Method, apparatus, and browser to support full-page web browsing on hand-held wireless devices

• US 8,533,628 B2
• Filed: 04/15/2007
• Issued: 09/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• 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:
  US11/735,477
• Publication Number:
  US 20070198916A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,340 Days
• Field of Search: 715/249, 715/205, 715/234
• 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 Web content is provided that translates portions of Web content requested by a user from an original format to a scalable vector-based format. The scalable vector-based format enables the Web content to be rendered by the client such that the rendered display substantially retains an original page layout defined by the original format, while supporting scaling and panning of the Web content in real-time.

Claims

1. A method for enabling a user to perform full page browsing of a Web page on a hand-held wireless device in a manner that replicates browsing the Web page on a desktop Web browser, wherein the Web page comprises HTML-based content and cascading style sheet (CSS) content defining a page layout and design of display content on the Web page, the method comprising:

in response to a user request to access the Web page, retrieving HTML-based content and the CSS content corresponding to the Web page and processing the HTML-based content and CSS content with the Web browser rendering engine to interpret the page layout and design of the display content on the Web page at a first scale; and

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

enabling a user of the mobile device to zoom in on an image via a user input to a touchscreen display and wherein said 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;

and enabling the user to perform full page browsing of the Web page at multiple zoom levels by generating corresponding views of the Web page on the hand-held device under which the page layout and design of the display content is retained relative to the interpretation of the page layout and design of the display content at the first scale,

wherein each of the Web browser rendering engine and a Web browser rendering engine employed by a desktop browser for which browsing is replicated are the same.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the views of the Web page are generated by employing a vector-based rendering engine to effect scaling of the display content as interpreted at the first scale.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method enables the user to browse arbitrary user-selected pages from among billions of Web pages accessible via the World Wide Web on the hand-held wireless device in a manner that replicates browsing of those Web pages on a desktop Web browser in accordance with the method.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a browser is implemented on the hand-held wireless device having a content display area in which Web page views are displayed, further comprising enabling the user to perform zooming operations using tap-based user input detected by the touchscreen display and within the content display area.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein Web page views are displayed within a content display area, the method further comprising:

generating a scaled view of the Web page on the hand-held wireless device under which a width of the Web page is rendered to fit across a width of the content display area,

wherein the scaled view of the Web page comprises a magnified view of the Web page as interpreted at the first scale.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each scaled view of the Web page comprises a magnified view of a corresponding portion of the Web page as interpreted at the first.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein there is no degradation in quality of the presentation of text content when the zoom level is increased.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a browser is implemented on the hand-held wireless device having a content display area in which Web page views are displayed, further comprising enabling a user to zoom on a column of content displayed in a current view of the Web page by tapping, via the touchscreen display, within a portion of the column, wherein in response thereto, a zoom level, offset, and view of the Web page is updated such that a width of the column is displayed to fit across a width of the content display area in the updated view.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the Web page includes at least one image, and wherein a browser is implemented on the hand-held wireless device having a content display area in which Web page views are displayed, further comprising enabling a user to zoom on an image displayed in a current view of the Web page by tapping, via the touchscreen display, within the image, wherein in response thereto, a zoom level, offset, and view of the Web page is updated such that the image is displayed to fit across a width of the content display area in the updated view.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a browser is implemented on the hand-held wireless device having a content display area in which Web page views are displayed, further comprising enabling a user to zoom on a paragraph displayed in a current view of the Web page by tapping, via the touchscreen display, on text content within the paragraph, wherein in response thereto, a zoom level, offset, and view of the Web page is updated such that paragraph is displayed to fit across a width of the content display area in the updated view.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

defining a content display area comprising a rectangular portion of a browser user interface on which Web page content is to be displayed;

generating scaled display content in accordance with a current zoom level and pan offset; and

employing a display limit bounding box associated with the content display area to define a rectangular portion of the scaled display content that is to be displayed within the content display area to render a view of the Web page in accordance with the current zoom level and pan offset,

wherein a resolution of the display limit bounding box is the same as a resolution of the content display area.

12. The method of claim 1, where the touch screen display of the hand-held wireless device is disposed on a top portion of the device.

13. The method of claim 1, where the hand-held wireless device comprises a mobile phone.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the hand-held wireless device is configured to be held in the palm of a user.

