United States Patent (19)
`Richardson et al.
`
`USOO5809247A
`Patent Number:
`11
`(45) Date of Patent:
`
`5,809,247
`Sep. 15, 1998
`
`54 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GUIDED
`TOURING OF INTERNET/INTRANET
`WEBSITES
`
`(75) Inventors: John A. Richardson, Beaverton; Peter
`J. Kaufman, Banks; Brian Maso,
`Portland; Carl A. Johnson, Tigard;
`Rick H. Yeomans, III, Beaverton, all
`of Oreg.
`73 Assignee: Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif.
`
`21 Appl. No.: 685,952
`
`Jul. 22, 1996
`22 Filed:
`(51) Int. Cl. ................................................ G06F 19/00
`52 U.S. Cl. ................................ 395/20048, 395/20059.
`395/200.32
`58) Field of Search
`395/200.32, 200.48
`395/200. 49.20033,200. 57 200. 5s. 20059.
`s
`s
`s
`7071513
`
`56)
`
`References Cited
`
`U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
`5,471.675 11/1995 Zias ......................................... sos
`5,544,315 8/1996 Lehfeldt et al. .
`... 395/2002
`5,544,320 8/1996 Konrad ............................... 395/200.09
`
`5,548,726 8/1996 Pettus ................................. 395/200.09
`5,572,643 11/1996 Judson .................................... 395/793
`5,574,915 11/1996 Lemon et al. .......................... 395/700
`5,625,781 4/1997 Cline et al. ............................. 395/335
`OTHER PUBLICATIONS
`
`Contigo: Itinerary Web Presenter 2.0 FAQ and Data Sheet,
`Jan. 1997.
`Brown, “Special Edition, Using Netscape 2', Dec. 1995.
`Primary Examiner Frank J. Asta
`ASSistant Examiner Matt Kaminer
`Attorney, Agent, or Firm Blakely, Sokoloff, Taylor &
`Zafman
`57
`ABSTRACT
`The present invention for guided touring of websites
`includes a web tour director programmed onto a web server
`for connecting a client System to a number of Web Sites in
`accordance with a web tour Stop vector identifying the web
`Sites as tour Stops of a web guided tour. The present
`invention further includes a media rendering function also
`programmed onto the Web Server for rendering on the client
`System, one or more corresponding media for each of the
`web sites, for at least a portion of the time while the web site
`is connected to the client system.
`31 Claims, 25 Drawing Sheets
`
`
`
`WEB
`TOURING
`STATION
`
`14
`
`POP
`PROVIDER
`
`G) 16
`
`16
`
`GD 16
`
`10
`
`16
`
`16
`
`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
`Page 1
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`U.S. Patent
`
`Sep. 15, 1998
`
`Sheet 1 of 25
`
`5,809,247
`
`
`
`WEB
`TOURING
`STATION
`
`14.
`
`POP
`PROVIDER
`
`10
`
`16
`
`16
`
`16 GD
`
`16
`
`16
`
`16
`
`16
`
`Figure 1
`
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`Page 2
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`

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`U.S. Patent
`
`Sep. 15, 1998
`
`Sheet 2 of 25
`
`5,809,247
`
`START
`
`22
`
`
`
`A USER CONNECTS TO
`A TOUR OPERATOR
`SITE
`
`TOUR OPERATOR SITE
`PROVIDES USER WITH
`A DIRECTORY OF
`AVAILABLE GUIDED TOURS
`
`USER SELECTS ONE OF
`THE AVAILABLE GUIDED
`TOURS
`
`28
`
`30
`
`TOUR OPERATOR PROVIDES
`USER WITH A TOUR VIEWER
`ACCOMPANIED WITH TOUR
`STOP DEFINITION OF THE
`SELECTED TOUR & MULT-MEDIA
`COMPLEMENTS FOR THE
`TOUR STOPS
`
`TOUR VIEWER CONNECTS USERTO
`THE TOUR STOPS IN ACCORDANCE
`WITH THE TOUR STOP DEFINITION &
`RENDERS THE CORRESPONDING
`MULT-MEDIA COMPLEMENTS
`WHILE STOPPING AT EACH TOUR
`STOP
`
`Figure 2
`
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`Page 3
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`U.S. Patent
`
`5,809,247
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`
`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
`Page 4
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`

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`U.S. Patent
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`5,809,247
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`U.S. Patent
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`Sep. 15, 1998
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`Sheet 5 of 25
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`5,809,247
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`Page 6
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`US. Patent
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`Sep. 15, 1998
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`Sheet 6 0f 25
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`5,809,247
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`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
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`Page 7
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`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
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`

`US. Patent
`
`Sep. 15, 1998
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`Sheet 7 0f 25
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`5,809,247
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`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
`
`Page 8
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`U.S. Patent
`
`Sep. 15, 1998
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`Sheet 8 of 25
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`5,809,247
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`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
`Page 9
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`

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`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
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`Page 10
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`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
`Page 10
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`U.S. Patent
`
`Sep. 15, 1998
`
`Sheet 10 of 25
`
`5,809,247
`
`
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`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
`Page 11
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`

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`U.S. Patent
`
`Sep. 15, 1998
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`Sheet 11 of 25
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`5,809,247
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`86
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`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
`Page 12
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`US. Patent
`
`Sep. 15, 1998
`
`Sheet 12 0f 25
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`5,809,247
`
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`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
