Portable high speed internet access device

Abstract

The invention discloses a portable device that allows the user to access the Internet and World Wide Web. The portable device includes a modem that connects to a cellular telephone, thus the portable device connects wirelessly to the Internet. A host computer that runs a browser takes information received from the Internet and renders it onto a virtual display in its memory. This information is directed to a software which reduces the color depth of the information to a lower depth color image. This reduced image is then compressed by another software and sent to the portable device of the invention, for displaying to the user. Thus, the user views a bit map or raster image of a Web page. The portable device further comprises methods of pointing and clicking on text and images which represent links to other pages. All commands that the user enters into the portable device are sent to the host computer, which performs the commands via a browser, and sends the information back to the portable device.

Description

[0001] "This application is a continuation in part of application Ser. No. 09/496,172 filed on Feb. 2, 2000."

PRIOR ART

[0002] The background of the present invention includes U.S. Pat. No. 5,925,103, Internet Access Device, which describes an improved Internet access system, vastly different from the present invention. Other prior art would include palm top computers and hand-held computers that have limited processing power due to design restrictions. Thus, these computers are much slower for accessing the Internet and World Wide Web.

[0003] The present invention enhances the host computer's processing speed, data transfer and retrieval to and from the portable devices, with the aid of specialized embedded software in the host computer. The result is a cost effective Internet access solution.

SUMMARY

[0004] It is an object of the present invention to disclose a portable device that can access the Internet and World Wide Web, at extremely low costs. It is another object of the present invention to provide fast access to the Internet such that refreshing a web page is quick and efficient.

[0005] The principal embodiment of the present invention discloses a portable device that comprises a modem that connects to a cellular telephone. Thus, the device has a wireless connection to the Internet. A host computer that runs a browser takes information received from the Internet and renders it onto a virtual display in its memory. This information is directed to software, which reduces the color depth of the information to a lower depth color image. This reduced image is then compressed by another software and sent to the portable device of the invention, for displaying to the user. Hence, the portable device received the compressed image, decompresses it, stores it into memory, and displays it for view. Thus, the user views a bit map image of a Web page.

[0006] The portable device comprises methods for pointing and clicking on text and images representing links to other Web pages. Clicking events are sent to the host computer that performs the commands via the browser. The host computer then sends the required information to the portable device as a compressed image. The portable device decompresses the image and the user views a new web page.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0007] The invention is described in more detail below with respect to an illustrative embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings in which:

[0008] FIG. 1 illustrates elements in the host computer, which communicates with a remote user and the device of the invention.

[0009] FIG. 2 illustrates the image to be displayed compared with the displayable area of a browser window.

[0010] FIG. 3 shows a typical subdivision of the image to be displayed.

[0011] FIG. 4 illustrates file formats received and sent by the host computer.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

[0012] To facilitate description, any numeral identifying an element in one figure will represent the same element in any other figure.

[0013] The principal embodiment of the present invention aims to provide a portable device that allows a user to access the Internet or the World Wide Web (WWW), which is a device similar to a portable computer. It is another aim of the present invention, to provide a method to develop a cost competitive device. It is a further aim of the present invention, to increase the speed of refreshing the screen when the user clicks on a link and commands another page to be displayed.

[0014] Currently, existing portable devices such as the Palm Pilot VII and Windows CE type devices contain an operating system, and within the operating system a mini-browser to interpret information received from the WWW or Internet and then display this information on the screen. This requires a powerful microprocessor.

[0015] The principal embodiment of the present invention is disclosed in FIG. 1. A host computer 1 is depicted which is connected to the Internet, and that host computer receives information from outside in the form of HTML or JAVA or other formats, required to generate a web page. Running in the host computer, is a browser program 2 that takes all information received from outside and renders it onto a virtual display in its memory, hence a bitmap is made out of it. When a remote user 3 requests to view a Web page (or electronic message, etc.) the host computer 1 receives HTML, JAVA, or other types of information from outside the computer (as information may be gathered from a variety of different sources) and the browser program 2 takes all information received from outside and renders it onto a virtual display in its memory. What is therefore rendered in the memory is a web page and this information is directed to another software 4, which reduces the color depth of the information (i.e. the entire image comprising graphics and text) which is usually received in 24 bit color, subsequently reduced to a black and white bit map or raster image, in the preferred embodiment. Even though text may appear in black and white, the entire image may be 24 bit color which is reduced to black and white. This reduced image is then compressed entirely using a loss-less method of compression by software 11, using G3 or G4 methods in the preferred embodiment. This compressed image is sent through a port in the host computer 1, in the preferred embodiment, to the cellular telephone 12 of FIG. 1, which is connected to the portable high speed internet access device 18 of the invention. The portable device 18, which contains a display screen 20 with a transparent touch panel and related microelectronics, receives the compressed image, decompresses the image, stores it into internal memory, and displays it for viewing to the user 3.

