TV centric layout

• US 6,326,970 B1
• Filed: 10/02/1998
• Issued: 12/04/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Liberate Technologies
• Inventors: Helman, James, Mott, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayerl, Raymond J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): JOSEPH, THOMAS J
• Application Number:
  US09/165,865
• Time in Patent Office: 1,159 Days
• Field of Search: 345/443, 345/439, 345/123, 345/130, 345/341, 345/342, 345/343, 345/974, 345/327, 345/328, 345/357, 345/326, 707/504, 707/503, 707/908, 707/513, 707/514, 707/515, 707/517
• US Class Current: 345/667
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4355 involving reformatting operations of additional data, e.g. HTML pages on a television screen optimising the visualization of content for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/9577; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/066; media handling at the source in data packet switching networks H04L65/764
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4621 Controlling the complexity of the content stream or additional data, e.g. lowering the resolution or bit-rate of the video stream for a mobile client with a small screen arrangements for using the results of monitoring on user's side in broadcast systems H04H60/65; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8126 involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts

Abstract

Displaying a hypermedia document such as an HTML web page on a television display without using horizontal scroll bars, while preserving the look and feel of the web page as originally contemplated by the web page designer. When possible, each web page is reduced to fit within a specified threshold such as the horizontal margins of the display. Any vertical portion of the web page overlapping the vertical margin is accessed through a vertical scroll bar or similar technique. In a first pass, web page reduction includes rendering the web page without any scaling or changes to the web page and recording web page content statistics to obtain a global indicator as to the horizontal size of the entire web page. Content statistics recorded in each cell includes the following cell content characteristics: the width of the largest non-breaking line of elements; the width of the largest element within a non-breaking line; and the width of the largest embeds or non-breaking horizontal sequence of embeds within a cell. If the total width of the cells is within the specified threshold, no further reduction routine is necessary; otherwise each cell width is reduced using a cell characteristic to help define the new width of each cell. After reduction, the total width of the reduced cells is again checked if it is within the specified threshold. If so, the horizontal size of the web page is within the specified threshold is thus, rendered for a second time using the chosen cell characteristic to help define the width of each cell. Otherwise, successive iterations of cell reduction using a different cell characteristic is performed until the total width of each reduced cell is less than the specified threshold or until the entire set of cell characteristics available is exhausted.

Claims

1. A method of processing a layout for a page, the method comprising:

receiving a first layout for the page arranged for display at a first resolution; and

generating a second layout for the page from the first layout, the second layout arranged for display at a second resolution different from the first resolution, by;

(a) comparing a set of statistics for said first layout with a set of selected thresholds, (b) horizontally shrinking cells using a selected cell characteristic in response to said comparing to define a shrinkage amount, and (c) growing each cell until a total width equals or exceeds a selected horizontal threshold.

2. The method in claim 1, wherein said step of generating a first layout includes a step of recording cell statistics, said cell statistics including the width of the longest non-breaking line of elements, the width of the largest element, and the width of the largest embed and the width of the longest non-breaking horizontal sequence of embeds.

3. The method in claim 2, wherein said step of generating a first layout includes a step of calculating the total width of each cell used in said page in response to said statistics.

4. The method in claim 1, wherein said step of generating a second layout includes a step of reducing said cells to said width of the longest non-breaking line of elements and calculating the total width of said cells when said total width exceeds said selected horizontal threshold, otherwise growing said cells to create a page that has a total width less than or equal to said selected horizontal threshold.

5. The method in claim 1, wherein said step of generating a second layout includes a step of reducing each cell to the width of said longest non-breaking line of elements of said cell and calculating the total width of each cell in said page.

6. The method in claim 1, wherein said step of generating a second layout includes a step of setting the width of each cell having an embed to the width of said embed, and calculating the total width of each cell used in said page.

7. The method in claim 1, wherein said step of generating a second layout includes a step of calculating a scale factor when said total width exceeds said selected horizontal threshold, otherwise growing each cell to create a web page that has a width less than or equal to said selected horizontal threshold, said scale factor calculated so that when applied to each embed in each cell, the total width of each cell is equal to or less than said selected horizontal threshold.

