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Contents
1. 50 55 60 65 6 provide a convenient means for a user to interact efficiently with the phone 150 Further it should be understood that having a regular phone keypad is not a requirement to practice the present invention Some of the mobile devices which may be used with the present invention may have few or no physical keys at all such as those palm size computing devices that use soft keys or icons as an input means for users to interact with the devices In the following unless otherwise specifically described keys or buttons are gener ally referred to as either the physical keys or soft keys It is generally understood that a computer equipped with an HTML browser using HTTP can access hypermedia information in a server e g server 104 However HTTP requires considerable computing power and network band width resources For example a request from the computer to establish a communication session with a network server may require an exchange of a number of data packets In addition to the resources required to implement HTTP significant resources must be supported in the computer to request format process and display information This is not significant disadvantage in many situations because the computer including personal computers and workstations coupled to a network operating HTTP generally has suffi cient computing power memory and display capabilities computing resources available in cellular ph2. FIG 3B illustrates a representative screen display 322 of the mobile device Note that the screen display 322 was represented by the mobile navigation metaphor 302 of FIG 3A Display screen 320 is typically a LCD with limited display area Note that the entire menu structure established by a user may exceed the display capabilities of the screen of the mobile device In such cases screen display 322 can be scrolled up or down by use of a scrolling key Screen display 322 or display screen 320 also includes button 324 and a Menu button 326 Screen display 322 is a menu structure comprising a list of hyperlinks In the example shown in FIG 3B the list includes nine 9 items each item is a descriptive hyperlink representing a category of content Due to the limited size of the display screen 320 only the first five 5 items of the list initially appear on the screen display 322 However a remaining portion 328 of the list includes four 4 items which can subsequently appear on the screen display 322 following scrolling actions If a user clicks or activates one of the hyperlinks the user will be taken to the same or nearly the same content e g page or application he she would be able to access using the same category in the mobile navigation metaphor present on the screen display of the desktop computer The content or application may vary to make it appropriate for the device e g mobile device or desktop compu
3. mobile device and a host server according to one embodi ment of the present invention A client module in the mobile device includes a micro browser that works efficiently with applications files and data designed for the mobile device A server module is a complied and link version of an embodiment of the present invention and comprises an account manager managing though an account interface accounts of users that maintain a portal in the server The server module further comprises a control engine that inter acts with a database and performs URL mapping to ensure dual applications services and data are available FIG 6 shows a process flowchart for a host server according to one embodiment of the present invention At 602 the host server that hosts a portal awaits a request from a mobile device When the request is received and authenticated the request is parsed to determine the user identity at 604 Based on the user identity the process retrieves device characteristics e g browser type screen type or size and other information pertinent to the creation of a response at 606 A rendering context must be deter mined at 608 in order to decide what display menu to generate and what markup language to use In particular the choice of menu e g root menu is determined This is typically determined from data passed in the request for example an integer context identifier may be provided in the request Based on the user identit
4. FIG 2A hosts a plurality of user accounts each designated to an authorized capacity in which managed or personalized information is kept The information stored in the user accounts can be used to provide a mobile navigation metaphor in a portal asso ciated with mobile devices and PCs Database 130 can be an independent storage location or physically a part of host server 128 To access the personalized information through a portal from a computer on landnet 104 or through a mobile device the user needs first to be authenticated to enable access to a respective user account in the host server 128 or database 130 This is typically accomplished through use of username password pair or an assigned ticket code Due to the reduced size weight and cost of mobile devices as compared to desktop computers most of the 05 6 610 105 1 7 mobile devices also have very limited computing resources compared to such computers Moreover the graphics capa bilities of the display screens of the mobile devices are also limited Some of the mobile devices such as a wireless telephone have a keypad having far fewer keys or buttons than a PC keyboard has which makes data entry laborious For example a user requesting information on Stanford University using Infoseek as the search engine would have to input the following string www infoseek com followed by Stanford University The string listed above includes over 40 characters A us
5. For a home page application the mapped URL can be the same The mapped URL directs the user to the home page of a wireless portal regardless of browser type For a mail application the mapped URL can be directed to different servers 1 mail servers that provide the same content e g same email contents In this case the applications being mapped to are for mail services but different servers are used because of the different implementations used by the different devices For a stock application the mapped URL can be directed to a common server but an indication e g HTML can be provided to inform the server of the browser type so that the content returned to requesting devices is suitable for display on the requesting devices FIG 4B shows a host server 420 for use in creating different user interfaces depending on the type of browser and or device according to one embodiment of the inven tion The host server 420 can be used to cause changes made to a mobile device screen display 422 which displays a menu structure on the PC in the form of a mobile navigation metaphor 424 The host server 420 may also be used to cause changes made to the PC menu structure to be displayed on the mobile device screen display 422 and on the mobile navigation metaphor 424 this function may occur automati cally or by execution of a metaphor update function For example a user may edit a list of choices on the mobile device us
