Method of operating a portable interactive graphics display tablet and communications systems

• US 6,052,120 A
• Filed: 10/01/1996
• Issued: 04/18/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Altera Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Diamond Multimedia Systems Incorporated (SONICblue Incorporated)
• Inventors: Nahi, Paul B., Wright, Daniel W.
• Primary Examiner(s): dela Torre, Crescelle N.
• Application Number:
  US08/722,753
• Time in Patent Office: 1,295 Days
• Field of Search: 345/326, 345/327, 345/329, 345/335, 345/339, 395/200.31, 395/200.33, 395/200.43, 395/200.47, 395/200.8, 709/201, 709/203, 709/213, 709/217, 709/250
• US Class Current: 715/700
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• 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

Abstract

A portable display tablet is operated in conjunction with a base computer system including a host processor for executing an application program with a predetermined operational function that generates predetermined graphics data and operates in response to predetermined input data. The computer system includes a wireless data transceiver coupled to the processor that is capable of communicating the predetermined graphics and input data between the computer and portable display tablet. The portable display tablet comprises a graphics display panel for displaying predetermined graphical data, a low power wireless data transceiver providing short range data communication of the predetermined graphics and input data between the base computer system and portable display tablet, and a controller embedded within the portable display tablet and coupled to the low power wireless data transceiver that executes a control program to process the predetermined graphics data to provide the predetermined graphical display data to the graphics display panel.

Claims

1. A method of operating a computer display to present an interactive graphical user interface to an application program executed by a host computer where said host computer is connected to said computer display over a wireless communications link, said method comprising the steps of:

a) receiving, via said wireless communications link, a predetermined encoded data object by said computer display from said host computer;

b) storing said predetermined encoded data object by said computer display in correspondence with predetermined identifier data;

c) receiving, via said wireless communications link and subsequent to receiving said predetermined encoded data object, a predetermined display command by said computer display from said host computer referencing said predetermined identifier, said predetermined display command being generated in connection with the concurrent execution of said application program by said host computer;

d) deriving a decoded instance of said predetermined encoded data object by said computer display in reference to said predetermined display command; and

e) processing said predetermined display command in connection with said decoded instance to present at least a portion of said interactive graphical user interface on said computer display.

2. The method of operating a computer display in accordance with claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

a) receiving, by said computer display separately from said host computer, predetermined input data in connection with said interactive graphical user interface;

b) transmitting, via said wireless communications link, said predetermined input data to said host computer; and

c) utilizing said predetermined input data in connection with the execution of said application program to provide for the transmission of said predetermined display command and said reference to said predetermined identifier to said computer display, via said wireless communications link.

3. A method of operating a computer display system in connection with a base computer system coupleable to a computer communications network, said method comprising the steps of:

a) identifying, by said base computer system, a graphical data object in a graphical display oriented communications data stream received from said computer communications network;

b) selectively forwarding, by said base computer system, said graphical data object to said computer display system with an identifier tag that is reproducible by said base computer system;

c) processing, by said base computer system, said graphical display oriented communications data stream, including said graphical data object, to provide a series of display commands autonomously generated by said base computer system, the processing of said graphical data object providing for the generation of a predetermined display command including said identifier tag;

d) forwarding, from said base computer system, said series of display commands to said computer display system; and

e) operating, by said computer display system, in accordance with said series of display commands as received from said base computer system to provide a representation of said graphical display oriented communications data, said step of operating including the selection and processing of said graphical data object in connection with said predetermined display command.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said step of forwarding includes the separate wireless transmission of said series of display commands and of said graphical data object and said identifier tag to said computer display system.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of storing said graphical data object with respect to said identifier tag by said computer display system subject to subsequent reference by said identifier tag.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said graphical display oriented communications data stream is received by said base computer system through a connection to an internet connected network, wherein said graphical data object is received in said graphical display oriented communications data stream as a compressively encoded graphical data object, and wherein said step of processing said graphical data object by said base computer system and said step of operating by said computer display system includes decompressing said compressively encoded graphical data object.

