Method and system for dynamic font subsetting

• US 7,155,672 B1
• Filed: 05/23/2000
• Issued: 12/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: OpenTV, Inc. (Kudelski SA)
• Original Assignee: Spyglass, Inc. (Kudelski SA)
• Inventors: Adler, Douglas R., Nawrocki, Gregory J., Korp, Peter A., Yoneda, Masakatsu
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Campbell, Joshua D
• Application Number:
  US09/576,754
• Time in Patent Office: 2,408 Days
• Field of Search: 715/530, 715/513, 715/511, 715/531, 715/540, 715/536, 715/542
• US Class Current: 715/210
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/109 Font handling; Temporal or kinetic typography

Abstract

Methods and system for dynamic font subsetting. One or more directives are inserted into electronic content to identify one or more glyph sub-sets needed to display the multiple characters in one or more desired languages for electronic content. A directive identifies a glyph sub-set including set of glyphs identified in the electronic content and an encoding scheme used to encode the set of glyphs. The glyph sub-set identifies only those glyphs needed to display the electronic content. When electronic content with the one or more directives is processed the one or more directives are identified. If the electronic device does not have the glyph sub-sets needed to display the electronic content, requests are sent to an intermediate network device to obtain glyph sub-sets. These method and system may allow an electronic device with limited resources, such as a wireless telephone, personal digital assistant, network appliance, set-top box, etc., to display electronic content from a computer network such as the Internet or an intranet, with virtually any font, even if the fonts from the electronic content do not exist on the electronic device. Electronic content written in languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc. can be displayed on an electronic device with limited resources using a small number of glyphs from the multiple thousands of possible glyphs that represent characters in such languages.

Claims

1. A method for dynamic font subsetting, the method comprising:

an intermediate network device receiving, over a first network, a first request for requested electronic content from an electronic device;

the intermediate network device obtaining the requested electronic content from a second network, the requested electronic content including a plurality of characters in one or more desired languages;

the intermediate network device scanning the requested electronic content to identify one or more sets of glyphs in the requested electronic content used for the plurality of characters in the one or more desired languages;

creating one or more glyph sub-sets for the one or more identified sets of glyphs, wherein the one or more glyph sub-sets include the sets of glyphs identified in the requested electronic content;

the intermediate network device, responsive to the scanning of the requested electronic content and the creating of the one or more glyph sub-sets, inserting one or more directives in the requested electronic content to identify the one or more glyph sub-sets, thereby creating modified electronic content, wherein a directive from the one or more directives identifies a set of glyphs from the one or more sets of glyphs identified in the requested electronic content and a pre-determined encoding scheme used to encode the set of glyphs; and

the intermediate network device sending the modified electronic content to the electronic device over the first network.

2. A computer readable medium having stored therein instructions for causing a central processing unit to execute the method of claim 1.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the first request comprises:

receiving a request for electronic content written in a mark-up language selected from a group of languages that includes standard generalized markup language, hyper text markup language, compact hyper text markup language, extensible markup language, handheld device markup language, voice extensible markup language, and wireless markup language.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the creating of the one or more glyph sub-sets comprises creating one or more glyph sub-sets for glyphs selected from a group of glyphs comprising Chinese glyphs, Japanese glyphs, Korean glyphs, Vietnamese glyphs, Hebrew glyphs, and Arabic glyphs.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the second network includes a network selected from a group of networks comprising the Internet, an intranet, and a local area network.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic device includes a device selected from a group of devices comprising a personal computer, a wireless telephone, a personal digital assistant, a hand-held computer, a set-top box, and a network appliance.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein inserting of the one or more directives in the requested electronic content comprises:

inserting one or more directives as hyper text markup language meta tags into a hyper text markup language header associated with the requested electronic content.

8. A method for dynamic font subsetting, the method comprising:

an intermediate network device identifying a glyph set in a requested electronic content obtained by the intermediate network device in response to a first request received over a first network from an electronic device, wherein the intermediate network device obtained the requested electronic content over a second network in response to the first request;

the intermediate network device identifying a glyph sub-set from the glyph set, the glyph sub-set including glyphs identified in the requested electronic content;

the intermediate network device inserting one or more directives into the requested electronic content to create modified electronic content, the one or more directives identifying the glyph set and a pre-determined encoding scheme used to encode the glyph set;

the intermediate network device receiving a second request from the electronic device for the glyph sub-set, the request being generated by the electronic device as a result of the one or more directives;

the intermediate network device obtaining the glyph sub-set; and

the intermediate network device sending the glyph sub-set to the electronic device over the first network to allow the electronic device to display glyphs in the modified electronic content.