6. Jun 7 1999 now Pat No 6 233 608 which is continu LLP ation of application No 08 987 346 filed on Dec 9 1997 now Pat No 6 065 120 57 ABSTRACT 60 Provisional application No 60 154 420 filed on Sep 17 1999 Techniques that facilitate participation of mobile devices in 5T Into CL re ote e G06F 17 00 accessing resources over a data network are disclosed The 52 US Cha l tet ree 715 513 data network can be wired wireless or some combination 58 Field of Search 713 1 100 715 513 thereof In one aspect a mobile navigation metaphor is 715 526 provided to yield similar navigation experiences on both mobile devices and personal computers In another aspect a 56 References Cited central content server is able to return requested content to requestors in a format suitable for their device U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 6 169 992 1 2001 Beall et al 707 103 29 Claims 14 Drawing Sheets 114 m 106 124 yl 146 148 150 Mobile device 8 TAE Device Sub Sub user Code Features Display 10 Info 8 oec 130 iM NE 143 US 6 610 105 B1 Sheet 1 of 14 Aug 26 2003 U S Patent 901 VI 914 801 C U S Patent Aug 26 2003 Sheet 2 of 14 US 6 610 105 B1 Fig
7. navigation metaphor is activated a request including a URL is generated to cause the host server to look up a URL corresponding to the same hyperlink for the PC This is accomplished by the URL mapping function Referring to FIG 4A there is shown a URL matching table 400 suitable for synchronizing user interfaces between the two browsers or devices by implementing a mapping function A portal is hosted in a server identified by an address such as my phone com According to one embodiment the mobile navigation metaphor on the portal page accessible by a PC includes a list of applications 402 with each identified by an address identifier that serves as a hyperlink In the URL matching table 400 each of the address identifiers for the HTML browser 404 corresponds to an address identifier for HDML or WML browser 406 Thus if the hyperlinks the mobile navigation metaphor for the applications 402 correspond to those appropriate for the mobile device then when such a hyperlink is activated at the PC device the corresponding hyperlink for the PC device browser e g HTML browser 404 would instead be selected from the table and activated Similarly if the hyperlink is a more general reference to a particular appli cation 402 then the appropriate HTML browser link or WML browser link would be selected from the table depend ing on the type of browser in use The URL matching table 400 includes examples for three different applications 402
8. the mobile device and f forwarding the web page including the navigation aid to the requester 16 A method as recited in claim 15 wherein the naviga tion aid is a navigation bar 17 A method as recited in claim 15 wherein the device characteristics include at least browser type associated with the mobile device 18 A method as recited in claim 15 wherein the device characteristics include at least screen size associated with the mobile device 19 A method as recited in claim 15 wherein the user identity is a subscriber identification that is determined from a unique device identifier associated with the mobile device 20 A method as recited in claim 15 wherein the naviga tion aid appears on the displayed web page as a mobile device having a list of hyperlinks within a display screen area of the mobile device 05 6 610 105 1 15 21 A method as recited claim 20 wherein the device characteristics include at least browser type associated with the mobile device 22 A method as recited in claim 20 wherein the device characteristics include at least screen size associated with the mobile device 23 A method as recited in claim 20 wherein the user identity is a subscriber identification that is determined from a unique device identifier associated with the mobile device 24 A computer readable medium including computer program code for producing a navigation aid on a web page said computer readable medium co
9. user interaction with a user inter face of a wireless portal 2 Description of the Related Art The Internet is a rapidly growing communication network of interconnected computers and computer networks around the world Together these millions of connected computers form a repository of multimedia information that 15 readily accessible by any of the connected computers from any where at any time To facilitate the navigation of this repository a number of Internet access providers offer portals to the World Wide Web for users In a general sense portal is a door or entrance especially a grand or imposing one In the context of the present invention portal is a relatively new term for a World Wide Web site that 1s or proposes to be a major starting site for users when they get connected to the World Wide Web or that users tend to visit as an anchor site Such a portal site is typically represented as a page that contains links to numerous other sites with the links being organized accord ing to subject matter or the type of services offered at those sites With the commercial success of such search engines that have transformed into portals such as Yahoo www yahoo com and Excite www excite com it has become desirable both from the point of view of the companies operating the portals and the ultimate end users to establish such Internet portals In order to provide mobility and portable access to the World Wide Web in
10. 2003 U S Patent o ueur uroo euoqd Aui TIW IH J eoueug uioo suoud Aw spas eww ZAX MMM u1oo ououd AU TINA 105 01 suoneoiddy 907 vOv cov 007 US 6 610 105 B1 Sheet 8 of 14 Aug 26 2003 U S Patent gr 11 Ise eq nuojq C INAH oSensue dnye C osensue dire BUIAUIC 8 L 79 suono utrq 3ooq r uoncunojul 10015 Dew 1 yooq 5592 p UuonguLoju ccv 72015 c 9 UIS TRY ioudejo A UOHESTAEN US 6 610 105 B1 Sheet 9 of 14 Aug 26 2003 U S Patent OF 914 0 suodsa1 puss 91 25000521 puss 057 ort 782 unu 39 8 10 100 TIALLH ue 10 4007 vvv Sty Woy st 1s nb i ay 2ZIUSO09 fuoo ououd amp uy dyy 1s nb r U S Patent quotes ypt tn oni 8 Do W Ao m OPRAN EITEL Aug 26 2003 Sheet 10 of 14 BER PHATE Tess ape Fro un US 6 610 105 B1 US 6 610 105 B1 Sheet 11 of 14 Aug 26 2003 U S Patent Ab 911 09V 0S SLI SC9 OC su
11. IB US 6 610 105 B1 Sheet 3 of 14 Aug 26 2003 U S Patent VC 914 901 6901 1 901 JOAIOS mel T oel 821 joupue I v QON US 6 610 105 B1 Sheet 4 of 14 Aug 26 2003 U S Patent gz big ES W LH yunoooe Kay ou a 2 Aeldsid sainjea4 poo esn qns qns 5 a Q 8 __ eiiqow TF JE NETT 81 9 nA 7 SCL U S Patent Aug 26 2003 Sheet 5 of 14 US 6 610 105 B1 PERRET PEE amp eke 8 PANRERE Taurus Raguiar sett ova ce veu a let ot geet People ready fat a ole model whe exhibits c ait of Yau vos sided Sida onan you team inthe af your fand Y nq US 6 610 105 B1 Sheet 6 of 14 Aug 26 2003 U S Patent 8 14 a ued yey s ul 6 8 8ct SWED 6 Suiddous 8 321819792176 L A epuooas 104 pue uonoe AND 9 10 YOS 905 vct ect p syiods SMON Z sdde lt uioo euoud AA Oct US 6 610 105 B1 Sheet 7 of 14 Aug 26
