Synchronization among plural browsers

• US 6,983,307 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2002
• Issued: 01/03/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gula Consulting Limited Liability Company (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Kirusa Inc.
• Inventors: Mumick, Inderpal Singh, Sibal, Sandeep
• Primary Examiner(s): Eng, David Y.
• Application Number:
  US10/187,486
• Publication Number:
  US 20030046346A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,282 Days
• Field of Search: 709/219, 709/223, 709/205, 370/401, 455/414.2
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/543 Local
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/545 Gui
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/15 Synchronised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

A technique for synchronizing a visual browser and a voice browser. A visual browser is used to navigate through visual content, such as WML pages. During the navigation, the visual browser creates a historical record of events that have occurred during the navigation. The voice browser uses this historical record to navigate the content in the same manner as occurred on the visual browser, thereby synchronizing to a state equivalent to that of the visual browser. The creation of the historical record may be performed by using a script to trap events, where the script contains code that records the trapped events. The synchronization technique may be used with a multi-modal application that permits the mode of input/output (I/O) to be changed between visual and voice browsers. When the mode is changed from visual to voice, the record of events captured by the visual browser is provided to the voice browser, thereby allowing the I/O mode to change seamlessly from visual to voice. Likewise, the voice browser captures events which may be provided to the visual browser when the I/O mode is changed from voice to visual.

Claims

1. A method of using a first browser to navigate through a collection of data and to facilitate the synchronization of a second browser to a state of the first browser, a one of the first and second browsers being a visual browser and the other of the first and second browsers being a voice browser, the method comprising the acts of:

performing, with the first browser, a navigation through the collection of data in accordance with instructions received from a user;

capturing information indicative of a state of the first browser including a position of the first browser with respect to the collection of data;

sending said information to the second browser, whereby the second browser recreates the state of the first browser based on said information and continues said navigation from said position.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said capturing act comprises creating a record of one or more events occurring on the first browser during said navigation.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first browser indicates the occurrence of said one or more events in a manner perceivable by a script engine, and wherein said capturing act comprises:

using said script engine to execute a script which comprises one or more sets of instructions, a first of said one or more sets of instructions being invokable by said script engine upon an occurrence of a first of said one or more events, said first set of instructions causing said script engine to record an occurrence of said first event.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising the act of:

compressing said record prior to said sending step.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising the act of:

collapsing at least a first and a second of said one or more events.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said collection of data comprises content represented in forms comprising:

(a) a visual markup language interpretable by the one of the first and second browsers that comprises a visual browser, and (b) a voice markup language interpretable by the one of the first and second browsers that comprises a voice browser.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said position has a first representation within said visual markup language and a second representation within said voice markup language, and wherein the method further comprises:

transforming said first representation of said position to a second representation of said position.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said collection of data comprises a plurality of pages, and wherein said position represents a one of said pages.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said one of said pages comprises a plurality of cards, and wherein said position further represents a one of said cards.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said one of said cards further comprises a plurality of fields, and wherein said position further represents a one of said fields.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said one of said pages comprises content in a visual markup language interpretable by the one of the first and second browsers that comprises a visual browser, wherein a cursor is locatable by a user at a plurality of locations within said field, and wherein said position further represents a one of said locations.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said collection of data comprises pages in a wireless web.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising the act of:

receiving an instruction to perform a mode swap, wherein the second browser recreates said state in response to said instruction.

14. A method of synchronizing a first browser to a state of a second browser, the method comprising the acts of:

receiving, at the first browser, information indicative of a history of events that have occurred at a first browser in the course of a navigation through a collection of data;

executing said events on the second browser with respect to said collection of data; and

following execution of said events, continuing said navigation at said second browser based on instructions received from a user.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said information is compressed, and wherein the method further comprises the act of:

decompressing said information.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein said collection of data comprises a plurality of pages, wherein said state represents the first browser'"'"'s being pointed to a one of said pages, and wherein said executing act comprises:

pointing the second browser to said one of said pages.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said one of said pages comprises a plurality of cards, wherein said state further represents the first browser'"'"'s being pointed to a one of said cards, and wherein said executing act further comprises:

pointing the second browser to said one of said cards.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said one of said cards further comprises a plurality of fields, wherein said state further represents the first browser'"'"'s being pointed to a one of said fields, and wherein the method further comprises:

pointing the second browser to said one of said fields.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the first browser comprises a visual browser and the second browser comprises a voice browser, wherein a cursor is locatable by a user at a plurality of locations within said one of said fields when viewing said one of said cards on the first browser, wherein said state further represents the cursor being located at a one of said locations, and wherein the method further comprises:

pointing the second browser to said one of said locations.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein a one of the first and second browsers comprises a visual browser, and wherein the other of said first and second browsers comprises a voice browser.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the collection of data comprises content represented as:

a plurality of first pages in the Wireless Markup Language; and

a plurality of second pages in the Voice eXtensible Markup Language.

22. A method of synchronizing a visual browser and a voice browser with respect to a state, the visual and voice browsers being used to navigate through a collection of data that is represented in both a visual markup language navigable with the visual browser and in a voice markup language that is navigable with the visual browser, the state defining a current position within the collection of data, the visual and voice browsers both receiving instructions from an application which directs whether the voice browser or the visual browser is to be used for navigation at a particular time, the method comprising the acts of:

receiving state information captured by the visual browser, said state information being representative of the current position with respect to the visual markup language;

storing said state information;

detecting that the application has changed from a visual mode to a voice mode;

providing said state information to the voice browser.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein said receiving act comprises receiving a collection of events that have occurred during navigation on the visual browser.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein said receiving act comprises receiving said collection of events in a compressed format.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the visual markup language comprises Wireless Markup Language and the voice markup language comprises Voice eXtensible Markup Language.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein said current position has a first representation within the visual markup language and a second representation within the voice markup language, and wherein the method further comprises:

transforming said first representation of said current position to a second representation of said current position.

27. The method of claim 22, wherein said collection of data comprises a plurality of pages, and wherein the current position represents the visual browser'"'"'s being pointed to a one of said pages.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein said one of said pages comprises a plurality of cards, and wherein the current position further represents the visual browser'"'"'s being pointed to a one of said cards.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein said one of said cards further comprises a plurality of fields, and wherein the current position further represents the visual browser'"'"'s being pointed to a one of said fields.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein a cursor is locatable by a user at a plurality of locations within said one of said fields when viewing said one of said cards on the visual browser, and wherein said current position further said cursor being located at a one of said locations.