Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-17
2002-09-24
Bayerl, Raymond J. (Department: 2173)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C709S201000, C709S203000, C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06456308
ABSTRACT:
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
The appendices attached to the disclosure of this patent contain material that 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 Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to graphical user interfaces (GUIs), i.e. user interfaces in which information can be presented in both textual form and graphical form. More particularly, the invention relates to GUIs used to control, manage, configure, monitor and diagnose software and hardware applications, devices and equipment using a World-Wide-Web client/server communications model. Yet more particularly, the invention relates to methods and apparatus for developing and using such GUIs based on a World-Wide-Web client/server communications model.
2. Related Art
Many modern communications, entertainment and other electronic devices require or could benefit from improved local or remote control, management, configuration, monitoring and diagnosing. It is common for such devices to be controlled by a software application program specifically written for each device. The design of such a device includes any hardware and operating environment software needed to support the application, which is then referred to as an embedded application, because it is embedded within the device. Embedded application programs are generally written in a high-level programming language such as C, C++, etc., referred to herein as a native application programming language. Other languages suitable to particular uses may also be employed. The application program communicates with users through a user interface, generally written in the same high-level language as the application.
The representation of an application in a native application programming language is referred to as the application program source code. A corresponding representation, which can be executed on a processor, is referred to as an executable image.
Before an application written in a high-level language can be executed it must be compiled and linked to transform the application source code into an executable image. A compiler receives as an input a file containing the application source code and produces as an output a file in a format referred to as object code. Finally, one or more object code files are linked to form the executable image. Linking resolves references an object module may make outside of that object module, such as addresses, symbols or functions defined elsewhere.
Source code may also define arrangements by which data can be stored in memory and conveniently referred to symbolically. Such defined arrangements are referred to as data structures because they represent the physical arrangement of data within memory, i.e., the structure into which the data is organized.
Most commonly, remote control, management, configuration, monitoring and diagnosing applications employ unique proprietary user interfaces integrated with the application software and embedded into the device. Frequently these user interfaces present and receive information in text form only. Moreover, they are not portable, generally being designed to operate on a specific platform, i.e., combination of hardware and software. The devices for which control, management, configuration and diagnosing are desired have only limited run-time resources available, such as memory and long-term storage space. Proprietary interfaces are frequently designed with such limitations to data presentation, data acquisition and portability because of the development costs incurred in providing such features and in order to keep the size and run-time resource requirements of the user interface to a minimum. Since each user interface tends to be unique to the particular remote control, management, configuration, monitoring or diagnosing function desired, as well as unique to the operating system, application and hardware platform upon which these operations are performed, significant time and/or other resources may be expended in development. Graphics handling and portability have therefore been considered luxuries too expensive for most applications.
However, as the range of products available requiring control, management, configuration, monitoring or diagnosing increase, such former luxuries as graphical presentation and portability of the interface from platform to platform have migrated from the category of luxuries to that of necessities. It is well known that information presented graphically is more quickly and easily assimilated than the same information presented as text. It is also well known that a consistent user interface presented by a variety of platforms is more likely to be understood and properly used than unique proprietary user interfaces presented by each individual platform. Therefore, portable GUIs with low ran-time resource requirements are highly desirable.
With the growing popularity and expansion of the Internet, one extremely popular public network for communications between computer systems, and development of the World-Wide-Web communication and presentation model, a new paradigm for communication of information has emerged.
The World-Wide-Web and similar private architectures such as internal corporate LANs, provide a “web” of interconnected document objects. On the World-Wide-Web, these document objects are located on various sites on the global Internet. The World-Wide-Web is also described in “The World-Wide Web,” by T. Berners-Lee, R. Cailliau, A. Luotonen, H. F. Nielsen, and A. Secret,
Communications of the ACM,
37 (8), pp. 76-82, August 1994, and in “World Wide Web: The Information Universe,” by Berners-Lee, T., et al., in
Electronic Networking: Research, Applications and Policy,
Vol. 1, No. 2, Meckler, Westport, Conn., Spring 1992. On the Internet, the World-Wide-Web is a collection of documents (i.e., content), client software (i.e., browsers) and server software (i.e., servers) which cooperate to present and receive information from users. The World-Wide-Web is also used to connect users through the content to a variety of databases and services from which information may be obtained. However, except as explained below, the World-Wide-Web is based principally on static information contained in the content documents available to the browsers through the servers. Such a limitation would make the World-Wide-Web paradigm useless as a GUI, which must present dynamic information generated by a device or application.
The World-Wide-Web communications paradigm is based on a conventional client-server model. Content is held in documents accessible to servers. Clients can request, through an interconnect system, documents which are then served to the clients through the interconnect system. The client software is responsible for interpreting the contents of the document served, if necessary.
Among the types of document objects in a “web” are documents and scripts. Documents in the World-Wide-Web may contain text, images, video, sound or other information sought to be presented, in undetermined formats known to browsers or extensions used with browsers. The presentation obtained or other actions performed when a browser requests a document from a server is usually determined by text contained in a document which is written in Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML). HTML is described in
HyperText Markup Language Specification—
2.0, by T. Berners-Lee and D. Connolly, RFC 1866, proposed standard, November 1995, and in “World Wide Web & HTML,” by Douglas C. McArthur, in
Dr. Dobbs Journal,
December 1994, pp. 18-20, 22, 24, 26 and 86. HTML documents stored as such are generally static, that is, the contents do not change over time except when the document is manually modified. Scripts are programs that can generate HTML documents when executed.
HTML is one of a family of computer languages referred to as mark-up lang
Agranat Ian D.
Giusti Kenneth A.
Lawrence Scott D.
Agranat Systems, Inc.
Bayerl Raymond J.
Thai Cuong T.
Wolf Greenfield & Sacks P.C.
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