U.S. patent application number 10/607672 was filed with the patent office on 2004-01-01 for mobile handset with browser application to be used to recognize textual presentation.
Invention is credited to Evans, Michael Paul, Furnell, Steven Marcus, Hammac, John, Kelliher, John, Phippen, Andrew Daud, Reynolds, Paul Laurence.
Application Number | 20040002325 10/607672 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 10816322 |
Filed Date | 2004-01-01 |
United States Patent
Application |
20040002325 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Evans, Michael Paul ; et
al. |
January 1, 2004 |
Mobile handset with browser application to be used to recognize
textual presentation
Abstract
A mobile handset for use in a mobile communications system
includes a user interface, a radio communications front end, a
radio transceiving antenna, and a browser application to interpret
a multimedia document received from a remote server. The browser
application recognizes textual presentation markup tags in the
document and presents text to a user in accordance with the markup
tags. The browser application recognizes a standard set of
document-independent local library file markup tags in the
document, and stores a standard set of non-textual local library
files corresponding to the local library file markup tags. The
browser application further presents content provided by one of the
local library files via the user interface in response to the
recognition of one of the local library file markup tags in the
document.
Inventors: |
Evans, Michael Paul; (Devon,
GB) ; Furnell, Steven Marcus; (Cornwall, GB) ;
Phippen, Andrew Daud; (Cornwall, GB) ; Reynolds, Paul
Laurence; (Somerset, GB) ; Hammac, John;
(Northanis, GB) ; Kelliher, John; (London,
GB) |
Correspondence
Address: |
KNOBBE MARTENS OLSON & BEAR LLP
2040 MAIN STREET
FOURTEENTH FLOOR
IRVINE
CA
92614
US
|
Family ID: |
10816322 |
Appl. No.: |
10/607672 |
Filed: |
June 27, 2003 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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10607672 |
Jun 27, 2003 |
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09463475 |
Jul 27, 2000 |
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6650889 |
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09463475 |
Jul 27, 2000 |
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PCT/GB98/02177 |
Jul 22, 1998 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
455/414.1 ;
455/566; 707/E17.118 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 16/986
20190101 |
Class at
Publication: |
455/414.1 ;
455/566 |
International
Class: |
H04M 001/00; H04B
001/38 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Jul 22, 1997 |
GB |
9715516.2 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A mobile communications terminal adapted to generate graphical
image data defining a facial image which is animated to simulate
actions accompanying speech generated from data received via a
radio interface, wherein the characteristics of the facial image
are selectable by a user of the terminal.
2. The mobile communications terminal of claim 1, wherein the
selectable characteristics of the facial image comprise at least
one of base facial style, skin color, hair color, eye color, and
mouth size.
3. The mobile communications terminal of claim 1, wherein the
characteristics of the speech are selectable by a user of the
terminal.
4. A multimedia client terminal, the terminal comprising: a browser
configured to interpret a multimedia document received from a
remote server, the browser comprising: means for recognizing
textual presentation markup tags in the document and presenting
text to a user in accordance with the markup tags, means for
recognizing a standard set of document-independent local library
file tags in the document, means for storing a set of non-textual
local library files corresponding to the local library tags, and
means for presenting the contents of one of the local library files
to a user in response to the recognition of one of the local
library file tags in the multimedia document.
5. The multimedia client terminal of claim 4, wherein the
multimedia client terminal is a mobile communications terminal.
6. The multimedia client terminal of claim 4, wherein the
non-textual files comprise one or more of graphics files, audio
files and/or video files.
7. The multimedia client terminal of claim 4, wherein the
non-textual files comprise data for speech synthesis, and the tags
define speech to be synthesized.
8. A multimedia document server, the server comprising a storage
holding a set of multimedia documents, one or more of the documents
comprising: textual presentation commands; and one or more of a
standard set of document-independent markup tags to be recognized
by a client terminal downloading the one or more documents as
references to non-textual files which are stored in the client
terminal.
9. The multimedia document server of claim 8, wherein the client
terminal is a mobile communications terminal.
10. The multimedia document server of claim 8, wherein the
non-textual files comprise one or more of graphics files, audio
files and/or video files.
11. The multimedia document server of claim 8, wherein the
non-textual files comprise data for speech synthesis, and the tags
define speech to be synthesized.
