Hand held device having a browser application

• US 6,938,101 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2001
• Issued: 08/30/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Universal Electronics, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Universal Electronics, Inc.
• Inventors: Huang, Steve LanPing, Hayes, Patrick H., Yuh, Han-Sheng, Wang, Weidong William, Presseau, Joyce M., Lim, Jonathan Christian
• Primary Examiner(s): Gaffin, Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chen, Alan S.
• Application Number:
  US09/905,396
• Publication Number:
  US 20020143805A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,509 Days
• Field of Search: 710/5, 710/15, 710/72, 715/501, 715/503, 345/700, 345/740, 345/744, 345/760
• US Class Current: 710/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1632 External expansion units, e.g. docking stations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1643 the display being associated to a digitizer, e.g. laptops that can be used as penpads details related to the relative motion of the display enclosure with respect to the body enclosure, e.g. to move between laptop and tablet PC configuration G06F1/1615
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1698 the I/O peripheral being a sending/receiving arrangement to establish a cordless communication link, e.g. radio or infrared link, integrated cellular phone details of antennas disposed inside a computer H01Q1/2266
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1632 Pen holder integrated in the computer
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/21 Programming remote control devices via third means
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/92 Universal remote control
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 23/04 using light waves, e.g. infrared
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/282 based on user interaction within the home receiver circuitry for displaying additional information being controlled by a remote control apparatus H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2841 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/30 Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknames name-to-address mapping H04L61/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42224 : Touch pad or touch panel provided on the remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4431 : characterized by the use of Application Program Interface [API] libraries
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 : Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 : Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 : End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4882 : for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4884 : for displaying subtitles

Abstract

A hand-held device having a display and a browser application which supports functionality particularly suited for the hand-held device. For example, the browser application supports a full screen tag which allows information to be displayed as a full screen within the display. The browser application may also support a tag for use in displaying a link the activation of which will cause the hand-held device to transmit command codes to a consumer appliance. Still further, the browser application can support a tag which the hand-held device can use to issue reminders.

Claims

1. A computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for displaying information in a display, the instructions performing steps comprising:

retrieving a mark-up language formatted page containing the information;

determining if the retrieved mark-up language formatted page includes a mark-up language formatted full screen page tag; and

if the retrieved mark-up language formatted page fails to include the mark-up language formatted full screen page tag, displaying a part of the information contained within the mark-up language formatted page within the display and providing a set of navigational controls for changing the part of the information displayed within the display and, if the received mark-up language formatted page includes the mark-up language formatted full screen page tag, displaying all of the information contained within the retrieved mark-up language formatted page as a full screen within the display without providing the set of navigational controls.

2. A hand-held device, comprising:

a display; and

a browser application cooperable with the display for displaying information contained within a mark-up language formatted language page within the display, the browser application comprising instructions for determining if the mark-up language formatted page includes a mark-up language formatted full screen page tag and, if the mark-up language formatted page fails to include the mark-up language formatted full screen page tag, the instructions displaying a part of the information contained within the mark-up language formatted page within the display and providing a set of navigational controls for changing the part of the information displayed within the display and, if the mark-up language formatted page includes the mark-up language formatted full screen page tag, the instructions displaying all of the information contained within the mark-up language formatted page as a full screen within the display without providing the set of navigational controls.

3. A computer data signal embodied in a transmission medium representative of a mark-up language formatted page tag, comprising:

a first data field containing a pointer to data for use in generating an infrared code to be transmitted upon activation of a hyperlink of a mark-up language formatted page which includes the mark-up language formatted page tag when the mark-up language formatted page is displayed on a display; and

a second data field containing information representing a label which is displayed as part of the mark-up language formatted page when the mark-up language formatted page is displayed on the display wherein a displayed label serves as the hyperlink which is activatable to initiate a use of the pointer to data within the first data field and a transmission of the infrared code.

4. A computer data signal embodied in a transmission medium representative of a mark-up language formatted page tag, comprising:

a first data field containing data for use in generating an infrared code to be transmitted upon activation of a hyperlink of a mark-up language formatted page including the mark-up language formatted page tag when the mark-up language formatted page is displayed on a display; and

a second data field containing information representing a label which is displayed as part of the mark-up language formatted page when the mark-up language formatted page is displayed on the display wherein a displayed label serves as the hyperlink which is activatable to initiate use of the data within the first data field and a transmission of the infrared code.