12. RIPTION OF THE INVENTION In the following description of the present invention numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention However it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details The description and representation herein are the common means used by those experienced or skilled in the art to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art In some instances well known methods procedures components and circuitry have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring aspects of the present invention The invention relates to techniques to facilitate participa tion of mobile devices in accessing resources over a data network The data network can be wired wireless or some combination thereof In one aspect of the invention a mobile navigation metaphor is provided to yield similar navigation experiences on both mobile devices and personal computers In another aspect of the invention a central content server is able to return requested content to requesters in a format suitable for their device Referring to the drawings in which like numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views FIGS 1A 6 discussed in detail below FIG 1A illustrates an exemplary system configuration in which the present invention may be practiced Landnet 100 is
13. Server 114 also referred to as a link server proxy server wireless data server or network gate way server may be a workstation or a personal computer Link server 114 couples airnet 102 to landnet 100 to facili tate the communication between the two networks It should be noted that server 114 may be of the same type as one of servers 104 except that it implements an embodiment of the present invention In other words any one of servers 104 may function as a proxy server To facilitate the description of the present invention FIG 1B depicts a cellular phone 150 that can be used as one of the mobile devices 106 in the exemplary system configura tion of FIG 1A Cellular phone 150 includes a small screen 152 and an extended phone keypad 154 Screen 152 is typically a LCD display Extended phone keypad 154 comprises preferably a regular phone keypad 155 a pair of generic keys 158 and 160 and positioning key 156 Generic keys 158 and 160 are used to activate soft keys displayed in screen 152 and positioning key 156 is used to reposition an element indicator or a cursor to activate a desired function e g activate one of the hyperlinks displayed in screen 152 It should be understood that generic keys 158 and 160 and positioning key 156 are not necessary in practicing the present invention and can be replaced by a set of designated keys in regular phone keypad 155 Generic keys 158 and 160 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
14. US006610105B1 a2 United States Patent 10 Patent No 108 6 610 105 Martin Jr et al 45 Date of Patent Aug 26 2003 54 METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING 6 178 433 B1 1 2001 Nakamura et al 715 513 RESOURCE ACCESS IN A MOBILE 6 317 781 B1 11 2001 De Boor et al 709 217 ENVIRONMENT 6 377 886 B1 4 2002 Gotou et al 701 201 75 Inventors Bruce K Martin Jr Palo Alto CA FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS US Arnaud P Y Capitant Paris FR Lawrence M Stein San Jose GB 2 331 600 A 5 1999 US Jonathan M Wulff Los WO WO 97 49044 12 1997 Gatos CA US Andrew L Laursen San Mateo CA US OTHER PUBLICATIONS 73 Assignee Openwave Systems Inc Redwood Greg Hewgill Copilot User s Manual Copilot User s City CA US Manual Version 1 0 Beta 9 URL www hewgill com pilot copilot copilot html otice ubject to any disclaimer the term of this Noti Subj y disclai h f thi patent is extended or adjusted under 35 Bickmore et al Digestor device independent access to the U S C 154 b by 0 days World Wide Web Computer Networks and ISDN Systems vol 29 No 8 13 Sep 1997 pp 1075 1082 21 Appl No 09 575 901 22 Filed 22 2000 cited by examiner Related U S Application Data Primary Examiner Thomas M Heckler 63 Continuation in part of application No 09 320 296 filed on 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Beyer Weaver amp Thomas
15. a landline network wired network that may be the Internet the Intranet or a data network formed from a set of private networks Airnet 102 is a wireless data network Coupled to landnet 100 are a personal computer PC 110 representing one of the many computers coupled to landnet 100 and a plurality of network servers 104 identified as elements 104 1 104 2 104 m in the figure Preferably personal computer 110 runs a HyperText Markup Language HTML browser such as Netscape Navigator from Netscape Communications Cor poration www netscape com The HTML browser accesses information stored in network servers 104 via 05 6 610 105 1 5 landnet 100 using HyperText Transfer Protocol HTTP The network servers 104 may be workstations or desktop com puters The information stored in network servers 104 may be various media or hypermedia information and may include video footage audio clips text hyperlinks and various applications When network servers 104 provide information for mobile devices the information may include mobile data designed for mobile devices The mobile data may be expressed in a format that is more appropriate for transport over a wireless network and for presentation i e display on a screen of the mobile devices In such cases the mobile data may be communicated over the wireless network using a different protocol than that used for data transmitted over a wired network e g the landnet For e
16. at is displayed on the display screen of the mobile device Hence the mobile navigation metaphor for a wireless portal allows a user to obtain a similar navigation experience on a PC as on a mobile device The similarity of the navigation experience will enable a user to better understand the menu structure of both the PC and mobile device interfaces and to more efficiently navigate to a desired source of information by reinforcing the navigation experi ence using two different devices In other words a user will experience a navigation process on one device that rein forces that learned or experienced on the other device With respect to the mobile device interfaces when mobile device 106 accesses the wireless portal it will be prompted for authentication code information In one implementation device ID 140 and the sub 142 may be used as the authentication code that will allow mobile device 106 to pass through account entry 124 In other implementations authentication or user identification can be achieved using user name password cookies or certificates Once the user 05 6 610 105 1 9 of mobile device 106 is authenticated the user is presented with a screen display that resembles the mobile navigation metaphor 302 illustrated in FIG 3A As used herein a display screen is the physical display apparatus in a device such as a Liquid Crystal Display LCD screen A screen display is the image presented on the display screen
