U.S. patent application number 12/018816 was filed with the patent office on 2008-10-30 for method and apparatus for providing information through network.
This patent application is currently assigned to Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.. Invention is credited to Hyo KIM.
Application Number | 20080270907 12/018816 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 39888515 |
Filed Date | 2008-10-30 |
United States Patent
Application |
20080270907 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
KIM; Hyo |
October 30, 2008 |
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING INFORMATION THROUGH NETWORK
Abstract
Provided is a method and apparatus for providing information
through a network. The method of providing information through a
network includes: setting correspondence relations between first
information, that is provided in a network site and a user wants to
acquire through the network, and the appearance of an application;
requesting a server for the first information and receiving a
response; analyzing second information included in the response;
and displaying the second information by manipulating the
appearance of the application, according to the correspondence
relations without visiting the network site or activating another
application.
Inventors: |
KIM; Hyo; (Seoul,
KR) |
Correspondence
Address: |
SUGHRUE MION, PLLC
2100 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, N.W., SUITE 800
WASHINGTON
DC
20037
US
|
Assignee: |
Samsung Electronics Co.,
Ltd.
Suwon-si
KR
|
Family ID: |
39888515 |
Appl. No.: |
12/018816 |
Filed: |
January 24, 2008 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
715/733 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 16/951 20190101;
G06F 16/9577 20190101; G06F 3/0484 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
715/733 |
International
Class: |
G06F 3/00 20060101
G06F003/00 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Apr 26, 2007 |
KR |
10-2007-0040943 |
Claims
1. A method of providing information through a network, comprising:
setting correspondence relations between first information, that is
provided in a network site and a user wants to acquire through the
network, and appearance of an application; requesting a server for
the first information and receiving a response; analyzing second
information included in the response; and displaying the second
information by manipulating the appearance of the application,
according to the correspondence relations without visiting the
network site or activating another application.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein in displaying the second
information by manipulating the appearance of the application, the
appearance of the application is changed according to a type and
content of the first information.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the setting of the correspondence
relations comprises providing a predetermined menu screen used for
setting the correspondence relations, and wherein the predetermined
menu screen is a menu screen for setting one or more items of a
plurality of items associated with the correspondence
relations.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information comprises
at least one of weather, a stock price, an exchange rate, a traffic
situation, a daily horoscope, a biorhythm, and a sports game
result.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein requesting the first information
and receiving the response is automatically performed during a
predetermined period.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting the first
information and receiving the response is performed by using at
least one of Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication (RSS),
and Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX).
7. The method of claim 1, wherein in the displaying of the second
information by manipulating the appearance of the application, at
least one of a form of an object of the application, a shape of an
object of the application, a color of an object of the application,
and a movement of an object of the application is changed.
8. An apparatus for providing information through a network,
comprising: an application engine which sets correspondence
relations between first information, which is provided in a network
site and a user wants to obtain through the network, and appearance
of an application; a communication unit which requests a server for
the first information and receives a response; an information
analysis unit which analyzes second information included in the
response; and an application display control unit which displays
the second information by manipulating the appearance of the
application, according to the correspondence relations without
visiting the network site or activating another application.
9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the application display
control unit changes the appearance of the application according to
a type and content of the first information.
10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the application engine
provides a predetermined menu screen used for setting the
correspondence relations, and wherein the predetermined menu screen
is a menu screen used for setting one or more items of a plurality
of items associated with the correspondence relations.
11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the first information
comprises at least one of weather, a stock price, an exchange rate,
a traffic situation, a daily horoscope, a biorhythm, and a sports
game result.
12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the communication unit
automatically requests the first information and receives the
response during a predetermined period.
13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the communication unit
requests the first information and receives the response by using
at least one of Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication
(RSS), and Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX).
14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the application display
control unit changes at least one of a form of an object of the
application, a shape of an object of the application, a color of an
object of the application, and a movement of an object of the
application to display the second information.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION
[0001] This application claims priority from Korean Patent
Application No. 10-2007-0040943, filed on Apr. 26, 2007, in the
Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is
incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention
[0003] Methods and apparatuses consistent with the present
invention relate to providing information through a network, and
more particularly, to displaying information provided through a
network by manipulating the appearance of an application.
