Method and system for downloading graphic images on the internet

• US 6,281,874 B1
• Filed: 08/27/1998
• Issued: 08/28/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cohen, Benjamin, Krupnik, Hagia, Sivan, Zohar
• Primary Examiner(s): Brier, Jeffery
• Assistant Examiner(s): YANG, RYAN R
• Application Number:
  US09/141,320
• Time in Patent Office: 1,097 Days
• Field of Search: 345/428, 345/132, 345/130, 345/127, 345/114, 345/302, 345/2, 709/218
• US Class Current: 345/660
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/4092 Image resolution transcoding, e.g. by using client-server architectures

Abstract

In a method and system for downloading graphic images on the Network, at least one high-resolution graphic image file of a reference image is stored at a network server. At least part of the reference image is compressed and downloaded at reduced resolution from the network server to a client connected to the network server. Upon suitable decompression, a corresponding low-resolution image is displayed and size data uniquely specifying a portion of the displayed image is uploaded from the client to the network server. The specified portion of the high-resolution graphic image file is extracted from the network server and downloaded to the client where it is displayed. Such an approach obviates the need to transfer high-resolution data intensive graphic files to the client and further allows the heavy image processing to be performed on the server much faster than is achieved in prior approaches where processing is performed locally at the client.

Claims

1. A method for downloading graphic images from a network server which stores at least one high-resolution graphic image file of a reference image and a corresponding low-resolution graphic image file, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) downloading at least part of said low-resolution graphic image file from the network server to a client connected to the network server for displaying a corresponding low-resolution image on a display device at the client,

(b) uploading from the client to the network server size data uniquely specifying a portion of the image displayed in (a), which portion is less than the total image displayed in (a),

(c) extracting said portion of the high-resolution graphic image file from the network server and downloading to the client, and

(d) conforming said portion of the high-resolution graphic image to a display area of the display device for display in said display area thereof.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein step (d) of conforming the portion of the high-resolution graphic image to the display area of the display device is performed at the network server prior to downloading to the client.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the display area is dictated by the network server.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the display area is included as part of the size data uploaded to the network server by the client.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein step (d) of conforming the portion of the high-resolution graphic image to the display area of the display device is performed at the client upon receiving the downloaded high-resolution graphic image.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising prior to step (b):

(e) extracting and zooming said portion from the low-resolution graphic image file at the client so as to produce a pseudo-zoomed, low-resolution image, and

(f) displaying the pseudo-zoomed, low-resolution image at the client prior to displaying said portion of the high-resolution graphic image file downloaded to the client by the network server.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein step (b) comprises the steps of:

(i) arbitrarily selecting said portion of the low-resolution graphic image file using a pointing device,

(ii) calculating the size data defining said portion, and

(iii) uploading the size data to the network server.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the portion selected has a different aspect ratio to that of the display device, and there are further included the steps of:

(h) displaying an area of the high-resolution image containing the selected portion, said area having an aspect ratio equal to that of the display device so as to include a sub-portion of the reference image outside of the selected portion, and

(i) displaying said sub-portion with a different display characteristic to that of the selected portion.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein said sub-portion is displayed at a reduced brightness to that of the selected portion.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the portion selected is too small after zooming to fill the display, and there are further included the steps of:

(j) displaying the selected portion after zooming leaving a peripheral sub-portion of the reference image surrounding the selected portion, and

(k) displaying said sub-portion with a different display characteristic to that of the selected portion.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein said sub-portion is displayed at a reduced brightness to that of the selected portion.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein step (b) comprises the steps of:

(i) downloading from the network server to the client at reduced resolution a plurality of graphic image files so as to store at the client a corresponding plurality of low-resolution graphic image files,

(ii) displaying a corresponding plurality of low-resolution images at the client each corresponding to a respective one of the low-resolution graphic image files, and

(iii) selecting one of said low-resolution images for further processing.

13. The method according to claim 1, further including the steps of:

(a1) compressing said at least part of the reduced resolution graphic image file prior to downloading to the client, and

(a2) decompressing the reduced resolution graphic image downloaded to the client file prior to storing the low-resolution graphic image file.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the step of compressing is performed in accordance with a compression format commonly provided in network browsers, thereby obviating any need to download decompression software to the client.

15. The method according to claim 1, further including the step of:

(h) uploading to the server a user reset, and

(i) aborting step (f) of extracting the selected portion of the high-resolution graphic image file from the network server and downloading to the client.

16. The method according to claim 6, further including the steps of:

(j) uploading to the network server a user reset,

(k) aborting step (f) of extracting the selected portion of the high-resolution graphic image file from the network server and downloading to the client,

(l) aborting step (h) of extracting and pseudo-zooming the selected portion of the low-resolution graphic image file from the client, and

(m) re-displaying on the display device the low-resolution image displayed in step (a).

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

step (c) is carried out by a Java servlet on the network server,

step (b) is carried out by a Java applet on the client, and

processing instructions are downloaded to the Java applet on the client.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein the display area of the display device is less than a total area of the display device, and there are further included the steps of:

(i) displaying in a remaining portion of the display device information independently of the image data in said display area.

38. The method according to claim 17, wherein step (c) is carried out by an image processor on the network server using a processing module written in native code and being linked to the Java servlet through a Java Native Interface (JNI) defined by the Java language.