17. at suit able for the mobile device and e forwarding the web page including the navigation aid to the requestor 2 A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the requestor Is person 3 A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the requestor Is a computing device 4 A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the request is issued by a personal computer having a display screen substantially larger than a display screen of the mobile device 5 A method as recited in claim 4 wherein said method further comprises f displaying the web page including the navigation aid on the display screen of the personal computer 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 14 6 A method as recited in claim 1 wherein said retrieving c comprises c1 determining a rendering context for the menu infor mation and c2 retrieving the menu information based on the device characteristics and the rendering context 7 method as recited in claim 6 wherein said retrieving c retrieves the menu information from a database 8 A method as recited in claim 6 wherein the navigation aid comprises a list of hyperlinks 9 A method as recited in claim 8 wherein the hyperlinks when selected link to applications or services that operate on the personal computer 10 A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the request is issued by a personal computer operating a browser wherein the device characteristics incl
18. ce the proper application or service for that class of device e g mobile device is accessed Similarly for the desktop computer or PC it is important that when a menu item is activated the corresponding application or service for that class of device e g PC is accessed Therefore it is important that when a menu item on the inventive mobile navigation metaphor is accessed from the PC the PC appropriate application or service is accessed According to one embodiment the PC side executes an HTML browser while the mobile device executes a WML or 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 HDML browser The mobile navigation metaphor can also include personalized information including hyperlinks to frequently visited applications and displays Also whenever the menu structure of the mobile device is changed the mobile navigation metaphor can be updated so that it is continues to be representative of the menu structure of the mobile device ensure that both the PC and the mobile device access the appropriate application or service a URL mapping function can be performed Note that the mobile navigation metaphor can display a menu structure having links to the mobile device appropriate applications or services or to the PC appropriate applications or services In the case that the metaphor hyperlinks are for the mobile device side appli cations or displays when one of the hyperlinks in the mobile
19. e characteristics of a mobile device used by the requestor retrieving menu information based on the device characteristics of the mobile device used by the requester producing the navigation aid based on the menu information the navigation aid being in a format suitable for the mobile device and forwarding the web page including the navigation aid to the requester As a method for producing a navigation aid on a web page another embodiment of the invention includes the acts of receiving a request for the web page from a requestor determining identity of the requester determining device characteristics of a mobile device used by the requester retrieving menu information associated with the identity of the requestor producing the navigation aid based on the menu information and the device characteristics of the mobile device the navigation aid being in a format suitable for the mobile device and forwarding the web page includ ing the navigation aid to the requester 05 6 610 105 1 3 As a method for providing a mobile navigation metaphor in a portal for a mobile device having a display screen one embodiment of the invention includes the acts of providing an image representation resembling the display screen of the mobile device but being displayed on a display screen of a personal computer the image representation comprising contents that can be similarly displayed on the display screen of the mobile device and generating an u
20. e offered or another crite rion established by the user The personalized information may take the form of contact or informative information or a user specified hierarchy of links to desired data In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention FIG 3A shows a portal page 300 that comprises a mobile navigation metaphor 302 In this embodiment the mobile navigation metaphor 302 is an image representation of a display screen of a mobile device The portal page 300 also includes frequently visited hyperlinks graphics texts and other personalized information The portal page 300 is displayed on the display screen of the PC It should be noted that although the mobile navigation metaphor 302 is shown in FIG 3A as a replication of a mobile device navigation screen it is not required to be an identical or near identical replication Instead the mobile navigation metaphor 302 should provide a sufficiently simi lar impression to a user of the mobile device In other words the image representation associated with the mobile navi gation metaphor 302 reflects enough of the details of what is depicted on the display screen of the mobile device so that a user is provided with a similar navigation experience regardless of whether using the PC or the mobile device Thus depending on the actual implementation the contents displayed in the mobile navigation metaphor 302 may or may not be identical but in any case substantially close to wh
21. equest from the mobile device if executing a WML browser comprises flag wml so that the menu generation server can be advised of which file shall be fetched In still another situation the URL mapping occurs in a one to one fashion According to one embodiment shown in FIG 4A an application e g email application is kept at two different locations one for the PC and one for the mobile device With the mapping an email sent from either the PC or the mobile device will be recognized as from the same account or source FIG 4D shows a second portal page 452 after a stock link 454 in the mobile navigation metaphor 456 is activated i e selected Namely the second portal page 452 follows 10 15 20 25 30 40 45 50 55 60 65 12 from the first portal page 300 of FIG after the stock link in the mobile navigation metaphor 302 is activated The second portal page 452 shows that a list of stock symbols is in a personalized portfolio area 458 and pertinent informa tion e g shares price change value low high 52wk range for the symbols is also displayed The file associated with the second portal page 452 is an HTML file which describes the second portal page 452 to be displayed on the display screen for the PC device However given the normally smaller display screen of mobile devices all the information of the second portal page 452 normally is not able to be concurrently d