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`Page 13
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`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
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`

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`U.S. Patent
`
`Sep. 15, 1998
`
`Sheet 13 of 25
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`5,809,247
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`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
`Page 14
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`U.S. Patent
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`Sep. 15, 1998
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`Sheet 14 of 25
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`5,809,247
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`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
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`U.S. Patent
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`Sep. 15, 1998
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`Sheet 15 0f 25
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`5,809,247
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`NOTFY
`NEW STOP
`
`146
`
`148
`
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`ENABLE PAUSE &
`REJOIN BUTTONS
`
`ENABLE NEXT STOP &
`PREV. STOP BUTTONS
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`Figure 20
`
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`NOTIFY TIMER
`STOPPED
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`NOTFY TOUR
`ENDED
`
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`DISABLE PAUSE/REJOIN BUTTON
`
`150
`
`Figure 21
`
`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
`Page 16
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`U.S. Patent
`
`Sep. 15, 1998
`
`Sheet 16 of 25
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`5,809,247
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`
`
`CALL DIRECTOR TO
`FORWARD TOUR TO
`SELECTED TOUR STOP
`
`Figure 22
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`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
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`U.S. Patent
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`Sep. 15, 1998
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`Sheet 17 of 25
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`5,809,247
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`ACTION
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`158
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`SELECTED TOUR STOP
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`160
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`162
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`CALL DIRECTOR TO
`FORWARD TOUR TO
`SELECTED TOUR STOP
`
`
`
`Figure 23
`
`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
`Page 18
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`US. Patent
`
`Sep. 15, 1998
`
`Sheet 18 0f 25
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`5,809,247
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`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
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`U.S. Patent
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`Sep. 15, 1998
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`Sheet 19 of 25
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`5,809,247
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`CREATE WEB TOUR
`CONFIGURATION CLASS
`
`SET WEB TOUR STOP
`VECTOR TO RETURNED
`VECTOR
`
`ADVISE NAGVATOR
`INITIALIZATION DONE
`
`Figure 24
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`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
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`Sep. 15, 1998
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`5,809,247
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`214
`
`ADVISE NAVIGATOR
`NEW STOP
`
`216
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`CALL TIMERFUNCTION
`TO REINITIALIZE TIMER
`VALUES
`
`218
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`CALL TIMERFUNCTION
`TO ENABLE &
`RESTART TIMER
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`
`204
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`TO VECTOR (CURRENT
`STOP DX)
`
`ISSUE GO TO
`CURRENT STOP
`
`2O6
`
`208
`
`ADVISE NAGIVATOR
`GO TO ISSUED
`
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`SUCC
`RETURNEDNYES
`BY NAV2
`
`CALL EXCEPTION
`HANDLER
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`Figure 25
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`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
`Page 21
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`U.S. Patent
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`Sep. 15, 1998
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`Sheet 21 of 25
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`5,809,247
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`FORWARD TOUR
`TO SELECTED STOP
`
`SET NEWSTOP
`SELECTED STOP
`
`220
`
`222
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`PERFORMSTEPS 206-218
`OF FORWARD TOUR WITH
`NEWSTOP
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`Figure 26
`
`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
`Page 22
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`US. Patent
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`Sep. 15, 1998
`
`Sheet 22 0f 25
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`5,809,247
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`
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`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
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`Page 23
`
`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
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`U.S. Patent
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`Sep. 15, 1998
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`Sheet 23 of 25
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`5,809,247
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`Figure 30
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`Facebook's Exhibit No. 1004
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`1
`METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GUIDED
`TOURING OF INTERNET/INTRANET
`WEBSITES
`BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
`1. Field of the Invention
`The present invention relates to the field of Internet/
`Intranet. More specifically, the present invention relates to
`the methodologies and tools for a user to locate and view
`information on the Internet or any Intranet.
