Abstract:
An implementation for dynamically tracking received lengthy Web documents containing text, images, media and hyperlinks to other documents to determine the user interests in the various document portions with little or no effort on the part of novice computer users to carry out such tracking. The cumulative time that said user spends in each of a plurality of document portions during the navigation via scrolling of the received Web document is tracked, and the tracked cumulative time spent in each of said portions is visually indicating within the received Web document.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD  
         [0001]    The present invention relates to computer controlled display systems, and particularly to user interfaces in such systems for scrolling displayed documents so as to facilitate a user accessing information from the documents.  
         BACKGROUND OF RELATED ART  
         [0002]    For many years the data processing industries have been devoting great resources to making computer supported user interactive display technology systems and methods to provide interactive users with an interface environment that is easy to use. This has been a major task since the great expansion of computer users over the past decade has expanded computer use to less and less skilled and sophisticated users. This effort has been further driven by the rise of the Internet or World Wide Web (Web). The latter two terms are meant to be interchangeable and are used as such throughout this application. In effect, there has been a technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry with the consumer electronics industry. This advance has been even further accelerated by the extensive consumer and business involvement in the Internet over the past five years. As a result of these changes, it seems as if virtually all aspects of human endeavor in the industrialized world requires human-computer interfaces. There is a need to make computer directed activities accessible to a substantial portion of the industrial world&#39;s population, which, up to a few years ago was computer-illiterate or, at best, computer indifferent. The population will, to a large part, have to become involved with computer interfaces and computer interfaces must, thus, continue to be simplified and made more user friendly.  
           [0003]    This problem of simplification is particularly pronounced in the Web or Internet. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which has been the documentation language of the Internet or Web for years, offers direct links between pages and other documentation on the Web and a variety of related data sources that were, at first, text and then images, and now include media, i.e. “hypermedia”, which involves audio, video and all types of visual files. It is now possible for the Web user to spend literally hours going through Web pages or document after document in search of subject matter of interest to the user. It is frequently the case that after the user has gone through page upon page of Web documents, he wishes to go back through the pages to items or portions that were of particular interest. Of course, conventional Web browsing does provide the user with the opportunity to bookmark Web pages of interest. However, he is generally limited to bookmarking whole documents, which is of little value where the bookmarked documents are very lengthy and only portions were of interest. Also, bookmarking requires that the user predict that the page or document will be of interest even before he has completed his browsing or searching. It is sometimes the case that the user does not know that certain content will be of interest until he has advanced in or completed his browsing. In addition, conventional bookmarking needs to be precisely and skillfully handled by the user in order for it to be a useful and effective tool in tracking content of interest to the user. It would be particularly ineffective for the above-mentioned users of low computer skills to try to anticipate areas of greatest interest in a browsing session simply by bookmarking.  
         SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION  
         [0004]    Accordingly, the present invention provides a simplified implementation for dynamically tracking received lengthy Web documents containing text, images, media and hyperlinks to other documents to determine the user interests in the various document portions. The invention requires little or no effort on the part of novice computer users to carry out such tracking. The invention involves a receiving Web display station comprising the combination of means enabling a user to interactively navigate in a received Web document, means for tracking the cumulative time that said user spends in each of a plurality of document portions during the navigation of the received Web document, and means for visually indicating within the received Web document said tracked cumulative time spent in each of said portions. The Web document tracking system may also include hyperlinks to other document pages, and means responsive to a user selection for further linking pages into said lengthy Web document. In such a case, the means for tracking also track cumulative user time spent in portions of said linked pages.  
           [0005]    In accordance with another aspect of the invention, there is provided means for accessing a previously tracked Web document together with means for displaying within the previously accessed tracked Web document visual indications of said previously tracked cumulative time spent in each of said portions.  