22. equester computer program code for determining device charac teristics of a mobile device used by the requester computer program code for retrieving menu information associated with the identity of the requester computer program code for producing the navigation aid based on the menu information and the device characteristics the navigation aid including a plurality of links to available services and the navigation aid being in a format suitable for the mobile device and computer program code for forwarding the web page including the navigation aid to the requestor
23. er inputting a string of this type using a PC keyboard and browser e g Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Explorer would have no problem However the same user operating a keypad of a wireless device to input the string would be severely limited in terms of the speed of data entry due to the small number of available keys and the close spacing between them Some transactions frequently desired by a user of such mobile devices may be predetermined or pre entered in a corresponding user account maintained in a host server 128 or link server 114 so that the user need only select desired transactions followed by a few letters For example if there is a list of stock symbols of interest in a user account that is associated with the user s mobile phone a user of the mobile phone will not have to key in the symbols every time he desires to look up the current trading price of those stocks Instead the list of stock symbols can be previously entered and associated with the user account When the phone user accesses an application program providing stock price information the list of stock symbols and their correspond ing prices can be automatically retrieved FIG 2B shows a user account associated with mobile device 106 according to one embodiment Typically each mobile device serviced by a carrier responsible for host server 128 is assigned a device ID 140 which can be a phone number of the device or a combination of an IP address and a p
24. er account associated with a mobile device serviced by the exemplary system configuration of FIG 1A 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 FIG shows an exemplary portal page according to one embodiment of the invention FIG 3B illustrates a screen display for a mobile device according to the mobile navigation metaphor of FIG 3A FIG 4A shows a matching table used to synchronize user interfaces between two different browsers FIG 4B shows a menu generation system in which a single database service is used in creating different user interfaces depending on the browser type FIG 4C shows a flow diagram in which a request is received and parsed to access appropriate data applications and services in a host server FIG 4D shows a second exemplary portal page according to one embodiment of the invention after the stock link in the mobile navigation metaphor with respect to the first exemplary portal page is activated FIG 4E illustrates a screen display for a mobile device according to the mobile navigation metaphor of FIG 4D FIG 5A illustrates a block diagram of a mobile device according to one embodiment of the present invention FIG 5B illustrates a block diagram of a host server according to one embodiment of the present invention and FIG 6 shows a process flowchart for the host server of FIG 5B according to one embodiment of the present inven DETAILED DESC
25. er readable medium The computer read able medium is any data storage device that can store data which can be thereafter be read by a computer system Examples of the computer readable medium include read only memory random access memory CD ROMs mag netic tape optical data storage devices The computer read able medium can also be distributed over a network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion The many features and advantages of the present inven tion are apparent from the written description and thus it is intended by the appended claims to cover all such features and advantages of the invention Further since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation as illustrated and described Hence all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to as falling within the scope of the invention What is claimed is 1 method for producing a navigation aid on a web page said method comprising a receiving a request for the web page from a requester b determining device characteristics of a mobile device used by the requestor c retrieving menu information based on the device characteristics of the mobile device used by the requester d producing the navigation aid based on the menu information the navigation aid being in a form
26. ey X Z 1888 09558 A 00018406 000 NPA 6189 T 858 99Ud lt 00 US 6 610 105 B1 Sheet 12 of 14 Aug 26 2003 U S Patent Ve 914 dT IIHONW ALLIC1O IIO ADIOA d m OLA Es HGOOONH Dtm WHSMOTH ATNGOW LNHI TO SSH THTSIAA HOV THHS LNI 4 Ssa TIAM ADVAOLS qI TOIA AV IdSIG US 6 610 105 B1 Sheet 13 of 14 Aug 26 2003 U S Patent g SIA 15 SOSSHOO ld 5 SHOIA HS HALUAA SNOILVO NO SINSINOO ANION 1OWINOO HINGOW 5 HOV TLLNI HOVH IH LNI dI dOL 9 3 amp QU OF US 6 610 105 B1 Sheet 14 of 14 Aug 26 2003 U S Patent juoi o o esuodsa1 pues 9 24 19 a8ensur oyeudoidde nuaw 4 25 MOU 019 8 Ae dsip PYM S 1 2 ouruoje q 309 IMAP 909 jsonbol 25184 709 21 Aue 3 209 JATIA 05 6 610 105 1 1 METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING RESOURCE ACCESS IN A MOBILE ENVIRONMENT CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This appl
27. ication claims the benefit of U S Provisional Application No 60 154 420 filed Sep 17 1999 entitled Method and System for Providing a Mobile Navigation Metaphor the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes This application is also a continuation in part of U S patent application Ser No 09 320 296 filed Jun 7 1999 entitled Method and System for Securely Interacting With Managed Data From Multiple Devices now U S Pat No 6 233 608 which is a continu ation of U S patent application Ser No 08 987 346 filed Dec 9 1997 entitled Method And Architecture For Self Provisioning a Rendezvous To Ensure Secure Access to Information In a Database From Multiple Devices now U S Pat No 6 065 120 and assigned to the assignee of the present application the disclosures of which are incorpo rated herein by reference for all purposes A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the U S Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1 Field of the Invention The present invention relates to user interfaces for com puting devices and more specifically to methods and sys tems providing consistent
