Visual content browsing with zoom and pan features

• US 7,688,327 B2
• Filed: 06/06/2007
• Issued: 03/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: DigiMedia Tech, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: Farodall Mgmt NY LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Weiss, Howard P., Robotham, John S., Johnson, Charles Lee
• Primary Examiner(s): Sajous; Wesner
• Application Number:
  US11/759,208
• Publication Number:
  US 20070263007A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,028 Days
• Field of Search: 345/418, 345/619, 345629-630, 345/632, 345/634, 345/650, 345/652, 715/500, 715/526, 715/700, 715/733, 715/744, 715/748, 715/751, 715/752, 715/764, 709200-205, 709/219, 709/213, 709/227, 709/232, 709/238, 709245-246
• US Class Current: 345/581
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/509 Offload
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5055 considering software capabilities, i.e. software resources associated or available to the machine
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/39 Control of the bit-mapped memory
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

The present invention relates to display of visual content on a client device using server-side rasterization of visual content. Visual content is rendered on a server system, transformed into bitmaps compatible with the display attributes of a client device, and transmitted for display on the client device. The invention allows the server to perform, in effect, as a remote browser for displaying Web pages, e-mail, e-mail attachments, electronic document and forms, database queries and results, drawings, presentations, and images at the client device. The approach is “remote” because the server does the rendering and the client provides the interface; “multi-level” because rendered visual content is represented as a multi-level set of raster representations; and constitutes a “browsing system” because the client and server share data about the source visual content element being browsed, and the client performs a specific browsing function assisted by the server.

Claims

1. A method for displaying visual content on a client device, comprising:

determining a display attribute of the client device;

automatically selecting a version of said visual content from among a selection of different versions of the visual content, wherein the different versions represent individual views of common visual content at different resolutions, wherein the automatic selection of said visual content is based on said display attribute of the client device;

preparing, in response to the selection of the version of said visual content, a rendered version of said visual content by rendering said selected version of said visual content; and

transforming said rendered version of said visual content into a bitmap.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the display attribute comprises a display size of a viewport of the client device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the display attribute comprises a selected resolution for displaying said visual content.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the display attribute comprises a region of said visual content selected by the client device for display thereon.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining the display attribute further comprises determining said display attribute in response to providing a selection of the different versions of the visual content.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said display attribute is selectable at the client device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device is operable to pan and scroll within said selected version of said visual content when displayed on the client device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual content includes text, and said bitmap is formatted to provide word wrapping of said text when displayed on said client device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein a font size of said text to be displayed on said client device is modifiable at said client device.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein said visual content comprises a Web page.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying said bitmap on the client device.

12. The method of claim 1, further compnsing transmitting said bitmap for display on the client device.

13. A method for displaying visual content on a client device, comprising:

determining a display attribute of the client device;

automatically selecting a version of said visual content from among a selection of different versions of the visual content, wherein the different versions represent respective views of different portions of said visual content, wherein the automatic selection of said visual content is based on said display attribute of the client device;

preparing, in response to the selection of the version of said visual content, a rendered version of said visual content by rendering said selected version of said visual content; and

transforming said rendered version of said visual content into a bitmap.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein at least one of the different portions of said visual content overlaps with at least one other portion of said visual content.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the different portions of said visual content represent a tiling of said visual content, with at least one of said portions abutting at least one other portion of said visual content.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the display attribute comprises a selection of a portion of said visual content.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein said determining the display attribute further comprises determining said display attribute in response to providing a selection of the different versions of the visual content.

18. The methof of claim 13, wherein said display attribute is selectable at the client device.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the client device is operable to pan and scroll within said selected version of said visual content when displayed on the client device.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the visual content includes text, and said bitmap is formatted to provide word wrapping of said text when displayed on said client device.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein a font size of said text to be displayed on said client device is modifiable at said client device.