[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0005] A change from a related art passive information exchange
method of responding to an information request from a user to
technologies proposed with a trend of Web 2.0 such as Rich Site
Summary or Really Simple Syndication (RSS), Asynchronous JavaScript
and XML (AJAX), and Wiki services shows that user attention has
become focused on active participation and active interaction. In
addition, a personalized page provided from various related art web
pages or a customizing technology such as a Graphical User
Interface (GUI) widget is an example that reflects a desire of a
user who wants to be provided with information processed only for
the user. This method of providing information is mainly classified
into a method using a typical web browser and a method using an
additional web application.
[0006] In order to check information desired by a user in a related
art information acquisition method, the user has to visit a web
site providing the information or execute an additional web
application. When information is provided through a web browser and
the information includes time-dependent factors that vary according
to time, the user must inconveniently visit a corresponding web
site every time and check content in order to obtain updated
information. In addition, when information is provided through an
additional web application, due to space occupied by the additional
application, there is an inconvenience of hiding a screen of a
basic application.
[0007] FIG. 1 is a view showing a method of providing live
information such as weather on a part of a screen of a related art
web browser. When it is assumed that a region where a user
currently lives is Seoul and the user is provided with weather
information on Seoul on a part 101 of a particular web site, in
order for the user to check the weather in the morning, the user
has to visit the web site. In addition, in order to check for a
change in weather information in the afternoon, the user has to
visit the same web site again. In the above example, if, instead of
the weather, the provided information is stock price information
which changes in units of a minute, then in order to obtain updated
information, the user has to visit a corresponding web site more
frequently and the time interval decreases.
[0008] FIG. 2 is a view showing a method of providing weather
information which periodically changes from a related art web
application. The user sets a region on which weather information is
to be obtained and periodically receives the information through a
web application such as a Web widget. This application reduces the
inconvenience of visiting a corresponding web page every time as in
the method using the web browser shown in FIG. 1. However, there
still is the inconvenience of having to execute an additional web
application or hide a screen of a basic application of the user due
to additional screen occupation.
[0009] FIG. 3 is a view showing a method of setting the appearance
of a related art web application. In the related art, in
association with appearance setting of the web application, changes
in basic characteristics (for example, opacity or a position of a
window) of an application are provided as a common function.
Therefore, there is inconvenience in that a flexible link with
external data is difficult and functions of providing information
changed by the flexible link cannot be set together.
[0010] As described above, in the method of acquiring information
through a network, particularly, in the method using a web browser,
although the need for visiting the weather service in order to
check weather decreases, the need for visiting a web site that
provides the weather information still exists. In addition, in
consideration of a general electronic appliance such as an Internet
protocol television (IPTV) connected through a network, instead of
in a related art personal computer (PC)-based environment, the
inconvenience increases. Similarly, in the method using a web
application, there is a problem in that an additional application
is executed or a part of a screen of a basic application is hidden.
In consideration of the aforementioned problems, a method of
periodically requesting information designated by a user in advance
and visually providing the information to the user, without
allocating an additional application such as a web browser or a
screen, is needed. In addition, functions of setting and managing
correspondence relations between the information and the
appearances of applications generated by an application engine are
required.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0011] The present invention provides an information acquisition
method and apparatus for solving an inconvenience of operating a
web browser and visiting a web site every time time-varying
information needs to be acquired, omitting an additional
application besides an application that is currently used by a user
or screen allocation in order to extendedly apply information
acquisition and display technology to a general network-based
electronic appliance, and visually simplifying the provided
information so that it is easily provided, thereby increasing
convenience for a user and enabling natural user recognition. In
addition, the present invention also provides functions of both
setting and managing correspondence relations between the acquired
information and the appearances of the applications.
[0012] According to one aspect of the present invention, there is
provided a method of providing information through a network,
including setting correspondence relations between information that
the user wants to acquire and the appearance of an application;
requesting a server for the information and receiving a response;
analyzing information received in the response; and directly
displaying the analyzed information by manipulating the appearance
of the application, according to the correspondence relations.
[0013] According to another aspect of the present invention, in
displaying the analyzed information by manipulating the appearance
of the application, the appearance of the application may be
changed according to a type and content of the information which
the user wants to acquire.
[0014] According to another aspect of the present invention, the
setting of the correspondence relations may include providing a
predetermined menu screen used for setting the correspondence
relations, and the predetermined menu screen may be a menu screen
for setting one or more items of a plurality of items associated
with the correspondence relations.