[0016] In another embodiment, the cellular phone 12 of FIG. 1 can be replaced by a wire less modem which is connected to the portable high speed internet access device 18 of the invention. This enables the portable device 18 to receive the compressed image, decompresses the image, store it into internal memory, and display it for viewing by the user 3.

[0017] In another embodiment, the cellular phone 12 of FIG. 1 can be replaced by a LAND line or PSTN which is connected to the portable high speed internet access device 18 of the invention. This enables the portable device 18 to receive the compressed image, decompresses the image, store it into internal memory, and display it for viewing by the user 3.

[0018] In another embodiment of the invention, after the browser program 2 takes information received from outside and renders it onto a virtual display in its memory, this information is directed to software 4, whereby the color depth of the information is reduced into a gray scale image. This reduced image is then compressed by software 11 and sent to the portable high speed Internet access device 18 of the invention, for displaying to the user 3.

[0019] In a further embodiment of the invention, after the browser program 2 takes information received from outside and renders it onto a virtual display in its memory, r with floating points, and Boolean operations, and performs address conversion. The MCU 202 comprises an instruction fetch unit (IFU), an instruction execution unit (IEU), and a cache control unit.

[0020] The instruction fetch unit fetches an instruction, buffers an instruction deferred by the instruction execution unit, and performs an arithmetic operation with a virtual address to be used for fetching the next instruction. The instruction is fetched from an instruction cache of the cache control unit by the instruction fetch unit. The virtual address for the instruction to be fetched is transferred to the instruction cache by way of interpretation to a physical address.

[0021] The instruction execution unit stores and searches data of a data cache provided in the cache control unit. The instruction execution unit converts a virtual data address to a physical address adaptable to the cache control unit, which secures a loading/storing operation to be active in a valid order of program stream. The cache control unit determines whether a request defined by a physical address of data is acceptable to the instruction cache or the data cache. FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a data cache in the cache data unit.

[0022] The DSP coprocessor 204 comprises an execution part having at least one arithmetic logic unit (ALU) coupled to a multiplier for executing a mathematically algorithm with pipe-lined. The DSP coprocessor 204 is mainly assigned to conduct mathematical operations, processes multimedia functions such as video, audio, video capture and play-back, telephone communication, voice identification and synthesis, and communication. Such DSP functions are invoked with micro-coded patterns by the host processor (e.g., the CPU 110 of FIG. 1). The micro-coded kernels comprise FIR (finite impulse response) and IIR (infinite impulse response) filters, FFTs (Fourier transforms), correlation functions, matrix multiplication, and Taylor series functions.

[0023] The correlation function among the DSP abilities includes X- and Y-vectors. The X-vector is stored in the X-data cache 214 and the Y-vector is stored in the Y-data cache 216. The X- and Y-data caches, 214 and 216, stores predetermined data of an application program without partitioning. The MCU 202 is accessible to the X-data cache 214 and the Y-data cache 216 as well as the MCU data cache 212, wherein an amount of accessible cache available to the MCU is increased.

[0024] The external memory 160 is segmented into an MCU field 222, an X-data field 224, and a Y-data field 226. The MCU field 222 is a memory field accessible to/from the MCU data cache 212. The X-data field 224 is a memory field accessible to/from the X-data cache 214. The Y-data field 226 is a memory field accessible to/from the Y-data cache 216.

[0025] FIG. 3 illustrates masters 120', 122', and 124' (hereinafter, 122'.about.124') according to embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 3, the masters 120'.about.124' comprises an MCU 302, a DSP coprocessor 304, an X-data cache 312, and a Y-data cache 314. The masters 120'.about.124' do not include the MCU data cache 212 of FIG. 2.