9. A computer readable medium having stored therein instructions for causing a central processing unit to execute the method of claim 8.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the obtaining of the glyph subset is from a database associated with the intermediate network device.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the obtaining of the glyph subset comprises:

consulting a database associated with the intermediate network device to determine if the glyph sub-set already exists on the electronic device; and

creating the glyph sub-set if the glyph sub-set does not already exist on the electronic device.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the obtaining of the one or more glyph subsets comprises:

creating a database entry for the electronic device in a database associated with the intermediate network device, wherein the database entry includes an identifier for the electronic device and an identifier for the glyph sub-set sent to the electronic device by the intermediate network device.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein the receiving of the request comprises:

receiving one or more requests for modified electronic content including one or more directives written in a mark-up language selected from a group of languages including standard generalized markup language, hyper text markup language, compact hyper text markup language, extensible markup language, handheld device markup language, voice extensible markup language, and wireless markup language.

14. The method of claim 8 wherein the obtaining of the glyph sub-set comprises:

obtaining one or more glyph sub-sets for glyphs selected from a group of glyphs comprising Chinese glyphs, Japanese glyphs, Korean glyphs, Vietnamese glyphs, Hebrew glyphs, and Arabic glyphs.

15. A method for dynamic font subsetting, the method comprising:

an electronic device sending a first request for electronic content to an intermediate network device over a first network;

responsive to the sending of the first request for the electronic content, the electronic device receiving modified electronic content from the intermediate network device over the first network, wherein the modified electronic content is created responsive to the first request and includes the electronic content obtained by the intermediate network device over a second network, and one or more directives determined by the intermediate network device, wherein a directive identifies a glyph sub-set including a set of glyphs identified in the modified electronic content and a pre-determined encoding scheme used to encode the set of glyphs;

the electronic device processing the modified electronic content, thereby identifying the one or more directives;

the electronic device sending at least one second request to the intermediate network device based on the one or more identified directives to request one or more glyph sub-sets to allow the electronic device to display the modified electronic content;

the electronic device receiving one or more glyph sub-sets from the intermediate network device in response to the at least one second request; and

the electronic device displaying the modified electronic content using the one or more glyph sub-sets.

16. A computer readable medium having stored therein instructions for causing a central processing unit to execute the method of claim 15.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the electronic device includes a device selected from a group of devices comprising a personal computer, a wireless telephone, a personal digital assistant, a hand-held computer, a set-top box, and a network appliance.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein receiving modified electronic content comprises:

receiving modified electronic content with a plurality of font tags written in a mark-up language selected from a group of languages including standard generalized markup language, hyper text markup language, compact hyper text markup language, extensible markup language, handheld device markup language, voice extensible markup language, and wireless markup language.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein receiving one or more glyph sub-sets from the intermediate network device comprises:

receiving one or more glyph sub-sets for glyphs selected from a group of glyphs comprising Chinese glyphs, Japanese glyphs, Korean glyphs, Vietnamese glyphs, Hebrew glyphs, and Arabic glyphs.

20. The method of claim 15 wherein processing the modified electronic content comprises:

identifying one or more directives as hyper text markup language meta tags into a hyper text markup language header associated with the modified electronic content.

21. A method for dynamic font sub setting, the method comprising:

an electronic device reading modified electronic content from local storage on the electronic device, wherein the modified electronic content includes requested electronic content and one or more directives, wherein a directive from the one or more directives identifies a glyph sub-set including a set of glyphs identified in the requested electronic content and a pre-determined encoding scheme used to encode the set of glyphs;

the electronic device processing the modified electronic content, thereby identifying the one or more directives, the directives being inserted in the requested electronic content to create the modified electronic content;

the electronic device determining from the one or more directives whether a desired glyph sub-set can be obtained from local storage on the electronic device, and if not,

sending one or more requests over a network to an intermediate network device to obtain glyph sub-sets that can not be obtained from local storage on the electronic device;

receiving, from the intermediate network device over the network, the glyph sub-sets that can not be obtained from local storage from the intermediate network device on the electronic device; and

displaying the modified electronic content on the electronic device using the glyph sub-sets obtained from the intermediate network device.