15. A method to facilitate browsing of a Web page on a device employing a browser having a browser display area, comprising:

retrieving HTML-based content and cascading style sheet (CSS) content corresponding to the Web page defining layout information and attributes of content on the Web page comprising a plurality of objects including text objects, image objects, and layout objects;

processing the HTML-based content with a Web browser rendering engine to generate page layout information defining a layout location for each of the plurality of objects included in the Web page as interpreted at a first scale, wherein generation of the page layout information includes,

for each of the plurality of objects,

generating page layout information for the object including a bounding box;

generating information that links the object with its corresponding page layout information;

wherein the page layout information further includes information from which a page layout location of each of the bounding boxes can be determined;

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

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

enabling zooming on objects on the Web page, wherein, in response to a user tapping on an object within a first Web page view, a zoom level, offset, and view of the Web page is updated based on page layout information corresponding to the object,

wherein the objects comprise a plurality of different types of objects, and wherein under the updated zoom level and Web page view the layout locations of objects are retained relative to the layout location of the objects as interpreted at the first scale.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein one of the plurality of different types of objects comprises a column, the method further comprising:

in response to a user tapping within an area on a view of the Web page occupied by at least a portion of a column, zooming the Web page view on the column to produce a zoomed view of the Web page, wherein in the zoomed view of the Web page the column is enlarged and centered horizontally within the browser display area.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the column is enlarged so as to fit a width of the column across a width of the browser display area.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein one of the plurality of different types of objects comprises an image, the method further comprising:

in response to a user tapping on an image, zooming the Web page view on the image to produce a zoomed view of the Web page, wherein in the zoomed view of the Web page the image is enlarged and centered horizontally within the browser display area.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the image is enlarged so as to fit a width of the image across a width of the browser display area.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein one of the plurality of different types of objects comprises a paragraph, the method further comprising:

in response to a user tapping on a paragraph, zooming the Web page view on the paragraph to produce a zoomed view of the Web page, wherein in the zoomed view of the Web page, the paragraph is enlarged and centered horizontally within the browser display area.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the paragraph is enlarged so as to fit a width of the paragraph across a width of the browser display area.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the Web page comprises Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) content defining page layout aspects of the Web page, and wherein the page layout information is generated, at least in part, by processing the CSS content.

23. The method of claim 15, wherein the device comprises a hand-held wireless device and the Web page is designed to be viewed by a desktop Web browser, further comprising, after zooming the Web page view on the object, enabling the user to browse an entirety of the HTML-based content at the updated zoom level by panning views of the Web page in response to corresponding user input, wherein each panned view of the Web page comprises a magnified view of a corresponding portion of the Web page as would be rendered by a desktop Web browser employing the Web browser rendering engine at the first scale.

24. The method of claim 15, further comprising, after zooming the Web page view on the object, enabling the user to browse an entirety of the HTML-based content at the updated zoom level by panning views of the Web page, wherein the layout of objects in each panned view is retained relative to the layout of the objects as interpreted by the Web browser rendering engine at the first scale.

25. The method of claim 15, wherein the device comprises a hand-held device.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the hand-held device is configured to be held in the palm of a user.

27. The method of claim 15, wherein the device comprises a mobile phone.

28. A mobile device, comprising:

a processor;

a touchscreen display, operatively coupled to the processor;

a wireless communication interface, operatively coupled to the processor, to facilitate wireless communication with a network that supports access to the Internet; and

memory, operatively coupled to the processor, in which a plurality of instructions are stored including instructions comprising an operating system and a mobile browser having a Web browser rendering engine, wherein execution of the plurality of instructions by the mobile device enable the mobile device to perform operations including,

enabling a user to perform full page browsing of a Web page on the mobile device in a manner that replicates browsing the Web page on a desktop Web browser, wherein the Web page comprises HTML-based content and cascading style sheet (CSS) content defining a page layout and design of display content on the Web page, and enabling full page browsing of the Web page is implemented by,

in response to a user request to access the Web page, retrieving HTML-based content and CSS content corresponding to the Web page and processing the HTML-based content and CSS content with the Web browser rendering engine to interpret the page layout and design of the display content on the Web page at a first scale;

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

wherein each of the Web browser rendering engine and a Web browser rendering engine employed by a desktop browser for which browsing is replicated are the same.

