The present invention provides a method and system for acquiring, storing and displaying content on a mobile terminal. The mobile terminal is adapted to acquire content from content providing devices or sources such as the Internet, e-mail, or direct download from a PC to the mobile terminal for display. content providing devices of the system are stand-alone devices which store content, such as location based advertising information, for downloading by a mobile terminal in close proximity to the content providing device. An application resident on the mobile terminal can provide scrolling player functionality to enable stored data content to be easily viewed.
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15. A mobile terminal with a display having a resident computer application adapted to convert the mobile terminal into a graphic display player having a formatting component adapted to format content data according to a chosen visual parameter and a predetermined parameter based on display limitations for the mobile terminal, whereby the graphic display player fully occupies the whole of the area of the display to automatically displays display content data on the display in a scrolling mode in a single frame, the single frame occupying substantially the whole area of the display so that content data can be scrolled over substantially the whole area of the display in the single frame, and provides a graphical user interface of control features and displays the graphical user interface concurrently with automatic display of content data, without obstructing the display of content data, to enable a user to interact with the graphical user interface to control one or more visual parameters of the way the data content data will be displayed, to choose by receiving an input indicating a user's choice of a visual parameter value for modification, made by interaction with the graphical user interface while the content data is and graphical user interface are being concurrently displayed, and modifying a visual parameter value of the chosen visual parameter in response to the user input indicating a choice of the visual parameter or in response to receiving a further user input, and wherein the data is formatted by:
dividing the content data into a sequence of consecutive segments by identifying any portions of the content data that are capable of being displayed by the display, and dividing each displayable content portion into a sequence of one or more displayable segments based on the predetermined parameter and chosen visual parameter value such that when each displayable segment is rendered in sequence by the graphic display player the full content of the displayable portion is displayed sequentially in a scrolling mode; and
identifying any portions of the content data that are not capable of being displayed rendered for display by the display and designating these portions of content in the sequence of consecutive segments as undisplayable segments,
wherein the formatted content is displayed by rendering in sequence a plurality of segments from the sequence of consecutive segments for concurrent display in sequence in a scrolling mode in the single frame occupying substantially the whole area of the display whereby the content is scrolled over substantially the whole display, and wherein a value of the one or more visual parameters parameter can be accessed chosen and a value of the chosen visual parameter modified during concurrent displaying of the content data using by interaction with the graphical user interface, without obstruction of the displayed content data by the graphical user interface, to enable the content data to be dynamically formatted and displayed according to the modified value of the chosen visual parameter.
21. A non-transitory computer readable memory storing medium carrying computer readable instructions which, when executed by a computer, perform a method for displaying content on a display of a mobile terminal, the method comprising the steps of enabling, by a content acquisition interface, a mobile terminal to acquire content data from one or more content providers;
controlling automatically, by a graphic display player adapted to fully occupy the whole of the display area of the display, displaying content data in a scrolling mode in a single frame, the single frame occupying substantially the whole area of the display so that content data can be scrolled over substantially the whole area of the display in the single frame and providing a graphical user interface of control features and displaying the graphical user interface concurrently with automatic display of content, without obstructing the display of content data, to enable a user to interact with the graphical user interface whilst viewing the content data to control one or more visual parameters of the way the content data will be displayed while the data is being displayed, to receive an input indicating a user's choice of a visual parameter for modification made by interaction with the graphical user interface while the content data and graphical user interface are being concurrently displayed, and modifying a visual parameter value of the chosen visual parameter in response to the user input indicating the choice of visual parameter or in response to receiving a further user input, the graphic display player having a formatting component adapted to format the acquired content data according to a predetermined parameter based on display limitations for the mobile terminal, and on a chosen the modified visual parameter value wherein the content formatting comprises dividing the content data into a sequence of consecutive segments such that any portion of content data that is capable of being displayed by the display is divided into one or more displayable segments based on the predetermined parameters and any portion of content data stream that is not capable of being displayed rendered for display is designated as an undisplayable segment in the sequence of consecutive segments, such that the displayable segments can be displayed by the display consecutively; and
displaying, by a display component, the formatted content on the display by rendering in sequence a plurality of segments from the sequence of consecutive segments for concurrent display in sequence in a scrolling mode in the single frame occupying substantially the whole area of the display whereby the content is scrolled over substantially the whole display,
wherein a value of the one or more visual parameters parameter can be accessed chosen and a value of the chosen visual parameter modified during concurrent displaying of the content data using by interaction with the graphical user interface, without obstruction of the displayed content data by the graphical user interface, to enable the content data to be dynamically formatted and displayed according to the modified value of the chosen visual parameter.