28. id being in a format suitable for the mobile device and computer program code for forward ing the web page including the navigation aid to the requestor The advantages of the invention are numerous Different embodiments or implementations may have one or more of the following advantages One advantage of the invention is that a similar navigation experience can be had for users of both mobile devices and personal computers Another advantage of the invention is that servers can distinguish between requesting device types e g mobile device vs personal computer so that the returned content is suitable for the requesting device type Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings illustrating by way of example the principles of the inven tion BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention will be readily understood by the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals designate like structural elements and in which FIG 1A shows an exemplary system configuration in which the present invention may be practiced FIG 1B depicts a mobile device e g a digital cellular phone that can be used in the exemplary system configu ration of FIG 1A FIG 2A shows an architecture based on the exemplary system configuration of FIG 1A FIG 2B shows a us
29. ing a WML browser Upon an activation of 05 6 610 105 1 11 SEND key the edited list is sent to the host server 420 that operates a menu generation process in conjunction with device information stored in a menu database 426 The menu generation process produces an appropriate menu for the requesting device based on the device information The device information can for example include one or more of device characteristics rendering context for the menu user identity and or browser type utilized by the requesting device The generation of the menu list for the mobile naviga tion metaphor allows the user to access the PC side appli cations from a menu structure defined on a mobile device For example a user updates a menu on the mobile device and the updated menu in WML is sent to the host server 420 Here the updated menu is converted to a new menu in HTML that can be displayed in the mobile navigation metaphor on the PC device The HTML compatible links accessible by the HTML menu of the mobile navigation metaphor permit a mobile device user to navigate to the PC side appropriate applications or services via the mobile navigation metaphor on the PC device using the menu structure of the mobile device Conversely when a user updates a menu in the mobile navigation metaphor the host server 420 updates the menu for the mobile device Furthermore when a user alters the menu structure e g by adding or deleting bookmar
30. isplayed on the display screen of the mobile device When the user activates a link on the mobile device the corresponding request will cause the host server to provide the same content but typically less content due to its smaller display screen and in a slightly different format for the PC device FIG 4E shows corresponding display content 460 dis played on display screen 462 of a mobile device The corresponding display content 460 represents information about one of the stocks namely AOL within the person alized portfolio 458 of the second portal page 452 The display content 460 is for example produced by a WML file that may be either dynamically generated from the content or a counterpart WML version of the HTML file Since the corresponding display content 460 exceeds the display screen 462 only a portion of the corresponding display content 460 is initially displayed on the display screen 462 As described above one of the important features in the present invention is to allow efficient access to the same personalized information hosted in a database from two different devices running two different browsers and com municating over two different networks Further with the provided mobile navigation metaphor the navigation expe rience through the personalized information from the two different devices becomes similar enough to reinforce the particular navigation experience FIGS 5A and 58 show respectively a diagram of a
31. ks etc on the PC side the mobile navigation metaphor is also updated to reflect those changes Regarding the URL mapping there are several situations in which the corresponding URLs may be looked up in a different manner As far as a mobile portal is concerned both a PC and a mobile device can access the same menu database 426 FIG 4C shows that a request is received 440 in the host server 420 The request can be sent to the host server 420 from either the PC side or the mobile device Since the request can comprise indication information about the browser being executed the host server 420 can recog nize 442 which type of device is making the request Based on the type of device the host server 420 determines where to find an appropriate page to be returned to the requesting device This may be referred to as a dynamic mapping of the URLs More particularly when the request is from a PC device the host server 420 locates 444 the HTML page and then sends 446 a response including the HTML page to the PC device Alternatively when the request is from a mobile device the host server 420 locates 448 the WML page and then sends 450 a response including the WML page to the mobile device In another situation the menu generation server host server keeps two separate files having the same contents each for one type of browser The exact access to the right file is dependent on a flag in the request as an example shown in FIG 4A A r
32. ll intuitive how the links and organization of those links into menus in one environment are related to the presentation of those links and menus in the other environment This can cause the user to be confused regarding how they should navigate through the menu structure to get to a desired link on one device based on their familiarity with the navigation process on the other device Thus there is therefore a need for techniques that provide users with a similar navigation experience on both mobile devices and computers e g desktop computers SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Broadly speaking the invention relates to techniques to facilitate participation of mobile devices in accessing resources over a data network The data network can be wired wireless or some combination thereof In one aspect of the invention a mobile navigation metaphor is provided to yield similar navigation experiences on both mobile devices and personal computers In another aspect of the invention a central content server is able to return requested content to requesters in a format suitable for their device The invention can be implemented in numerous ways including as a system apparatus method and computer readable medium Several embodiments of the invention are discussed below As a method for producing a navigation aid on a web page one embodiment of the invention includes the acts of receiving a request for the web page from a requestor determining devic