           [0006]    The invention also may involve means for interactively displaying a stored previously tracked Web document, and means enabling a user to interactively navigate further in said displayed previously tracked Web document together with means for dynamically tracking the additional cumulative time that the user spends in each of the plurality of document portions during the further navigation in the displayed Web document, and means for dynamically visually indicating within the displayed Web document said tracked total cumulative time spent in each of said portions. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0007]    The present invention will be better understood and its numerous objects and advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art by reference to the following drawings, in conjunction with the accompanying specification, in which:  
         [0008]    [0008]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a data processing system including a central processing unit and network connections via a communications adapter that is capable of implementing a user interactive workstation, such as a Web receiving station for dynamically tracking and indicating a users interest in the portions of a received lengthy document;  
         [0009]    [0009]FIG. 2 is a generalized diagrammatic view of a Web portion upon which the present invention may be implemented;  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic view of a Web page portion displayed and scrolled at a receiving display station with user interest in the portions of the document being indicated by colors in a scroll bar;  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic view of a Web page like that of FIG. 3 but with a different type of scroll bar indicator;  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 5 is an illustrative flowchart describing the setting up of the elements needed for the program for implementing scroll bar indicators to point to the different times of users interest in portions of scrolled received Web documents; and  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an illustrative run of the program set up in FIG. 5. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0014]    Referring to FIG. 1, a typical data processing terminal is shown that may function as a Web display station used for receiving Web pages. Such display units or Web stations may be used in the practice of the present invention for tracking cumulative time that a receiving user spends in each of a plurality of scrolled Web document portions during navigation/browsing of the documents and indicating the cumulative time spent in each portion through indicators in the scroll bar.  
         [0015]    A central processing unit (CPU)  10  may be one of the commercial microprocessors in personal computers available from International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) or other vendors such as Dell Corp. or Sun Microsystems Inc., e.g. RISC System/6000™ (RS/6000) series available from IBM. The CPU is interconnected to various other components by system bus  12 . An operating system  41  runs on CPU  10 , provides control and is used to coordinate the function of the various components of FIG. 1. Operating system  41  may be one of the commercially available operating systems such as the AIX 6000™ operating system available from IBM; as well as other AIX and UNIX operating systems, or Microsoft&#39;s Windows2000™ Application programs  40 , controlled by the system, are moved into and out of the main memory Random Access Memory (RAM)  14 . These programs include the programs of the present invention for dynamically tracking and indicating the extent of a user&#39;s interest in the portions of a received lengthy document. The programs will be subsequently described in combination with any conventional Web browser, such as the Netscape Navigator™ or Microsoft&#39;s Internet Explorer™. A Read Only Memory (ROM)  16  is connected to CPU  10  via bus  12  and includes the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) that controls the basic computer functions. RAM  14 , I/O adapter  18  and communications adapter  34  are also interconnected to system bus  12 . I/O adapter  18  may be a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) adapter that communicates with the disk storage device  20 . Communications adapter  34  interconnects bus  12  with an outside network enabling the data processing system to communicate with other, i.e. like the Web or Internet. I/O devices are also connected to system bus  12  via user interface adapter  22  and display adapter  36 . Keyboard  24  and mouse  26  are all interconnected to bus  12  through user interface adapter  22 .  
         [0016]    It is through such input devices that the user may interactively relate to Web pages. Display adapter  36  includes a frame buffer  39 , which is a storage device that holds a representation of each pixel on the display screen  38 . Images may be stored in frame buffer  39  for display on monitor  38  through various components, such as a digital to analog converter (not shown) and the like. By using the aforementioned I/O devices, a user is capable of inputting information to the system through the keyboard  24  or mouse  26  and receiving output information from the system via display  38 .  
         [0017]    Before going further into the details of specific embodiments, it will be helpful to understand, from a more general perspective, the various elements and methods that may be related to the present invention. Since the major aspect of the present invention is directed to Web pages transmitted over global networks, such as the Web or Internet, an understanding of networks and their operating principles would be helpful. We will not go into great detail in describing the networks to which the present invention is applicable. For details on Web nodes, objects and links, reference is made to the text,  Mastering the Internet , G. H. Cady et al., published by Sybex Inc., Alameda, Calif., 1996; or the text,  Internet: The Complete Reference, Millennium Edition , Margaret Young et al., Osborne/McGraw-Hill, Berkeley, Calif., 1999. Any data communication system that interconnects or links computer controlled systems with various sites defines a communications network. Of course, the Internet or Web is a global network of a heterogeneous mix of computer technologies and operating systems. Higher level objects are linked to the lower level objects in the hierarchy through a variety of network server computers.  
         [0018]    Web documents are conventionally implemented in HTML language, which is described in detail in the text entitled  Just Java , van der Linden, 1997, SunSoft Press, particularly at Chapter 7, pp. 249-268, dealing with the handling of Web pages; and also in the above-referenced  Mastering the Internet , particularly pp. 637-642, on HTML in the formation of Web pages.  