1. A method for providing and displaying content on a mobile terminal with a display, the method comprising the steps of:
acquiring a content data by a mobile terminal;
launching a player application adapted to fully occupy the whole of the area of the display to automatically display content data on the display in a scrolling mode in a single frame, the single frame occupying substantially the whole area of the display so that content data can be scrolled over substantially the whole area of the display in the single frame, and providing a graphical user interface of control features and displaying the graphical user interface concurrently with automatic display of content data, without obstructing the display of content data, to enable a user to interact with the graphical user interface whilst viewing the content data to control one or more visual parameters of the way the data content data will be displayed while the content data is being displayed;
choosing receiving a user input indicating a user's choice of a visual parameter value for modification, made by use of interaction with the graphical user interface while the content data and graphical user interface are being concurrently displayed, and modifying a visual parameter value of the chosen visual parameter in response to the user input indicating the choice of visual parameter or in response to receiving a further user input;
formatting the content data acquired by the mobile terminal according to a predetermined parameter based on display limitations for the mobile terminal, and according to the visual parameter value of the chosen visual parameter by:
dividing the content data into a sequence of consecutive segments by identifying any portions of the content data that are capable of being displayed by the display, and dividing each displayable content portion into a sequence of one or more displayable segments based on the predetermined parameter and chosen visual parameter such that when each displayable segment is rendered in sequence by the player application the full content of the displayable portion is displayed sequentially in a viewing scrolling mode; and
identifying any portions of the content data that are not capable of being displayed rendered for display by the display and designating these portions of content in the sequence of consecutive segments as undisplayable segments; and
displaying the formatted content on the display by rendering in sequence a plurality of segments from the sequence of consecutive segments for concurrent display in sequence in a scrolling mode in the single frame occupying substantially the whole area of the display whereby the content is scrolled over substantially the whole display,
wherein a value of the one or more visual parameters parameter can be accessed chosen and a value of the chosen visual parameter modified during concurrent displaying of the content data using by interaction with the graphical user interface, without obstruction of the displayed content data by the graphical user interface, to enable the content data to be dynamically formatted and displayed according to the modified value of the chosen visual parameter.
16. A system for providing and displaying content on a display of a mobile terminal having a display, the system comprising:
a content acquisition interface module implemented as a set of instructions stored in memory of the mobile terminal and executable by the mobile terminal adapted to enable the mobile terminal to acquire content data from one or more content providers;
a graphic display player application implemented as a set of instructions stored in memory of the mobile terminal and executable by the mobile terminal to control the mobile terminal to automatically display content data in a scrolling mode in a single frame, the single frame occupying substantially the whole area of the display so that content data can be scrolled over substantially the whole area of the display in the single frame and provide a graphical user interface of control features and, in a manner that occupies the whole area of the display, display the graphical user interface concurrently with automatic display of content, without obstructing the display of content data, to enable a user of the mobile terminal to interact with the graphical user interface using a user interface of the mobile terminal, to control one or more visual parameters of the way the content data will be displayed, to choose and receive an input indicating a user's choice of a visual parameter value for modification made by interaction with the graphical user interface while the content data is and graphical user interface are being concurrently displayed, and modifying a visual parameter value of the chosen visual parameter in response to the user input indicating the choice of visual parameter or in response to receiving a further user input,
the graphic display player having a formatting component adapted to format the acquired content data according to a predetermined parameter based on display limitations for the mobile terminal, and on the chosen modified visual parameter value
wherein the content formatting comprises dividing the content data into a sequence of consecutive segments such that any portion of content data that is capable of being displayed by the display is divided into one or more displayable segments based on the predetermined parameters and any portion of content data that is not capable of being displayed rendered for display is designated as an undisplayable segment in the sequence of consecutive segments, such that the displayable segments can be displayed by the display consecutively; and
a display component adapted to display the formatted content on the display,
wherein the formatted content is displayed by rendering in sequence a plurality of segments from the sequence of consecutive segments for concurrent display in sequence in a scrolling mode in the single frame occupying substantially the whole area of the display whereby the content is scrolled over substantially the whole display, and wherein display of the formatted content is changed during display in response to receiving the user accessing input indicating a choice of a visual parameter made by interaction with the graphical user interface, without obstruction of the displayed content data by the graphical user interface, and modifying a value of the one or more chosen visual parameters using the graphical user interface parameter.
2. A method as claimed in
3. A method as claimed in
making content data available for download to a mobile terminal from one or more content providers as one or more content data streams;
storing on the mobile terminal content acquisition data for one or more of content data sources for use to acquire a content data stream;
displaying, via the player, a menu of selectable items associated with acquirable data streams; and
causing the mobile terminal to acquire, format and display the content data in a scrolling mode on selection of a menu item.