`2. Background Information
`Under the prior art, to locate and View information on the
`Internet or an Intranet (hereinafter simply "net'), a user
`would instruct a web browser to connect his/her computer
`System to a Search Site, e.g. Yahoo or Alta Vista in the case
`of the Internet. Through the web browser, the user would
`then provide certain keywords to the Search Site, and initiate
`the Search, with or without limiting the Search context, e.g.
`to certain Subject category, depending on the nature of the
`Search, what the user knows about the information being
`Sought, Such as their availability and where they might be
`found, and the capabilities of the connected Search Site.
`Depending on the purpose of the Search, the user might Start
`connecting to the web sites identified in the return Set, and
`Viewing their web pages, Sequentially or randomly. In other
`Situations, depending on the size of the return Set, the user
`might modify the keywords, expanding or narrowing the
`Search Scope. The proceSS would be repeated until a set of
`manageable size is returned. At Such time, the user would
`Start connecting to the web sites identified, and view their
`web pages. The whole proceSS is repeated if another user
`wants to do the same Search or if the user wants to re-do the
`Same Search again at a later time.
`In any case, the prior art proceSS is tedious and inefficient.
`The prior art proceSS would get even more tedious and
`inefficient as the number websites and web pages available
`on the net continue to increase astronomically. Thus, it
`would be desirable to have a more efficient approach to
`locate and View information available on the net.
`Occasionally, for certain Subject matters, the prior art
`proceSS is Streamlined by Web page owners having common
`interest and made Similar Searches before, providing links to
`related web sites. For example, web pages maintained by
`certain university department might provide links to other
`web pages maintained by their counterparts in other univer
`Sities or related departments in the same or other universi
`ties. However, even under this Streamlined Scenario, the
`prior art proceSS Still has the disadvantage of requiring the
`user to make the connections to the identified Web Sites.
`Moreover, the user's experience in Viewing the web pages
`in these identified web sites is limited to the contents and the
`presentations provided by the identified web sites. The web
`page owner providing the links to the identified web sites is
`limited in his/her ability to add or complement the contents
`and presentations provided by the identified web sites,
`unless the web page owner Starts collaborating with the
`owners of the identified web sites. Otherwise, the web page
`owner providing the linkS is typically limited to providing
`textual comments next to the links. Thus, it would be further
`desirable to provide a methodology and apparatus for a user
`to have a more enriching experience in Visiting a collection
`of linked web pages, including methodology and apparatus
`for the link providing web page owners to add and comple
`ment the contents and presentations provided by the iden
`tified web sites.
`The present invention for guided touring of internet/
`intranet web sites achieves these as well as other desirable
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`results, which will be readily apparent to those skilled in the
`art from the detailed descriptions to follow.
`SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
`The present invention for guided touring of websites
`includes a web tour director programmed onto a web server
`for connecting a client System to one or more web sites in
`accordance with a web tour Stop vector identifying the one
`or more web sites as tour stop(S) of a web guided tour. The
`present invention further includes a media rendering func
`tion also programmed onto the Web Server for rendering on
`the client System, one or more corresponding media for each
`of the one or more web sites, for at least a portion of the time
`while a web site is connected to the client System.
`Additionally, for one embodiment, the present invention
`further includes a navigator also programmed onto the web
`Server for facilitating dynamic user modification by a user of
`the client System to the connection of the client System to the
`one or more web sites, Such as temporarily Stopping and
`resuming the connection, and/or shortening a particular
`connection, and skipping forward or backward, to the imme
`diate following or preceding one, or any particular unvisited
`or visited one of the one or more web sites. The media
`rendering function and the web tour director cooperate with
`each other to ensure the media are rendered in concert with
`the connections being made; and the media rendering func
`tion is implemented as an integral part of the navigator.