[0015] According to another aspect of the present invention, the
information that the user wants to acquire may include one or more
of weather, a stock price, an exchange rate, a traffic situation, a
daily horoscope, a biorhythm, and a sports game result.
[0016] According to another aspect of the present invention,
requesting the information and receiving the response may be
automatically performed during a predetermined period.
[0017] According to another aspect of the present invention, the
requesting the information and receiving the response may be
performed by using Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication
(RSS).
[0018] According to another aspect of the present invention, the
requesting the information and receiving the response may be
performed by using Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX).
[0019] According to another aspect of the present invention, in the
displaying of the analyzed information by manipulating the
appearance of the application, one or more of a form of an object
of the application, a shape of an object of the application, a
color of an object of the application, and a movement of an object
of the application may be changed.
[0020] According to another aspect of the present invention, there
is provided an apparatus for providing information through a
network, including an application engine setting correspondence
relations between the information which the user wants to obtain
and the appearance of an application; a communication unit
requesting a server for the information and receiving a response;
an information analysis unit analyzing information received in the
response; and an application display control unit directly
displaying the analyzed information by manipulating the appearance
of the application, according to the correspondence relations.
[0021] According to another aspect of the present invention, the
application display control unit may change the unit appearance of
the application according to a type and content of the information
that the user wants to acquire.
[0022] According to another aspect of the present invention, the
application engine may provide a predetermined menu screen used for
setting the correspondence relations, and the predetermined menu
screen may be a menu screen used for setting one or more items of a
plurality of items associated with the correspondence
relations.
[0023] According to another aspect of the present invention, the
information that the user wants to acquire may include one or more
of weather, a stock price, an exchange rate, a traffic situation, a
daily horoscope, a biorhythm, and a sports game result.
[0024] According to another aspect of the present invention, the
communication unit automatically may request the information and
receives the response during a predetermined period.
[0025] According to another aspect of the present invention, the
communication unit may request the information and receives the
response by using RSS.
[0026] According to another aspect of the present invention, the
communication unit may request the information and receives the
response by using AJAX.
[0027] According to another aspect of the present invention, the
application display control unit may change one or more of a form
of an object of the application, a shape of an object of the
application, a color of an object of the application, and a
movement of an object of the application.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0028] The above and other aspects of the present invention will
become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodiments
thereof with reference to the attached drawings, in which:
[0029] FIG. 1 is a view showing a method of providing live
information such as weather on a part of a screen of a related art
web browser;
[0030] FIG. 2 is a view showing a method of providing weather
information which periodically changes from a related art web
application;
[0031] FIG. 3 is view showing a method of setting the appearance of
a related art web application;
[0032] FIGS. 4A and 4B are views showing a method of acquiring
stock price information through a network by using an application
and displaying a frame color of the application in different ways
according to a rise and a fall of an acquired stock price,
according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;
[0033] FIGS. 5A and 5B are views showing a method of acquiring
weather information through a network by using an application and
changing a frame color or a mark of the application according to
the acquired weather state so as to display the information,
according to another exemplary embodiment of the present
invention;
[0034] FIG. 6 is a view showing a method of acquiring weather
information through a network by using an application and changing
a frame shape of the application according to the acquired weather
state so as to display the information, according to another
exemplary embodiment of the present invention;
[0035] FIG. 7 is a view showing a method of setting correspondence
relations between information which a user wants to obtain and the
appearances of applications in an application engine, according to
an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;
[0036] FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a method of displaying information
acquired through a network by manipulating the appearance of an
application, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present
invention; and
[0037] FIG. 9 is a view showing an apparatus for displaying
information acquired through a network by manipulating the
appearance of an application, according to an exemplary embodiment
of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0038] Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention
will be described in detail with reference to the attached
drawings.
[0039] FIGS. 4A and 4B are views showing a method of acquiring
stock price information through a network by using an application
and displaying a frame color of the application in different ways
according to a rise and a fall of an acquired stock price according
to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
[0040] When a normal operation is performed by using an application
such as a web browser after the frame color of the application is
set to be changed and displayed according to the stock price
information which the user wants to obtain, the application
automatically requests from the server the stock price information
on an interested item set by the user at a predetermined time
interval also set by the user, for example, at five-minute
intervals, and receives responses to the requests. As shown in
FIGS. 4A and 4B, after an operation of extracting the received
stock price information from the responses and analyzing the
information, when the stock price increases (401), the frame color
of the application turns red, and when the stock price decreases
(402), the frame color of the application turns blue.