12. A document retrieval system comprising: a client terminal
comprising a browser configured to interpret a multimedia document
received from a remote server, the browser comprising: means for
recognizing textual presentation markup tags in the document and
presenting text to a user in accordance with the markup tags, means
for recognizing a standard set of document-independent local
library file tags in the document, means for storing a set of
non-textual local library files corresponding to the local library
tags, and means for presenting the contents of one of the local
library files to a user in response to the recognition of one of
the local library file tags in the multimedia document; and a
document server comprising a storage holding a set of multimedia
documents, one or more of the documents comprising: textual
presentation commands, and one or more of a standard set of
document-independent markup tags to be recognized by a client
terminal downloading the one or more documents as references to
non-textual files which are stored in the client terminal.
13. The document retrieval system of claim 12, wherein the client
terminal is a mobile communications terminal.
14. The document retrieval system of claim 12, wherein the
non-textual files comprise one or more of graphics files, audio
files and/or video files.
15. The document retrieval system of claim 12, wherein the
non-textual files comprise data for speech synthesis, and the tags
define speech to be synthesized.
16. A communications terminal for accessing Web pages via an
Internet protocol connection, the terminal comprising a browser for
interpreting Web pages and presenting the contents thereof on a
display portion of the communications terminal, the browser
configured to recognize two dimensional graphics markup tags in a
Web page and render a graphical object on the display portion on
the basis of a plurality of the graphics markup tags.
17. The communications terminal according to claim 16, wherein the
graphics markup tags comprise line drawing commands and/or image
manipulation commands.
18. A Web server comprising Web pages describing a two dimensional
graphical object by way of the graphics markup tags used by a
communications terminal for accessing Web pages via an Internet
protocol connection, the terminal comprising a browser for
interpreting Web pages and presenting the contents thereof on a
display portion of the communications terminal, the browser
configured to recognize two dimensional graphics markup tags in a
Web page and render a graphical object on the display portion on
the basis of a plurality of the graphics markup tags.
19. A multimedia client terminal, comprising: a browser for
interpreting a multimedia document received from a remote server,
comprising: means for recognizing speech presentation markup tags
in the document; means for storing a set of local library files
corresponding to the speech presentation markup tags; and means for
presenting the speech to a user in accordance with the local
library files tags found in the multimedia document.
20. The client terminal according to claim 19, wherein the speech
is presented in conjunction with a graphical display comprising a
moving facial image.
21. The client terminal according to claim 20, wherein the
characteristics of the moving facial image are selectable by a user
of the client terminal.
22. A multimedia client terminal, comprising: a browser for
interpreting a multimedia document received from a remote server,
comprising: software configured to recognize speech presentation
markup tags in the document; software configured to store a set of
local library files corresponding to the speech presentation markup
tags; and software configured to present the speech to a user in
accordance with the local library files tags found in the
multimedia document.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 09/463,475 entitled "MOBILE HANDSET WITH
BROWSER APPLICATION TO BE USED TO RECOGNIZE TEXTUAL PRESENTATION"
and filed on Jul. 27, 2000. The disclosure of the above-described
filed application is hereby incorporated by reference in its
entirety.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] This invention relates to data communications, and in
particular to the communication of multimedia documents from
multimedia servers to multimedia clients.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] The Internet currently provides users with a number of
different services. One of such services is the WorldWide Web, or
"the Web", which has now become relatively well-known and well-used
by fixed terminal subscribers.
[0004] To access the Web, a user installs a "browser" application
on a terminal, which acts as a client interfacing with a network of
distributed Web servers via the Internet.
[0005] In order to access a page on the Web, a user specifies a
universal resource locator (URL), and transmits a page request via
a data link to the Internet. In the Internet, the request is routed
to the appropriate Web server as identified in the URL. In return,
the Web server transmits the pages back to the requesting browser.
The communications protocol used within the Internet is TC/IP
during this dialogue.
[0006] Web pages are currently formatted using the HyperText markup
language (HTML). A Web browser, on receipt of a HTML document,
interprets the HTML commands in order to format the text correctly.
HyperText links may be included in the document which, when
presented to the user, may be selected in order to request a
further Web page (a HTML link references a further URL with which
the browser retrieves the further page). Web pages currently
contain not only text and hyperlinks, but also image, audio and/or
video files (hence, Web pages are referred to as "multimedia"
documents).
[0007] Although the textual data in the Web page is generally
relatively data-compact, it is recognized that graphics files,
audio files, and in particular video files, contain relatively
large amounts of data which can reduce related download of Web
pages considerably. As a result, the downloading of "true"
multimedia documents including graphics, audio and/or video files
can be cumbersome, in particular where the data link used into the
Internet is of a type which is of a relatively low data rate.
[0008] The speed of download of multimedia Web pages is
particularly problematic in the case of mobile data links such as a
cellular radio data link, in which the radio data transfer is
constrained by the relatively low bandwidth of the radio interface
link.
