System and method for content adaptation and pagination based on terminal capabilities

• US 6,556,217 B1
• Filed: 06/01/2000
• Issued: 04/29/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Kinnunen, Timo, Järvinen, Timo, Aaltonen, Matti, Tammela, Antti, Väätänen, Antti, Södergård, Caj, Anttila, Akseli, Kopra, Toni, Mäkipää, Mikko, Vuorenoja, Juuso, Madan, Hemant, Tanskanen, Erkki, Beletski, Oleg, Hämeen-Anttila, Tapio
• Primary Examiner(s): Luu, Matthew
• Application Number:
  US09/584,499
• Time in Patent Office: 1,062 Days
• Field of Search: 345/660, 345/667, 345/668, 345/669, 345/670, 345/788
• US Class Current: 345/667
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/114 Pagination

Abstract

A system, method and computer program for paginating information received from a content provider so that it may be displayed on any type of user terminal having any size screen and having different types of mechanisms for input of information. This system has a pagination and terminal adaptation module which will calculate the space needed by element to be displayed on a user terminal. The pagination and terminal adaptation module will then determine if sufficient space exits on the user terminal screen to display the element. When sufficient space does not exist on the user terminal screen then the pagination and terminal adaptation module will resize the element when possible in order to make it fit. The pagination and terminal adaptation module accesses a database of user terminal profile information to determine the characteristics of the user terminal as well as the screen size. This system further is able to transmit information in a continuous stream to the user terminal or as a single element that will only update a portion of the user terminal screen. Using this system a user is able to access web site pages regardless of the type of terminal being used and no matter how small the screen size is.

Claims

1. A method of information pagination in order to display the information on a user terminal screen, comprising:

identifying a user terminal type and screen size upon logon of a user terminal;

extracting layout rules and typographical settings from a database based on the user terminal type;

calculating the space required to display an element of a plurality of elements of a page of information on the user terminal screen;

determining if the space required to display the element is available on the user terminal screen;

resizing the element when the determination is made that there is not adequate space on the user terminal screen to display the element; and

displaying the element according to the layout rules and typographical settings on the user terminal screen.

2. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the element is either text, graphics, images, video, audio, embedded viewers, animation, and any other type of information presentation permitted on a processor based system.

3. The method in recited claim 1, wherein the resizing of the element further comprises:

splitting the element in to individual blocks so that as much of the element that can fit into a single screen based on terminal type is accomplished and any remaining element is moved on to successive screens.

4. The method recited in claim 2, further comprising:

skipping the element when it is determined that the space required to display the element is not available on the user terminal and that the element cannot be resized to fit the space available on the user terminal screen, thereby the page of information is altered to match the screen.

5. The method recited in claim 2, further comprising:

skipping the element when the user terminal due to color, size, video, resolution or other limitations of the user terminal prevents display or presentation of the element.

6. The method recited in claim 4, further comprising:

adjusting the element video and audio based on the terminal type so that the element may be displayed on the user terminal screen.

7. The method recited in claim 4, further comprising:

accessing a device translation table based on the terminal type in order to determine input capability of the user terminal.

8. The method recited in claim 4, further comprising:

transmitting the element of a plurality of elements to the user terminal in a continuous stream.

9. The method recited in claim 4, further comprising:

transmitting the element of a plurality of elements to the user terminal for display in a specified location on the user terminal screen when the value represented by the element changes.

10. The method recited in claim 4, further comprising:

selecting the page of information to be displayed on the user terminal screen from a menu list.

11. The method recited in claim 4, further comprising:

searching a file of keywords for a keyword that matches a search term entered in the user terminal;

displaying a menu list of articles associated with the keywords that match the search term entered;

selecting the page of information to be displayed on the user terminal screen from the menu list.

12. A system of information pagination in order to display information on a user terminal screen, comprising:

a database to store information to display on the user terminal screen and to store a terminal profile for a plurality of user terminals;

a client connection handler to communicate to a user terminal and retrieve information from the database and transmit the information to user terminal for display on the user terminal screen; and

a pagination engine to determine, based on the terminal profile, if each element of a plurality of elements contained in the information retrieved from the database will fit in available space on the user terminal screen and to resize the element so that the element will fit into the space available on the user terminal screen when it is determined that the element will not fit in the space available on the user terminal screen.