19. A system for downloading graphic images on a network, the system comprising:

a network server having a network memory for storing at least one high-resolution graphic image file of a reference image and a low-resolution graphic image file corresponding thereto,

a communication line for downloading said low-resolution graphic image file from the network server to a client connected to the network server via the communication line,

a memory at the client for storing the low-resolution graphic image file,

a display device coupled to the memory for displaying a low-resolution image at the client corresponding to the low-resolution graphic image file, a zoom control coupled to the memory for uniquely specifying a portion of the low-resolution image which is to be displayed at high-resolution, which portion is less than the total image displayed by said display device,

a client processor coupled to the memory and responsively coupled to the zoom control for determining size data uniquely defining said portion and for uploading said size data via the communication line to the network server,

a network processor responsive to the size data for extracting said portion of the high-resolution graphic image file from the network server and downloading via the communication line to the client for display in said display area of said display device, and

an image processor for conforming the portion of the high-resolution graphic image to a display area of the display device.

20. The system according to claim 19, wherein the image processor is part of the network processor.

21. The system according to claim 20, wherein the network memory stores data indicative of the display area.

22. The system according to claim 20, wherein the client processor is programmed to determine area data indicative of the display area and to embed said area data within the size data uploaded to the network.

23. The system according to claim 19, wherein the image processor is part of the client processor.

24. The system according to claim 19, further including:

a reset control for accepting a user reset for conveying to the server via the communication line, and

the network processor being responsive to the reset control for aborting extraction of the selected portion of the high-resolution graphic image file therefrom and downloading to the client.

25. The system according to claim 19, wherein the client processor is programmed for:

(h) extracting and zooming said portion from the low-resolution graphic image file at the client so as to produce a pseudo-zoomed, low-resolution image, and

(i) displaying the pseudo-zoomed, low-resolution image at the client prior to displaying said portion of the high-resolution graphic image file downloaded to the client by the network server.

26. The system according to claim 25, further including:

a reset control coupled to the client processor for accepting a user reset for conveying to the network server via the communication line;

the network processor being responsive to the reset control for aborting extraction of the selected portion of the high-resolution graphic image file therefrom and downloading to the client, and

the client processor being responsive to the reset control for aborting pseudo-zooming of the selected portion of the low-resolution graphic image file from the client, and for re-displaying on the display device the low-resolution image displayed.

27. The system according to claim 19, wherein the zoom control includes:

a pointing device for arbitrarily selecting said portion of the low-resolution graphic image file,

said client processor being responsively coupled to the pointing device for calculating the size data defining said portion.

28. The system according to claim 27, wherein:

the selected portion has a different aspect ratio to that of the display device,

the display device displays an area of the high-resolution image containing the selected portion, said area having an aspect ratio equal to that of the display device so as to include a sub-portion of the reference image outside of the selected portion, and

the client processor is responsive to said sub-portion for changing a display characteristic thereof.

29. The system according to claim 28, wherein said display characteristic is pixel intensity.

30. The system according to claim 27, wherein:

the selected portion is too small after zooming to fill the display,

the display device displays the selected portion after zooming leaving a peripheral sub-portion of the reference image surrounding the selected portion, and

the client processor is responsive to said peripheral sub-portion for changing a display characteristic thereof.

31. The system according to claim 30, wherein said display characteristic is pixel intensity.

32. The system according to claim 19, wherein:

the network server includes a data compressor for compressing said at least part of the reduced resolution graphic image file in accordance with a predetermined compression format prior to downloading to the client, and

the client includes a data decompressor operating in accordance with said predetermined compression format for decompressing the reduced resolution graphic image downloaded to the client file prior to storage thereof.

33. The system according to claim 19, wherein the data compression format is commonly provided in network browsers, thereby obviating any need to download decompression software to the client.

34. The system according to claim 19, wherein:

the network is the Internet,

the server is an HTTP Web server having associated therewith an image processor and image database and running a Java servlet for handling communication therewith, and

the client runs a Java applet.

35. The system according to claim 34, wherein:

the image processor runs a processing module written in native code and being linked to the Java servlet through a Java Native Interface (JNI) defined by the Java language.

36. The system according to claim 34, wherein:

the image processor runs a processing module written in Java so as to allow maximum portability across servers.

37. The system according to claim 19, wherein the display area of the display device is less than a total area of the display device, and

the network processor includes a peripheral data processor for downloading information to a remaining portion of the display device independently of the image data in the display area.

39. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for downloading graphic images from a network server which stores at least one high-resolution graphic image file of a reference image and a corresponding low-resolution graphic image file, the method comprising:

(a) downloading at least part of said low-resolution graphic image file from the network server client connected to the network server for displaying a corresponding low-resolution image on a display device at the client,

(a) uploading from the client to the network server size data uniquely specifying a portion of the image displayed in (a), which portion is less than the entire image displayed on said display device,

(b) extracting said portion of the high-resolution graphic image file from the network server and downloading to the client, and

(a) conforming said portion of the high-resolution graphic image to a display area of the display device for display in said display area thereof.

40. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for downloading graphic images from a network server which stores at least one high-resolution graphic image file of a reference image and a corresponding low-resolution graphic image file, the computer program product comprising:

computer-readable program code for causing the computer to download at least part of said low-resolution graphic image file from the network server to a client connected to the network server for displaying a corresponding low-resolution image on a display device at the client,

computer-readable program code for causing the computer to upload from the client to the network server size data uniquely specifying a portion of the image displayed in (a), which portion is less than the entire image displayed on said display device,

computer-readable program code for causing the computer to extract said portion of the high-resolution graphic image file from the network server and downloading to the client, and

computer-readable program code for causing the computer to conform said portion of the high-resolution graphic image to a display area of the display device for display in said display area thereof.