33. mprising computer program code for receiving a request for the web page from a requester computer program code for determining device charac teristics of a mobile device used by with the requester computer program code for retrieving menu information based on the device characteristics computer program code for producing the navigation aid based on the menu information the navigation aid being in a format suitable for the mobile device and computer program code for forwarding the web page including the navigation aid to the requestor 25 A method as recited in claim 24 wherein the request is issued by a personal computer operating a browser wherein the device characteristics include an indication of device types and wherein the personal computer and the mobile device are different device types 10 15 20 25 16 26 A computer readable medium as recited in claim 25 wherein the requestor is a person 27 A computer readable medium as recited in claim 25 wherein the requester is a computing device 28 A computer readable medium as recited in claim 25 wherein the requestor is a browser operating on a computing device 29 A computer readable medium including computer program code for producing a navigation aid on a web page said computer readable medium comprising computer program code for receiving a request for the web page from a requestor computer program code for determining identity of the r
34. n index to the account structure 143 User information 146 comprises the account configuration and other account related information Code information 148 includes creden 10 15 20 40 50 55 60 65 8 tial information to control entry to account 144 in the database 130 From the data network perspective any com puter can log on through HTTP to an account entry 152 identified by an address identifier which may take the form of a universal resource identifier URI or universal resource locator URL for example www xyz com As shown in the figure the PC 110 may attempt to establish access to account entry 152 However to access the account 144 in the database 130 associated with the PC 110 namely the user s account the PC 110 can provide a code or password to the host server 128 which then can perform a verification of that code or password based on information contained in account structure 143 If the supplied confi dential code or password matches that in account structure 143 then the access requested by the PC 110 is allowed otherwise the entry to the account 144 may be denied Upon completion of the authentication process the user of PC 110 is typically presented with a portal page that comprises a plurality of hyperlinks to desired or frequently visited sites along with other personalized information The hyperlinks may be organized according to categories based on subject matter type of servic
35. one 150 of FIG 1B or mobile devices 106 of FIG 1A are typically much less than what is found in a personal computer To enable such a mobile device to communicate efficiently with a data network a micro browser requiring less memory and configured to execute in a portable device may be used An example of a micro browser well suited to operation in a mobile communication device is one designed and manu factured by Phone com Inc Redwood City the assignee of the present invention The micro browser works efficiently when used to display a markup language file specifically designed for use with the portable device Examples of such markup languages include HDML and WML Referring now to FIG 2A there is depicted a system architecture based on the exemplary system configuration of FIG 1A As described above the airnet 102 communicates simultaneously with a plurality of mobile devices 106 shown as devices 106 1 106 2 106 n in the figure A PC 110 represents one of the computers that use the HTML browser running on HTTP to access other computers servers 132 or 134 to fetch information on line or simply copy files therefrom When employing the present invention PC 110 can be used to pre enter or organize the frequent transactions desired by a user of a mobile device through use of a larger user interface and easier user input It is generally understood that a database or an allocation of memory as referenced by 130 in
36. ort number for example 204 163 165 132 01905 where 204 163 165 132 is the IP address and 01905 is the port number The device ID 140 is further associated with a subscriber number sub 142 authorized by the carrier in link server 114 as part of the procedures to activate the phone 106 The sub may take the form for example of 861234567 10900 pn mobile att net by AT amp T Wireless Service and is a unique identification to device 106 Each of the mobile devices 106 has a unique device ID that corresponds to a user account in a server e g link server 114 or host server 128 It may be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the link server 114 does not have to be a separate server and can be a part of host server 128 More generally the user account associated with the mobile device 106 can be determined by user identity The above described use of subscriber numbers is one approach to determining the user identifications and thus the user accounts Other approaches can for example use user name password authentication a portal specific security model using cookies e g HTTP cookies or Secure Sock ets Layer SSL client side certificates According to one embodiment of the present invention a corresponding account 144 in database 130 is indexed by an account structure 143 comprising the sub 142 user infor mation 146 code information 148 and feature information 150 The sub 142 is received from link server 114 as a
37. pdated image representation whenever the contents are updated As a computer readable medium including computer program code for producing a navigation aid on a web page one embodiment of the invention includes computer pro gram code for receiving a request for the web page from a requestor computer program code for determining device characteristics of a mobile device used by with the requester computer program code for retrieving menu information based on the device characteristics computer program code for producing the navigation aid based on the menu information the navigation aid being in a format suitable for the mobile device and computer program code for forward ing the web page including the navigation aid to the requestor As a computer readable medium including computer program code for producing a navigation aid on a web page another embodiment of the invention includes computer program code for receiving a request for the web page from a requester computer program code for determining identity of the requester computer program code for determining device characteristics of a mobile device used by the requester computer program code for retrieving menu infor mation associated with the identity of the requester com puter program code for producing the navigation aid based on the menu information and the device characteristics the navigation aid including a plurality of links to available services and the navigation a