4. A method as claimed in
5. A method as claimed in
6. A method as claimed in
a. allocating position coordinates to one or more sequential content segments which can be simultaneously displayed, based on parameters for the display;
b. simultaneously displaying the one or more sequential content segments on the display according to the position coordinates;
c. incrementing position coordinates for the displayed segments such that a content segment displayed at an edge of the display will cease to be displayed, and allocating position coordinates to the next content segment in the sequence for display; and
d. repeating steps b and c for the remainder of the sequence.
7. A method as claimed in claim 1 6, wherein the position coordinates can be incremented to effect scrolling of content on the screen in an up, down, left or right direction.
8. A method as claimed in
9. A method as claimed in
10. A method as claimed in
11. A method as claimed in
12. A method as claimed in
13. A method as claimed in
14. A method as claimed in
17. A system as claimed in
18. A system as claimed in
0. 22. A method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising a step of substituting an undisplayable segment during formatting with a segment including displayable text data comprising the undisplayable content identifier.
0. 23. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein each displayable segment has a segment size based on the number of characters that can be displayed on one line across the display.
0. 24. A method as claimed in claim 23 wherein the segment size is further based on a number of segments per line for each of a plurality of font size options.
0. 25. A method as claimed in claim 23 further comprising the step of altering the segment size.
0. 26. A method as claimed in claim 12 wherein the conversion step comprises converting content data from a document format to a pure text or text and image format.
0. 27. A method as claimed in claim 12 wherein for an image the conversion step comprises transforming the image to an image format displayable by the mobile terminal.
0. 28. A method as claimed in claim 27 wherein transforming the image includes any one or more of: reducing the resolution of the image; scaling the image to the screen size; conversion of the image format; and cropping the image.
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The invention relates to displaying data on a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone or personal digital assistant (PDA). An example of an application of the invention is displaying information from advertising or information services on a mobile phone, storing the information, and then displaying the information on a display of the mobile phone.
Mobile terminals such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) have become items regularly carried by people. These devices are commonly used as replacements for manual pocketbooks or diaries, we use them to keep track of phone numbers and to keep or send notes to others using messaging services. However the small size of mobile terminals generally means these are less powerful processing devices that desktop or portable computers. Mobile terminals also generally have small screens and the user input interface is limited to either a keypad or very small keyboard which is often awkward to use. Due to these limitations is generally more awkward to download and read information on a mobile terminal than on a typical personal computer.
There is a need for a system which enables simple viewing and/or downloading of content for mobile terminals.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for providing and displaying content on a mobile terminal with a display, the method comprising the steps of:
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided an application adapted to be resident on a mobile terminal with a display to convert the mobile terminal from any intended use into a graphic display player, whereby the graphic display player automatically displays data content on the display in a scrolling mode, and provides control features to enable a user to control at least one or more of the scrolling rate, scroll direction and font size during data display.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for providing and displaying content on a display of a mobile terminal, the system comprising:
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a content providing device comprising:
A system according to embodiments of the present invention enables content to be provided to, stored and then displayed on a mobile terminal 105. The system 100 comprises a content acquisition interface 110, a formatting component 120 and a display 130.
The content acquisition interface 110 is adapted to enable the mobile terminal 105 to acquire a content data stream from one or more content providers 140, 141 and 142. For example, the content providers could include a dedicated device 140 adapted to transmit content data directly to the mobile 105, a personal computer 141 adapted to transfer content data files to the mobile phone, or an Internet site 142 which can be accessed from the mobile phone via a telecommunication network to acquire content data, data may also be acquired via e-mail capability provided in the mobile terminal. The content data stream may be displayed as it is acquired or stored on the mobile phone for later display.
The formatting component 120 is adapted to format the acquired content data stream according to one or more predetermined parameters. The parameters include parameters based on the limitations of the device display limitations for the mobile terminal 105, and user specified parameters. For example, parameters based on the device display capabilities can include: parameters based on screen resolution, colour display capability, image display capability, screen size, screen refresh rate, display buffer size and the like. Examples of user specified parameters include: font size, font type, scroll rate, scrolling direction, colour mode etc. The formatted data is then displayed by the display component 130. The display component typically includes a screen, however the display component may also include features such audio output, tactile output such as vibration, or other visual outputs such as visual projection or lights.
The mobile terminal can be a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), portable computer, media player or the like. A mobile terminal can also be a content provider as well as a content acquirer, for example where terminal to terminal data sharing or transfer is possible.
The system can also include one or more content providers. An example of a content providing device is illustrated in
In an embodiment the communication interface 1210 is implemented using a limited range wireless communication technology. In the example described herein Bluetooth is used however other radio frequency wireless interfaces such as WiFi, 802.11X, WLAN, RFID or the like can be used, alternatively optical interfaces such as infra red (IR) can also be used and all alternatives are considered within the scope of the invention and encompassed in the claims.