[0026] The MCU 302 performs data transmission to/from the external memory 160 alternatively through the X-data cache 312 and the Y-data cache 314. The external memory 160 comprises an X-data field 322, an MCU field 323, and a Y-data field 324, which are segmented in the external memory 160. The DSP coprocessor 304 also performs data transmission to/from the external memory 160 alternatively through the X-data cache 312 and the Y-data cache 314. The X-data field 322, the MCU field 323, and the Y-data five blocks in random order and place each block in its correct location to reconstruct the image, which is stored in its memory to be displayed to the user. Blocks may also be sent to the portable device in order of priority, which depends on the location of the display of the remote device with respect to the web page.

[0027] The image 5, as shown in FIG. 2, contains the information that would normally be displayed on a single Web page. As can be seen in FIG. 2, the image 5 of the web page that is rendered by the browser 2 onto a virtual display in the memory is usually larger than the virtual window 6 of the browser. The entire image 5 of the web page is sent to the portable device 18, to be displayed. The window 6 of the browser 2 running in the host computer 1 is set to be the same size as the display window 19 of the portable device 18, because the portable device's display window is small, and most likely the web page is larger than the window of the browser in the host computer. The reason for setting the browser's window to be the same size as the portable device's window is for formatting purposes, so that text can be formatted to comfortably fit the size of the web page to be better displayed. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the entire web page which is much larger than both the browser's window and the portable device's window, is rendered onto a virtual display in memory by the browser 2 in the host computer 1, the color depth reduced, and the image compressed and sent to the portable device. The portable device receives this image, decompresses it, stores it into memory and displays it to the user.

[0028] A CPU resident in the portable device 18 therefore has the ability to decompress a bit map or raster image that may be larger than the size of the display and allow the user to traverse this bit map or raster image on the portable device. The primary method of traversing the image is through conventional scroll bars positioned at the sides of the image. However, buttons or icons may also be used to scroll on the portable device, to enable the user to move the web page relative to the display of the portable device. The CPU present in the portable device performs all scrolling functions, even though messages are sent to the host computer informing it of each scroll instruction. This allows the host computer to keep a track of the location of the portable device's display screen with respect to the web page.

[0029] The host computer receives vector information or compressed data from outside in the form of HTML, JPEG, etc., which is displayed on a web page. That image, in whole or parts, is recompressed and sent to the portable device. The recompressed data format sent to the portable device, is not necessarily in the same format as the compressed data format first received by the host computer, as illustrated in FIG. 4. For example, the incoming data from a Web page may be in the form of JPEG which is decompressed and displayed on the browser 2. This data is recompressed and sent to the portable device but can be in the form of TIFF G4 or other formats, and not necessarily JPEG as initially received.

[0030] Another embodiment involves the host computer receiving vector information such as HTML or text and then rasterizing it to bit map format. It can then shown in memory through the virtual browser and is recompressed through a "loss less" method and sent to the portable device.

[0031] The image 5 is further divided into sections 7, 8, 9, and 10, as shown in FIG. 3. The image is divided after the bitmap or raster is created. The reason for the division (as will be explained later) is for the purpose of display priority on the user's display. The image 5 is then sent to another program 11 running on the host computer 1 (FIG. 1), which compresses the image using a loss-less compression method. The compression method may be group 3 or group 4, or another method. The information is received by a portable device 12 that has the ability to display a monochrome image, in its display window 19. The information is decompressed and displayed in the order of priority such that part of image 7, which substantially or completely covers the displayable area 19 (FIG. 2), of the palm device is decompressed and displayed first and then sequentially the portions 8, 9, 10 of the image are decompressed and stored in an internal memory of the portable device to be displayed later when the user scrolls up, down, or sideways to these parts of the image.

[0032] The resident CPU on the portable device has no ability to determine which parts part or parts of the image, that is being displayed, represent links to other Web pages etc. Thus, the browser 2 (FIG. 1) renders the image in the virtual window 6 of the browser, such that the words that represent links on the image 5 of the web page (FIG. 2) are translated to be slightly bolder. The user may therefore consider text that is bold or another color to be links.