38. ter In one embodiment a shared database service can be used to create a different user interface for the mobile or desktop device depending on the device type and characteristics of the software in the device responsible for producing the interface displays e g the browser type in each device Typically an application service or set of data designed for presentation and use on a mobile device may not have the same structure or even features as a corresponding one designed for use by or presentation on a PC This may be expressed by saying that each application service etc has dual nature By this term is meant that each such application or service designed for use by a mobile device has a corresponding application or service designed for use on a PC and that the two corresponding applications and services may not be identical in form or implementation This is because there are situations in which certain features or functions of an application or service may be useful and supportable on one type of device but not on the other Furthermore even if the same feature or function is imple mented on both types of devices the manner in which the feature or function is executed or the manner in which the result of the feature or function is displayed may differ between the two types of devices This situation of dual applications and services means that it is important that when a menu item is activated on the mobile devi
39. teractive two way communication mobile devices have been introduced that are capable of communicating via wireless data networks with the Inter net As an example see U S Pat No 5 809 415 which is 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 assigned to the assignee of the present invention and hereby incorporated by reference herein The interactive two way communication mobile devices include two way pagers cellular phones palm sized computing devices and personal digital assistant PDA devices and are among the fastest emerging communication devices Such devices enable users to receive collect analyze review and disseminate information as they travel or move about In a similar manner to the portals that have been designed to assist desktop computer users to navigate on the Internet efforts have been commenced to provide portals designed specifically for users of mobile devices For example wire less or portable portals offered by AirFlash com Inc see www airflash com and Saraide Inc see www saraide com are designed for access by users of mobile devices However a user s navigation experience on a display screen of a mobile device and through a typical portal viewed on a computer screen are conventionally very dif ferent This is primarily because of the substantial differ ences between the user interfaces and menu structures of the two types of devices In many cases it is not at a
40. ude an indication of device types and wherein the personal computer and the mobile device are different device types 11 A method as recited in claim 10 wherein the request is issued by a personal computer having a display screen and wherein said method further comprises f displaying the web page including the navigation aid on the display screen of the personal computer 12 A method as recited in claim 11 wherein the naviga tion aid comprises a list of hyperlinks 13 A method as recited in claim 12 wherein the hyperlinks when selected link to applications or services that operate on the personal computer 14 A method as recited in claim 12 wherein the selection of one of the hyperlinks causes an action with respect to the personal computer that resembles an action initiated with respect to the mobile device when a corresponding item is selected with respect to a list on the display screen of the mobile device 15 A method for producing a navigation aid on a web page said method comprising a receiving a request for the web page from a requestor b determining identity of the requester c determining device characteristics of a mobile device used by the requestor d retrieving menu information associated with the iden tity of the requestor e producing the navigation aid based on the menu information and the device characteristics of the mobile device the navigation aid being in a format suitable for
41. xample the wired network might use HTTP and HTML protocols and the wireless network might use HTTP and HDML protocols Mobile device 106 represents one of many mobile devices serviced by airnet 102 Typically mobile device 106 is an interactive two way communication device that includes but is not limited to a mobile computing device a wireless telephone a palm sized computing device a PDA or an Internet capable appliance remote controller Mobile device 106 is capable of communicating wirelessly with antenna 108 via airnet 102 For simplicity antenna 108 also represents a wireless carrier infrastructure that generally comprises a base station and an operations and maintenance center The base station controls radio or telecommunication links with mobile device 106 The operations and maintenance center com prises a mobile switching center performing the switching of calls between the mobile devices and other fixed or mobile network users The operations and maintenance center man ages mobile account services such as authentication and oversees the proper operation and setup of the wireless network Each of the hardware components and processes in carrier infrastructure 108 are known to those skilled in the art and are not described herein to avoid unnecessarily obscuring aspects of the present invention Between landnet 100 and airnet 102 there is a server device 114 functioning as a bridge between the two net works 100 and 102
42. y rendering context markup language choice and menu records a menu is generated at 610 One of the key features here is the selection of the right URL e g embed HDML URLs in 05 6 610 105 1 13 HDML markup and the layout navigation appropriate for given device At 612 a corresponding response is sent Although the process flowchart of FIG 6 pertains to a response to a request from a mobile device similar process ing can be used to process a request from a personal computer More particularly when the personal computer displays the mobile device metaphor when a request for content is made by a selection with respect to the mobile device metaphor e g a link within the mobile device metaphor the response returned to the personal computer can be the requested content in a format suitable for the personal computer The response returned can optionally also include the mobile device metaphor which has been updated in accordance with the selection While the forgoing and attached are illustrative of various aspects embodiments of the present invention the disclosure of specific sequence steps and the inclusion of specifics with regard to broader methods and systems are not intended to limit the scope of the invention which finds itself in the various permutations of the features disclosed and described herein as conveyed to one of skill in the art invention can also be embodied as computer readable code on a comput
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