The communication interface 1210 of a preferred embodiment is adapted to respond to a request to download content sent by a wireless device with compatible wireless communication functionality within transmission range. In this embodiment the availability of content for download is advertised at the location, for example on an advertising board, and a user requests the content download by pressing a predetermined key on their mobile terminal. The content providing device controller 1230 and communication interface 1210 then establish communication with the mobile terminal 1250 and automatically download the content.
Alternatively the communication interface 1210 can automatically detect wireless devices with compatible wireless communication functionality enabled within transmission range. The content providing device controller 1230 and communication interface 1210 establish communication with the mobile terminal 1256 and offer to transfer content to the mobile terminal, and the mobile terminal displays the offer to the user, offers for content form more than one content provider may be displayed and browsed by the user on the mobile terminal. The user accepts an offer using a single key stroke which triggers the mobile terminal to request content be transmitted by the content providing device as one or more content data streams. The mobile terminal then receives and stores and/or displays each content data stream according to user preferences.
An example of an application for such a content providing device is an advertising device which enables a location such as an advertising board to transmit the advertising information to a mobile terminal upon request. In this embodiment the content providing device is a stand-alone device which is small, cheap, stores a limited number of content data streams (advertisements) and is only enabled for short range wireless communication.
The stand-alone content providing device stores advertising information such as the details of a house or car for sale. The device can receive and store information received wirelessly, as well as transferring the information upon request wirelessly. The device is adapted to be placed and attached to any item that requires advertising, such as an advertising board, (e.g., retail, real estate) a car for sale, etc. It communicates with a mobile terminal using wireless communication such as Bluetooth. Upon user request, it will transfer the advertising details regarding the item for sale including contacts, references, description, cost, etc. The interface between the content providing device and the mobile terminal can be implemented such that the advertising information can be transferred and stored on the mobile terminal in response to a single key stroke by the user.
Embodiments of the content providing device can be implemented in a number of ways. For example, the content providing device may be implemented as a specially designed and built device, in a mobile terminal which acts as a content providing device by running software which stores and transmits the content data to another mobile terminal; or in a PC that acts as a content providing device and is adapted to communicate with and transmit content to a mobile terminal.
An example of a way content data is prepared and stored on a content providing device will now be described in greater detail with reference to
TABLE 1
Generic Definition
Category
e.g. HOUSE, CAR,
Header
Message type
ITEM, etc.
Source
Time stamp
Images count
Sound clips count
Video clips count
Contact Details
Name
Agency name
Phone
Address
Inspections
Days
Times
Description
Free text description
Image
Image 1
Image X
Sound clips
Sound clip 1
Sound clip Y
Video clips
Video clip 1
Video clip •Z
Location
Address
TABLE 2
Item definition
Item
Name
Cost
Style
Stock
Action
Shop
TABLE 3
House Definition
House
Bedrooms
Bathrooms
Study
Size
Style
Garage
TABLE 4
Car Definition
Car
Make & Model
Year
Miles/Kilometres
Colour
Style
Doors
Once the content is prepared the content data stream is transmitted to the content providing device 3 for storage thereon either by direct wired or wireless communication 2a between the PC 1 or mobile terminal 1a and the device 3, or using wireless communication established between the PC 1 or mobile terminal 1a and the device 3 via a telecommunication network, for example via the Internet and satellite communication to the device 3. The device 3 stores the content data stream and is ready to provide this content to a mobile terminal 4.
The signalling 4 for downloading content from a content providing device 3 to a mobile terminal 5 will now be described with reference to
Where there are multiple content providing devices within range of the mobile terminal or multiple content download options from one or more devices available content sources and content are displayed, for example in a list sorted by content provide or category, for the user to browse and select the desired content. An example of the signalling between a mobile terminal and plurality of content providing devices will now be described with reference to
The real estate board 1820, car for sale 1830 and mobile phone 1860 are all identified as compatible content providing devices 1930. The mobile terminal 1810 then sends request signal 1941, 1942, 1944 to these devices using the device identifies.
The real estate board 1820 received the request signal 1941 and responds with content header information for a number of items for which data can be downloaded, for example House A, Flat B and House C, this content header for each item can define the item category (House) the content item identifier in the Advertising board device (A) and any other information deemed of value for displaying on the mobile terminal menu such as the address. This content header is used by the application running on the mobile terminal both for display on the mobile terminal menu for content selection and also for any subsequent content download request signalling. Similarly request signal 1942 is sent to the car for sale 1830 which replies with the acknowledgement signal 1952 including the content header for the car, and the mobile phone 1860 responds to the request signal 1944 with the acknowledgement signal 1954 including a header for a content item which advertises the mobile phones user as being available for dating.