[0009] Therefore, although it is currently possible to access the
Web at a mobile communications terminal, the option is currently
not widely taken advantage of and, when taking advantage of, the
data transferred is generally limited to textual data to achieve
reasonable download speeds.
[0010] Methods are known whereby the amount of data transfer
involved in accessing the Web are reduced. In particular, many
browsers support a caching facility whereby a Web page, once
downloaded, is temporarily stored locally on the client terminal.
When the Web page is next requested, the browser recognizes, by the
URL in the request corresponding with the URL of the cached
document, that the document is currently held locally, and
retrieves the locally-held page in preference to re-downloading the
page from the Web. The browser may transmit an update check to the
Web server in question in order to confirm that the locally-stored
Web page remains valid, and if not, downloads the updated Web
page.
[0011] Caching may be performed on a session-by-session basis, or
may be performed such that a cached Web page remains stored between
sessions. However, a browser maintains only a limited non-volatile
cache of Web pages, and newly-cached Web pages are stored in
preference to previously-stored Web pages (which are then deleted)
when the cache becomes full.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0012] In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there
is provided a multimedia client terminal, said terminal
comprising:
[0013] a browser for interpreting a multimedia document received
from a remote server, said interpreting means comprising:
[0014] means for recognizing textual presentation markup tags in
said document and presenting text to a user in accordance with said
markup tags;
[0015] means for recognizing a standard set of document-independent
local library file markup tags in said document;
[0016] means for storing a set of non-textual local library files
corresponding to said local library tags; and
[0017] means for presenting the contents of one of said local
library files to a user in response to the recognition of one of
said local library file tags in said multimedia document.
[0018] Rather than needing to download non-textual files
accompanying the text of a document, the client terminal is able to
receive one or more of a known set of document-independent and
data-efficient markup tags and access locally-stored files which
correspond to the tags in the downloaded document.
[0019] The arrangement of the present invention is to be contrasted
with the arrangement in which the client terminal holds a
non-volatile cache (although, such a cache may be used in
combination with the present invention), in that caching mechanisms
do not utilize document-independent local library markup tags.
Instead, a document is cached by selection of a URL, and it is
unlikely that, when a new multimedia document is downloaded, any
parts of the document will already be held locally.
[0020] The use of a non-volatile cache is non-systematic, and does
not allow a server content developer to design multimedia documents
specifically for low data-rate communication links, which is
possible with the present invention.
[0021] In addition, a non-volatile cache arrangement does not allow
a user of a low data-rate receiving terminal to be confident that a
new multimedia document can be downloaded at an acceptable speed,
which is possible with the present invention.
[0022] By defining a standard set of document-independent local
library file tags, the present invention allows a server content
developer to include one or more of such tags within a document to
be placed on a server in the knowledge that a user, provided with a
client application for recognizing the predefined set of local
library tags and for retrieving appropriate locally-stored files,
will be able to download the document relatively quickly and
receive each of the intended multimedia parts as intended.
[0023] The present invention is of particular utility in relation
to mobile communications terminals.
[0024] Further aspects of the invention are set out in the appended
claims.
[0025] Further features of embodiments of the invention are as
follows:
[0026] 1. The system employs tags to locally stored graphical
images, drawing primitives, pre-drawn images, image manipulators,
audio and video files.
[0027] 2. A first set of tags provides basic two dimensional
drawing functionality, enabling the creation of a range of simple
but effective composite images by means of combinations of drawing
primitives.
[0028] 3. The client functionality supports a standard predefined
range of pre-drawn images that can add further graphical content to
a page, over and above that achieved using the drawing primitives.
This enables an image to be retrieved from the local repository to
be displayed at the specified co-ordinates. A scaling factor may be
specified to dynamically resize the image and a hyperlink can be
optionally provided.
[0029] 4. The client functionality supports the manipulation of
on-screen bitmap images.
[0030] 5. A second set of tags provides basic audio playback
capability. The system employs tags to stored speech files as well
as the ability to interpret "talking Web pages" through text to
speech translation software.
[0031] 6. The client functionality supports a standard predefined
range of audio files enabling a file to be retrieved from the local
repository, and spoken by a speech agent at the client.
[0032] 7. The speech agent supports default vocal and facial styles
in order to allow different genders, accents and languages into the
playback. Different facial appearances may be selected for the
agent. The combination of attributes may be used to create agents
with different personalities.
[0033] 8. A third set of tags provides basic video clip playback
capability. The system employs tags to stored video files.
[0034] 9. The client functionality supports a standard predefined
range of video files enabling a file to be retrieved from the local
repository and replayed at the client.