`Furthermore, for this embodiment, the present invention
`further includes a web tour configurator also programmed
`onto the Web Server for generating the web tour Stop vector
`on the client System. A plurality of web guided tours
`identifying multiple Sets of Web Sites are also progammed
`onto the web server. The web tour configurator generates the
`web tour Stop vector on the client System in accordance with
`a Selected one of the web guided tours.
`Lastly, for this embodiment, the navigator with integrated
`media rendering function is provided to the client System in
`response to the user of the client System Selecting a tour. The
`navigator in turn "creates' the web tour director resulting in
`the web tour director being provided to the client System.
`The web tour director in turn "creates' the web tour con
`figurator resulting in the web tour configurator being pro
`Vided to the client System, which in turn generates the web
`tour vector on the client System as described. Once
`generated, the web tour director and the navigator cooperate
`to perform the connection and corresponding media render
`ing as described.
`BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
`The present invention will be described by way of
`embodiments, but not limitations, illustrated in the accom
`panying drawings in which like references denote similar
`elements, and in which:
`FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an abridged view of
`the Internet;
`FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating the method steps of
`the present invention for guided touring of internet/intranet
`websites;
`FIGS. 3-5 are end user screens of a sample guided tour
`provided in accordance with the present invention;
`FIG. 6 illustrates one embodiment each of a web tour
`Station and a tour operator website in further detail;
`FIG. 7 illustrates the web pages programmed onto the tour
`operator website in further detail;
`FIGS. 8-15 illustrate one embodiment of the web tour
`Viewer applets in further detail;
`
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`Page 27
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`3
`FIGS. 16-23 illustrate one embodiment each of the meth
`ods of navigation class in further details,
`FIGS. 24-29 illustrate one embodiment each of the meth
`ods of director class in further details,
`FIG. 30 illustrates one embodiment of the configuration
`class in further details, and
`FIG. 31 illustrates one aspect of an optimization tech
`nique employed by the navigation class for building GUI
`images and icons.
`DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE
`INVENTION
`In the following description, various aspects of the
`present invention will be described. However, it will be
`apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention
`may be practiced with only Some or all aspects of the present
`invention. For purposes of explanation, Specific numbers,
`materials and configurations are set forth in order to provide
`a thorough understanding of the present invention. However,
`it will also be apparent to one skilled in the art that the
`present invention may be practiced without the Specific
`details. In other instances, well known features are omitted
`or Simplified in order not to obscure the present invention.
`Parts of the description will be presented in terms of
`operations performed by a computer System, using terms
`Such as applets, classes, methods, data, flags, bits, values,
`characters, Strings, numbers and the like, consistent with the
`manner commonly employed by those skilled in the art to
`convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the
`art. As well understood by those skilled in the art, these
`quantities take the form of electrical, magnetic, or optical
`Signals capable of being Stored, transferred, combined, and
`otherwise manipulated through mechanical and electrical
`components of the computer System; and the term computer
`System include general purpose as well as Special purpose
`data processing machines, Systems, and the like, that are
`Standalone, adjunct or embedded.
`Various operations will be described as multiple discrete
`Steps in turn in a manner that is most helpful in understand
`ing the present invention, however, the order of description
`should not be construed as to imply that these operations are
`necessarily order dependent, in particular, the order of
`presentation.
`Turning now to the details of the present invention, we
`refer first to FIG. 1, wherein a block diagram illustrating an
`abridged view of the Internet is shown. As illustrated, client
`web touring station 12 is coupled to the various websites 16
`of the Internet 10 through point-of-presence (POP) provider
`14. One or more of websites 16 are incorporated with the
`teachings of the present invention. Client web touring Sta
`tion 12 is intended to represent a broad category of computer
`Systems equipped with the proper hardware and Software for
`accessing websites 16 on the Internet 10. A particular
`example of client web touring Station 12 is a desktop
`computer equipped with a Pentium(R) class processor,
`memory, a modem, a monitor, a keyboard, a pointing device,
`system software including support for TCP/IP
`communication, and a browser. (Pentium is a registered
`trademark of Intel Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif., assignee of
`the present invention.) POP provider 14 is intended to
`represent any number of commercially available POP ser
`vice provider. Typically, POP provider 14 is located in the
`Same geographical region as web touring Station 12. Web
`Sites 16 are intended to represent all websites accessible
`through the Internet at the present time, and in the future.
