System and method of creating interactive visual content

• US 6,964,017 B1
• Filed: 04/26/2000
• Issued: 11/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Erickson, Alan L., Ahmann, Doug J., Wright, Timothy N., Gaul, Troy A., Meisner, Douglas E., Hondl, Christopher P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Feild, Joseph
• Assistant Examiner(s): Smith, Peter J.
• Application Number:
  US09/558,567
• Time in Patent Office: 2,022 Days
• Field of Search: 715/501.1, 715/502, 715/526, 715/530
• US Class Current: 715/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

A system and method of creating interactive visual content in which base visual content, a selection of a trigger event associated with the base visual content, and intermediate visual content are received as an input. Viewing visual content derived from the base visual content is automatically generated. The viewing visual content can be displayed by a viewing application executing on a computer. A set of regions of the interactive visual content in which swap visual content is to be displayed by the viewing application when the trigger event occurs is automatically generated. For example, regions of the viewing visual content that are to be replace by the swap visual content when the trigger event occurs can be identified. Also, the swap visual content is automatically generated from the intermediate visual content. In addition, instructions operable to cause the computer executing the viewing application to display the swap visual content in the identified regions when the trigger event occurs is automatically generated. Moreover, the intermediate visual content can be received by providing a user interface enabling a designer to edit the intermediate visual content as an integral unit.

Claims

1. A computer program product, tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium, comprising instructions operable to cause a computer to:

receive as an input base visual content;

generate a content division structure that divides the base visual content into a plurality of image slices, including instructions operable to cause the computer to generate user-created slices and program-generated slices;

receive input from a user selecting one of the plurality of image slices as a trigger slice and an input selecting a trigger event to associate with the trigger slice;

receive input from the user defining intermediate visual content for each trigger event, including instructions operable to cause the computer to allow the user to create and modify intermediate visual content as an integral image without regard to boundaries of user-created slices and program-generated slices;

generate a set of viewing image files containing viewing visual content derived from the base visual content;

use the content division structure to divide the intermediate visual content and the viewing visual content into slices corresponding to the slices of the base visual content; and

computationally compare the base visual content and the intermediate visual content identify image slices where the base visual content and the intermediate visual content differ visually and generate a set of swap image files containing swap visual content derived from the identified image slices of the intermediate visual content.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising instructions operable to cause a computer to:

a generate a set of HTML instructions that cause the viewing visual content to be displayed as a valid HTML table; and

generate a set of JAVASCRIPT instructions that cause the swap visual content to be displayed when the trigger event occurs to the trigger slice.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the swap image files are optimized for transmission over a computer network.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein each slice of the base visual content and the intermediate visual content is computationally compared pixel-by-pixel.

5. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein each slice of the base visual content and the intermediate visual content is computationally compared by comparing a checksum value calculated for each slice of the base visual content and a checksum value calculated for the corresponding slice of the intermediate visual content.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising instructions operable to cause a computer to:

receive as an input a user division structure for the base visual content; and

generate the content division structure to conform to the user division structure.

7. A computer-implemented method of creating interactive visual content for display by a viewing application executing on a computer, the method comprising:

receiving as an input base visual content;

generating a content division structure that divides the base visual content into a plurality of image slices, including instructions operable to cause the computer to generate user-created slices and program-generated slices;

receiving input from a user selecting one of the plurality of image slices as a trigger slice and an input selecting a trigger event to associate with the trigger slice;

receiving input from the user defining intermediate visual content for each trigger event, including instructions operable to cause the computer to allow the user to create and modify intermediate visual content as an integral image without regard to boundaries of user-created slices and program-generated slices;

generating a set of viewing image files containing viewing visual content derived from the base visual content;

using the content division structure to divide the intermediate visual content and the viewing visual content into slices corresponding to the slices of the base visual content; and

computationally comparing the base visual content and the intermediate visual content, identifying image slices where the base visual content and the intermediate visual content differ visually and generating a set of swap image files containing swap visual content derived from the identified image slices of the intermediate visual content.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