7. A method of operating a portable tablet display subsystem coupled to a host computer through a wireless communications link, said method comprising the steps of:

a) providing, from said host computer to said portable tablet display subsystem through said wireless communications link, a series of display commands and data objects that, in combination as rendered by said portable tablet display subsystem, describe a displayable image representing the user interface of an application program concurrently executed by said host computer, and wherein said series of display commands includes a first display command referencing a first data object transferred contemporaneously with said first display command from said host computer to said portable tablet display subsystem and a second display command referencing a second data object previously transferred independently of said second display command from said host computer to said portable tablet display subsystem;

b) processing, by said portable tablet display subsystem, said series of display commands as received from said host computer to provide said displayable image, including storing by said portable tablet display subsystem said second data object when transferred from said host computer to said Portable tablet display subsystem for use in connection with said second display command, whereby multiple instances of said second display command thereafter utilize a single transferred instance of said second data object; and

c) returning, from said portable tablet display subsystem, user input data to said application program being concurrently executed by said host computer.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said user input data is used by said host computer to select a subsequent series of display commands and data objects for rendering as a subsequent display image.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said host computer determines the instances of said data objects transferred to said portable tablet display subsystem that are to be stored by said portable tablet display subsystem for subsequent reference by any of said series of display commands.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said host computer provides said data objects to said portable tablet display subsystem in a compressed data graphics format and wherein said portable tablet display subsystem stores said data objects in said compressed data graphics format, said step of processing providing for the rendering of said data objects to a display image format upon reference by a corresponding display command.

11. A method of operating a portable display tablet to present an interactive user interface on a display screen graphically representing the execution of an application program concurrently executed by a host computer system, said method comprising the steps of:

a. executing said application program by said host computer to produce a corresponding stream of display commands and object data referenced by said display commands;

b. processing, by said host computer, said corresponding stream to tag predetermined instances of said object data with respective object identifiers and modifying subsequent instances of predetermined display commands and object data which include said predetermined instances of said object data to reference said respective object identifiers and omit said predetermined instances of said object data;

c. transmitting by said host computer to said portable display tablet said stream of display commands and object data concurrent with the execution of said application program, subject to said processing step; and

d. rendering by said portable display tablet said stream of display commands and object data to provide said interactive user interface on said display screen, including the dynamic storage of local instances, relative to said portable display tablet, of said predetermined instances of said object data and referencing said local instances in response to the subsequent occurrence of said respective object identifiers in connection with said predetermined display commands.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein said portable display tablet is coupled to said host computer by a wireless telecommunications link of restricted bandwidth and range and wherein said step of processing selectively provides for the compressed encoding of uncompressed instances of said object data and wherein said step of rendering provides for the storage of compressed instances of said object data.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein said step of rendering includes uncompressing compressed instances of said object data in rendering said stream of display commands.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein said respective object identifiers include storage addresses and wherein said processing step provides for the management of the assignment of said storage addresses and wherein said rendering step provides for the dynamic storage of said local instances of said object data respectively at said storage addresses.

15. A method of operating a portable graphics display to provide a user interface for an application program that is remotely executed by a host computer and that communicates with said portable graphics display through a bi-directional wireless telecommunications link, said method comprising the steps of:

a. receiving, through said bi-directional wireless telecommunications link, a stream of data including a dynamic representation of said user interface concurrent with the execution of said remotely executed application program, said dynamic representation being in the form of a corresponding sequence of graphics display commands including graphical display objects; and

b. processing said sequence of graphics display commands to render said user interface on a graphics display panel of said portable graphics display, wherein said step of processing includes the steps of;

i. detecting the occurrence of predetermined graphical display objects in said stream of data that include respective reference tag data;

ii. storing said predetermined graphical display objects in a data object store local to said portable graphics display; and

iii. accessing respective stored instances of said predetermined graphical display objects in response to the processing of predetermined graphics display commands that include a respective instance of said respective reference tag data;

whereby the re-transmissions of said predetermined graphical display objects over said bi-directional wireless telecommunications link is substantially relative to the number of said display commands that reference said predetermined graphical display objects.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising the steps of:

a. receiving local data input in relation to said user interface;

b. converting said local data input into a sequence of input data; and

c. transmitting said sequence of input data to said host computer over said bi-directional wireless telecommunications link.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein said graphics display commands correspond to the low level commands produced by a device driver of an operating system executed by said host computer in response to the execution of said application program.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the graphical object data storage space local to said portable graphics display is externally managed through the assignment of said respective reference tag data as a base address identifier in the storage of respective instances of said graphical display objects.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein said application program is a web browser and wherein said stream of data received by said portable graphics display includes compressed data objects substantially as received from an internet, predetermined compressed data objects being received by said portable graphics display as said predetermined graphical display objects.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein said step of accessing includes the steps of determining whether a respective stored instance of said predetermined graphical display objects is compressed and of decompressing compressed instances of said predetermined graphical display objects.