`One or more of websites 16 is incorporated with the teach
`ings of the present invention, to be more fully described
`below.
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`As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, Internet
`10 includes many more web touring station 12, POP pro
`vider 14 and websites 16. The number of these elements
`illustrated in FIG. I are artificially reduced for ease of
`illustration, and it is not intended to be a limitation to the
`present invention. Furthermore, while the present invention
`will be described in the context illustrated by FIG. 1, as will
`be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the present
`invention may also be practiced in the context of an intranet,
`just like a whole host of other internet technologies. Thus,
`FIG. 1 should not be construed as a limitation of the present
`invention either.
`FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of the method steps of
`the present invention for providing guided touring of web
`sites 16 to a user of web touring station 12. As will be readily
`apparent from the descriptions to follow, the websites 16
`includable in a tour include websites 16 incorporated with
`the teachings of the present invention, as well as websites 16
`not incorporated with the teachings of the present invention.
`In other words, the website constitution of a tour is inde
`pendent of the present invention. While it is desirable to
`have many websites 16 incorporated with the teachings of
`the present invention, only one website 16 incorporated with
`the teachings of the present invention is necessary for guided
`tours to be provided in accordance with the present inven
`tion.
`AS shown, for the illustrated embodiment, guided touring
`of websites 16 in accordance with the present invention
`Starts with the user of web touring Station 12 connecting web
`touring station 12 to a tour operator website, preferably (but
`not necessarily) a website 16 incorporated with the teachings
`of the present invention, Step 22. In response, tour operator
`website provides user with a directory of available guided
`tours, Step 24. User then Selects one of the available guided
`tours, Step 26. In response, tour operator provides user with
`a web tour viewer of the present invention accompanied
`with a definition of the tour stops (i.e. websites) for the
`Selected tour, and corresponding media complements for the
`tour stops, step 28. Web tour viewer then connects web
`touring Station 12 to the tour stops in accordance with the
`tour Stop definition, and renders the corresponding media
`complements at each of the tour Stops, Step 30.
`StepS24 and 26 are optional. It is expected that the present
`invention may be practiced by tour operators, each provid
`ing only a single guided tour. For these tour operators, they
`may go Straight to Step 28. Rendering of media complements
`at tour stops is also optional. However, as will be appreci
`ated by those skilled in the art, rendering of media comple
`ments at tour Stops is highly desirable, as it significantly
`enriches the touring experience of the user taking the tour.
`Preferably, the media complements should be multi-media,
`e.g. including audio as well as Video and/or animation.
`Stopping at multiple tour Stops is also optional. The present
`invention may be practiced by tour operators providing
`Single-stop tours, however, it is anticipated that the tour
`operator will be providing Significant multi-media comple
`ment to the information available from the Single tour Stop.
`FIGS. 3-5 illustrates a portion of a sample guided tour
`taken in accordance with the present invention. Illustrated in
`these figures are end user Screens 32a-32c displayed on a
`monitor at web touring Station 12 of the user taking the tour.
`AS Shown, web touring Station 12 is equipped with a browser
`developed by Netscape Communication of Mountain View,
`Calif. In this example, the tour operator is an “internal”
`operator located at a website on an intranet with the address
`“webtour 34, and the tour operator offers two guided tours
`36 and 38. The first tour, i.e. “200 MHZ Pentium(R) Processor
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`Pro Processor Guided Tour” includes four tour stops,
`“pentium.intel.com”, “hpcc998. external.hp.com',
`“www.mei.micron.com', and “www.pc.ibm.com'' 40. Note
`that all four tour stops are websites on the Internet 10, and
`with the exception of “pentium.intel.com', these websites
`are all owned and maintained by companies other than the
`tour operator, i.e. Micron Technology of Boise, Id., Helweft
`Packard of Palo Alto, Calif., and IBM of Armonk, N.Y. As
`will be apparent from the descriptions to follow, only
`website “webtour 34 necessarily incorporated the teachings
`of the present invention.
