Web browser for use with a television display for preventing screen burn

• US 20060055780A1
• Filed: 04/17/2003
• Published: 03/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InterDigital Madison Patent Holdings (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Mears, Mark Gilmore, Dinwiddie, Aaron Hal, Forler, Joseph Wayne, Lefevre, Chad Andrew, Zemer, Richard Allen
• Granted Patent: US 7,492,355 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9562 Bookmark management
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/043 Preventing or counteracting the effects of ageing
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/046 Dealing with screen burn-in prevention or compensation of the effects thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/022 in absence of operation, e.g. no data being entered during a predetermined time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 3/20 Prevention of damage to cathode-ray tubes in the event of failure of scanning

Abstract

Screen burn on televisions having Internet browser capability is avoided by removing the conventional static icons such as toolbars and buttons from the default browser and replacing their functions with keyboard keys. The invention is especially useful in projection televisions and with keyboards which have keys assigned to browser functions. Favorite URLs can be mapped to a favorite key by holding down the favorite key while a favorite web page is displayed.

Claims

1. A web browser for preventing screen burn, comprising:

a display interface module for displaying a web page;

a keyboard interface module for receiving key press signals from a keyboard; and

a pointer interface for receiving pointer signals from a pointing device,

wherein

when the web browser is invoked, no static icons are displayed.

2. The web browser of claim 1 wherein the static icons provide interfaces for the following functions:

favorites, home, back, forward, stop, refresh, close browser, search, address bar, and text size.

3. The web browser of claim 2 wherein each of the functions is mapped to a corresponding key in the keyboard.

4. The web browser of claim 2 wherein each of the functions is listed in a pop-up menu when a button on the pointing device is pressed.

5. A television apparatus having the web browser of claim 1, the television apparatus comprising a display, means for receiving television signals, means for accessing the Internet, the keyboard, and means to invoke the browser on the display.

6. The television apparatus of claim 5 having projection means wherein either television video or the browser is displayed on a projection screen.

7. The television apparatus of claim 5 further including means to close the browser and display television after a predetermined idle timeout interval.

8. The television apparatus of claim 5 wherein the means for accessing the Internet comprises a cable connection, DSL connection, or modem.

9. The television apparatus of claim 5 further comprising means to map browser functions to keyboard keys.

10. The television apparatus of claim 9 wherein the keyboard keys to browser function mapping comprises mapping one or more of:

favorites to favorite keys, back function to a back key, forward function to a forward key, open function to an open key, close browser function to a clear key, close window function to a close window key, search function to a search key, previous window to a previous window key, next window to a next window key, display address bar function to an address key, find text to a find text key, text size increase to a text size increase key, up function to an up key, down to a down key, right to a right key, left to a left key.

11. The television apparatus of claim 5 having means to map favorite web pages to favorite keys upon pressing a favorite key on the keyboard wherein after the mapping of the favorite web page to the favorite key, upon subsequent pressing of the mapped favorite key, the mapped favorite web page is opened.

12. The television apparatus of claim 5 further including the pointing device.

13. A method of avoiding screen burn on a display screen of a television apparatus which includes a browser function comprising displaying a browser having no static icons on the display screen and assigning mapping browser functions to the special function keys on the keyboard.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the television apparatus is a projection television.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the browser functions mapped to special function keys comprise one or more of:

favorites to favorite keys, back function to a back key, forward function to a forward key, open function to an open key, close browser function to a clear key, close window function to a close window key, search function to a search key, previous window to a previous window key, next window to a next window key, display address bar function to an address key, find text to a find text key, text size increase to a text size increase key, up function to an up key, down to a down key, right to a right key, left to a left key.

16. The method of claim 13 further including bookmarking a favorite web page upon receiving a favorite key press signal, while the web page is being displayed, from the keyboard for a time, which exceeds a predetermined time threshold.

17. The method of claim 16 comprising providing a plurality of programmable favorite keys on the keyboard and assigning a plurality of favorites to each favorite key which are selectable with combinations of the favorite key with shift, control, function, and/or alt keys.

18. The method of claim 13 further comprising automatically closing the browser and invoking television display upon elapse of a predetermined idle timeout interval.

19. The method of claim 13 wherein the browser is displayed as a graphical user interface on the display screen.