[0035] 10. In one embodiment, tags implementing the new
functionality are embedded into Web pages, which may also contain
HTML, and content handlers filter out the tags implementing the new
functionality before resolving them.
[0036] 11. In another embodiment, references to files implementing
the new functionality are embedded into Web pages, which may also
contain HTML, as markups (e.g. for graphics resources
<imgsrc="images/text.hgml">- ; for audio resources
<spesrc="audio/test.hsml>; and for video resources
<vidsrc="video/test.hvml">).
[0037] 12. In a further embodiment, pages implementing the new
functionality are a separate resource, which may be hyperlinked in
the corresponding Web pages containing HTML (e.g.
http://www.test.com/text.hg- ml).
[0038] 13. The drawing functionality provided by tags to graphics
primitives supports Web page navigation by means of hyperlinks.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0039] Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way
of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings,
wherein:
[0040] FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram illustrating a
document retrieval system in accordance with an embodiment of the
invention;
[0041] FIG. 2 illustrates a client/server functionality in
accordance with an embodiment of the invention;
[0042] FIG. 3 illustrates a predefined set of document-independent
graphics tags and a set of corresponding graphics elements;
[0043] FIG. 4 illustrates an alternative set of graphics elements
to be used with the predefined set of graphics tags illustrated in
FIG. 3; and
[0044] FIG. 5 illustrates a screen display provided in accordance
with an embodiment of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF CERTAIN EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION
[0045] Referring to FIG. 1, a multimedia document retrieval system
in accordance with an embodiment of the invention includes a mobile
client terminal 2 communicating via a mobile communications network
4, such as a GSM digital mobile communications network, and the
Internet 6 with the Web server 7.
[0046] The mobile client terminal 2 includes a user interface 8, a
client application 10, a radio communications front end 12 and a
radio transceiving antenna 14.
[0047] The user interface 8 includes a keypad, a display screen and
a loudspeaker for accepting user input and outputting images and
audio signals respectively.
[0048] The client application 10 is a customized Web browser, such
as a customized version of the Netscape Explorer (Registered
Trademark) browser, and includes standard content handlers such as
a text content handler 16 and an image content handler 18.
[0049] In addition, the client application 10 includes, as provided
in accordance with the present invention, a graphics tag handler
20, an audio tag handler 22 and a video tag handler 24. These
content handlers may be components of the browser 10 produced in a
development language such as Java, or JavaBeans (Registered
Trademark). Associated with each of the tag handlers are a standard
graphics library 26, a standard audio library 28 and a standard
video library 30, containing content files which are
document-independent. The graphics library consists of graphics
files GF 1-X. The audio library consists of a number of audio files
AF 1-Y, and the video library consists of a number of standard
video files VF 1-Z.
[0050] The radio communications front end 12 includes amplifiers,
frequency selective circuits, etc which are used to perform radio
communications via the radio transceiving antenna 14.
[0051] The mobile client terminal 2 may be one of various types of
terminal, for example a laptop computer provided with radio
communications facilities, a personal digital assistant (PDA), or a
mobile handset provided with Web browsing capabilities.
[0052] Radio signals transmitted and received by the radio
transceiving antenna 14 of the mobile client terminal 2 are
received and transmitted by a cell site antenna 32 of the mobile
communications network 4, via a radio link 33. Only one cell site
antenna is illustrated but it will be appreciated that a large
number of such antennas are provided in the mobile communications
network 4, and the particular serving cell site antenna will depend
on the location of the mobile client terminal 2 at any particular
time. The cell-site antenna interfaces, via a base station 34, to a
mobile switching exchange 36 of the mobile communications network,
which maintains a circuit connection 38 with an Internet gateway
40.
[0053] The Internet gateway in turn interfaces via the Internet 6
to the Web server 7, using a TCP/IP connection 42.
[0054] The server 7 holds a set of Web pages 44, each being
referenced by different URLs.
[0055] The contents of one such Web page 46 are illustrated in FIG.
1. The Web page 46 contains a textual portion 48, to be handled by
the text content handler 16, an image file portion 50, to be
handled by the image content handler 18, one or more of a standard
predefined set of document-independent graphics tags 52, to be
handled by graphics tag handler 20, one or more standard predefined
document-independent audio tags 54, to be handled by audio tag
handler 22, and one or more of a standard predefined set of
document-independent video tags 56. Others of the Web pages 44 also
contain text content and the graphics tags, audio tags and video
tags used in the illustrated document 46 may be repeated in the
remaining Web pages of the set 44 held on the server.
