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| United States Patent | 6119135 |
| Link to this page | http://www.wikipatents.com/6119135.html |
| Inventor(s) | Helfman; Jonathan Isaac (Albuquerque, NM) |
| Abstract | A technique is provided for passively browsing the Internet or an intranet
by displaying images from web pages on a user's display screen. The user
can select an image by clicking on it using a pointer manipulated by a
mouse or trackball. A mapping list is maintained that maps the image
universal resource locator (URL) for each image to the URL of the web page
containing the image. Using the mapping list, the user's web browser can
be driven to the web page associated with the image selected by the user.
A group of web pages may be defined based on the results of a search, by
entering URLs for sites or web pages of interest, using a bookmarks file,
based on the currently displayed web page in a web browser, or by
determining which web pages are associated with the images stored in an
image cache. |
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Title Information  |
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Drawing from US Patent 6119135 |
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Method for passively browsing the internet using images extracted from
web pages |
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| Publication Date |
September 12, 2000 |
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| Filing Date |
January 15, 1997 |
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| Parent Case |
This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No.
60/011,435, filed Feb. 9, 1996. |
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Title Information |
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U.S. References |
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| | Reference | Relevancy | Comments | Reference | Relevancy | Comments | 5987510
Imai et al.
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| Post related web sites and other references in this section |
| | Reference | Relevancy | Comments | Takahi Hiroki et al., "World Wide Web-jo no Kokai-gata Gazo Kensaku Shisutemu Girls", Technical Report of the Istitute of Electronics,
Information, and Communication Engineers (Japan) v. IE95-76, pp. 1-8, Nov. 1995.
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[0 after 0 votes] | | T. K. Kirste and W. Hubner, "An Open Hypermedia System for Multimedia Applications," Multimedia Systems, Interaction and Applications Eurographics Workshop, Apr. 18, 1991, Chapter 17, pp. 225-243.
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[0 after 0 votes] | | T. Norderhaug and J. M. Oberding, "Designing a web of intellectual property," Computer Networks and ISDN Systems 27, (1995), pp. 1037-1046.
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[0 after 0 votes] | | E. A. Meyer and P. E. Murray, "Borealis Image Server," Computer Networks and ISDN Systems 28, (1996), pp. 1123-1137..
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Market Review |
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Technical Review |
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Claims |
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What is claimed is:
1. A method for use in a communications network in which a plurality of users at clients are connected to a data network, wherein the users access web pages that have
associated web page images and are stored on servers connected to the data network, the method comprising the steps of:
obtaining a plurality of the images, each image being associated with one of the web pages, wherein the step of obtaining the images further comprises the substeps of,
retrieving a group of web pages based on a list of universal resource locators (URLs), and
retrieving the images associated with the group of web pages;
displaying the images on one of the clients without displaying the associated web pages;
allowing the user to select an image from among the displayed images; and
accessing the web page associated with the selected image;
wherein each web page of said group of web pages is included in said list of universal resource locators or can be accessed by following links from one of the universal resource locators in said list of universal resource locators.
2. A method for use in a communications network in which a plurality of users at clients are connected to a data network, wherein the users access web pages that have associated web page images and are stored on servers connected to the data
network, the method comprising the steps of:
obtaining a plurality of the images, each image being associated with one of the web pages, wherein the step of obtaining the images further comprises the substeps of,
retrieving a group of web pages based on the universal resource locator (URL) of a web page currently displayed in a web browser, and
retrieving the images associated with the group of web pages;
displaying the images on one of the clients without displaying the associated web pages;
allowing the user to select an image from among the displayed images; and
accessing the web page associated with the selected image;
wherein each web page of said group of web pages can be accessed by following links from said web page currently displayed in the web browser.
3. The method defined in claim 2 wherein the step of displaying the images comprises the step of displaying images in random positions.
4. The method defined in claim 2 wherein the step of displaying the images comprises the step of displaying images in a non-overlapping pattern.