13. The system recited in claim 12, wherein the database further comprises:

a content storage file to store the information to be displayed on the user terminal screen;

a content metadata file to store keywords extracted from the information stored in the content storage file; and

a user and terminal profile to store a plurality of user terminal characteristics for a plurality of user terminals and a plurality of user specifications associated with each user.

14. The system recited in claim 12, wherein the client connection handier further comprises:

a session control module to communicate to the user terminal and the pagination; and

a content locator module to search the metadata file for search terms transmitted by the user terminal and retrieve information from the content storage file.

15. The system recited in claim 12, wherein the information stored in the content storage file is in XML, HTML or other suitable format.

16. The system recited in claim 12, wherein the pagination engine will skip elements that cannot be resized and not include then in transmissions to the user terminal when it is determined that the element will not fit on the available space of the user terminal screen base in the terminal profile.

17. The system recited in claim 16, further comprising:

a user and terminal profile, accessible by the pagination engine based on terminal type, and having layout, typographical settings, and a device translation table.

18. The system recited in claim 17, wherein the device translation table comprises general function types indicative of keyboard navigation inputs and associated specific keyboard navigation inputs for each terminal type, wherein the navigation table is accessed by the pagination engine to determine to keyboard navigation inputs that may be used by the particular user terminal.

19. The system recited in claim 17, wherein the information displayed to the user is adjusted to fit the user terminal screen and adjusted according to color and video capabilities of the user terminal screen.

20. The system recited in claim 12, wherein the user terminal will specify the information desired by a user via a selection of an item in a menu list or the entry of the search term by the user.

21. A computer program executable by computer and embodied on a computer readable medium for information pagination in order to display information on a user terminal screen, comprising:

a database to store information to display on the user terminal screen and to store a terminal profile for a plurality of user terminals;

a client connection handler code segment to communicate to a user terminal and retrieve information from the database and transmit the information to user terminal for display on the user terminal screen; and

a pagination engine code segment to determine, based on the terminal profile, if each element of a plurality of elements contained in the information retrieved from the database will fit in available space on the user terminal screen and to resize the element so that the element will fit into the space available on the user terminal screen when it is determined that the element will not fit in the space available on the user terminal screen.

22. The computer program recited in claim 21, wherein the database further comprises:

a content storage file to store the information to be displayed on the user terminal screen;

a content metadata file to store keywords extracted from the information stored in the content storage file, a classification of information stored in the content storage file, or a location where the information may be found; and

a user and terminal profile to store a plurality of user terminal characteristics for a plurality of user terminals and a plurality of user specifications associated with each user.

23. The computer program recited in claim 22, wherein the client connection handier further comprises:

a session control module code segment to communicate to the user terminal and the pagination; and

a content locator module code segment to search the metadata file for search terms transmitted by the user terminal and retrieve information from the content storage file.

24. The computer program recited and claim 23, wherein the information stored in the content storage file is in XML, HTML or other suitable format.

25. The computer program recited and claim 24, wherein the pagination engine code segment will skip elements that cannot be resized and not include then in transmissions to the user terminal when it is determined that the element will not fit on the available space of the user terminal screen base in the terminal profile.

26. The computer program recited and claim 23, wherein the user terminal will specify the information desired by a user via a selection of an item in a menu list or the entry of the search term by the user.

27. The computer program recited in claim 25, further comprising:

a user and terminal profile, accessible by the pagination engine based on terminal type, and having layout, typographical settings, and a device translation table.

28. The computer program recited in claim 27, wherein the device translation table comprises general function types indicative of keyboard navigation inputs and associated specific keyboard navigation inputs for each terminal type, wherein the navigation table is accessed by the pagination engine to determine to keyboard navigation inputs that may be used by the particular user terminal.

29. The computer program recited in claim 28, wherein the information displayed to the user is adjusted to fit the user terminal screen and adjusted according to color and video capabilities of the user terminal screen.