[0056] When the client terminal 2 transmits the appropriate URL
request to the server 7, via the various data links indicated, the
server 7 transmits the Web page back, in HTML format, to the mobile
client terminal 2. At the client terminal 2, the various content
handlers 16-24 interpret the HTML to present the text and image
content 48, 50 of the Web page as indicated by the HTML command
therein, and the tag handlers recognize the particular graphics,
audio and/or video tags referenced in the document 46, and present
the contents of the corresponding file in the libraries 26, 28, 30
as indicated by commands associated with the respective tags.
[0057] FIG. 2 illustrates functionality of a client/server at the
content handler level, in accordance with one embodiment of the
invention. In this embodiment, three different "markup-languages"
are provided for developing Web pages on the server site, and which
are interpreted by the tag handlers 20, 22, 24 of the system shown
in FIG. 1. These languages are referred to herein as the
hyper-graphic mark-up language (HGML), the hyper-speech mark-up
language (HSML) and hyper-video mark-up language (HVML).
[0058] Designed to extend the power of the Web to mobile
communications applications, HGML, HSML and HVML provide for fast
communications over narrowband radio channels, such as GSM, while
also being functional on higher bandwidth systems.
[0059] Through the use of graphical files, audio clips and/or video
clips provided on the mobile client terminal in a HGML/HSML/HVML
Toolkit, the need for network programming may be significantly
reduced, and it is possible to embed tags referencing advanced
graphical, speech, video and animation which is stored on the
client side into Web pages.
[0060] The content handler interprets the HGML/HSML/HVML commands
into graphics primitives and calls to access stored graphical
images and speech/video files. It is multi-threaded to allow
multiple paints onto the page at a given time.
[0061] HGML, HSML and/or HVML commands may be embedded in a Web
page containing HTML, in which case the client side content
handlers process the page and filter out the HGML, HSML and/or HVML
commands before resolving them.
[0062] References to HGML, HSML and/or HVML resource files may be
embedded into Web pages, containing HTML, as markups (e.g.
<imgsre-"images/test- .hgml">).
[0063] Alternatively, HGML/HSML/HVML pages may be hyperlinked as
separate resources in Web pages containing HTML (e.g.
http://www.test.com/test.hgm- l).
[0064] FIG. 2 illustrates the case in which the HGML/HSML/HVML
resources are embedded as markups. FIG. 2 details how content
handlers (as exemplified by a HGML content handler) manage content
of variable type from a server to display it on a Web page.
[0065] The HGML content handler interprets the HGML commands into
either graphics primitive or calls to access stored graphical
images. There are a number of areas of functionality (which may be
defined in object classes) on the client side:
[0066] Content handling: The upper object acting as a container for
the other required functionalities;
[0067] Connection: To handle the network connection to the server
and the retrieval of HGML resources from the server;
[0068] Command interpreter/Text processing: Takes the HGML resource
and processes it into the various graphics requirements (i.e. if
more than one picture resides in the resource, etc); and
[0069] Painting: Takes the commands that make a specific HGML
graphic and draw the required graphics to the appropriate place in
the browser graphical user interface. Again, this could be
primitives or stored images. A Paint object extends a thread class
and is managed by the command interpreter, allowing multiple paints
to be performed at the same time.
[0070] HGML
[0071] HGML provides for:
[0072] 1. Construction of graphics from a standard set of graphics
primitives (circles, lines, etc). These are described below.
[0073] 2. Recall and placement of a standard set of logo/clipart
graphics from a client based store. Examples are illustrated in
FIGS. 3 and 4.
[0074] 3. Prevention of download of photo-realistic images.
[0075] 4. Yielded graphics which act as hyperlinks.
[0076] HGML includes various tags or commands, which can be grouped
into three functional categories, as shown below.
1 Drawing Primitives Images Image Manipulation ARC IMAGE COPY ARROW
THEME FLIP ELLIPSE PASTE LINE ROTATE LINETO LINEREL LINK ORIGIN
POLYGON RECTANGLE SETSTYLE TEXT
[0077] Drawing Primitives
[0078] The first group of document-independent tags provide HGML
with basic drawing functionality, enabling the creation of a range
of simple but effective composite images.
[0079] Most commands include optional attributes for (out)line
color, style, thickness and, when appropriate, fill color. If any
of those that are not explicitly specified, the current default
settings (as specified by the SETSTYLE tag) are used.
[0080] ARC
[0081] Draws an arc of a specified width, height and angle from
absolute starting coordinates. It has the following attributes:
[0082] origin x, y coordinates of arc (absolute) followed by width,
height, start angle and arc angle, line color, line style, and line
thickness.