[0033] The portable device provides the user with a pointing device. This pointing device may be a touch screen or tracking ball, etc. The portable device also allows the user to click on specified areas. As soon as the user clicks on part of an image, the shape of the pointer changes from an arrow to an hourglass. This operation is performed by the CPU of the portable device. A message is sent to the host computer, transmitting the location of the clicked down event. A program 14 interprets the message and provides a virtual click down in the browser 2. If the user has pressed in an area of the image that does not represent a link or text box, a message is dispatched to the portable device which immediately changes the hourglass shape of the pointer back to an arrow (in the case of a touch screen, from an hour glass to nothing). Further to this, if the user has clicked on a part of the image which represents a link, a new Web page is extracted from the Internet or WWW, rendered onto a virtual display in memory by the browser 2 in the host computer 1, the color depth reduced, and the image compressed and sent to the portable device. The portable device receives this image, decompresses it, stores it into memory and displays it to the user.

[0034] For every new web page transferred to the portable device, only the contents of the browser window 6 are transferred. Other items such as the title, scroll bars, menu items, etc., are not sent to the portable device. These buttons and menu items are implemented on the portable device, and are sent once by the host computer to the portable device each time the device is powered on and initialized. Once the portable device receives the layout of these buttons and menu items, they are stored into memory and displayed on the screen.

[0035] In another embodiment, the layout of these buttons and menu items are hard coded in the memory of the portable device. Each time the device is powered on and initialized, these buttons and menu items are retrieved from memory and displayed on the screen, without any communication from the host computer. When the user clicks in a text box or in a box in the display area into which letters or numbers must be input, the cursor first changes into an hourglass, and a message is sent to the host computer. The host computer recognizes that the click down event has occurred in the text box, and sends a message back to the portable device to inform the portable device to pop-up a keyboard on part of the screen. The user then types, using the pointer, the letters or words to be entered into the text box and presses "enter" or "go". The keyboard then disappears and the cursor changes back to an hourglass shape (in another embodiment, the keyboard could be replaced with a real keyboard or with an area that recognizes users' handwriting). The information typed into the text box is transmitted in a message to the host computer. The host computer enters the information into a text box in the browser.

[0036] The user sees, after a short pause, as the image is refreshed on the portable device, that the words, or letters or numbers have been entered into the text box. Further to this, the host computer may also break up the image such that the portion that has been charged, i.e. the text box area, is sent first.

[0037] In another embodiment, the user can click on an image of a web page on the screen of the portable device, and a message is sent to the host computer whereby the browser inputs that click into the same location on the corresponding web page, which causes another web page to be received from outside. This new page is rendered onto a virtual display in memory by the browser 2 in the host computer 1, the color depth reduced, the image compressed and sent to the portable device. The portable device receives this image, decompresses it, stores it into memory and displays it to the user.

[0038] In a preferred embodiment of the invention, when the user clicks on an image of a web page on the screen of the portable device, a message is sent to the host computer which contains information of the click location relative to the web page, and not only information of the click location relative to the display of the device.

[0039] In another embodiment of the invention, when the user clicks on an image of a web page on the screen of the portable device, a message is sent to the host computer informing it of the exact click location relative to the display and also the location of the display relative to the web page. This allows the host computer to deduce exactly where the click location occured relative to the web page.

[0040] In a further embodiment of the invention, when the user clicks on an image of a web page on the screen of the portable device, a message is sent to the host computer informing it of the exact click location relative to the display, but the host computer already knows where the display is relative to the web page, as the previous scrolling action would have sent a message to the host computer informing where the display has scrolled to relative to the web page. If there was no scrolling action, the host computer would know the exact location of the browser's window with respect to the web page, as this would have been the first set of compressed data sent to the portable device from the host computer. This allows the host compter to deduce exactly where the click location occured relative to the web page.

[0041] In another embodiment of the present invention, images are only refreshed when an event occurs such as a mouse down event on a link or in a text box.

[0042] In a further embodiment only those portions of the image that change may be transmitted from the host computer to the portable device. Other images in the virtual browser that are continuously changing, such as banner adverisements, may be the only other images sent to the portable computer as they changes.

[0043] In the principal embodiment, the portable device also contains a modem, which can be linked to the user's mobile telephone 12 and information that is communicated between the portable device and the host computer is sent and received wirelessly through the mobile telephone.