The information from the content headers is used to display a list of content items available for download on the mobile terminal 1810. These content items may be grouped by device, such as:
Alternatively the items can be listed by category, such as:
The lists may be formatted according to a user's preferences (set as user parameters in the mobile terminal). The user's preferences could also include one ore more preferred categories, for example to ensure Houses are listed first, or categories to exclude such as dating offers if the user is not interested in this content.
This list is redundant if only one compatible device is found and only one content item is available for download, in this situation the mobile terminal 1810 will automatically request the available data without requiring further user input, thus enabling the acquisition of data using only one key stroke. Similarly if user preferences are set to exclude various categories of data and only one desired content item is available or a preference is set to always download all available data in a particular category, the application can automatically download the desired content data without requiring further user input.
Listing the available content enables the user to view the available content and select one or more content data streams from one or more content providing devices for downloading. For example the user may select single items by manually scrolling to the item on the list and pressing a “get” key or select all items from a device or category by selecting the category or device heading in the menu. Once the user has selected the desired content using the displayed list 1960 the application generates a request data message 1972 using the device identifier and content identifier associated with the selected item. The content data stream will automatically be downloaded 1982 to the mobile terminal. Once the content is downloaded the mobile terminal acknowledges 1992 the receipt of the data to close the communication session.
Devices, such as the mobile phone 1860 and Real estate board 1820, will automatically time-out and close any communication session if no data request message is received.
The downloaded content can be automatically displayed on the mobile terminal, stored on the mobile terminal, forwarded to another device such as a web site or PC via the Internet or e-mailed to another user or all of the above. The content can also be discarded, by deleting the data stream from the mobile terminal memory, once it has been displayed, this may be done automatically after display according to a user preference, or in response to a discard command given by the user.
The data content, for example the advertising data for the real estate board, is prepared on an external device 2030, and transmitted to the content providing device 2020. The mobile terminal 2010 can acquire content from the device 2020, as described above, but is not able to write data to the device 2020 as it is not authorised or registered to do so. The mobile terminal 2010 is also enabled to acquire data such as e-mails, web pages and SMS messages from sources such as an e-mail server 2050 or web server 2060 via the telecommunication network and the Internet 2040. The mobile terminal can also send data, such as data downloaded from the content providing device, to other users via messaging or e-mail. Where content data downloaded from the content providing device includes links to Internet web pages the user can follow this link to view the web page on their mobile terminal, similarly the content may include an e-mail address for enquires to which the user can send a message directly using their mobile terminal.
Advantages of this embodiment of the content providing device include:
The key stroke to accept the content may be a pre-programmed or default key, such as “#” to request data download or accept a download offer. Alternatively the acceptance key stroke may be specified in the offer, for example, where more than one information download option is provided, the key stroke may be used to determine which information is requested. For example, a content providing device advertising a house for sale may have the options of downloading only basic details for the property such as the real estate agent, address, price range estimate and number of bedrooms, or downloading full details of features and including images of the property. In this case the offer may for example specify: “Press 1 to download basic details or press 2 to download full details and images of this property.” A key stroke to reject the offer may also be used. Alternatively or additionally a time-out may be used to terminate the communication between the mobile terminal and the content providing device where the user has made no response to the offer by the expiry of the time-out period.
A difficulty with displaying content on mobile terminals is that the original content format may not be suitable for display on the small screen of a mobile device. Due to the variety of mobile terminals a variation in display capabilities between them, it is almost impossible for generic content provider such as an Internet web site, which typically provides content for display on a terminal such as desk top personal computer (PC), to provide content data in a form also suitable for display on mobile a range of mobile terminals. Embodiments of the present invention can overcome this problem by providing a formatting component to format the content data stream according to the particular display attributes of the mobile terminal to enables it to be displayed on the mobile terminal.
In a preferred embodiment the formatting component divides the content data stream into a sequence of consecutive segments according to predetermined parameters based on the display capability of the mobile terminal. Any content which cannot be displayed by the mobile terminal, for example images where only text is capable of being displayed, can be allocated as an undisplayable segment. The segments are based on device display capability parameters such as screen size and resolution as well as user specified parameters, such as font size, colour mode, automatic scrolling mode or one-screen-at-a-time display mode.
An example of the formatting method is illustrated in
Where data is not displayable on the mobile terminal each undisplayable segment may be substituted during formatting with a segment including displayable text data indicating where the user may access the undisplayable content from, for example a link to a website or other reference such as a phone number or contact address to enable the user to obtain or locate the undisplayable content. For example, where the content is information about a house for sale, images of the house may be undisplayable on the mobile terminal. Each undisplayable segment may be replaced with a segment providing the Internet address of the real estate vendor and a reference number for the property to enable to the user to easily locate and view the images using their PC.