[0083] e.g. <arc coords="20,20,50,30,45,80"color=red>
[0084] ARROW
[0085] Draws a line from x1,y1 to x2,y2 using absolute screen
(window) coordinates, with an arrow head at the x2,y2 position. It
has the following attributes:
[0086] start and end x,y coordinates (absolute), line color, line
style, and line thickness.
[0087] e.g. <arrow coords="10,10,100,100",color=black,
psize="2">
[0088] ELLIPSE
[0089] Draws an ellipse of a given width and height from the
specified coordinates. This tag is also used to draw circles. The
following attributes are provided:
[0090] center x,y coordinates (absolute) followed by width and
height, outline color, fill color, outline style, and outline
thickness.
[0091] e.g. <ellipse
coords="200,200,100,50",color=black;fill=yellow>- ;
[0092] LINE
[0093] Draws a line from x1,y1 to x2,y2 using absolute screen
(window) coordinates. The attributes are:
[0094] [start and end x,y coordinates (absolute), line color, line
style, and line thickness.
[0095] e.g. <line coords="10,10,100,100",style="dotted",
psize="2">
[0096] LINETO
[0097] Draws a line from the current graphics cursor position to a
new position (using absolute coordinates). The following attributes
are defined:
[0098] end of line x,y coordinates (absolute), line color, line
style, and line thickness.
[0099] e.g. <lineto coords="200,150", color=green>
[0100] LINEREL
[0101] Draws a line relative to the current graphics cursor
position using coordinate offsets. The following are its
attributes:
[0102] end of line coordinates (relative), line color, line style,
and line thickness.
[0103] e.g. <linerelcoords="15,-10", psize="4">
[0104] LINK
[0105] Allows a rectangular portion of the screen to be defined as
an hyperlink. The following attributes are given:
[0106] rectangular region x 1,y1,x2,y2 (absolute), hyperlink
reference.
[0107] e.g. <link coords="15,10,50,60",
href--"http://www.demo.com/demo- .hgm">
[0108] ORIGIN
[0109] Sets the position of the "graphics cursor". For use with
LINETO and LINEREL tags. New graphics cursor position x,y is
attributed.
[0110] e.g. <origin coords="100,130">
[0111] POLYGON
[0112] Draws a polygon using a list of absolute screen coordinates,
starting with an origin. Coordinates are listed in the format
"x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3 . . . xn,yn". The line from the last specified
coordinates back to the origin of the shape is drawn automatically
to complete the polygon. The following attributes are provided:
[0113] origin of shape, followed by n other points (all absolute
coordinates), outline color, fill color, outline style, and outline
thickness.
[0114] e.g.
[0115] <-six-sided-shape->
[0116] <polygon coords="100,100,120, 80,140, 80,160,100,140,120,
120,120", color=red, fill=red>
[0117] RECTANGLE
[0118] Draws a rectangle of a given width and height from the
specified coordinates. This tag is also used to draw squares. The
following attributes are defined:
[0119] top left x,y coordinates (absolute) followed by width and
height dimensions, outline color, fill color, outline style, and
outline thickness.
[0120] e.g. <rectangle coords="10,10,100,
15"style="dotted">
[0121] SETSTYLE
[0122] Enables default settings for outline color, fill color and
outlines style and thickness to be specified. These settings are
then used unless explicitly overridden by the attributes in other
HGML commands. The attributes are:
[0123] outline color, fill color, outline style, outline
thickness.
[0124] e.g. <setstyle color=red, fill=green>
[0125] TEXT
[0126] Displays a text string, starting from the specified
coordinates. It has the following attributes:
[0127] text position x,y coordinates (absolute), text string to
display, and text color.
[0128] e.g. <text coords="10,50`; text="This is an example of
HGML text">
[0129] STORED IMAGES
[0130] A standard range of pre-drawn images are stored on the
mobile client terminal, associated with a standard
document-independent set of graphics tags as exemplified in FIG. 3.
These images may be used to provide further graphical content to a
page, in addition to that which may be achieved using the drawing
primitives.
[0131] IMAGE
[0132] Enables an image to be retrieved from the local repository
and displayed at the specified coordinates. The current theme will
be used unless another one is explicitly specified. A scaling
factor may be specified to dynamically resize the image and a
hyperlink can be optionally provided. The attributes are:
[0133] image name, theme style, top left coordinates of image,
scaling factor (percent), hyperlink reference.
