Scalable Display of Internet Content on Mobile Devices

• US 20090119580A1
• Filed: 12/01/2008
• Published: 05/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SoftView LLC
• Original Assignee: Gary B. Rohrabaugh
• Inventors: Rohrabaugh, Gary B., Sherman, Scott A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,145,995 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/249
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1048 Scalability
• 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 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• 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 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0407 Resolution change, inclusive of the use of different resolutions for different screen areas
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0492 Change of orientation of the displayed image, e.g. upside-down, mirrored
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/24 Generation of individual character patterns
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 : specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 : Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561

Abstract

Mobile devices enabled to support resolution-independent scalable display of Internet (Web) content to allow Web pages to be scaled (zoomed) and panned for better viewing on smaller screen sizes. The mobile devices employ software-based processing of original Web content, including HTML-based content, XML, cascade style sheets, etc. to enable Web page content to be rapidly rendered, zoomed, and panned. Moreover, the rendered displays provide substantially the same or identical layout as the original Web page, enabling users to easily navigate to selected content and features on literally Billions of Web pages. User input schemes include tap-based context zooming that enables users to selectively zoom in on objects including columns, images, and paragraphs by simply tapping on them. Display lists may also be employed to provide further enhancements in rendering speed. Additionally, hardware-based programmed logic may be employed to facilitate various operations.

Claims

1. A mobile device, comprising:

a processor,

a wireless communications interface, to facilitate wireless communication with a network that supports access to the Internet;

a display; and

non-volatile memory, operatively coupled to the processor, in which software comprising a browser is stored, the browser comprising a plurality of instructions that when executed by the processor enable the device to perform operations including,

rendering a browser interface on the display via which a user is enabled to request access to a Web page including at least one image, at least one column, and at least one paragraph and having a width and height;

retrieving the Web page via the wireless communications interface;

rendering the Web page on the display such that at least one of the width and height of the Web page is fully displayed; and

enabling the user to,

zoom and pan a view of the Web page in response to corresponding user inputs made via the display;

zoom in on an image of the Web page by tapping on the image via the display;

zoom in on a column of the Web page by tapping on the column via the display;

zoom in on a paragraph of the Web page by tapping on the paragraph via the display; and

zoom out to a previous view of the Web page.

2. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the Web page comprises HTML-based Web page content defining an original page layout, functionality, and design of the Web page content, and wherein the browser renders the Web page such that the original page layout, functionality, and design of the Web page are preserved at a plurality of zoom levels and panned views.

3. The mobile device of claim 2, wherein the user is enabled to browse, zoom, and pan billions of Web pages in a manner that preserves the original layout, functionality, and design of the HTML-based Web page content of each Web page.

4. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the display of the Web page is re-rendered in real-time to effect zooming operations.

5. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the display is re-rendered such that zooming in on an image results in the image being rendered to fit across the display.

6. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the display is re-rendered such that zooming in on a column results in the column being rendered to fit across the display.

7. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the display is re-rendered such that zooming in on a paragraph results in text content of the paragraph being rendered to fit across the display.

8. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the device comprises a mobile phone.

9. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the device comprises a hand-held device.

10. A handheld wireless device, comprising:

processing means;

wireless communications means to facilitate communication with a network via which Web content may be accessed;

a display;

memory; and

storage means in which a plurality of instructions are stored that when executed by the processor means enable the mobile device to perform operations including,

rendering a browser interface on the display via which a user is enabled to request access to a Web page, the Web page including associated HTML-based Web content having an original format defining an original page layout, functionality, and design of content on the Web page;

retrieving, via the wireless communication means, HTML-based Web content associated with the Web page;

parsing HTML-based code corresponding to the retrieved HTML-based Web content to determine the original page layout of display content within the Web page, wherein the original page layout defines a layout location and boundary information for each of a plurality of objects, including text objects, graphic layout objects, and image objects included in the Web page;

rendering the Web page on the display such that a full width of the Web page is rendered on the display; and

re-rendering the Web page in response to associated user inputs to enable the user to zoom in and out a display of selected objects via use of boundary information corresponding to those objects.

11. The handheld wireless device of claim 10, wherein execution of the instructions performs further operations comprising:

generating a bounding box for each object, the bounding box representing a portion of a rendered display page occupied by the object'"'"'s associated group of content and comprising boundary information for the object; and

mapping the bounding boxes to a virtual display in memory.

12. The handheld wireless device of claim 11, wherein execution of the instructions performs further operations comprising:

determining a first scale factor and offset in response to one or more corresponding user inputs defining a user-selectable zoom level and pan corresponding to a rendered display of the Web page desired by a user;

determining a virtual display bounding box for the virtual display associated with the first scale factor and offset;

identifying object bounding boxes having at least a portion falling within the virtual display bounding box; and

,

for each of such object bounding boxes,

retrieving content associated with that object bounding box;

scaling the content associated with that object bounding box to produce scaled content; and

rendering the portion of scaled content within the virtual display bounding box to render the content on the display.

13. The handheld wireless device of claim 12, wherein the Web content includes text content, and wherein execution of the instructions performs further operations comprising scaling a scalable font to render the text content at different scale factors.

14. The handheld wireless device of claim 10, wherein execution of the instructions performs further operations comprising:

enabling a user to zoom in on an image by tapping on the image via the display, wherein in response thereto the image is rendered to fit across the display.

15. The handheld wireless device of claim 10, wherein execution of the instructions performs further operations comprising:

enabling a user to zoom in on a column by tapping on content within the column via the display, wherein in response thereto the column content is rendered to fit across the display.

16. The handheld wireless device of claim 10, wherein execution of the instructions performs further operations comprising:

enabling a user to zoom in on a paragraph by tapping on the paragraph via the display, wherein in response thereto content corresponding to the paragraph is rendered to fit across the display.

17. A machine-readable medium having a plurality of instructions tangibly stored thereon comprising a browser, which when executed enable a wireless device having a wireless communications interface to perform operations comprising:

rendering a browser interface on the display via which a user is enabled to request access to a Web page including at least one image and at least one column, and having a width and height;

retrieving the Web page via the wireless communications interface;

rendering the Web page on the display such that at least one of the width and height of the Web page is fully displayed; and

enabling the user to,

zoom and pan a view of the Web page in response to corresponding user inputs made via the display;

zoom in on an image of the Web page by tapping on the image via the display;

zoom in on a column of the Web page by tapping on the column via the display;

zoom out to a previous view of the Web page,

wherein the Web page comprises HTML-based Web page content defining an original page layout, functionality, and design of the Web page content, and wherein the browser renders the Web page such that the original page layout, functionality, and design of the Web page are preserved at a plurality of zoom levels.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the user is enabled to browse, zoom, and pan billions of Web pages in a manner that preserves the original layout, functionality, and design of the HTML-based Web page content of each Web page.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the at least one of the width and height of the web page is automatically rendered to fit across the width of the display in conjunction with retrieving the web page.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the at least one of the width and height of the web page is rendered to fit across the width of the display in response to a corresponding user input.