The formatting can also include a document format conversion step, for example documents may be provided in a number of formats such as: Word, PDF, WEB, WAP, WML, HTML, HXTML, XML, XSL etc documents in messaging formats such as SMS, MMS, EMS, or HMS (Hand Written Messaging) can also be provided, such a document is converted to a pure text or text and image format before executing the above formatting. This pre-processing step may be performed on the mobile terminal or by a formatting component provided in another device, such as a PC, before the mobile terminal acquires the content data stream. Alternatively, the formatting processing as described above can also be implemented by an external device such as a PC, such that the data stream is acquired by the mobile terminal already divided into segments appropriate for display. For example, this formatting may be performed on documents by the user's PC for subsequent downloading of the formatted data stream for later display on a mobile terminal, to reduce the processing and hence the battery power required by the mobile terminal later to display the documents.
The operation of the formatting component 120 according to one embodiment of the invention which enables the scrolling on text on a mobile phone screen will now be described in detail with reference to
A example where the content is provided in a plain text format will now be described with reference to
In this embodiment, each segment 530 in the sequence 510 corresponds to a line of text to be displayed on the mobile terminal screen 540 and a number of lines can be simultaneously displayed. To provide the scrolling text functionality, the position coordinates where each segment is displayed on the screen 540 are incremented and the display refreshed after each increment such that for each successive increment the displayed text will appear to have moved up, down, left or right on the screen 540 depending on the scrolling direction. As one segment reaches the edge of the screen and ceases to be displayed the next segment will be begin to be displayed on the opposite edge of the screen.
The scrolling may increment by line or by a number of pixels. In an embodiment where the scrolling is incremented by a number of pixels the test Can be drawn as an image on the screen, rather than using text characters an example is illustrated in
Drawing text as images also enables the text font and text size to me modified easily based on user preferences. A user settable parameter can be used to set the font size (i.e. small, medium or large). The drawing of text as images also enables support for text content in a variety of languages such as Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean etc.
Where images are displayed the formatting may also include the steps of transformation and scaling of images to enable them to be displayed on the mobile terminal screen.
Some embodiments of the present invention can also transform text documents to voice to enable either text and voice output or just voice output. This enables a user to listen to a voice representing the text scrolled on the display screen.
Conversely, voice-to-text recognition can be used to generate text for display on the mobile terminal.
Line one text....
Line two text ....
<<<IMAGE name=dog.jpeg....other attributes>
Line three text...
<<<LINE font=BOLD, colur=RED....other attributes>
Line four text...
Line five text....etc.
In this example, this text “Line one text . . . ” and “Line two text . . . ” are displayed as plain text on the screen, then the image is displayed. The third line of text “Line three text . . . ” will be displayed in bold font and coloured red, then the following two lines “Line four text . . . ” and “Line five text . . . ” are displayed in plain text. These display attributes can be part of each display data segment or attributes associated with each segment.
An example of user settable parameters is illustrated in
As seen in
An embodiment of associated support functions external to the mobile terminal content acquisition and display system will now be described with reference to
The Local Server 450 connects to the Mobile terminal via a serial or Bluetooth connection and sends information from the PC to the mobile terminal (e.g. feeds).
The Agent Programs are services that are designed to automatically download specific information via the Internet 430. There are several types:
The Dashboard 440 is used to perform a number of functions and provides a user interface via the PC for updating user parameters for subsequent downloading to modify the user parameters on the mobile terminal 410, some examples are given below:
Placing files on user's Internet Space 435 enables a user to access their files directly via an Internet connection from the mobile terminal 410. This allows you the user to read their files without having to download them from their PC 420 to the mobile terminal 410, for example the document is transmitted as a content data stream to the mobile terminal 410 via HTTP connection 437. The content data can be deleted automatically from the mobile terminal 410 memory once the document is closed. E-mails can be copied to the user's Internet space by the e-mail agent 470 for viewing as above. Alternatively the mobile terminal can be configured to communicate with the e-mail server via a telecommunication network and the Internet or e-mails can be downloaded to the mobile terminal by the e-mail agent and local server for storage and viewing on the mobile terminal.
From the perspective of the mobile terminal 410, the content acquisition and display functionality is provided as a software application which can be run on the mobile terminal. The software can be pre-installed on the mobile terminal by the manufacturer or downloaded to the mobile terminal by the user. The application will typically be launched by selecting the application from the mobile terminal application menu. Alternatively, a specific key press sequence or other means such as a voice command may a used to open/launch the application. The application may also be set to automatically launch when the mobile terminal is turned on or in response to another action such as a phone call ending. On opening or launching the application can be programmed to open and display a user specified document or feed automatically. While the content acquisition and display application is running the user can navigate using the application's menu system (the application is closed to return to the mobile terminal menus).