[0041] In this operation, the user can indirectly receive
corresponding stock price information by using the application,
without executing an additional application besides the application
currently used by the user or allocating an additional space to the
current application, by visually simplifying the corresponding
stock price information.
[0042] FIGS. 5A and 5B are views showing a method of acquiring
weather information through a network by using an application and
changing a frame color or a mark of the application according to
the acquired weather state so as to display the information
according to another exemplary embodiment of the present
invention.
[0043] When the user wants to know weather of a region such as a
residential area in advance, it is assumed that the user sets the
frame color or the mark on the application to be changed and
displayed, and the user plays a game as shown in the figure. The
game application automatically requests weather information on the
region set by the user to a server at a predetermined time interval
also set by the user, for example, at three-hour time intervals in
a case of the weather information, and receives responses to the
requests. Associated operations are similar to as shown in FIGS. 5A
and 5B. In an operation of displaying the weather information by
manipulating the appearance of the application, when the weather is
fine, the frame color is set to a bright color, and a mark 501
having a shape of the sun may be displayed. When it rains, the
frame color is set to a dark color, and a mark 502 having a shape
of an umbrella may be displayed.
[0044] FIG. 6 is a view showing a method of acquiring weather
information through a network by using an application and changing
a frame shape of the application according to the acquired weather
state so as to display the information according to another
exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
[0045] Similarly to FIGS. 4A to 5B, in regard to FIG. 6, it is
assumed that the user wants to display the weather information by
changing the frame shape of the application. Associated operations
are similar to those shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B. In an operation of
displaying the weather information by using the appearance of the
application, when the weather is fine, a background pattern may be
displayed in a round shape. When it rains, the background pattern
may be displayed in a pattern of vertical lines, or when thunder
and lightning occur, as shown in FIG. 6, the frame may be displayed
as being bended (601).
[0046] As described in relation to the above exemplary embodiments,
the application can be applied to various devices or applications
(for example, the game application shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B) which
can acquire information through a network as well as a related art
web application such as the shown web browser. For example, when an
electronic appliance such as an Internet protocol television (IPTV)
is used, in consideration that an active letter input by a user is
not as easy as compared with the web browser in a personal computer
(PC), it can be seen that the exemplary embodiment of the present
invention, in which visually simplified information is
automatically acquired and displayed by a change in the appearance
of a basic application and the user can recognize it by an indirect
mood type, is more appropriate.
[0047] Types of information that can be periodically acquired and
renewal periods applied to the exemplary embodiment of the present
invention are exemplified as shown in the following table.
TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 information type content weather renew and
display weather information on a particular region at an hour
interval stock price renew and display a change in a stock price of
a particular item at a minute interval exchange rate renew and
display the exchange rate for the dollar or the yen at one day
interval traffic situation renew and display a traffic situation of
a particular region at a minute interval daily horoscope renew and
display a daily horoscope according to age, Zodiac sign, and
birthday at one day interval biorhythm renew and display biorhythm
according to birthday at one day interval sports result renew and
display the game result of a particular sports team at a minute
interval
[0048] FIG. 7 is a view showing a method of setting correspondence
relations between information which the user wants to obtain and
the appearances of applications in an application engine according
to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
[0049] In order to set the correspondence relations, the
application engine provides a predetermined menu screen for setting
items associated with information delivery on a set screen as shown
in FIG. 7. The delivered information may be various types of
information including information exemplified in Table 1, and the
information is provided as a basic function of the application but
not an additional function, so that correspondence relations
between a plurality of the information and the appearance of an
application are set and managed together on a single screen.
[0050] For example, for a composite stock price, the frame color
may be turned blue or red according to a rise or fall of the stock
price. For the weather information, a mark at an upper portion of
the frame may be changed to a shape of the sun or an umbrella. For
the traffic situation, a background color may be turned green,
yellow, or red according to traffic flow. For the daily horoscope,
a background pattern may be changed according to good or bad.
