Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer-to-computer protocol implementing – Computer-to-computer data streaming
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-05
2004-03-16
Lin, Wen-Tai (Department: 2154)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer-to-computer protocol implementing
Computer-to-computer data streaming
C709S217000, C709S219000, C709S203000, C709S226000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06708217
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer system, and deals more particularly with a method, system, and computer-readable code for receiving and demultiplexing multi-modal document content.
2. Description of the Related Art
“Multi-modal document content” or “Multi-modal Web content” refers to a Web page which contains multiple media types, also referred to herein as multiple modes or multiple content types. A “Web page,” as is well known in the art, is a file or document created for use in the World Wide Web environment (hereinafter, “Web”). Web pages are typically located using a “URL,” or Uniform Resource Locator, which is a form of address adapted to use in the distributed network environment of the Web. Web pages are typically encoded in the HyperText Markup Language, or “HTML.” As an example of a Web page being “multi-modal,” it is common for a single Web page to include text as well as graphics, images, sound files, and perhaps video. While images may be embedded directly within a textual Web page document (e.g. using the “<img>”, or image, tag in HTML), content having other media types is typically linked to the textual document in a manner that requires the user to select a link reference (such as a hypertext link from the displayed textual Web page) before the linked content will be rendered to the user. An anchor, or “<a>” tag, is used in HTML to provide this type of external link.
A user requesting a Web page uses a Web browser (which is a software application adapted to processing Web documents, such as an HTML browser which processes HTML documents) to generate a request for a Web page using its URL and to send the request to a Web server. The Web server then locates the requested content and returns it to the requesting browser. Upon receiving the requested document, the browser renders it for presentation to the user. The document text, when encoded in HTML format, is processed by an HTML parser and then displayed. (Text may be delivered in other formats, such as the Extensible Markup Language (XML), in which case a corresponding parser must process the encoded document before displaying it.)
The computing device on which the Web browser is executing typically has one or more “helper applications” installed, where these helper applications may comprise: an image processing application; an audio processing application; a video processing application; a text-to-speech generator (e.g. for use with documents encoded in the VoiceXML markup language); etc. The Web browser, upon detecting a content type which the browser is not prepared to render directly, automatically invokes the appropriate helper application to handle the received content. As an alternative to helper applications, applets or plug-ins may be used for processing multimedia files. Applets are small pieces of executable code that are typically downloaded to a user's computer from a server through a network dynamically, as the code is needed for execution. Applets are often referenced from a Web document and may be used to process some part of that document. Plug-ins are small, special-purpose software applications adapted to particular processing needs. A plug-in may be used, for example, to process a file (such as a sound file) which a particular Web browser is not capable of processing. These techniques are well known in the art, and the software with which they are implemented is readily available on the market.
A Web server communicating with a Web browser using the HyperText Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”) typically returns a requested document to the browser as a two-part transmission. (Note that while the discussions herein refer to the HTTP protocol, this is for purposes of illustration and not of limitation. The Wireless Session Protocol, commonly referred to as “WSP,” may be used alternatively, as may other semantically equivalent protocols.) The first part is a header describing the returned document, and the second part is the document itself. Within the HTTP header of the first part is a “Content-type” entry, describing the content type of the document using the Multi-Part Internet Mail Extensions (“MIME”) notation. For example, if the document comprises text encoded in HTML, the content type will use the special syntax “textihtml” (as defined by the MIME standard). When the response includes multiple documents or document parts having multiple content types, then the HTTP header preferably uses the content type “multipart/mixed” to indicate that a multipart message with data in more than one is being sent. Or, if the multiple parts are to be viewed simultaneously, the content type “multipart/parallel” is preferably used. (Alternatively, the content types of “multipart/alternative” or “multipart/digest” may be used where appropriate. Refer to RFC (Request for Comments) 1521, “MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) Part One: Mechanisms for Specifying and Describing the Format of Internet Message Bodies” and RFC 1522, “MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) Part Two: Message Header Extensions for Non-ASCII Text”, for more information on MIME types.) This content type is interpreted by the receiving Web browser as it determines how to process and render the received Web document. When the “multipart/mixed” content type is used in an HTTP header, it is followed by a keyword “boundary=” and some text string. This text string is also located within the returned document as a delimiter between the different document parts, and enables separation of the different content types in the document. For example, if the boundary string is defined as “—abc123XYZ987” then this string may be used to delimit parts of a document containing a JPEG image and ASCII text as shown below:
—abc123XYZ987
Content-type: image/jpeg
< . . . the image content . . . >
—abc123XYZ987
Content-type: text/ascii
< . . . some ASCII text . . . >
—abc123XYZ987—
Computing devices are becoming smaller and more specialized as computing becomes more pervasive in today's world. Because of their increased portability, these smaller devices enable the user to perform computing functions regardless of where he happens to be at the time, and some allow a user to easily transport the device as the user moves about in his daily activities. Examples of this type of computing device include: Web-enabled cellular phones; wearable computing devices; devices mounted in a vehicle, such as an on-board navigation system; computing devices adapted to use in the home, such as an intelligent sensor built into a kitchen appliance; mobile computers; handheld computers such as the WorkPad from the International Business Machines Corporation (“IBM”); etc. (“WorkPad” is a registered trademark of IBM.) As computing devices become smaller and more specialized, however, the functions available on a particular device are fewer in number and typically more scaled-down in function. A Web-enabled cellular phone, for example, may be able to display only a small amount of text on its limited-size display screen while having no capability for processing image or video files. A wearable computing device, on the other hand, may be able to process sound files but not display text.
Many existing Web pages have been created with the expectation that they would be delivered to a full-function Web browser executing on a personal computer, with helper applications, applets, and/or plug-ins readily available for processing any content types included as part of the Web document. This is not necessarily the case as the smaller and more specialized computing devices are also capable of requesting and receiving Web documents. In the vehicle environment, for example, multiple devices may be available with each capable of processing a different combination of text, image, and sound; however, these disparate devices are unlikely to be integrated into a single unit. Instead, the devices are likely to be physically separate special-purpose devices. Consequently, a Web browser canno
Colson James C.
Singhal Sandeep K.
Clay A. Bruce
Doubet Marcia L.
Lin Wen-Tai
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