29. The mobile device of claim 28, wherein the plurality of instructions further comprise instructions for implementing a vector-based rendering engine, and wherein scaled views of the Web page are generated by executing instructions corresponding to the vector-based rendering engine to effect scaling of the display content as interpreted at the first scale.

30. The mobile device of claim 28, wherein execution of the plurality of instructions enables the user to browse arbitrary user-selected pages from among billions of Web pages accessible via the World Wide Web on the mobile device in a manner that replicates browsing of those Web pages on a desktop Web browser.

31. The mobile device of claim 28, wherein the mobile browser is configured to display Web page views within a content display area on the touchscreen display, and wherein execution of the instructions further enables the user to perform zooming operations using tap-based user input detected by the touchscreen display and within the content display area.

32. The mobile device of claim 28, wherein the mobile device comprises a mobile phone.

33. The mobile device of claim 28, wherein the mobile device is configured to be held in the palm of a user.

34. A mobile device, comprising:

a processor;

a touchscreen display, operatively coupled to the processor;

a wireless communication interface, operatively coupled to the processor, to facilitate wireless communication with a network that supports access to the Internet; and

memory, operatively coupled to the processor, in which a plurality of instructions are stored including instructions comprising an operating system and a browser having a Web browser rendering engine, wherein execution of the plurality of instructions by the mobile device enable a user to perform full page browsing of a Web pages on the mobile device in a manner that replicates browsing the Web pages on a desktop Web browser by performing operations comprising,

in response to a user request to access each of a plurality of Web pages arbitrarily selected from among billions of Web pages accessible via the World Wide Web,

retrieving HTML-based content associated with the Web page and processing the HTML-based content with the Web browser rendering engine to interpret a page layout and design of display content on the Web page at a first scale and generate corresponding page layout information, wherein the page layout information defines a layout location for each of a plurality of objects included in the Web page as interpreted at the first scale and generation of the page layout information includes,

for each of the plurality of objects,

generating page layout information including a bounding box for the object; and

generating information that links the object with its corresponding page layout information;

wherein the page layout information further includes information from which a page layout location of each of the bounding boxes can be determined;

enabling the user to perform zooming of the Web page at multiple zoom levels and pan views of the Web page at each of the multiple zoom levels by generating corresponding scaled views of the Web page, wherein enabling the user to perform zooming operations includes performing zooming operations in response to tap-based user input, and wherein generation of a scaled view of the Web page is effected by,

for each text object to be included in scaled display content employed to generate the scaled view,

scaling page layout information associated with the text object using a scale factor associated with the scaled display content to determine a scaled datum that defines a scaled page layout location of the text object;

determining display attributes for the text object, including a font typeface, font size and color attribute; and

employing a scalable font associated with the font typeface to render text associated with the text object in a color associated with the color attribute, wherein the text is rendered relative to a location associated with the scaled datum for the text object, and wherein the scale applied to the scalable font is a function of the scale factor and the font size; and

for each image object to be included in scaled display content employed to generate the scaled view,

scaling page layout information associated with the image object using the scale factor to determine a scaled datum that defines a scaled page layout location of the image object; and

scaling scalable image content corresponding to the image object to produce a scaled image having a size that is a function of the scale factor and the bounding box corresponding to the image object; and

generating a scaled view of the Web page on the touchscreen display under which a width of the Web page is rendered to fit across a width of a content display area employed by the browser for displaying Web views.

35. The mobile device of claim 34, wherein each of the Web browser rendering engine and a Web browser rendering engine employed by a desktop browser for which browsing is replicated are the same.

36. The mobile device of claim 34, wherein a portion of the billions of Web pages comprise Web pages including Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) content defining aspects of the design of those Web pages, and wherein execution of the instructions performs further operations comprising:

in response to a user request to access a Web page including CSS content,

employing the Web browser rendering engine to interpret the page layout and design of the display content on the Web page in accordance with the CSS content.

37. The mobile device of claim 34, wherein each scaled view of the Web page comprises a magnified view of a corresponding portion of the Web page as interpreted at the first scale, and wherein there is no degradation in quality of the presentation of text content when the zoom level is increased.