A common architecture and technology foundation based on an ICF (Intelligent Client Framework) software foundation, utilizing the Sun's J2ME and Microsoft C# targeting “.Net Compact Framework” operating environments can be used to implement both the mobile terminal functionality and the dedicated content provider functionality.
The use of limited range wireless communication such as Bluetooth is also utilised. For example this technology is used for: mobile terminal to mobile terminal communication and data exchange; mobile terminal to PC communication and data exchange; and mobile terminal to Internet communication and data exchange via a PC and Bluetooth connection.
The ICF architecture provides functionality including: user interface control, processing intelligence, and persistence and communication to web services. Special consideration has been given while developing the ICF, as there are hardware restrictions on mobile devices and hence it must have a small footprint to run on limited memory. It also provides its own lightweight local database.
The ICF architecture is illustrated in
The Presentation tier 1710 provides software components and applications to handle user interface functions such as the inputting and display of data, for example data formatting and display, and menu display functions. ICF provides generic classes to handle display and data entry operations mainly utilising the J2ME foundation. Examples are classes such as “BaseCanvas”, “BaseForm”, etc. presentation tier 1710 may include applications developed using a number of different languages or formats such as Java applets 1712, Flash 1711, C#1714 or HTML 1712. Presentation tier 1710 applications can include formatting and display components of a scrolling player application for a mobile terminal. The presentation tier may also include a composer application 1760 to enable a user to construct, edit, and store documents in a format already adapted for display on a mobile terminal as described above.
The Server tier 1720 is the foundation of the ICF software utilising a generic framework that commonly used for mobile applications, the server tier includes the process control, scheduling, processing logic, and communication gateway functions. For example a mobile application framework includes the following:
The persistence tier 1730 provides the support for storing content data and user specified parameters (preferences). For example, where the application is provided on a mobile terminal the persistence tier provides lightweight database 1750 functionality in the mobile terminal memory.
The ICF provides for access to content and services via the following methods:
Real Time access—In this state, the ICF communicates directly with the server in real-time, i.e. connected to a wireless network or via synchronized technologies. Device (local) access—In this state, the ICF accesses and stores content on the device itself, for a later stage to upload to the server (i.e. Real Time access) A combination of the above methods—here, the ICF accesses and stores content on the device as well as communicating in real time with the server. The business rules embedded in the ICF dictate which method is utilized.
XML technology, particularly the using a specific XML structure, referred to herein as YML, designed for use with the ICF is utilised to support: persistence of data on the mobile terminal; data communication and exchange between the mobile terminal and the backend support functions provided on a PC or other device; and maintenance of user and system (mobile terminal) parameters. An example of the YML structure is given below:
<?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“ISO-8859-1”?>
<collections>
<collection n=“COLLECTION_NAME”>
<group n=“GROUP_NAME”>
<object n=“OBJECT_NAME”>
<f n=“FIELD_NAME”>FIELD_VALUE</f>
<f n=“FIELD_NAME”>FIELD_VALUE</f>
</object>
<object n=“OBJECT_NAME”>
<f n=“FIELD_NAME”>FIELD_VALUE</f>
<f n=“FIELD_NAME”>FIELD_VALUE</f>
</object>
</group>
<group n=“GROUP_NAME”>
<object n=“OBJECT_NAME”>
<f n=“FIELD_NAME”>FIELD_VALUE</f>
<f n=“FIELD_NAME”>FIELD_VALUE</f>
</object>
<object n=“OBJECT_NAME”>
<f n=“FIELD_NAME”>FIELD_VALUE</f>
<f n=“FIELD_NAME”>FIELD_VALUE</f>
</object>
</group>
</collection>
</collections>
The collection includes one or more groups with each group comprising one or more objects. Each object can include one or more fields.
This XML structure is used commonly throughout the ICF architecture, for example content data is stored as a series of objects, parameters such as properties of the mobile device and user preferences are also defined as objects. This structure is also used for message content. An example of a specific “VERIFY_USER” request and response messages exchanged between a mobile terminal application and a back-end application on a PC utilising YML:
<?xml version=″1.0″ encoding=″ISO-8859-1″?>
<collections>
<collection n=″COLLECTION″>
<group n=″GROUP″>
<object n=″HEADER″>
<f n=″APP_NAME″>SCROLLING_PLAYER</f>
<f n=″REL_NAME″>LIGHT</f>
<f n=″VER_NAME″>010000</f>
<f n=″CMD_NAME″>VERIFY_USER_REQUEST</f>
<f n=″TIMESTAMP″>051220062108</f>
<f n=″P_CNT″>2.txt</f>
<f n=“P1”>USER_ID </f>
<f n=“P2”>PHONE_NO </f>
</object>
<object n=″BODY″>
<f n=″USER_ID″>GIL</f>
<f n=″PHONE_NO″>61414809220</f>
</object>
</group>
</collection>
</collections>
The request message includes: a header object, which includes fields identifying the application, and the message purpose “verify user request”; and a message body object including the user information to be verified.