[0051] In addition, the set screen shown in FIG. 7 may be
implemented by being subdivided to enable the user to select
functions that can be displayed on the appearance of the
application. For example, for the composite stock price, when a
frame color is selected, a function of displaying a selection item
to display a stock price rise time or a stock price fall time using
a sub-selection item, and to set the color according to the user's
taste may be provided. Similarly, for information such as the
weather information, traffic flow, and daily horoscope, a sub-item
for additionally inputting or selecting personal information such
as a corresponding region or user's birthday may be provided. In
this manner, as sub-items that can be selected by the user are
layered and become varied, various appearance displays according to
the user's taste are possible.
[0052] When the function of displaying information by the
appearance of an application is added, or inversely, a type of
information provided to the user is added, the application engine
has to flexibly reflect this in the set screen. As a plug-in which
is freely added to or deleted from a web browser, when an add-on
function which can be implemented on an engine of a basic
application is added, a function of managing the add-on function on
a common set function may be supported.
[0053] FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a method of displaying information
acquired through a network by manipulating the appearance of an
application according to an exemplary embodiment of the present
invention. Referring to FIG. 8, the method of providing information
through the network according to the current exemplary embodiment
includes the following operations.
[0054] In operation 801, correspondence relations between
information which the user wants to obtain and the appearance of
the application are set. The information which the user wants to
obtain may include the weather, a stock price, the exchange rate,
time, a traffic situation, a daily horoscope, biorhythm, a sports
game result, and the like, and relations showing how the
information corresponds to changes in the appearance of the
application according to types and contents of the information are
set. For example, as described with reference to FIGS. 4A to 6, the
color of the frame of the application is changed according to a
rise or fall of a stock price, or the mark of the application, the
background pattern of the application, or the shape of the frame
are changed according to the clearness, rain, or thunder and
lightning of the weather. In this manner, the correspondence
relations are set.
[0055] The correspondence relation setting has to be specifically
connected so that information that is to be acquired corresponds to
various appearance change items of the application. In order to do
this, the acquired information may be evaluated. This will be
described in detail later in relation to operation 804.
[0056] In operation 802, a server is automatically requested for
the information and a response to the request is received. This
operation refers to a related art information request and response
between a client and a server. In the current exemplary embodiment
of the present invention, a case where the information request and
response are performed during predetermined periods by using a
communication means such as Rich Site Summary or Really Simple
Syndication (RSS), Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX), or the
like, is exemplified but not limited thereto.
[0057] The RSS refers to a means or standard for receiving
time-varying information and updated information using a reader
without directly visiting web pages that provide the information in
order to retrieve the information. The AJAX refers to a complex of
web programming techniques for processing a communication with a
server corresponding to a request of a user in an asynchronous
method through a background operation without waiting for a
response from the server for an entire web page. The user can
receive the time-varying information as periodically updated
contents through the RSS and the AJAX. As the techniques are
currently used, detailed descriptions thereof will be omitted
here.
[0058] The predetermined period may be selected and set in
operation 801 by the user according to the type and characteristics
of the requested and received information, and this may be
differently set in units of minutes, hours, days, or the like as
exemplified in Table 1. In addition, actions of requesting the
information and responding to the request in a predetermined period
may be automatically performed without an additional input by the
user.
[0059] In operation 803, the information received in the response
is analyzed. The present invention is different from the related
art in that the entire received information is not displayed on an
additional application or through screen allocation but is visually
displayed on an existing application. Therefore, in order to
display the information received in operation 802 on the
application of the user according to the correspondence relations
set in operation 801, the received information has to be analyzed
and elements used to determine a screen display have to be
extracted.
[0060] For example, the stock price shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B may be
the received information. However, in the current exemplary
embodiment, the stock price is not displayed on an additional
screen but a rise or fall of the stock price is displayed on the
screen. Therefore, an operation of analyzing the rise or fall by
comparing the received stock price information to a preceding stock
price is needed. Similarly, for the weather, the current weather
and the preceding weather are compared with each other, and when a
change therebetween exists, an operation of displaying the changed
content on the screen is needed. A case of the exchange rate is
similar to the case of a stock price. For the traffic situation, as
congestion increases, the color of the application is changed in
the order of green, yellow, and red so as to display the increase
in traffic. For the sports game, according to the result of the
game of a sports team set by the user, when the team wins, an
effect in which the screen blinks is used, and when the team loses,
an effect in which the screen shakes is used. In this manner, the
result may be visually delivered by using the effects.
