Patent · US Expired

Navigating web-based content in a television-based system

US6154205A · kind A · utility

112Cited by
13References
43Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 25, 1998
Grant dateNov 28, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 25, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
  • CPC primaryY10S715/973
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A television-based hyperlink content navigation system includes a display device having a viewing area for displaying visual content such as an Internet Web document. Generally, the visual content has a content area that is larger than the viewing area, and includes a plurality of selectable objects such as hyperlinks and image maps. A user-manipulated operator such as a joystick allows navigation through the various hyperlinks and image maps, and also initiates scrolling of the visual content. Assuming that a focus is initially on a first one of the objects, moving the trackball tabs the focus to a nearby second object if the second object is within a predefined linear distance from the first object. If there is no second object within the predefined distance, moving the trackball causes the visual content to scroll at a speed that is proportional to the trackball speed. If a currently focused object is an image, such as an image map, that has a continuous two-dimensional range of selectable points, moving the trackball moves a pointer over the image in a continuous manner. Such a pointer is displayed only when the focus is on such a continuous image.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.