         [0019]    In addition, aspects of this invention will involve Web browsers. A general and comprehensive description of browsers may be found in the above-mentioned  Mastering the Internet  text at pp. 291-313. More detailed browser descriptions may be found in the above-mentioned  Internet: The Complete Reference, Millennium Edition  text: Chapter 19, pp. 419-454, on the Netscape Navigator; Chapter 20, pp. 455-494, on the Microsoft Internet Explorer; and Chapter 21, pp. 495-512, covering Lynx, Opera and other browsers.  
         [0020]    A generalized diagram of a portion of the Web, in which the display  57  controlled by computer  56  used for Web page receiving during searching or browsing is connected as shown in FIG. 2. Computer  56  display terminal  57  may be implemented by the computer system set up in FIG. 1 and connection  58  (FIG. 2) is the network connection shown in FIG. 1. For purposes of the present embodiment, computer  56  display  57  serves as a Web display station and has received displayed Web page  48 , which is one of a sequence of Web pages in a Web document. Reference may be made to the above-mentioned  Mastering the Internet , pp. 136-147, for typical connections between local display stations to the Web via network servers, any of which may be used to implement the system on which this invention is used. The system embodiment of FIG. 2 has a host dial-up connection. Such host dial-up connections have been in use for over 30 years through network access servers  53  that are linked  51  to the Web  50 . The server  53  may be maintained by a service provider to the client&#39;s display terminal  56 ,  57 . The host&#39;s server  53  is accessed by the receiving or requesting terminal  56 ,  57  through a normal dial-up telephone linkage  58  via modem  54 , telephone line  55  and modem  52 . The HTML file representative of the Web page  48  has been downloaded to display terminal  57  through Web access server  53  via the telephone line linkages from server  53 , which may have accessed them from the Internet  50  via linkage  51 . The Web browser program  47  operates within the display terminals  57  to control the communication with the Web access server  53  to thereby download and display the accessed Web pages  56  on display terminal  57 . The Web documents are accessed from Web site resources  49  and  59 . Web cache  46  may be used to accumulate the totals of times spent by the user in the various document portions, as will be described in greater detail with respect to FIGS. 3 through 6 as the browser program  47  controls Web document scrolling.  
         [0021]    In FIG. 3, there is shown a Web page  64  that originated from Web sites (e.g. resource sites  49 ,  59  (FIG. 2)). As the user navigates through the Web document, its pages are scrolled via scroll bar  60 . As the document is scrolled, the amount of time that the user or viewer spends in each portion of the scrolled document will be tracked and stored as will be hereinafter described in greater detail. Then, when the document is rescrolled or scrolled back again by the viewer, either during the same browsing session or during a subsequent browsing session (the total accumulated time spent in each portion of the document is stored along with the Web document), a color indicator will be displayed in the scroll bar  60  representative of the total time that the viewer has spent in the various portions of the document. In the example of FIG. 3, a red color for scroll bar section  62  indicates that its corresponding document portion has had a high cumulative time spent therein. Similarly, the yellow color of section  63  indicates that only a modest amount of time has been spent in the portion of the page while the white color of section  61  indicates that only a minimal amount of time has been spent in its corresponding page portion. It should be noted that the described playback of document  64  may be carried out in a mode where the time spent in each portion of the document is not tracked; the circumstances may be such that the viewer is only interested in what was considered important in the previous viewing or browsing. On the other hand, the playback may be carried out in a dynamic mode wherein the system continues to track and accumulate time spent in each portion, even during playback, and the colors in the scroll bar indicative of such time spent may be dynamically and continuously changed to reflect such changing time.  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 4 illustrates some varied aspects of the invention. The discrete portions tracked and timed may be quite small, even a line or two in width. In such a case, the color indicator differentiation in scroll bar  60  may appear to be virtually continuous, e.g. varying from a color  66  indicative of intense time usage through a color  67  indicative of less time usage to color  65  indicative of little time usage.  