22. A computer readable medium having stored therein instructions for causing a central processing unit to execute the method of claim 21.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein the one or more glyph sub-sets include glyphs selected from a group of glyphs comprising Chinese glyphs, Japanese glyphs, Korean glyphs, Vietnamese glyphs, Hebrew glyphs, and Arabic glyphs.

24. The method of claim 21 wherein processing the electronic content comprises:

identifying one or more directives as hyper text markup language meta tags into a hyper text markup language header associated with the modified electronic content.

25. The method of claim 21 wherein the electronic device includes a device selected from a group of devices comprising a personal computer, wireless telephone, personal digital assistant, hand-held computer, set-top box, and network appliance.

26. The method of claim 21 further comprising:

determining from the one or more directives in the modified electronic content whether a desired glyph sub-set can be obtained from local storage on the electronic device, and if so,

displaying the modified electronic content on the electronic device using the one or more glyph sub-sets obtained from local storage.

27. A dynamic font subsetting system, comprising:

modified electronic content including requested electronic content as obtained by an intermediate network device over a first network and sent to an electronic device over a second network in response to a first request from the electronic device for the requested electronic content, and further including one or more directives for identifying one or more glyph sub-sets, the one or more glyph sub-sets including sets of glyphs identified in the requested electronic content, and one or more pre-determined encoding schemes used to encode the sets of glyphs, wherein the sets of glyphs are used to represent a plurality of characters in one or more desired languages included within the requested electronic content; and

the electronic device to request the requested electronic content and to receive and display the modified electronic content, wherein the electronic device does not have stored information for all glyphs for all characters in the one or more desired languages.

28. The dynamic font subsetting system of claim 27 further comprising the intermediate network device to

receive the first request from the electronic device for the requested electronic content,

obtain the requested electronic content from the first network, the requested electronic content including the plurality of characters in the one or more desired languages,

scan the requested electronic content to identify the sets of glyphs in the requested electronic content used for the plurality of characters in the one or more desired languages,

create the one or more glyph sub-sets for the sets of glyphs, wherein the one or more glyph sub-sets include the sets of glyphs identified in the requested electronic content,

insert the one or more directives in the requested electronic content to identify the one or more glyph sub-sets, thereby creating the modified electronic content, wherein a directive identifies a glyph sub-set including a set of glyphs identified in the requested electronic content and an encoding scheme used to encode the set of glyphs,

send the modified electronic content to the electronic device over the second network.

29. The dynamic font subsetting system of claim 28 further comprising:

a database associated with the intermediate network device to store the one or more glyph sub-sets including sets of glyphs obtained or created by the intermediate network device to display the modified electronic content on the electronic device and to store database entries for a plurality of electronic devices, wherein a database entry includes an identifier for the electronic device and a list of one or more glyph sub-sets obtained or created by the intermediate network device for the electronic device.

30. A method performed by an intermediate network device, the method comprising:

receiving, over a first network, a first request for requested electronic content from a portable electronic device;

obtaining the requested electronic content from a second network, wherein the requested electronic content includes a plurality of characters in one or more desired languages;

scanning the requested electronic content to identify one or more sets of glyphs in the requested electronic content used for the plurality of characters;

creating one or more glyph sub-sets for the one or more identified sets of glyphs, wherein the one or more glyph sub-sets include glyphs identified in the requested electronic content;

inserting one or more directives in the requested electronic content to identify the one or more glyph sub-sets, thereby creating modified electronic content; and

sending the modified electronic content to the electronic device over the first network.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

receiving, over the first network and in response to sending the modified electronic content, at least one second request from the electronic device for the one or more glyph sub-sets; and

sending the one or more glyph sub-sets to the electronic device over the first network.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein the first network and the second network are a same network.

33. A method performed by an electronic device, the method comprising:

sending a first request for electronic content to an intermediate network device over a first network;

responsive to the sending of the first request, receiving modified electronic content from the intermediate network device over the first network, wherein the modified electronic content is created responsive to the first request, and includes the electronic content obtained by the intermediate network device over a second network, and one or more directives, which identify one or more glyph sub-sets corresponding to a set of glyphs identified by the intermediate network device from the electronic content;

sending at least one second request to the intermediate network device, based on the one or more directives, to request the one or more glyph sub-sets;

receiving the one or more glyph sub-sets from the intermediate network device in response to the at least one second request; and

displaying the modified electronic content using the one or more glyph sub-sets.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the first network and the second network are a same network.