5. The method defined in claim 2 wherein the step of allowing the user to select an image from among the displayed images comprises the step of allowing a user to click on a displayed image.
6. The method defined in claim 2 wherein the step of accessing the web page associated with the selected image comprises the steps of:
determining the URL of the web page associated with the selected image; and
driving a web browser to that URL.
7. The method defined in claim 2 further comprising the step of creating a snapshot of the displayed images.
8. The method defined in claim 2 wherein the data network is the Internet, the servers are web servers, and the images are inlined images.
9. A system for use in a communications network in which a plurality of users at clients are connected to a data network, wherein the users access web pages that have associated web page images and are stored on servers connected to the data
network, the system comprising:
means for obtaining a plurality of the images, each image being associated with one of the web pages, wherein the means for obtaining the images includes,
means for retrieving a group of web pages based on a list of universal resource locators (URLs), and
means for retrieving the images associated with the group of web pages;
means for displaying the images on one of the clients without displaying the associated web pages;
means for allowing a user to select an image from among the displayed images; and
means for accessing the web page associated with the selected image;
wherein each web page of said group of web pages is included in said list of universal resource locators or can be accessed by following links from one of the universal resource locators in said list of universal resource locators.
10. A system for use in a communications network in which a plurality of users at clients are connected to a data network, wherein the users access web pages that have associated web page images and are stored on servers connected to the data
network, the system comprising:
means for obtaining a plurality of the images, each image being associated with one of the web pages, wherein the means for obtaining the images includes,
means for retrieving a group of web pages based on the universal resource locator (URL) of a webpage currently displayed in a web browser, and
means for retrieving the images associated with the group of web pages;
means for displaying the images on one of the clients without displaying the associated web pages;
means for allowing a user to select an image from among the displayed images; and
means for accessing the web page associated with the selected image;
wherein each web page of said group of web pages can be accessed by following links from said web page currently displayed in the web browser.
11. The system defined in claim 9 wherein the means for displaying the images comprises means for displaying images in random positions.
12. The system defined in claim 9 wherein the means for displaying the images comprises means for displaying images in a non-overlapping pattern.
13. The system defined in claim 9 wherein the means for allowing the user to select an image from among the displayed images comprises means for allowing a user to click on a displayed image.
14. The system defined in claim 9 wherein the means for accessing the web page associated with the selected image comprises:
means for determining the URL of the web page associated with the selected image; and
means for driving a web browser to that URL.
15. The system defined in claim 9 further comprising means for creating a snapshot of the displayed images.
16. The system defined in claim 9 wherein the data network is the Internet, the servers are web servers, and the images are inlined images.
17. A method for use in a communications network in which a plurality of users at clients are connected to a data network, wherein the users access web pages that have associated web page images and are stored on servers connected to the data
network, the method comprising the steps of:
obtaining a plurality of the images, each image being associated with one of the web pages, wherein the step of obtaining the images further comprises the substeps of,
retrieving a group of web pages based on a list of universal resource locators extracted from the cache of web pages on a proxy server, and
retrieving the images associated with the group of web pages;
displaying the images on one of the clients without displaying the associated web pages;
allowing the user to select an image from among the displayed images; and
accessing the web page associated with the selected image;
wherein each web page of said group of web pages is included in said list of universal resource locators or can be accessed by following links from one of the universal resource locators in said list of universal resource locators.
18. A system for use in a communications network in which a plurality of users at clients are connected to a data network, wherein the users access web pages that have associated web page images and are stored on servers connected to the data
network, the system comprising:
means for obtaining a plurality of the images, each image being associated with one of the web pages, wherein the means for obtaining the images includes,
means for retrieving a group of web pages based on a list of universal resource locators extracted from the cache of web pages on a proxy server, and
means for retrieving the images associated with the group of web pages;
means for displaying the images on one of the clients without displaying the associated web pages;
means for allowing a user to select an image from among the displayed images; and
means for accessing the web page associated with the selected image;
wherein each web page of said group of web pages is included in said list of universal resource locators or can be accessed by following links from one of the universal resource locators in said list of universal resource locators.
19. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of retrieving a group of web pages employs a depth characteristic to control the retrieval process.
20. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of retrieving a group of web pages employs a depth characteristic to control the retrieval process. |
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Claims |
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Description |
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to data networks such as the Internet and intranets, and more particularly, to passively browsing for information by viewing images.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A frustrating aspect of the information revolution is that the ease of accessing on-line material has not kept pace with the growth in the amount of material that is available. For example, advances in hardware, compression techniques, editing
tools, and web browsers have facilitated the creation of material containing inlined images (images that appear on a web page with text). Inlined images are a popular way in which to create eye-catching text and graphics that would be difficult or
impossible to create using the capabilities of hypertext markup language (HTML). However, accessing web pages with interesting inlined images typically involves browsing through web pages of material by clicking on hypertext links. Although browsing in
this way is often rewarding, it requires a good deal of attention on the part of the person who is browsing and can be burdensome.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a way in which to facilitate the access and display of Internet or intranet images and the material associated with the images.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This and other objects of the invention are accomplished in accordance with the principles of the present invention by providing a system in which a user can display web page images on a computer screen. When the user is interested in a
particular image, the user can select the displayed image by clicking on it with a mouse or trackball.
The system maintains a mapping list that maps the universal resource locator (URL) of the displayed web page images to the URL of the web page containing those images. When a user selects a displayed image, the user's browser is driven to the
associated web page, so that the user can view the web page in its entirety.
The group of web pages containing the images to be displayed can be obtained in various ways. For example, a search engine can be used to locate web pages based on certain search criteria. Web page or web site URLs can be entered manually or by
using a cut and paste operation from an application running in an open window. A bookmarks file containing various URLs can also be used to define a group of web pages. Web pages can be obtained based on the URL for the currently displayed page in an
active web browser. A recursive retrieval process can be used to obtain multiple groups of linked web pages. Regardless of how the group of web pages is defined, the system extracts embedded image URLs from the web pages and forms a list mapping the
extracted image URLs to the URLs of the web pages associated with those images.
If desired, web page images can be obtained from an image cache. For example, in a system having a proxy server connection to the Internet, images are stored in a proxy server cache whenever web pages are retrieved. The proxy server contains a
log file that can be parsed to construct a list that maps images to associated web pages.
Images may be displayed on the user's display in random positions, in a non-overlapping pattern, or arranged by size, etc. The user's client computer maintains a data list of coordinates so that when the user clicks on a given image, the client
can determine which image has been selected. The mapping list is used to determine which web page URL corresponds to the selected image. The user's web browser is driven to the URL of that web page.
The user can passively browse the Internet or an intranet by observing the displayed images. Web page images typically contain lively text and graphics, so it is relatively easy for users to quickly review a large amount of material. When
images are obtained from an image cache or from web pages associated with the URL for a currently displayed page of an active web browser, no user input is required. When the user submits a search or a list of web page or web site URLs, only minimal
user input is needed.
Further features of the invention, its nature and various advantages will be more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a diagram of an illustrative display screen on which various web page images have been displayed in random positions.
FIG. 2 is a diagram of an illustrative display screen on which various web page images have been displayed in a non-overlapping pattern.
FIG. 3 is a diagram of a system that uses a proxy server in accordance with the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a flow chart of the steps involved in using the system of FIG. 3 to display images and access associated web pages.
FIG. 5 is a flow chart of the steps involved in saving a snapshot of a number of web page images.
FIG. 6 is a diagram of a system with certain functions implemented using a local application in accordance with the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a flow chart of the steps involved in using the system of FIG. 6 to display images and access associated web pages.
FIG. 8 is a diagram of a system with certain functions implemented using processes on a server and certain functions implemented using downloaded applets in accorda | | |