`AS described earlier, end user Screen 32a is provided by
`the tour operator when the user connects his/her web touring
`station 12 to the tour operator website. Web tour viewer of
`the present invention is provided to the user, more
`Specifically, his/her web touring Station 12, when the user
`Selects the “200 MHZ Pentium(E) Pro Processor Guided
`Tour 36. Web tour viewer then connects web touring station
`12 to the first tour stop “pentium.intel.com”. End user screen
`32b is a web page provided by website “pentium.intel.com'.
`While stopping at the website “pentium.intel.com', web tour
`Viewer of the present invention renders an audio
`complement, complementing the information provided by
`the web pages. As will be described in more details below,
`the media complements are provided by and located at the
`tour operators website, in this case, “webtour'.
`Upon Stopping at website “pentium.intel.com' for a pre
`determined duration, web tour viewer of the present inven
`tion automatically connects the users web touring Station 12
`to the Second tour Stop, i.e. Web Site
`“hpcc98.external.hp.com'. Similarly, end user screen 32c is
`a web page provided by website “hpcc98.external.hp.com'.
`While stopping at the website “hpcc98.external.hp.com',
`web tour viewer of the present invention renders another
`audio complement, complementing the information pro
`Vided by the web pages.
`As described earlier, web tour viewer of the present
`invention continues this process, connecting the user's web
`touring Station 12 to the defined tour stops, one tour Stop at
`a time, and rendering media complements at each of the tour
`Stops, until all tour stops have been Visited.
`In this Sample touring application of the present
`invention, web tour viewer of the present invention also
`provides the user with a plurality of control buttons 42a-42a
`to allow the user to dynamically modify how the tour is
`taken, if the user so desire. These control buttons 42a-42d
`include “automatic' button 42a for instructing the web
`touring viewer of the present invention to Stop taking the
`user to the various tour stops, and “rejoin' button 42b to
`rejoin the guided tour. Control buttons 42a-42d also include
`“next>>'' and “prev-” buttons 42c-42d for instructing the
`web touring viewer of the present invention to end the
`current Stop, and move the tour forward and backward one
`Stop respectively. By enumerating the tour stops 40, this
`Sample application also allows the user to instruct the web
`tour viewer of the present invention to Skip to any one of the
`defined tour stops. Lastly, this Sample application also
`allows a logo or advertisements 44 to be displayed as the
`tour progresses from tour Stop to tour Stop.
`Having now described an Overview of guided touring of
`websites in accordance with the present invention, we will
`now described one implementation of web tour viewer of the
`present invention, with references to the remaining figures.
`Referring first to FIG. 6, wherein one embodiment each of
`a web touring station 12, a POP provider 14 and a tour
`operator website 16 incorporated with the teachings of the
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`present invention are illustrated in further detail. AS Shown,
`for the illustrated embodiment, web touring station 12 is
`equipped with browser 52. Browser 52 includes an embed
`ded virtual machine (not shown) for executing applets, and
`the embedded virtual machine includes an interface for the
`local operating environment (System Software) to notify the
`embedded virtual machine of various events of interest to
`the applets being executed by the embedded virtual
`machine. AS decried earlier, a particular example of browser
`52 is Nescape Navigator 3.0 having an embedded JAVA
`Virtual machine for executing JAVA applets, developed by
`Nescape Comm.
`Web touring Station 12 through its own communication
`socket 54 and POP provider 14 is communicatively coupled
`to tour operator website 16. For the illustrated embodiment,
`POP provider 14 includes a number of communication
`sockets 56 and routing software 58 for facilitating exchanges
`of TCP/IP communication packets between web touring
`station 12 and tour operator web site 16.
`For the illustrated embodiment, tour operator website 16
`includes communication Socket 60 and TCP/IP communi
`cation protocol Server 62, e.g. a http Server. More
`importantly, tour operator website 16 is programmed with
`tour pages 72, web tour viewer applets 74, tour definitions
`76 and tour stop media complements 78, in accordance with
`the present invention. Tour pages 72 are used to provide a
`directory of available guided tours to the user, and to launch
`the web tour viewer applets 74 with the appropriate tour stop
`definition 76 and media complements 78, when a particular
`tour is selected. Web tour viewer applets 74 collectively
`implement web tour viewer of the present invention, i.e.
`connecting web touring Station 12 to the tour stops of a
`Selected tour, and rendering corresponding media comple
`ments when Stopping at the tour Stops. Tour definitions 76
`define the tour stops and their properties for different tours.