[0061] In operation 804, the analyzed information is displayed on
the appearance of the application according to the correspondence
relation. In the aforementioned display operation, unlike with the
related art, the analyzed information is directly displayed on the
appearance of the application but not on an additional object. In
the operation of displaying the information by manipulating the
appearance of the application, a form of an object of the
application, a shape of an object of the application, a color of an
object of the application, a movement of an object of the
application, and the like are changed so as to display the
information.
[0062] More specifically, in addition to the examples shown in
FIGS. 2A to 6, changes in a color, shape, and background pattern of
an object of an application or an effect in which the application
shakes may be applied. By using the visual and indirect information
delivery method using the application appearance display,
information can be efficiently provided without operating an
additional application or allocating a screen as in the related
art.
[0063] The object of the application refers to elements included in
the application such as an application frame, a background screen,
a mark display, and the like, and means a single object that can be
controlled by the correspondence relations between information that
the user wants to acquire and the appearance of the application.
When it is a web browser for example, the object refers to a frame,
an address bar, a status bar, a tool bar, buttons, and the like of
the web browser, and individual control for the object according to
the correspondence relation set by the user may be performed.
[0064] The display operation is performed according to the
correspondence relation set in operation 801 on the basis of the
information analyzed in operation 803. Therefore, the
correspondence relation in operation 801 has to be specifically set
according to a type and a content of the information to be acquired
so as to specifically correspond to information of the appearance
display of a corresponding application. In particular, in order to
clearly divide the item as up and down or the like on the basis of
specific data, decision elements may be evaluated. For example, for
the weather, the elements that can be evaluated may be a
temperature, a wind velocity, amount of rainfall, and the like.
[0065] FIG. 9 is a view showing an apparatus for displaying
information acquired through a network by manipulating the
appearance of an application according to an exemplary embodiment
of the present invention. The apparatus mainly includes a client
device 910, a server 920, and a network 930. The exemplary
embodiment of the present invention mainly describes the client
device 910. The client device 910 includes an application engine
911, a communication unit 912, an information analysis unit 913, an
application display control unit 914, and a central processing unit
(CPU) 915. Now, detailed components thereof will be described.
[0066] The application engine 911 sets correspondence relations
between information that the user wants to acquire and the
appearance of an application. This is described in operation 801 of
FIG. 8, and therefore a detailed description will be omitted
here.
[0067] The communication unit 912 automatically requests a server
for the information and receives a response to the request. The
communication unit 912 performs a counter function of requesting
the information that the user wants to acquire and receiving the
response to the request in communication between the client device
910 and the server 920 through the network 930.
[0068] The information analysis unit 913 analyzes the received
information from the response. A detailed description is described
above in relation to operation 803 of FIG. 8. The information
analysis unit 913 may be physically implemented in the same device
as that of the CPU 915 described later. However, for convenience of
description, the information analysis unit 913 is separate from the
CPU 915 due to a different function in FIG. 9.
[0069] The application display control unit 914 displays the
analyzed information by manipulating the appearance of the
application according to the correspondence relation. In the
display operation, the analyzed information is directly displayed
by manipulating the appearance of the application but not an
additional object on a screen. The device may further include a
screen unit for practically displaying the application. The
application display control unit 914 performs a function of
controlling and displaying various effects on the application
currently displayed on the screen on the basis of the analysis of
the acquired information.
[0070] The CPU 915 connects the components 911 to 914 in the client
device 910 and controls signals therebetween.
[0071] The server 920 and the network 930 are a related art server
for providing services and a network used as a communication basis
therebetween, respectively.
[0072] Accordingly, an additional application in addition to a
currently used application and screen allocation are not applied,
but instead, the acquired information is visually simplified and
provided. Therefore, user convenience increases, and natural user
recognition when the information is acquired is possible. In
addition, a function of setting and managing correspondence
relations between the acquired information and the appearances of
applications is provided, so that consistent and simple function
control is possible.
[0073] Furthermore, there is provided an interface and display
method capable of implementing information acquisition and extended
application of display techniques that can be applied to general
electronic appliances connected through a network in addition to a
related art PC-based web application.
[0074] While the present invention has been particularly shown and
described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will
be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in
form and details may be made therein without departing from the
spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended
claims. The exemplary embodiments should be considered in
descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.
Therefore, the scope of the invention is defined not by the
detailed description of the invention but by the appended claims,
and all differences within the scope will be construed as being
included in the present invention.
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