[0044] Furthermore, the portable device only contains enough memory to store the current displayable page. When the user pressed a back or forward button, a message is sent to the host computer, and the host computer sends the reference page. The back and foward buttons etc. may be hard wired into the portable device, or may be part of the display area.

[0045] Further to this, part of the image representing buttons (and other things) on the browser may be sent as part of the compressed image and buttons such as forward and back may be treated the same way as links are handled as previously described.

[0046] In another embodiment, the portable device comprises a modem that permits the device to connect to a cellular telephone 12 in digtal format.

[0047] In another embodiment, the connection to the cellular telephone 15 is made through an analog modem connected to an ear jack of the cellular telephone.

[0048] In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the modem is replace by an analog modem that has the capability to be connected to a landline providing a standard 56kbps-types connection.

[0049] Further embodiments may provide connections through ISDN, cable modems etc.

[0050] In a further embodiment, the protable device may contain a large screen to be used in a fashion similar to a home Internet applaince.

[0051] In a further embodiment, the image transferred between the host computer and the remote device (previously the portable device) may be a color image and the compression method used may be of a JPEG or other compression methods used for color images. A gray scale image may also be used to reduce bandwidth or display costs.

[0052] In a further embodiment, the device includes no screen, but only outputs to be hooked to a television screen or external monitor for display.

[0053] The remote device in the principal embodiment only has the ability to decompass the image it receives; display the image it receives; allow the user to scroll through the image; provide the user with a pointing device to point and click on the image; send massages providing location of click down event; provide the user with a method to input letters and numbers; send a message containing these letters and numbers.

[0054] The principle embodiment contains no other structured or intelligent information about the image.

Claims

What is claimed:

1. A host computer which receives information from outside, contains a browser which renders this information onto a virtual display in its memory, whereby a softward program reduces the color depth of the rendered virtual display, compresses this reduced virtual display, which is sent to a remote device capable of receiving, decompressing, storing into memory and displaying it to a user.

2. A host computer which receives information from outside, contains a browser which renders this information onto a virtual display in its memory with a reduced color depth, compresses this reduced virtual display, land sends it to a remote device which is capable of receiving, decompressing, storing into memory and displaying it to a user.

3. A device as claimed in claims 6 or 7 such that the user can click on the image of a web page and a message is sent to the host computer whereby the browser inputs the click into the web page, which causes another web page to be received from outside, rendered by the browser, the color depth reduced and the image compressed and resent to the device for displaying it to a user.

4. A device as claimed in claims 6 or 7 such that scrolling of the image for viewing by the user is done at the device.

5. A device as claimed in claims 6 or 7 such that the user can click on the image of a web page displayed on the device and a message is sent to the host computer which contains information of the click location relative to the web page, and not only information of the click location relative to the display of the device.

6. A device as claimed in claims 6 or 7 such that the user can click on th image of a web page displayed on the device and a message is sent to the host computer which contains information of the click location relative to the display and also the location of the display relative to the web page, to allow the host computer to deduce exactly where the click location occurred relative to the web page.

7. A device as claimed in claims 6 or 7 such that the user can click on the image of a web page displayed on the device and a message is sent to the host computer which contains information of the click location relative to the display, whereby the host computer is already provided with the display location relative to the web page, as previous scrolling activity sent a message to the host computer informing of the display location relative to the web page, to allow the host computer to deduce exactly where the click location occurred relative to the web page.

8. A device as claimed in claims 6 or 7 such that if allows the user to input text and numbers, which can then be sent to the host computer, which then sends a refreshed image back to the device.

9. A device as claimed in claims 6 or 7 such that the host computer receives information compressed in a format in a format which is decompressed and rendered into memory, reduced in color depth, recompressed and sent in a different format to the remote device for displaying it to a user.

10. A device as claimed in claims 6 or 7 such that the host computer receives information from the outside and only information specific to the application is hard coded on the device, or only sent once to the remote device, and only information that is received from the outside is rendered into memory, reduced in color depth, compressed and sent to the remote device for displayed it to a user.

11. A device as claimed in claims 6 or 7 such that information that is compressed and sent to the remote device is sent in blocks, whereby each block contains an identifier to identify the location of blocks relative to the web page.

12. A device as claimed in claims 6 or 7 such that information that is compressed and sent to the remote device is sent in blocks, whereby blocks are sent in order of priority which depends on the location of the display of the remote device with respect to the web page.