Scalable display of internet content on mobile devices

• US 8,386,959 B2
• Filed: 11/29/2010
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: SoftView LLC
• Original Assignee: SoftView LLC
• Inventors: Rohrabaugh, Gary B., Sherman, Scott A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Paula, Cesar
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran, Quoc A
• Application Number:
  US12/955,487
• Publication Number:
  US 20110231782A1
• Time in Patent Office: 820 Days
• Field of Search: 715/249, 715200-205, 715234-238, 715/705, 715/760, 715/800, 715/825
• US Class Current: 715/815
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1048 Scalability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0407 Resolution change, inclusive of the use of different resolutions for different screen areas
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0492 Change of orientation of the displayed image, e.g. upside-down, mirrored
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/24 Generation of individual character patterns
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 : specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 : Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561

Abstract

Apparatus, methods and software for creating resolution-independent vector display of Internet (Web) content to allow Web pages to be scaled (zoomed) and panned for better viewing and/or to fit any resolution or screen size. According to one aspect, novel client-side processing of markup language-based Web content is provided that translates employs a rendering engine to interpret original page layout information into scalable page layout information. The scalable page layout information is then scaled and employed to enable the Web content to be rapidly rendered, zoomed, and panned. According to another aspect, display lists are generated to provide further enhancements in rendering speed. According to other aspects, bounding boxes are generated and scaled to lay out text and/or images on scaled Web content that is used to facilitate browsing of Web pages with zooming and panning.

Claims

1. A mobile device, comprising:

a processor;

a wireless communications interface operatively coupled to the processor, to facilitate communication with a network via which the World Wide Web accessed;

a touchscreen display comprising at least a portion of a top surface of the mobile device; and

memory, operatively coupled to the processor, in which a plurality of instructions are stored that when executed by the processor enable the mobile device to perform operations including,

in response to a request to access a Web page made via the mobile device,

retrieving HTML-based Web content associated with the Web page having an original format defining an original page layout, functionality, and design of content on the Web page, the content including text content, at least one image, and at least one hyperlink;

processing the HTML-based Web content with a rendering engine to generate page layout information corresponding to the original page layout as interpreted by the rendering engine, wherein the page layout information that is generated includes a bounding box for each image;

employing scaled page layout information and/or content derived therefrom to generate scaled Web page content at multiple scale factors;

employing the scaled Web page content to enable a user to browse the Web page at multiple zoom levels on the mobile device while preserving the original page layout, functionality, and design of the content on the Web page defined by the HTML-based Web content as interpreted by the rendering engine,

wherein preservation of the functionality includes preservation of hyperlink functionality; and

enabling a user of the mobile device to zoom in on an image via a user input to the touchscreen display and wherein scaled Web page content including one or more images is generated by scaling bounding boxes corresponding to the one or more images to produce scaled bounding boxes and, for each of the one or more images, scaling content associated with the image to produce a scaled image that fits within its corresponding scaled bounding box.

2. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the mobile device comprises a mobile phone.

3. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein execution of the instructions performs further operations comprising enabling the user to zoom in on a user-selectable portion of the Web page in response to a user interface input made via the touchscreen display.

4. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein views of the Web page are re-rendered in real-time to effect zooming operations.

5. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein execution of the instructions performs further operations comprising enabling a user to pan views of the Web page in real-time in response to corresponding user inputs made via the touchscreen display.

6. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein execution of the instructions performs further operations comprising:

processing the HTML-based Web content with the rendering engine to parse the text content into a plurality of text objects;

generating page layout information including a bounding box for each of the plurality of text objects; and

employing page layout information associated with the bounding boxes to effect preservation of the original page layout of the text content.

7. The mobile device of claim 6, wherein execution of the instructions performs further operations comprising:

scaling bounding boxes for text objects corresponding to text content in a view; and

employing the scaled bounding boxes to lay out corresponding text content within the scaled bounding boxes.

8. The mobile device of claim 7, wherein execution of the instructions performs further operations comprising:

employing a scalable font to scale text content for a text object to fit within a scaled bounding box.

9. The mobile device of claim 7, wherein execution of the instructions performs further operations comprising:

in conjunction with rendering a view of the Web page content,

employing the bounding boxes and/or content derived therefrom to determine image and text objects to be rendered.

10. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein execution of the instructions performs further operations comprising:

in response to a user input to pan a current view of the Web page to a new view displaying a portion of the Web page that is entirely not shown in the current view, generating scaled Web page content in real-time.

11. The mobile device of claim 10, wherein the scaled Web page content is generated in a fraction of a less than one second.

12. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein execution of the instructions performs further operations comprising enabling a user to zoom on a column of the Web content by tapping on the column via the touch-sensitive display, wherein in response thereto, the display is re-rendered such that content corresponding to the selected column is displayed across the touchscreen display.

13. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein execution of the instructions performs further operations comprising enabling a user to zoom on an image by tapping on the image via the touch-sensitive display, wherein in response thereto, the display is re-rendered such that the image is displayed to fit a width of a display area of the touchscreen display used for displaying Web page content.

14. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the scalable content includes scalable text content, and wherein execution of the instructions performs further operations comprising scaling a scalable font to render the scalable text content.

15. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein execution of the instructions performs further operations comprising:

employing the rendering engine to interpret a width of the Web page; and

rendering a view of the Web page wherein the width of the Web page is rendered to fit across a width of a display area on the touchscreen display used for displaying Web page content.

16. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein execution of the instructions enables the user to access user-selected Web pages from among billions of Web pages available via the World Wide Web while preserving an original page layout, hyperlink functionality, and design defined by the HTML-based Web content as interpreted by a rendering engine for each of the user-selected Web pages.

17. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein preservation of functionality includes preservation of input form functionality.

18. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the rendering engine comprises a desktop rendering engine.