[0134] e.g. <image name=ARROW1, coords="50,50`, scale=150,
href="http://www.demo.com/demo.hgm">
[0135] THEME
[0136] Enables a new current image theme to be selected. The
attributes are:
[0137] name of image theme,
[0138] e.g <theme=DEFAULT>
[0139] An example of a set of images which may be associated with
an alternative theme ("Theme 2"). As shown, different themes may
not have defined images for all of the predefined set of tags--some
may not be used in associated with a particular theme. Only a set
number of theme styles are provided for.
[0140] At a high level, themes are split into three general
categories:
[0141] Navigation
[0142] Images of buttons for a range of relatively standard Web
page functions. The structure of this category is strictly defined
by HGML such that images are referenced by standard names and
relate to the same type of image irrespective of the theme being
used (i.e. HOME, SEARCH, ARROW etc).
[0143] Design
[0144] A range of standard page design constructs in terms of
lines, bullets, separators, etc. The structure of this category is
strictly defined by HGML such that images are referenced by
standard names and relate to the same type of image irrespective of
the theme being used (i.e. LINE 1. LINE2, BULLET1 etc).
[0145] The navigation and design categories have a prescribed
content (i.e. the first element in the Design category is always a
line etc). As such, changing the theme associated with a page will
mean that, whilst it looks different, the images displayed will
still be meaningful and appropriate (e.g. a line will still appear
where intended albeit in a different style).
[0146] User
[0147] User-defined images of which the content is specific to the
theme. HGML defines standard names (i.e. USER1, USER2 etc), but
these do not provide any indication of the type of image being
referenced.
[0148] The client side HGML functionality provides at least a
default theme. Other themes (defined for example by individual site
designers) may be downloaded from a remote server the first time a
service that uses them is accessed. Alternatively, a user may have
a personal preferred theme which may be provided on the client
terminal and used in preference to the default and/or downloaded
theme.
[0149] User-defined theme elements are provided to permit a degree
of flexibility to Web site developers, whilst still remaining
optimization advantages.
[0150] This group allows local storage of other images, outside the
standard categories prescribed. These may be used to reference any
images that the site/theme designer wishes. It is anticipated that
this will include images relating to corporate identity (e.g. logos
etc) to further standardize the look and feel of their pages. They
could, however, also include additional line and bullet styles etc
that could not be encompassed under the standard headers
provided.
[0151] The number of user-defined images is limited to a
predetermined number (e.g. ten) in order to prevent the image
repository from becoming undesirably large.
[0152] All images not included in the standard theme may need to be
downloaded each time a site is accessed (although they may be
cached from a previous session). At such, it is intended that
user-defined slots are utilized to hold the largest and most used
images (thus helping to further optimize download times).
[0153] Whilst user-defined images are envisaged primarily as
site-specific, however other designers may wish to reuse them in
their own sites. In this case, there are two alternatives:
[0154] (1) to incorporate the required images into the user-defined
slots of the site's own theme; or
[0155] (2) to make the site reliant on two or more themes (i.e. a
default, along with the ones) containing the images to be reused).
In this case, the end-user obtains all of the necessary themes
before being able to access the site. The site provider would
provide download access for each theme.
[0156] Image Manipulation
[0157] HGML supports the manipulation of the onscreen bitmap image
using COPY, PASTE, FLIP and ROTATE commands.
[0158] These are intended to further optimize the creation of
certain types of image. For example, if a composite image created
using several drawing primitives is also required at another
onscreen location, then it may be copied and pasted rather than
redrawn. The orientation of it may then be changed using the FLIP
and ROTATE operations.
[0159] The functions also help to optimize the storage of theme
images. For example, rather than store four Arrow symbols (pointing
left, right, up and down), a single image may be stored in the
database and then ROTATEd and FLIPed as desired.
[0160] COPY
[0161] Copies of specified rectangular screen segment to a memory
buffer. The original image remains unchanged. The attributes
are:
[0162] top left and bottom right coordinates of segment.
[0163] e.g. <copy coords="50,50,100,100">
[0164] FLIP
[0165] Performs a horizontal or vertical flip of a screen defined
by the specified coordinates. The attributes are:
[0166] top left and bottom right coordinates of segment. and
horizontal or vertical flip,
[0167] e.g. <flip coords="50,50,100,100", axis="horiz">
[0168] PASTE
[0169] Copies of the contents of a memory buffer to an
appropriately sized rectangular screen segment, starting at the
specified coordinates. The attributes are:
[0170] top left coordinates to paste segment.
[0171] e.g. <paste coords="100,100">
[0172] ROTATE
[0173] Performs a rotation of a circular screen area by a specified
angle. The attributes are:
[0174] coordinates of center, radius and rotation angle.
