Browser rewind and replay feature for transient messages by periodically capturing screen images

• US 7,076,495 B2
• Filed: 04/26/2001
• Issued: 07/11/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dutta, Rabindranath, Cooper, Michael Richard, Patel, Kamal Chandrakant
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong, Leslie
• Application Number:
  US09/843,063
• Publication Number:
  US 20020161794A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,902 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707/102, 707/1, 707/104.1, 709/203, 709/219, 345/156, 345/418, 345/723, 345/762, 705/1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

In the system, method, and program of the present invention, the browser renders a multimedia object to the screen. The multimedia object may be one or more advertisements having links to one or more advertisers. The browser periodically captures screen images having the multimedia object. In one embodiment, the screen images are captured at configurable time intervals. In another embodiment, the screen images are captured when there is a change in content of a screen image. Each screen capture contains the necessary link(s) to access the advertiser. The screen captures are stored, during a configurable duration of time, in a chronological list. A user can replay at a later time some or all of the stored screen images that were captured. The user will have various identifiable snapshots of the advertisements and access to the necessary links to get back to a desired advertiser.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for displaying, at a client, transient messages received over a network, the method comprising:

capturing, independently of a user action, at different times, a plurality of separate screen images, of only a portion of a display at the client, of a plurality of different multimedia objects each containing at least one transient message and each rendered on a the portion of the display at the client;

wherein the different times are determined by a change in content and wherein the change in content is determined by utilizing a document object model of the displayed page to determine the change in content as a triggering event to capture the screen image;

storing each captured screen image of the multimedia object, in a chronological list; and

displaying the chronological list with control buttons for enabling a subsequent rendering of the stored captured screen images in a forward and backward succession, at a user configurable rate, in response to a user selection of one of the displayed control buttons, wherein the displayed control buttons are independent of any playback control displayed in conjunction with initially rendering a given multimedia object from which the screen images were captured.

2. A computer implemented method for displaying, at a client, at least one transient message received over a network, the method comprising:

determining a change in content of at least one of a plurality of displayed pages received over a network by utilizing a document object model of the displayed pages to determine the change in content, wherein at least one displayed page contains at least one transient message and is rendered on a portion of a display at the client;

capturing, independently of a user action, a screen image, of only the portion of the display, of each displayed page when it is determined that there is a change in content by utilizing the document object model of the displayed page as a triggering event to capture the screen image;

storing each captured screen image of the displayed pages in a chronological list; and

displaying the chronological list with control buttons for enabling a subsequent rendering of the stored captured screen images in a forward and backward succession, at a user configurable rate, in response to a user selection of one of the displayed control buttons, wherein the displayed control buttons are independent of any playback control displayed in conjunction with the displayed page from which the screen images were captured.

3. A computer system having a display for displaying transient messages received over a network, the computer system comprising:

means for capturing, independently of a user action, at different times, a plurality of separate screen images, of only a portion of the display, of a plurality of different multimedia objects each containing at least one transient message and each rendered on the portion of the display;

wherein the different times are determined by a change in content and wherein the change in content is determined by utilizing a document object model of the displayed page to determine the change in content as a triggering event to capture the screen image;

a storage area having each captured screen image of the multimedia objects in a chronological list; and

means for displaying the chronological list with control buttons for enabling a subsequent rendering of the stored captured screen images in a forward and backward succession, at a user configurable rate, in response to a user selection of one of the displayed control buttons, wherein the displayed control buttons are independent of any playback control displayed in conjunction with initially rendering a given multimedia object from which the screen images were captured.

4. A computer system having a display for displaying at least one transient message received over a network, the system comprising:

means for determining a change in content of at least one of a plurality of displayed pages received over a network by utilizing a document object model of the displayed pages to determine the change in content, wherein at least one displayed page contains at least one transient message and is rendered on a portion of a display at the client;

means for capturing, independently of a user action, a screen image, of only the portion of the display, of each displayed page when it is determined that there is a change in content by utilizing the document object model of the displayed page as a triggering event to capture the screen image;

a storage area having each captured screen image of the displayed pages in a chronological list; and

means for displaying the chronological list with control buttons for enabling a subsequent rendering of the stored captured screen images in a forward and backward succession, at a user configurable rate, in response to a user selection of one of the displayed control buttons, wherein the displayed control buttons are independent of any playback control displayed in conjunction with the displayed page from which the screen images were captured.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the means for enabling a subsequent rendering further comprises means for redisplaying a sequence of each saved image at a rate predetermined by the user.

6. A computer program, on a computer storage medium, having computer readable program code means for enabling a display of at least one transient message received over a network, the system comprising:

means for determining a change in content of at least one of a plurality of displayed pages received over a network by utilizing a document object model of the displayed pages to determine the change in content, wherein at least one displayed page contains at least one transient message and is rendered on a portion of a display at the client;

means for enabling a capture, independently of a user action, of a screen image, of only the portion of the display, of each displayed page when it is determined that there is a change in content by utilizing the document object model of the displayed page as a triggering event to capture the screen image;

means for storing each captured screen image of the displayed pages in a chronological list; and

means for displaying the chronological list with control buttons for enabling a subsequent rendering of the stored captured screen images in a forward and backward succession, at a user configurable rate, in response to a user selection of one of the displayed control buttons, wherein the displayed control buttons are independent of any playback control displayed in conjunction with the displayed page from which the screen images were captured.