5. A computer-readable media on which is stored a data structure representative of a mark-up language formatted page tag, comprising:

a first data field containing a pointer to data for use in generating an infrared code to be transmitted upon activation of a hyperlink of a mark-up language formatted page including the mark-up language formatted page tag when the mark-up language formatted page is displayed on a display; and

a second data field containing information representing a label which is displayed as part of the mark-up language formatted page when the mark-up language formatted page is displayed on the display wherein a displayed label serves as the hyperlink which is activatable to initiate a use of the pointer to data in the first data field and a transmission of the infrared code.

6. A computer-readable media on which is stored a data structure representative of a mark-up language formatted page tag, comprising:

a first data field containing data for use in generating an infrared code to be transmitted upon activation of a hyperlink of a mark-up language formatted page including the mark-up language page tag when the mark-up language formatted page is displayed on a display; and

a second data field containing information representing a label which is displayed as part of the mark-up language formatted page when the mark-up language formatted page is displayed on the display wherein a displayed label serves as the hyperlink which is activatable to initiate a use of the data in the first data field and a transmission of the infrared code.

7. A device for use in commanding the operation of a consumer appliance, comprising:

a display;

a memory storing a library of data for generating commands for commanding the operation of a plurality of different consumer appliances;

a transmission circuit for transmitting commands to the consumer appliance; and

a browser application for displaying a mark-up language formatted page within the display wherein the mark-up language formatted page includes a mark-up language formatted page tag comprising a first data field including a pointer to data within the library and second data field including information representative of a label which the browser application displays as a hyperlink within the displayed mark-up language formatted page wherein the browser application is responsive to activation of the displayed hyperlink to cause the transmission circuit to use the data within the library indicated by the pointer to transmit a command to a consumer appliance.

8. The device as recited in claim 7, wherein the transmission circuit comprises an infrared transmitter.

9. The device as recited in claim 7, wherein the device comprises a hand-held remote control.

10. The device as recited in claim 7, wherein the display comprises a touch screen.

11. A computer-readable media having computer executable instructions for displaying information in a display, the instructions performing steps comprising:

retrieving a mark-up language formatted page containing both the information and a mark-up language formatted page tag including a first data field containing data representing a date and time and a second data field containing data representing a reminder notice;

parsing the mark-up language formatted page to extract the data in the first data field and the data in the second data field;

providing the extracted data in the first data field and the extracted data in the second data field to a reminder function;

determining a time of activation of the reminder function; and

causing the activated reminder function to compare the time of activation of the reminder function to the date and time represented by the data in the first data field to determine if the reminder notice represented by the data in the second data field should be displayed in the display.

12. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 11, wherein the reminder function is activated in response to a detected handling of a device in which the readable media is housed.

13. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 11, wherein the reminder function is activated in response to activation of a key associated with the device.

14. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 11, wherein the reminder notice comprise a further mark-up language formatted page and the data in the second field represents a URL address used to retrieve and display the further mark-up language formatted page.

15. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 11, wherein the reminder notice comprises a text label and the data in the second field is representative of the text label.

16. A device, comprising:

a display;

a reminder function; and

a browser application for displaying a mark-up language formatted page within the display wherein the mark-up language formatted page includes a mark-up language formatted page tag having a first data field containing data representing a date and time and a second data field containing data representing a reminder notice, for parsing the mark-up language formatted page to extract the data in the first data field and the data in the second data field and for providing the extracted data in the first data field and the extracted data in the second data field to the reminder function;

wherein the reminder function has instructions for determining its time of activation and for comparing the time of its activation to the date and time represented by the data in the first data field to determine if the reminder notice represented by the data in the second data field should be displayed in the display.

17. The device as recited in claim 16, wherein the reminder function is activated in response to a sensed movement of the device.

18. The device as recited in claim 16, wherein the reminder function is activated in response to activation of a input device associated with the device.