell command that replaces selected cells with placeholders and displays nonselected cells using additional screen space that was previously allotted to selected cells;

(b) a collapse column command that replaces cells that occupy the same horizontal coordinates as a selected cell with placeholders and displays cells that do not occupy the same horizontal coordinates as a selected cell using screen space previously allotted to cells that will not be displayed;

(c) an expand cell command that replaces nonselected cells with placeholders and displays selected cells using additional screen space that was previously allotted to nonselected cells; and

(d) an expand cell and zoom command that replaces nonselected cells with placeholders and displays selected cells at a predetermined magnification.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying cells on the Web page that will be displayed in response to the user-generated command includes identifying the command issued and the cells selected.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein identifying the user-generated command includes determining the movement direction of the pointer when the command was issued.

8. The method of Claim-l, wherein dividing the Web page into a set of cells includes:

(a) creating a document object model tree representation of the Web page;

(b) determining the area occupied by each content block on the Web page;

(c) classifying content stored in nodes of the document object model tree into their associated content blocks; and

(d) inserting the content blocks into a multicelled table.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising merging adjacent cells in the multicelled table that are smaller than a predetermined threshold.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein creating a document object model tree representation of the Web page includes using a parser to extract content from a hypertext markup language document.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein determining the area occupied by each content block includes identifying visual separators on the Web page that divide content.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising, if one or more visual separators are identified as being the demarcation line between content blocks, selecting the visual separator that causes content blocks to be displayed in accordance with a predetermined shape.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the visual separators are implicit visual separators that may be identified by determining the location of blank space on the Web page.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the visual separators are explicit visual separators that may be identified from hypertext markup language tags embedded in the Web page.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein classifying content stored in the document object model tree into content blocks includes:

(a) traversing the document object model tree; and

(b) comparing the location of content stored in the nodes of the tree with the area occupied by each content block.

16. The method of claim 8, wherein inserting the content blocks into a multicelled table includes:

(a) generating a binary tree data structure with content blocks stored in the leaf nodes of the binary tree;

(b) determining if each content block is oriented horizontally or vertically;

(c) if a content block is oriented horizontally, creating a table with a left cell and a right cell; and

(d) conversely, if a content block is oriented vertically, creating a table with a top and bottom cell.

20. In a computing device that includes an operating system and a Web browser, a method of dividing the Web page into a set of cells, comprising:

(a) creating a document object model tree representation of the Web page;

(b) determining the area occupied by each content block on the Web page;

(c) classifying content stored in nodes of the document object model tree into their associated content blocks; and

(d) inserting the content blocks into a multicelled table.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising merging adjacent cells that are smaller than a predetermined threshold in the multicelled table.

22. The method of Claim.20, wherein creating a document object model tree representation of the Web page includes using a parser to extract content from a hypertext markup language document.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein determining the area occupied by each content block includes identifying visual separators on the Web page that divide content.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising if one or more visual separators are identified as being the demarcation line between content blocks, selecting the visual separator that causes content blocks to be displayed in accordance with a predetermined shape.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the visual separators are implicit visual separators that may be identified by determining the location of blank space on the Web page.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the visual separators are explicit visual separators that may be identified from hypertext markup language tags embedded in the Web page.

27. The method of claim 20, wherein classifying content stored in the document object model tree into content blocks includes:

(a) traversing the document object model tree; and

(b) comparing the location of content stored in the nodes of the tree with the area occupied by each content block.

28. The method of claim 20, wherein inserting the content blocks into a multicelled table includes:

(a) generating a binary tree data structure with content blocks stored in the leaf nodes of the binary tree;

(b) determining if each content block is oriented horizontally or vertically;

(c) if a content block is oriented horizontally, creating a table with a left cell and a right cell; and

(d) conversely, if a content block is oriented vertically, creating a table with a top and bottom cell.

29. A software system for displaying content from a Web page, comprising:

(a) an operating system operative to identify events and communicate event data to the graphical user interface;

(b) a Web browser capable of requesting Web pages from remote computers and displaying said Web pages to a user;

(c) a graphical user interface that receives event data from the operating system and identifies user-generated commands represented by the event data; and

(d) a content display module operative to display a subset of cells in response to a user-generated command using additional screen space that was previously allotted to cells that will not be displayed.

30. A software system according to claim 29, wherein the content display module identifies visual separators on the Web page that serve as the demarcation line between content blocks.

31. A software system according to claim 29, wherein the graphical user interface differentiates between commands based on the direction the pointer was moving at the time the pointer was activated.