[0175] e.g. <rotate coords="50,50,30",angle="80">
[0176] HSML
[0177] FIG. 5 illustrates a screen display on the mobile client
terminal 2 when displaying a Web page containing HSML.
[0178] As illustrated, the browser displays the text content,
formatted as specified by the HTML markups in the Web page, and a
speech agent image portion 102, which is driven in accordance with
the HSML markups contained or referenced in the downloaded Web page
in association with the replay of locally-stored audio clips
referenced by audio tags contained in the Web page, or the
generation of speech by conversion from text contained in the Web
page.
[0179] The speech agent interface provided by the mobile client
terminal is controlled by a speech playback/generator program
application and a moving image application program stored on the
mobile terminal.
[0180] The speech agent has a variety of selectable vocal and
facial styles. The various selectable vocal styles are defined in
vocal style files stored on the mobile client terminal, containing
data describing algorithms and settings for manipulating the audio
data providing the speech function to alter the vocal
characteristics. The facial style selections are defined in facial
style files stored on the mobile client terminal. The facial style
files include data defining a plurality of selectable base facial
images, a plurality of selectable mouth images, a plurality of
image animation algorithms (e.g. talk, smile, wink, etc.)
corresponding with the base facial images and the mouth images, and
a plurality of image rendering algorithms for rendering the facial
style in accordance with selected characteristics of the face, such
as skin color, hair color, etc. The vocal and facial style files
may be stored permanently on the mobile terminal and/or stored in
non-volatile memory on the mobile terminal after being downloaded
from an Internet server.
[0181] The speech agent function provided in the mobile client
terminal is provided with predefined default settings, in which the
vocal and facial style characteristics are preset without input
from the user. These characteristics include voice gender, accent,
language, base facial style, skin color, hair color, eye color,
mouth size, etc. The user may however override the default vocal
and facial style characteristics settings, by resetting one or more
of the characteristics via menu options on a man-machine interface
of the mobile terminal, in order to provide a personalized default
speech agent. The default speech agent settings, whether predefined
or user-defined, are used unless an alternative agent theme is
specified by mark-ups contained in a Web page, as described below.
If an alternative agent theme is specified, the vocal style and the
facial style of the speech agent is altered only for the duration
of the display of the Web page in question, after which time the
default speech agent is reverted to.
[0182] HSML includes the following markups:
2 Audio Playback Agent Style Agent Control SAY AGENT THEME
ACTION
[0183] SAY
[0184] This markup causes an audio file to be retrieved from, or
generated using data retrieved from, the local repository and
"spoken" by a speech agent. The default speech agent theme,
defining the vocal and facial styles of the speech agent, will be
used unless another one is explicitly specified. The attribute
required is a phrase name:
[0185] [e.g. <say phrase="GREETING!">
[0186] "GREETING!" may be a tag to an audio file held in the audio
graphics library 28, or may be replayed using a text-to-speech
translator on the client side.
[0187] AGENT THEME
[0188] This markup causes the vocal and facial style combination
for the speech agent to be altered from the default. Voice style
attributes may be used in order to incorporate different genders,
accents and/or languages into the playback. Face style attributes
allow different appearances to be selected for the speech agent.
The combination of attributes may be used to create agents with
different personalities. The attributes which may be included
are:
[0189] voice gender, accent, language, base facial style, skin
color, hair color, eye color, mouth size, etc.
[0190] e.g. <agent
themefemale3,English,Englishfemale5,pale,black,brown- ,
medium>
[0191] ACTION
[0192] This markup controls the image of the speech agent,
determining whether it is to be displayed and any movements to be
made in conjunction with audio playback. The attributes are an
action for the agent (possible actions: appear, talk, smile, wink,
etc.) and an action activation status (on/off). e.g.
<action=talk; on>
[0193] The action markups are referenced by a moving image handler
to produce and control the image of the speech agent. When the
appear action is activated, the speech agent appears at a specified
part of the screen display. When deactivated, the speech agent does
not appear. When the talk action is activated, the moving image
handler animates the mouth of the speech agent in conjunction with
any speech being generated by the SAY command. Other actions (e.g.
smile, wink) are also suitably animated when activated.
[0194] HVML
[0195] HVML supports a single tag, namely PLAYBACK, which has a
file reference attribute. When parsing Web page, the HVML tag is
interpreted by the video tag handler, which retrieves a video file
from the standard video file library 30 which corresponds with the
reference contained in the command.
[0196] It will be appreciated that the HGML, HSML and HVML
functionality illustrated above are provided for exemplary
purposes. and are not intended to be limiting. It will be
appreciated that various modifications and variations may be
employed without departing from the scope of the present
invention.
* * * * *
References