22. The method of claim 13, wherein said visual content comprises a Web page.

23. The method of claim 13, further comprising displaying said bitmap on the client device.

24. The method of claim 13, further comprising transmitting said bitmap for display on the client device.

25. A method of preparing visual content for display on a client device, comprising:

establishing a communications link between the client device and a server;

determining a display attribute of the client device, said display attribute being selectable at the client device;

automatically selecting a version of said visual content from among a selection of different versions of the visual content, wherein the different versions represent respective views of common visual content presented at different resolution, wherein the selection of said visual content is based on said display attribute of the client device;

preparing, in response to the selection of the version of said visual content, a rendered version of said visual content by rendering said selected version of said visual content;

transforming, at the server, said rendered version of said visual content into a bitmap; and

transmitting said bitmap to the client device for display thereon.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the display attribute comprises a display size of a viewport of the client device.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the display attribute comprises a selected resolution for the display of said visual content.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein the display attribute comprises a region of said visual content selected by the client device for display thereon.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein said determining the display attribute further comprises determining said display attribute when providing the selection of the different versions of the visual content on the server to the client.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein the client device is operable to pan and scroll within said selected version of said visual content when displayed on the client device following receipt of said bitmap by said client device.

31. The method of claim 25, wherein the visual content includes text, and said bitmap is formatted to provide word wrapping of said text when displayed on said client device.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein said visual content comprises a Web page.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein said visual content comprises a Web page.

34. A method of preparing visual content for display on a client device, comprising:

establishing a communications link between the client device and a server;

determining a display attribute of the client device;

automatically selecting a version of said visual content from among a selection of different versions of the visual content, wherein the versions represent different portions of said visual content, wherein the automatic selection of said visual content is based on said display attribute of the client device;

preparing, in response to the selection of the version of said visual content, a rendered version of said visual content by rendering said selected version of said visual content;

transforming, at the server, said rendered version of said visual content into a bitmap; and

transmitting said bitmap to the client device for display thereon.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein at least one of the different portions of said visual content overlaps with at least one other portion of said visual content.

36. The method of claim 34, wherein the different portions of said visual content represent a tiling of said visual content, with at least one of said portions abutting at least one other portion of said visual content.

37. The method of claim 34, wherein the display attribute comprises a selection of a portion of said visual content.

38. The method of claim 34, wherein said determining the display attribute further comprises determining said display attribute when providing the selection of the different versions of the visual content on the server to the client device.

39. The method of claim 34, wherein said display attribute is selectable at the client device.

40. The method of claim 34, wherein the client device is operable to pan and scroll within said selected version of said visual content when displayed on the client device following receipt of said bitmap by said client device.

41. The method of claim 34, wherein the visual content includes text, and said bitmap is formatted to provide word wrapping of said text when displayed on said client device.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein a font size of said text to be displayed on said client device is modifiable at said client device.

43. The method of claim 34, wherein said visual content comprises a Web page.

44. A method of displaying a Web page on a client display device, comprising:

receiving,at a server, a communication from said client device;

determining, from said communication, a display size and a display resolution for a display device forming a part of said client device;

preparing at the server, in response to the determined display size and display resolution, a selection of a plurality of versions of said Web page for display on said client device;

receiving, from said client device, a selection of one of said plurality of versions of said Web page;

preparing, in response to said selection, a rendered version of said Web page by rendering said selected version of said Web page;

transforming, at the server, said rendered version of said Web page into a bitmap; and

transmitting said bitmap to the client device for display thereon.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein said versions of said Web page represent respective views of said Web page at different resolutions.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein the resolutions of the different versions of said Web page are selectable by the client device.

47. The method of claim 44, wherein said versions of said Web page represent different portions of said Web page, a number of versions and size of the different portions of said Web page being a function of the determined display size and the display resolution of said display device.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein a version of said Web page is selectable by the client device.

49. The method of claim 44, wherein the client device is operable to pan and scroll within said selected version of said Web page when displayed on the client device, following receipt of said bitmap by said client device.

50. The method of claim 44, wherein the Web page includes text, and said bitmap is formatted to provide word wrapping of said text when displayed on said client device.

51. The method of claim 50, wherein a font size of said text to be displayed on said client device is modifiable at said client device.

52. A method for displaying visual Web content on a client device comprising:

configuring an overview of said visual Web content to serve as a navigational map for selection of a region of said visual Web content;

transmitting a representation of the overview of said visual Web content for display on said client device;

receiving, from said client device, a selection of said region of said visual Web content;

preparing, in response to said selection, a rendered region by rendering said selected region of said visual Web content;

transforming said rendered region of said visual Web content into a bitmap; and

transmitting said bitmap to the client device for display thereon.

53. The method of claim 52, wherein said preparing said rendered region of said visual Web content takes place on a server communicatively coupled to the client device, when preparing said rendered region is performed in response to receiving said selection by said server from said client device.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein said transforming takes place at said server.