8. The method in claim 1, wherein said step of generating a second layout includes a step of laying out said page having embeds scaled by said scale factor.

9. The method in claim 8, wherein said step of generating a second layout includes a step of applying said scale factor to at least one background embed in said page.

10. The method in claim 1, further including a step of separating said page into sections, said sections defined by an area having at least one embed vertically separated from another embed in said page by text or space.

11. The method in claim 10, wherein said step of generating a second layout includes a step of calculating a scale factor when said total width exceeds said selected horizontal threshold, otherwise growing each cell to create a page that has a total width that is less than or equal to said selected horizontal threshold, said scale factor calculated so that when applied to each embed in at least one selected section, the total width of said page is equal to or less than said selected horizontal threshold.

12. The method as in claim 1, wherein the horizontal threshold is a width of a displayed portion of a television display screen, whereby the layout is scaled so as to fit on the displayed portion.

13. The method as in claim 1, wherein the set of statistics includes a total width of each cell in the first layout, a width of a widest non-breaking line of items in each cell, a sum of widths of each longest non-breaking line of items of each cell, a width of a widest item in each cell, and a sum of widths of each widest item of each cell.

14. The method as in claim 13, wherein the set of statistics further includes a width of a widest embed element that is to be scaled.

15. The method as in claim 1, wherein cells are shrunk and grown horizontally but not vertically.

16. The method as in claim 1, wherein when a cell is shrunk or grown, images are shrunk or grown, but text is not shrunk or grown.

17. A method of displaying a web page on a television display screen having a horizontal margin, the web page having at least one cell containing web page content, the method comprising the steps of;

receiving the web page arranged for display at a resolution different from a resolution of the television display;

processing the web page for display at the resolution of the television display by;

(a) laying out each cell;

(b) recording statistics on the web page content, said statistics including the total width of each cell, the widest non-breaking line of items in each cell, the sum of each said longest non-breaking line of items of each cell, the widest item in each cell, and the sum of each said widest item of each cell;

(c) calculating the total width of each cell used in the web page in response to said statistics;

(d) reducing each cell width to said longest non-breaking line of elements of each cell and calculating the total width of each cell used in the web page, if said total width exceeds the horizontal margin, otherwise growing each cell to create a web page that has a width less than or equal to the horizontal margin;

(e) converting said widest non-breaking line of items in each cell to a breakable line of items and calculating the total width of each cell used in the web page, if said total width exceeds the horizontal margin, otherwise growing each cell to create a web page that has a width less than or equal to the horizontal margin;

(f) setting the width of each cell having an embed to the width of said embed and calculating the total width of each cell used in the web page, if said total width exceeds the horizontal margin, otherwise growing each cell to create a web page that has a width less than or equal to the horizontal margin; and

(g) calculating a scale factor so that if applied to each embed in each cell the total width of each cell is equal to or less than the horizontal margin, if said total width exceeds the horizontal margin, otherwise growing each cell to create a web page that has a width less than or equal to the horizontal margin; and

displaying the processed web page on the television display.

18. The method in claim 17, further including a step of laying out said page having embeds scaled by said scale factor.

19. The method as in claim 17, wherein the statistics recorded on the web page content further include a width of a widest embed element that is to be scaled.

20. The method as in claim 17, wherein cells are reduced and grown horizontally but not vertically.

21. The method as in claim 17, wherein when a cell is shrunk or grown, images are shrunk or grown, but text is not shrunk or grown.

22. The method as in claim 17, further comprising the step of applying the scale factor to the cells.

23. The method as in claim 22, wherein the scale factor is applied to images in the cells, but not to text in the cells.

24. A program recorded in a computer-readable medium for processing a layout of a page, the program comprising the steps of:

receiving a first layout for the page arranged for display at a first resolution; and

generating a second layout for the page from the first layout, the second layout arranged for display at a second resolution different from the first resolution, by;

(a) comparing a set of statistics for said first layout with a set of selected thresholds, (b) horizontally shrinking cells using a selected cell characteristic in response to said comparing to define a shrinkage amount, and (c) growing each cell until a total width equals or exceeds a selected horizontal threshold.

