Method for reducing delivery latency of an image or other secondary information associated with a file

• US 6,073,168 A
• Filed: 01/20/1997
• Issued: 06/06/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Rovi Technologies Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: WebTV Networks Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Mighdoll, Lee S., Goldman, Phillip Y., Perlman, Stephen G., Leak, Bruce A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Matar, Ahmad F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Barot, Bharat
• Application Number:
  US08/785,855
• Time in Patent Office: 1,233 Days
• Field of Search: 395/200.3, 395/200.31, 395/200.32, 395/200.33, 395/200.35, 395/200.47, 395/200.48, 395/200.49, 395/200.56-200.59, 395/200 T, 711/133-140, 709/200-203, 709/206-213, 709/217-219, 709/227-229, 709/246, 707/1, 707/4, 707/10, 707/100-104, 707/513, 707/526-528
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• 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: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/40 using video transcoding, i.e. partial or full decoding of a coded input stream followed by re-encoding of the decoded output stream
• 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 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2356 by altering the spatial resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25808 Management of client data terminal profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/303
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25875 involving end-user authentication restricting access to computer systems by authenticating users using a predetermined code G06F21/33; arrangements for secret or secure communication including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• 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 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• 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 21/478 : Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 : Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4786 : e-mailing message switching systems, e.g. electronic mail systems H04L51/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• 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 5/602 : for digital sound signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/088 : the inserted signal being digital
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 : Privileged access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 : Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A method of providing a document to a client coupled to a server is provided. The server provides a number of Internet services to the client, including functioning as a caching proxy on behalf of the client for purposes of accessing the World Wide Web. The proxying server includes a persistent document database, which stores various attributes of all documents previously retrieved in response to a request from a client. When a Web document is retrieved from a remote server in response to a request from the client, the database is consulted and the stored information relating to the requested document is used by the server in transcoding the document. The document is transcoded for various purposes, including to circumvent bugs or quirks found in the document, to size the document for display on a television set, to improve transmission efficiency of the document, and to reduce latency. The transcoder makes use of the document database to perform these functions. The document database is also used for prefetching previously requested documents and images and for reducing latency when downloading images to the client.

Claims

1. A method for reducing delivery latency in a computer network when downloading electronic documents to a client system from a proxy server, the computer network including (i) a plurality of remote servers for accessing a plurality of network sites containing various types of content that can be viewed and downloaded, the network sites including electronic documents that contain both images and text for downloading, (ii) at least one proxy server for caching content from frequently accessed sites of one or more of the remote servers, and (iii) a plurality of client systems to which one or more such electronic documents are to be downloaded for display, wherein the method comprises the steps of:

storing at the proxy server a document database for electronic documents previously requested by client systems, said database including information about the requested documents to facilitate transcoding and downloading of a document when requested by a client system, said information including information as to whether a document includes an image in addition to text, and if so, an indication as to the physical size of the image;

receiving at the proxy server a request from a client system for a document;

determining at the proxy server whether the requested document is referenced in said document database, and if not adding to the document database the information for that document after the document has been retrieved from a remote server; and

if the requested document is referenced in said document database, initially downloading to the client system the requested document by leaving a blank area in the downloaded document that corresponds to the image so that the text of the requested document can be viewed at the client system while the image is retrieved from a remote server and then subsequently downloaded to the client system.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the electronic document comprises a hypertext document.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the hypertext document corresponds to a World Wide Web page.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the text and the image are stored separately in said proxy server.

5. A computer readable medium for use in a computer network that includes (i) a plurality of remote servers for accessing a plurality of network sites containing various types of content that can be viewed and downloaded including electronic documents that contain both images and text for downloading, (ii) at least one proxy server for caching content from frequently accessed sites of one or more of the remote servers, and (iii) a plurality of client systems to which one or more such electronic documents are to be downloaded for display, wherein the computer readable medium carries computer executable instructions for implementing in said computer network a method for reducing delivery latency when downloading such electronic documents to a client system from said proxy server, wherein the computer readable medium carries the following:

computer executable instructions for performing a step for storing at the proxy server a document database for electronic documents previously requested by client systems, said database including information about the requested documents to facilitate transcoding and downloading of a document when requested by a client system, said information including information as to whether a document includes an image in addition to text, and if so, an indication as to the physical size of the in-line image;

computer executable instructions for performing a step for receiving at the proxy server a request from a client system for a document;

computer executable instructions for performing a step for determining at the proxy server whether the requested document is referenced in said document database, and if not adding to the document database the information for that document after the document has been retrieved from a remote server; and

computer executable instructions for performing a step for if the requested document is referenced in said document database, initially downloading to the client system the requested document by leaving a blank area in the downloaded document that corresponds to the image so that the text of the requested document can be viewed at the client system while the image is retrieved from a remote server and then subsequently downloaded to the client system.

