Micro-client for Internet Appliances

• US 20090327522A1
• Filed: 09/01/2009
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures I LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Intellectual Ventures I LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Nguyen, Julien T.
• Granted Patent: US 8,224,998 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/246
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0847 Transmission error
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A method and system are described for providing features for internet access at an internet appliance which go beyond the resource limitations of the internet appliance. Such features may be implemented on the server, and coupled to the internet appliance for display, responsive to the ability of the internet appliance to provide those features. (1) The internet appliance and the server adapt to communication link limitations by dynamically adjusting picture quality or size for graphics to be displayed. (2) The internet appliance and the server adapt to memory and processor limitations by dynamically running applets at the server and intercepting display functions of applets for display at the internet appliance. (3) The internet appliance and the server adapt to memory and processor limitations by dynamically running editing programs or web pages at the server and by dynamically adjusting picture quality or size for graphics to be displayed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

responsive to a transmission measure for a communication link between a server and a client, individually and dynamically adjusting a quality measure by the server for updates to a web object; and

transmitting the adjusted updates by the server for receipt and display by the client via the communication link.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the adjusting of the quality measure is performed substantially smoothly.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmission measure is a bit transmission rate.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the quality measure is a measure of picture quality.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the quality measure is a measure of picture size.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising dynamically measuring the transmission measure by the server.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the adjusting is performed so that display of a single web page takes substantially constant time.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the communication link is associated with a measure of transmission cost.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the adjusting is performed so that display of a single web page takes substantially constant cost.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the web object is a web page and the updates include updates to elements of the web page described in HTML language.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the web object includes non-image elements.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the web object is a graphic.

13. A tangible computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions comprising an editing program that is configured to:

generate updates for a graphic responsive to editing commands received from a client via a communication link; and

adjust a graphic quality measure for the updates in response to a transmission measure for the communication link.

14. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the adjustment of the quality measure is performed substantially smoothly.

15. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the editing program is further configured to cause the updates to be transmitted via the communication link for receipt and display by the client.

16. An apparatus comprising a web client that is configured to receive an update to a graphic via a communication link from a server, the update having a quality measure that is individually and dynamically adjusted by the server responsive to a transmission measure for the communication link.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the adjustment of the quality measure is performed substantially smoothly.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the transmission measure is a bit transmission rate.

19. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the quality measure is a measure of picture quality or picture size.

20. An apparatus comprising a web client that is configured to:

request a web page from a server that includes embedded executable code; and

receive a displayable result from the server as one or more display updates, the displayable result generated by the server by fetching the web page over a network and executing the embedded executable code of the fetched web page at the server.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the server is configured to cache the web page.

22. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein at least a portion of a link between the server and the apparatus is wireless.

23. A method comprising, at a server:

processing a fetched web page that includes embedded executable code on the server into a displayable result, wherein the processing comprises executing the embedded executable code to produce an execution result that is included in the displayable result; and

transmitting the displayable result as one or more display updates for receipt by a client that requested the fetched web page.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the displayable result does not include the embedded executable code.

25. The method of claim 23 wherein the displayable result is configured to be output by the client without executing the embedded executable code.

26. The method of claim 23 wherein at least a portion of a link between the server and the client is wireless.

27. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

monitoring a communication link between the server and the client; and

adjusting a quality measure of the one or more display updates responsive to at least one transmission measure of the communication link.