25. An apparatus having a program recorded in a computer-readable medium for processing a layout of a page, the apparatus comprising:

means for receiving a first layout for the page arranged for display at a first resolution; and

means for generating a second layout for the page from the first layout, the second layout arranged for display at a second resolution different from the first resolution, by;

(a) comparing a set of statistics for said first layout with a set of selected thresholds, (b) horizontally shrinking cells using a selected cell characteristic in response to said comparing to define a shrinkage amount, and (c) growing each cell until a total width equals or exceeds a selected horizontal threshold.

26. A program recorded in a computer-readable medium for displaying a web page on a television display screen having a horizontal margin, the web page having at least one cell containing web page content, the program comprising the steps of:

receiving the web page arranged for display at a resolution different from a resolution of the television display;

processing the web page for display at the resolution of the television display by;

(a) laying out each cell;

(b) recording statistics on the web page content, said statistics including the total width of each cell, the widest non-breaking line of items in each cell, the sum of each said longest non-breaking line of items of each cell, the widest item in each cell, and the sum of each said widest item of each cell;

(c) calculating the total width of each cell used in the web page in response to said statistics;

(d) reducing each cell width to said longest non-breaking line of elements of each cell and calculating the total width of each cell used in the web page, if said total width exceeds the horizontal margin, otherwise growing each cell to create a web page that has a width less than or equal to the horizontal margin;

(e) converting said widest non-breaking line of items in each cell to a breakable line of items and calculating the total width of each cell used in the web page, if said total width exceeds the horizontal margin, otherwise growing each cell to create a web page that has a width less than or equal to the horizontal margin;

(f) setting the width of each cell having an embed to the width of said embed and calculating the total width of each cell used in the web page, if said total width exceeds the horizontal margin, otherwise growing each cell to create a web page that has a width less than or equal to the horizontal margin; and

(g) calculating a scale factor so that if applied to each embed in each cell the total width of each cell is equal to or less than the horizontal margin, if said total width exceeds the horizontal margin, otherwise growing each cell to create a web page that has a width less than or equal to the horizontal margin; and

displaying the processed web page on the television display.

27. An apparatus having a program recorded in a computer-readable medium for displaying a web page on a television display screen having a horizontal margin, the web page having at least one cell containing web page content, the apparatus comprising:

means for receiving the web page arranged for display at a resolution different from a resolution of the television display; and

means for processing the web page for display at the resolution of the television display by;

(a) laying out each cell;

(b) recording statistics on the web page content, said statistics including the total width of each cell, the widest non-breaking line of items in each cell, the sum of each said longest non-breaking line of items of each cell, the widest item in each cell, and the sum of each said widest item of each cell;

(c) calculating the total width of each cell used in the web page in response to said statistics;

(d) reducing each cell width to said longest non-breaking line of elements of each cell and calculating the total width of each cell used in the web page, if said total width exceeds the horizontal margin, otherwise growing each cell to create a web page that has a width less than or equal to the horizontal margin;

(e) converting said widest non-breaking line of items in each cell to a breakable line of items and calculating the total width of each cell used in the web page, if said total width exceeds the horizontal margin, otherwise growing each cell to create a web page that has a width less than or equal to the horizontal margin;

setting the width of each cell having an embed to the width of said embed and calculating the total width of each cell used in the web page, if said total width exceeds the horizontal margin, otherwise growing each cell to create a web page that has a width less than or equal to the horizontal margin; and

(g) calculating a scale factor so that if applied to each embed in each cell the total width of each cell is equal to or less than the horizontal margin, if said total width exceeds the horizontal margin, otherwise growing each cell to create a web page that has a width less than or equal to the horizontal margin; and

means for displaying the processed web page on the television display.