An example of the YML response message to the VERIFY_USER_RESPONSE command is give below:
<?xml version=″1.0″ encoding=″ISO-8859-1″?>
<collections>
<collection n=″COLLECTION″>
<group n=″GROUP″>
<object n=″HEADER″>
<f n=″APP_NAME″>SCROLLING_BACKEND</f>
<f n=″REL_NAME″>LIGHT</f>
<f n=″VER_NAME″>010000</f>
<f n=″CMD_NAME″>VERIFY_USER_RESPONSE</f>
<f n=″TIMESTAMP″>051220062108</f>
<f n=″P_CNT″>1.txt</f>
<f n=“P1”>STATUS </f>
</object>
<object n=″BODY″>
<f n=″STATUS″>ACCEPT</f>
</object>
</group>
</collection>
</collections>
Again the message includes: a header object which identifies the application, and the message purpose “verify user response”; and a message body object which includes the status (i.e. ACCEPTED).
In the preferred embodiment of the invention the same architecture is used for the application running on the mobile terminal as for the backend or support applications running on a PC, for example as described above with reference to
The scrolling player enables text and images to be scrolled automatically on a mobile terminal, so a user can read it without the need to use a key stroke. The user can control the size of the font, the speed of the scrolling and many other attributes. The content data is “played” like music, the user can scroll faster or slower, pause, increase or decrease font size and change the scrolling direction. The ability to adjust the font size is particularly advantageous to long sighted, elderly, or vision impaired users.
A marker on the display may be used to indicate which paragraph is active. For example, a dashed red line on the left hand side of the paragraph can indicate that the paragraph is active and pressing a specified ‘select’ key will open the article relevant to that paragraph.
A ‘switch screen’ key 1620 allows the user to go back and forth between the document/article that has been opened, the feed it came from and the last menu activated.
The user may choose to scroll manually through a feed or article using the up and down keys or play the feed in an automatic scrolling mode.
A scrolling player menu 1630 is provided to enable the user to control the scrolling. An example of a scrolling player menu 1630 comprising a number of icons 1631-1637 is shown in
The scrolling player enables the user to modify the parameter settings while data content is being displayed. For example, the user can pause, speed up or slow down the scrolling. The scrolling player also enables the font size of test to be changed during display. Where the font size is changed the content data is re-formatted for subsequent based on the selected font size and the screen parameters (such as screen width). The entire content stream may be re-formatted or the re-formatting may start from the presently viewed content segments and only re-format segments yet to be displayed (according to the scrolling direction). This re-formatting can comprise altering the segment size, for example by a number of characters, based on the screen line length for the chosen font, this display component will then draw the text or text as an image using the new font size. Alternatively the segment size and number of segments per line can be based on the font size options, for example one segment may be displayed per line for font size “1”, two segments per line for font size “2”, and three segments per line for font size “3”, in this case the appropriate number of segments are selected for each line as the font size is changed.
The scrolling player is also provided with its own menus. The menu enables the user to navigate through viewing and administrative functions. The viewing functions enable the user to download, view and save feeds and articles from the Internet and view feeds and articles that are saved on the mobile terminal. The administrative functions enable the user to edit configuration settings, view and delete logs, delete documents from the mobile terminal memory, and reset configuration settings to default settings.
It should be appreciated from the above description that there are three main methods by which information can be acquired and stored by the mobile terminal for display to simplify the locating and downloading of information to a mobile terminal. The first is a “do it yourself” method where the user has the utility (for example using an application installed on a PC) to convert the document to the necessary format, and transmit and play it on their mobile terminal. The second is where a user moves, copies, or links documents to their own web site and can convert and receive information on their phone, functionality can be provided on the mobile terminal to link directly to this web site and aid searching for the required document to make the information retrieval as easy as possible from the mobile terminal. A third option is where information is sent to a support function web site for formatting in a format which can then be sent to the mobile phone for display. A further option is where information is offered and sent directly to the mobile terminal. The advantages of these content acquisition options is that the complexity of the data acquisition by the user from the mobile terminal is significantly simplified.
In the claims which follow and in the preceding description, except where the context requires otherwise due to express language or necessary implication, the word “comprise” or variations such as “comprises” or “comprising” is used in an inclusive sense, i.e. to specify the presence of the stated features but not to preclude the presence or addition of further features in various embodiments of the invention.
It is to be understood that, if any prior art publication is referred to herein, such reference does not constitute an admission that the publication forms a part of the common general knowledge in the art, in Australia or any other country.
Mizrachi, Yossi (Joseph), Mizrachi, Barak
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