Apparatus and method for dynamically limiting information sent to a viewing device

• US 6,477,529 B1
• Filed: 12/06/1999
• Issued: 11/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Yach, David, Little, Herb A., Mousseau, Gary
• Primary Examiner(s): Mizrahi, Diane D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mofiz, Apu M
• Application Number:
  US09/455,211
• Time in Patent Office: 1,065 Days
• Field of Search: 707/2, 707/3, 707/4, 707/5, 707/10, 707/9, 707/101, 707/201, 707/503, 707/530, 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 709/225, 709/226, 709/227, 709/229, 709/234, 709/247
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/163 In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

A system and method for transporting user-restricted data from a gateway device to a handheld viewing device is provided. The gateway device includes an information translator, content filters, and storage. The information translator delivers content from an information database coupled to the gateway to the handheld viewing device. A viewing component of the handheld device receives all possible data from the gateway device that the handheld device is capable of viewing. The user of the handheld device is then able to manually select certain portions of data through a user interface. Once the selection is complete, a series of comments are returned to the gateway device from the handheld device so that a subsequent viewing corresponds only to that information selected by the user.

Claims

1. A method of controlling viewed information in a document retrieved from a database based on commands stored in a gateway device to limit the quantity of information sent to a handheld device comprising the steps of:

receiving the document from the database with the handheld device;

establishing information in the document to be restricted by a user;

using a special editing command with the handheld device to select the information in the document to be restricted by the user,

passing a set of commands to the gateway device to restrict subsequent retrievals of the document from the database by the handheld device;

identifying a subsequent retrieval of the document from the database by the handheld device using the gateway device; and

performing filtering during the subsequent retrieval of the document in order to remove the restricted information from the document.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the database is a world-wide-web (WWW) server and the document is a web page.

3. A system for limiting data transmitted to a wireless handheld viewing device from a gateway device comprising:

means for delivering data in a document from an information database coupled to the gateway device to the wireless handheld viewing device;

means for receiving all possible data in the document from the gateway device that the wireless handheld viewing device is capable of displaying;

means for manually selecting exact portions of data in the document that are of importance through a user interface in the wireless handheld viewing device, the means for selecting being configured such that once the selection is complete a series of instructions are returned to the gateway device from the wireless handheld viewing device so that during a subsequent viewing the selected portions of data are removed from the document.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the information database is a world-wide-web (WWW) server and the document is a web page.

5. A system comprising:

a document server;

a handheld device configured to receive a document transmitted from the document server, the handheld device being further configured to edit selected portions of the document in response to user input, and to generate control signals indicative of the user input; and

a gateway device configured to respond to the control signals by controlling a flow of information transmitted from the document server to the handheld device in accordance with the control signals;

wherein the gateway device is configured to dynamically restrict the flow of information transmitted from the document server such that user selected portions of the document are removed in subsequent transmissions of the document from the document server to the handheld device.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the gateway device comprises;

an information translator coupled between the document server and the handheld device; and

a filter and memory coupled to the information translator.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the information translator comprises:

a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) fetch and cache coupled to the source of information;

a filter and transformation engine coupled to the HTTP fetch and cache; and

a wireless transport layer coupled between the filter and transformation engine and the handheld device.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the information translator further comprises a compression and encryption support module coupled between the filter and transformation engine and the wireless transport layer.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the gateway device further comprises a wireless delivery methods component coupled between the information translator and the handheld device.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein the handheld device comprises:

an information decoder and presentation component coupled to the gateway device; and

an information viewer and user interface coupled to the information decoder and presentation component.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the information decoder and presentation component comprises:

a wireless transport layer coupled to the gateway device; and

a byte-code interpreter and decoder coupled between the wireless transport layer and the information viewer and user interface.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the information decoder and presentation component further comprises a compression and encryption support module coupled between the wireless transport layer and the byte-code interpreter and decoder.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the information viewer and user interface comprises:

an editor and browser screen support module coupled to the information decoder and presentation component; and

a user input and keyboard support module coupled to the editor and browser screen support module.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the handheld device further comprises a handheld radio code and wireless support module coupled between the information decoder and presentation component and the gateway device.

