Wireless communication device with markup language based man-machine interface

• US 6,317,781 B1
• Filed: 06/27/2000
• Issued: 11/13/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Access Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Geoworks Corporation
• Inventors: De Boor, Adam, Eggers, Michael D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Barot, Bharat
• Application Number:
  US09/604,833
• Time in Patent Office: 504 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202-203, 709/217-219, 709/225-229, 709/250, 707/9-10, 707/500-501, 707/513, 370/310, 370/312-313, 345/326, 345/329-341, 345/164, 345/172, 345/357
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9562 Bookmark management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2748 by matching character strings
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72445 for supporting Internet browser applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72469 for operating the device by selecting functions from two or more displayed items, e.g. menus or icons
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/56 including a user help function
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access

Abstract

A system, method, and software product provide a wireless communications device with a markup language based man-machine interface. The man-machine interface provides a user interface for the various telecommunications functionality of the wireless communication device, including dialing telephone numbers, answering telephone calls, creating messages, sending messages, receiving messages, establishing configuration settings, which are defined in markup language, such as HTML, and accessed through a browser program executed by the wireless communication device. This feature enables direct access to Internet and World Wide Web content, such as Web pages, to be directly integrated with telecommunication functions of the device, and allows Web content to be seamlessly integrated with other types of data, since all data presented to the user via the user interface is presented via markup language-based pages. The browser processes an extended form of HTML that provides new tags and attributes that enhance the navigational, logical, and display capabilities of conventional HTML, and particularly adapt HTML to be displayed and used on wireless communication devices with small screen displays. The wireless communication device includes the browser, a set of portable components, and portability layer. The browser includes protocol handlers, which implement different protocols for accessing various functions of the wireless communication device, and content handlers, which implement various content display mechanisms for fetching and outputting content on a screen display.

Claims

1. A new wireless communication device comprising:

a screen display;

a memory;

a processor coupled to the screen display and the memory;

a plurality of user interface pages stored in the memory and encoded in a markup language, the user interface pages providing substantially all access to the functions of the wireless communication device, and including user interface pages providing access to telecommunication functions of the wireless communication device; and

a markup language browser, executed by the processor, and communicatively coupled to the memory and the screen display, that;

accesses either the stored user interface pages from the memory or remotely stored pages encoded in the markup language via a telecommunications network;

decodes accessed pages to display user interface elements on the screen display; and

effects a telecommunication function in response to a user input to a displayed user interface element.

2. A computer implemented method processing a page of data encoded in a markup language, the page including a reference to an embedded object, the method comprising:

a receiving a user selection of a displayed user interface element in the page, the element associated with a URL encoded within the page, the URL having a protocol component and a data component;

invoking the embedded object, and providing the URL to the embedded object for processing; and

responsive to the embedded object not processing the URL, either fetching content specified by the data component, or executing a command specified by the data component.

3. A computer implemented method of processing a page of data encoded in a markup language, the page including a reference to an embedded object, the method comprising:

receiving a user selection of a displayed user interface element in the page, the element associated with a command encoded within the page, the command having a protocol component and a data component; and

invoking the embedded object, and providing the command to the embedded object for processing, the embedded object processing the command using an internally defined function.

4. A wireless communication device comprising:

a screen display;

a memory;

a processor coupled to the screen display and the memory;

a plurality of user interface pages stored in the memory and encoded in a markup language, the user interface pages providing substantially all access to the functions of the wireless communication device, and including user interface pages providing access to telecommunication functions of the wireless communication device; and

browser means excuted by the processor, and communicatively coupled to the memory and the screen display, and including;

to the memory and the screen display, and including;

means for accessing either the stored user interface pages from the memory or remotely stored pages encoded in the markup language via a telecommunications network;

means for decoding accessed pages to display user interface elements on the screen display; and

means for effecting a telecommunication function in response to a user input to a displayed user interface element.

5. A computer implemented method for automatically displaying help data to a user, comprising:

displaying a window having a title in a title bar area;

incrementing a coutner of an amount of time elapsed since a last user input; and

responsive to the counter equaling or exceeding a threshold amount of time, replacing the title by scrolling first help data in the title bar area.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

responsive to a completion of scrolling the first help data;

redisplaying the title in the title bar;

resetting the counter;

incrementing the counter; and

responsive to the counter equaling or exceeding the threshold amount, replacing the title bar by scrolling second help data in the title bar.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising the initial steps of:

receiving markup language page including a title tag defining the title and a help tag defining the first help data;

storing the first help data; and

displaying the markup language page in the window, including displaying the title in the title bar.

8. A browser program conduct for controlling the operation of a wireless communication device by execution of the browser by a processor of the wireless communication device, the browser executing the operations of:

decoding a markup language page, the page including a title tag defining a title of the page, and a help tag specifying help data;

storing the help;

displaying the page in a window;

displaying the title in a title bar area of the window;

determining an elapsed amount of time since a last user input;

responsive to the elapsed amount exceeding a threshold, replacing the title in the title bar area by scrolling the stored help data in the title bar; and

responsive to completion of the scrolling of the stored hep data, redisplaying the title in the title bar area.

9. A computer implemented method for automatically displaying data to a user, comprising:

receiving a markup language page containing a tag including displayable text in a header portion of the page, and a title;

displaying the markup language page in a window having the title in a title bar area;

incrememnting a counter of an elapsed amount of time; and

responsive to the counter equaling or exceeding a threshold amount of time, replacing the title by scrolling the dispayable text included in the tag in the title bar area.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 9, wherein the tag contained in the markup language page is <

MARQUEE>

tag.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 9, wherein the data displayed to the user is advertising data.

12. A browser program product for controlling the operation of a wireless communication device by execution of the browser by a processor of the wireless communication device and displaying a page of markup language data, the browser executing the operations of:

receiving a markup language page containing a tag including displayable text in a header portion of the page, and a title;

displaying the markup language page in a window having the title in a title bar area;

incrementing a counter of an elapsed amount of time; and

responsive to the counter equaling or exceeding a threshold amount of time, replacing the title by scrolling the displayable text included in the tag in the title bar area.

13. A computer implemented method of navigating a page of data including at least one selectable hyperlink, in a computer system including a screen display but not including an independent cursor controlled by a peripheral pointing device, the method comprising:

scrolling the page in a direction on the screen display in response to a user input to display only a portion of the page; and

automatically and iteratively assigning a next visible hyperlink in the direction of the scrolling and in the displayed portion of the page to a user selectable key.

14. A computer implemented method of navigating a page of data including a plurality of form fields, each form field having a type, in a computer system including a screen display and a keypad having a plurality of keys, but not including an independent cursor controlled by a peripheral pointing device, the method comprising:

scrolling the page in a direction on the screen display in response to a user input to display only a portion of the data file;

determining whether a next form field in the drection of scrolling is visible;

responsive to the next form field in the direction of scrolling being visible, making next form field a current form field for receiving a user input; and

assigning an action for manipulating the current form field to a key of the key pad according to the type of the current form field.