6. A computer readable medium according to claim 5 wherein the electronic document comprises a hypertext document.

7. A computer readable medium according to claim 5 wherein the text and the image are stored separately in said proxy server.

8. A method for reducing delivery latency in a computer network when downloading electronic documents to a client system from a proxy server, the computer network including (i) a plurality of remote servers for accessing a plurality of network sites containing various types of content that can be viewed and downloaded including electronic documents that contain both images and text for downloading, (ii) at least one proxy server for caching content from frequently accessed sites of one or more of the remote servers, and (iii) a plurality of client systems to which one or more such electronic documents are to be downloaded for display, wherein the method comprises the following:

a specific act of the proxy server storing a document database for electronic documents previously requested by client systems, said database including information as to whether a document includes an image in addition to text, and if so, an indication as to the physical size of the image;

a specific act of receiving at the proxy server a request from a client system for a document that includes an image;

a specific act of the proxy server determining whether the requested document is referenced in said document database;

a specific act of if the requested document is referenced in said document database, the proxy server initially downloading the requested document to the client system so as to allow the client system to display the requested document with a blank area in the downloaded document sized and positioned to correspond to the image;

a specific act of the proxy server retrieving the image from a remote server while the requested document is being downloaded to the client system; and

a specific act of the proxy server downloading the image to the client system once the proxy server has retrieved the image from the remote server.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the specific act of the proxy server initially downloading the requested document to the client system so as to allow the client system to display the requested document with a blank area in the downloaded document sized and positioned to correspond to the image comprises the following:

a specific act of the proxy server transcoding the requested document using the information as to the size of the image to create the blank area in the requested document that corresponds to the image; and

a specific act of the proxy server downloading the transcoded document to the client system.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the specific act of the proxy server initially downloading the requested document to the client system so as to allow the client system to display the requested document with a blank area in the downloaded document sized and positioned to correspond to the image comprises the following:

a specific act of the proxy server transcoding the electronic document to create the blank area in the requested document, wherein the blank area corresponds to a resized version of the image resized to fit into a television set; and

a specific act of the proxy server downloading the transcoded document to the client system.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising:

a specific act of resizing the image for viewing on the television set by resizing the image to fit within the blank area.

12. A computer readable medium for use in a computer network that includes (i) a plurality of remote servers for accessing a plurality of network sites containing various types of content that can be viewed and downloaded including electronic documents that contain both images and text for downloading, (ii) at least one proxy server for caching content from frequently accessed sites of one or more of the remote servers, and (iii) a plurality of client systems to which one or more such electronic documents are to be downloaded for display, wherein the computer readable medium includes the following:

computer executable instructions for performing a specific act of the proxy server storing a document database for electronic documents previously requested by client systems, said database including information as to whether a document includes an image in addition to text, and if so, an indication as to the physical size of the image;

computer executable instructions for performing a specific act of receiving at the proxy server a request from a client system for a document that includes an image;

computer executable instructions for performing a specific act of the proxy server determining whether the requested document is referenced in said document database;

computer executable instructions for performing a specific act of if the requested document is referenced in said document database, the proxy server initially downloading the requested document to the client system so as to allow the client system to display the requested document with a blank area in the downloaded document sized and positioned to correspond to the image;

computer executable instructions for performing a specific act of the proxy server retrieving the image from a remote server while the requested document is being downloaded to the client system; and

computer executable instructions for performing a specific act of the proxy server downloading the image to the client system once the proxy server has retrieved the image from the remote server.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the computer executable instructions for performing the specific act of the proxy server initially downloading the requested document to the client system so as to allow the client system to display the requested document with a blank area in the downloaded document sized and positioned to correspond to the image comprises the following:

computer executable instructions for performing a specific act of the proxy server transcoding the requested document using the information as to the size of the image to create the blank area in the requested document that corresponds to the image; and

a specific act of the proxy server downloading the transcoded document to the client system.