         [0023]    It should be noted that for purposes of illustration, the changes have been shown compacted into a single scrolled display screen. In actuality, these color changes are likely to be reflected over dozens of display screens in the lengthy documents that this invention may be most effectively used for. In this connection, in a particular Web page representative of a Web site, such as display screen  64 , FIG. 4, the user via pointer  70  may click on a hyperlink, “Gulf Illnesses”, and be connected to another Web page (not shown) that will become part of the tracked Web document.  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the development of a process according to the present invention for tracking accumulated user time spent in document portions and providing a scroll bar indicator identifying such user times. The illustration will be at a Web receiving station where there is provided a Web browser for accessing pages from the Web and for loading and displaying such pages at a receiving display station, step  71 . The browser is provided with the capability to enable users to navigate the received pages via a scroll bar and hyperlinking, step  72 . The Web browser is provided with the capability of tracking and accumulating the amount of time that the user spends in a plurality of portions of the scrolled Web pages, step  73 .  
         [0025]    While a variety of techniques for such scrolling will be evident to those skilled in the art, the following example may be set up:  
         [0026]    Set up portions, each=n scrolled lines;  
         [0027]    Mark time when the page is scrolled into a portion;  
         [0028]    Mark time when page is scrolled out of a portion;  
         [0029]    Count time difference;  
         [0030]    Add time difference total accumulated for portion.  
         [0031]    Provision is made for storing the total accumulated time for each portion during scrolling, step  74 . At the end of a browsing session, provision may be made for conventionally storing the Web document in the form of its HTML pages, step  75 . However, the tracked accumulated times for the portions should be stored as an addendum to the HTML Web document. According to conventional HTML functions, this addendum may be in the form of an embedded attachment, marked off by appropriate HTML tags that the browser will read during the display of the HTML document and look up in the color look-up table referred to in subsequent steps  76  and  77 . Dependent on the user&#39;s storing arrangements, the Web document may be stored on his browser cache for a period of time, or the Web document along with its addendum may be stored at the facility of his Web service provider who maintains the Network Access Server  53 , FIG. 2, for the user.  
         [0032]    There is provided, step  76 , a color ID table designating a different color for each of a predetermined plurality of levels of user time spent in the particular portion of the Web document. Accordingly, step  77 , a routine is provided so that when a document having such accumulated times stored therewith is displayed and scrolled and enters the next designated portion, the accumulated time is noted, the color for that time is looked up on the table, and the color is coincidentally in the scroll bar. As set forth above, the program may be set up so that step  77  may be dynamically carried out in both initially accessed Web documents, as well as retrieved Web documents with the accumulated times stored therewith, step  78 . Finally, the browser is provided with the capability to continue to track and dynamically accumulate additional times that the user spends in the portions of any retrieved web documents stored in step  74 .  
         [0033]    The running of the process set up in FIG. 5 will now be described with respect to the flowchart of FIG. 6. The flowchart represents some steps in a routine that will illustrate the operation of the invention as set forth in the above process. An initial determination is made, step  81 , as to whether the user has requested a Web page. If No, the process is returned to step  81  and the selection of such a page is awaited. If Yes, then the browser obtains and loads the requested Web page. A determination is then made as to whether the page has been previously tracked for accumulated times, step  82 , e.g. whether the HTML Web document has an associated addendum of such accumulated times. If Yes, the tracked times for each portion are loaded along with the document, step  83 . If No, such times will not be loaded. In either case, a determination is made as to whether the page has been scrolled out of the instant portion, step  84 . If No, the process is returned to step  84  and the accumulation of time spent continues to be tracked. If Yes, the time spent in the last portion is added to the total for the last portion, step  85 . The accumulated total for the next portion is gotten, step  86 , and the color for that total is looked up in the look-up table, step  87 . The color is displayed in the coincident position in the scroll bar, step  88 . At this point, an illustrative determination may be made as to whether the present browsing session is over, step  89 . If Yes, the session is exited but the Web document and its accumulated time totals are saved as described above. If No, the session is returned to step  84  and the scrolling is continued.  
         [0034]    One of the preferred implementations of the present invention is in application program  40 , i.e. a browser program made up of programming steps or instructions resident in RAM  14 , FIG. 1, of a Web receiving station during various Web operations. Until required by the computer system, the program instructions may be stored in another readable medium, e.g. in disk drive  20  or in a removable memory, such as an optical disk for use in a CD ROM computer input or in a floppy disk for use in a floppy disk drive computer input. Further, the program instructions may be stored in the memory of another computer prior to use in the system of the present invention and transmitted over a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), such as the Web itself, when required by the user of the present invention. One skilled in the art should appreciate that the processes controlling the present invention are capable of being distributed in the form of computer readable media of a variety of forms.  
         [0035]    Although certain preferred embodiments have been shown and described, it will be understood that many changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope and intent of the appended claims.