Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Webtv Networks, Inc.

Microsoft Corporation

Keith R Ohlfs

Phillip York Goldman

Bruce A Leak

Christopher M White

David R Anderson

Phillip Y Goldman

A system for accessing the World Wide Web or other information sources using the Internet incorporates scaled-down versions of images associated with recently-viewed documents or documents designated as favorites into a recent menu or a favorites menu, respectively. As a user accesses a Web page, a scaled-down version of the Web page is inserted into a recent menu. The user can view the recent menu and visually determine the identity of the recently-viewed Web pages, which allows the user to conveniently select Web pages to access. This recent menu also enables the user to access recently-viewed documents in any order, which does not need to be in the chronological order in which the pages were originally viewed or in a reverse chronological order. Scaled-down versions of Web pages designated as favorites are stored in the favorites menu, thereby assisting the user in recalling the content of the favorite documents.

Displaying scaled-down versions of documents on favorites and recent menu

Methods and systems for scaling down a Web page image enables the image to be displayed on a standard television without horizontal scrolling of the image. A Web page image that initially has a horizontal dimension larger than the horizontal dimension of a television display is received from a web server and subsequently scaled down by a scaling factor that is based only upon the amount of scaling that is necessary to fit the image within the horizontal dimension of the television display. This scaling factor is used to scale the image horizontally and vertically, thus preserving the aspect ratio of the image. When a hyperlink from the scaled down Web page image is selected, coordinates to the hyperlink are scaled up based on the same scaling factor so that they will correspond with the server-side image map of the Web page image.

Resizing internet document for display on television screen

Methods and systems for scaling down a Web page image enables the image to be displayed on a standard television without horizontal scrolling of the image. A Web page image that initially has a horizontal dimension larger than the horizontal dimension of a television display is received from a web server and subsequently scaled down by a scaling factor that is based only upon the amount of scaling that is necessary to fit the image within the horizontal dimension of the television display. This scaling factor is used to scale the image horizontally and vertically, thus preserving the aspect ratio of the image. When a hyperlink from the scaled down Web page image is selected, coordinates to the hyperlink are scaled up based on the same scaling factor so that they will correspond with the server side image map of the Web page image.

A client-server system includes a client in communication with one or more servers. For example, the client server system may be for accessing the World Wide Web ('Web') in response to commands from the user. The client uses a display device to display a server-provided image to the user. The image is scaled down both horizontally and vertically, such that the entire horizontal dimension of the image is visible within the borders of the display device. Information corresponding to several Web pages may be maintained. Based on this information, images corresponding to these Web pages are displayed, each image including a reduced-size version of the corresponding Web page. A user inputted selection of one of these images is then accepted thereby accessing the corresponding Web page.

Methods of scaling and displaying a server-provided image

Browser software implemented in a set-top box as part of a client system communicating over the Internet with one or more servers allows a user to navigate using a remote control through World-Wide Web pages in which a plurality of hypertext anchors are displayed on a television. A user input entered from a remote input device is received by the client system over an infrared (IR) link. The user input specifies a direction in which the user wishes to move a selection relative to a currently selected hypertext anchor. Based on the user input, a determination is made of which one of the hypertext anchors is a best selectable hypertext anchor, and that hypertext anchor is then selected and indicated as such to the user. The user interface allows for the selection of hypertext anchors which are part of either clientside or server-side image maps.

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Keith R Ohlfs