generating a set of HTML instructions that cause the viewing visual content to be displayed as a valid HTML table; and

generating a set of JAVASCRIPT instructions that cause the swap visual content to be displayed when the trigger event occurs to the trigger slice.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the swap image files are optimized for transmission over a computer network.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein each slice of the base visual content and the intermediate visual content is computationally compared pixel-by-pixel.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein each slice of the base visual content and the intermediate visual content is computationally compared by comparing a checksum value calculated for each slice of the base visual content and a checksum value calculated for the corresponding slice of the intermediate visual content.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving as an input a user division structure for the base visual content; and

generating the content division structure to conform to the user division structure.

13. A computer program product, tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium, comprising instructions operable to cause a computer to:

a receive as an input base visual content;

receive as an input a user-defined image division structure dividing the base visual content;

generate a content division structure that divides the base visual content into a plurality of image slices, including instructions operable to cause the computer to generate image slices corresponding to the user defined image division structure;

receive input from a user selecting one of the plurality of image slices as a trigger slice and an input selecting a trigger event to associate with the trigger slice;

receive input from the user defining intermediate visual content for each trigger event, including instructions operable to cause the computer to allow the user to create and modify intermediate visual content as an integral image without regard to boundaries of user-created slices and program-generated slices;

generate a set of viewing image files containing viewing visual content derived from the base visual content;

use the content division structure to divide the intermediate visual content and the viewing visual content into slices corresponding to the slices of the base visual content; and

computationally compare the base visual content and the intermediate visual content, identify image slices where the base visual content and the intermediate visual content differ visually and generate a set of swap image files containing swap visual content derived from the identified image slices of the intermediate visual content.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising instructions operable to cause a computer to:

generate a set of HTML instructions that cause the viewing visual content to be displayed as a valid HTML table; and

generate a set of JAVASCRIPT instructions that cause the swap visual content to be displayed when the trigger event occurs to the trigger slice.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the swap image files are optimized for transmission over a computer network.

16. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein each slice of the base visual content and the intermediate visual content is computationally compared pixel-by-pixel.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein each slice of the base visual content and the intermediate visual content is computationally compared by comparing a checksum value calculated for each slice of the base visual content and a checksum value calculated for the corresponding slice of the intermediate visual content.

18. A computer-implemented method of creating interactive visual content for display by a viewing application executing on a computer, the method comprising:

receiving as an input base visual content;

receiving as an input a user defined image division structure dividing the base visual content;

generating a content division sure that divides the base visual content into a plurality of image slices, including instructions operable to cause the computer to generate image slices corresponding to the user-defined image division structure;

receiving input from a user selecting one of the plurality of image slices as a trigger slice and an input selecting a trigger event to associate with the trigger slice;

receiving input from the user defining intermediate visual content for each trigger event, including instructions operable to cause the computer to allow the user to create and modify intermediate visual content as an integral image without regard to boundaries of user created slices and program-generated slices;

generating a set of viewing image files containing viewing visual content derived from the base visual content;

using the content division structure to divide the intermediate visual content and the viewing visual content into slices corresponding to the slices of the base visual content; and

computationally comparing the base visual content and the intermediate visual content, identifying image slices where the base visual content and the intermediate visual content differ visually and generating a set of swap image files containing swap visual content derived from the identified image slices of the intermediate visual content.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

generating a set of HTML instructions that cause the viewing visual content to be displayed as a valid HTML table; and

generating a set of JAVASCRIPT instructions that cause the swap visual content to be displayed when the trigger event occurs to the trigger slice.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the swap image files are opted for transmission over a computer network.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein each slice of the base visual content and the intermediate visual content is computationally compared pixel-by-pixel.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein each slice of the base visual content and the intermediate visual content is computationally compared by comparing a checksum value calculated for each slice of the base visual content and a checksum value calculated for the corresponding slice of the intermediate visual content.