15. The system of claim 5, wherein the document server is an Internet server.

16. The system of claim 5, wherein the document server is an Intranet server.

17. The system of claim 5, wherein the document server is a world-wide-web (WWW) server and the document is a web page.

18. A system for dynamically filtering user-defined sections of data, comprising:

a database configured to store documents;

a control device configured to perform dynamic filtering of a user defined section of a document received from the database; and

a user interface and viewing device remotely coupled to the control device, the user interface and viewing device being configured to convert user input based on selected portions of the document to filter signals and to transmit the filter signals to the control device so that the control device subsequently filters the document according to the filter signals and the interface and viewing device subsequently displays the filtered data.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the document server stores textual and graphical data, and wherein the control device is configured to use the filter signals to dynamically filter user defined sections of the textual and graphical data.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein:

the control device is a gateway device;

the user interface and viewing device is a wireless handheld viewing device; and

the document is an Internet web page.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the database is a world-wide-web (WWW) server and the document is a web page.

22. A method, comprising the steps of:

requesting a document through a wireless device coupled to a host device;

receiving the requested document at the host device from a document server;

filtering the received document using a predetermined set of filters;

filtering the received document using a dynamic filter based on user-defined criteria transmitted to the host device from the wireless device;

transmitting the filtered document from the host device to the wireless device;

displaying the filtered document on the wireless device;

storing user input based on the displayed document;

converting the stored user input into the user-defined filter criteria;

transmitting the user-defined filter criteria to the host device; and

storing the user-defined criteria at the host device to define the dynamic filter;

wherein the user-defined criteria is based on a selected portion of the document and wherein subsequent requests for the document through the wireless device are filtered to remove the selected portion of the document.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the document server is a world-wide-web (WWW) server and the document is a web page.

24. A method, comprising the steps of:

fetching a document from a document server;

restricting the fetched document using fixed criteria;

restricting the fetched document using dynamic user defined criteria;

transmitting the restricted document to a viewing device;

receiving user input based on the restricted document; and

converting the user input into the user defined criteria;

wherein the user defined criteria is based on a selected portion of the document.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the step of restricting the fetched information using dynamic user defined criteria comprises the steps of:

receiving commands from a user via a user interface;

determining if the command is an unrestricted request;

if the command is an unrestricted request, then deleting or marking as temporarily inactive all previous restriction commands relating to desired information; and

if the command is not an unrestricted request, then determining if the command is another predetermined type of command.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein, if the command is not an unrestricted request, then performing the steps of:

determining whether the predetermined type of command is a content restriction command list;

if the predetermined type of command is a content restriction command list, then checking for previously stored commands present for the user and the desired information; and

if the predetermined type of command is not a content restriction command list, then checking for other commands from the user.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the document server is a world-wide-web (WWW) server and the document is a web page.

28. A system for controlling the transmission of information to a wireless device, comprising:

a world-wide web (WWW) server with a plurality of web pages; and

a gateway device configured to receive an information request from the wireless device identifying the WWW server and to establish a connection to the WWW server over a computer network, wherein the gateway device comprises;

a fetch and cache component that retrieves and stores information from a web page on the WWW server;

a restricting stage that removes at least one predetermined data type from the information retrieved from the web page to generate a filtered output;

means for transmitting the filtered output to the wireless device;

an additional restricting stage that receives a filtering command from the wireless device and that uses the filtering command to remove additional data from the information retrieved from the web page and generate the filtered output; and

wherein the filtering command is generated by the wireless device in response to user input made by selecting a portion of the web page to be removed in subsequent transmissions from the gateway device.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the gateway device further comprises:

a compression and encryption module that compresses and encrypts the filtered output prior to transmission to the wireless device.

30. The system of claim 28, wherein the pre-determined data type is advanced HTML commands.

31. The system of claim 28, wherein the pre-determined data type is Java content.

32. The system of claim 28, wherein the transmitting means includes a wireless transport layer.

33. The system of claim 28, wherein the transmitting means includes a wireless delivery module that adds protocol information for delivery over a wireless network.