Abstract:
Embodiments of mobile electronic devices and methods are disclosed. In an embodiment of a method, a page is partially displayed on a display, and information is received that the page is changed in a part of said page not displayed on said display. In an embodiment, a user is notified of said change.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present application relates to mobile electronic devices and methods usable for example for operating mobile electronic devices. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    Mobile electronic devices are a commodity commonly used in daily life. Examples for such mobile electronic devices are mobile phones or personal digital assistants (PDAs), but also for example laptop computers. Such mobile electronic devices are increasingly used for accessing the internet, for example for surfing in the World Wide Web (WWW), and viewing webpages thereof. 
         [0003]    Usually, webpages are designed to be viewed using computers having comparatively large displays, for example 15 inch displays, 17 inch displays or 21 inch displays, the number of inches being a measure of the diagonal of the display, with a correspondingly high resolution, e.g. 1024×768 pixels, 800×600 pixels or 1280×1024 pixels, to give some examples for resolutions commonly used. However, many mobile electronic devices, for example the aforementioned mobile phones or personal digital assistants, have considerably smaller displays with lower resolution, so that usually only a small part of a complete webpage can be displayed. 
         [0004]    Webpages increasingly comprise so-called dynamic content, in particular with the increased use of asynchronous Java scripting and XML (sometimes referred to as AJAX). Such webpages change their content dynamically, for example in response to user input, or also periodically in given time intervals. Since such changes often relate to only a portion of the whole webpage, when due to a small display only a comparatively small portion of the webpage is displayed, it may happen that the change relates only to a part of the webpage not currently displayed. Therefore, a user may not be aware of such a change of content or update of a part of the webpage and possibly may miss important information. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0005]    In an embodiment, a mobile electronic device is provided, comprising: a display and a display control circuit configured to display a part of a page on said display. Said display control circuit is configured to register a change of said page in a part of said page not being displayed on said display and to notify a user of the mobile electronic device of said change. 
         [0006]    In an embodiment, said display control circuit comprises:
   a processor, and   a memory, said memory comprising at least one program executable by said processor, said at least one program when executed causing said displaying, said registering and said notifying.   
 
         [0009]    Said page may comprise a webpage with dynamically changing content, and
   said at least one program may comprise a browser program.   
 
         [0011]    The mobile electronic device may further comprise a user input circuitry. In such an embodiment, said registering may comprise registering a user action via said user input circuitry and determining that said user action results in said change of a part of said page. 
         [0012]    In an embodiment, said notifying may comprise displaying information on said display indicative of said change. 
         [0013]    Said information may comprise at least part of said changed part of said page. 
         [0014]    Additionally or alternatively, said information may also comprise information displayed in a transparent manner overlying a currently displayed part of said page. 
         [0015]    In an embodiment, said notifying comprises at least one element of the group comprising reproducing an audio signal, displaying an animation on said display and displaying an overview of said page on said display. 
         [0016]    Said display control circuit may be further configured to receive an indication from a user indicative of whether the user requires to see the changed part of the page, and to display said changed part of the page in case the indication received from the user indicates that the user requires to see said changed part. 
         [0017]    Said mobile electronic device may be selected from the group comprising a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, a gaming equipment, a navigation system and a notebook, but is not limited thereto. 
         [0018]    In another embodiment, a method is provided, comprising:
   partially displaying a page on a display,   receiving information that said page is changed in a part of said page not displayed on said display, and   notifying a user of said change.   
 
         [0022]    Said notifying may comprise displaying one element selected from the group comprising a part where said page is changed and an overview of said page highlighting said change on said display. 
         [0023]    Said displaying of said one element may be performed in a transparent manner. 
         [0024]    In an embodiment, said method comprises receiving a user input causing said change. 
         [0025]    The method may comprise receiving said page from a network. 
         [0026]    It is to be understood that the above features may be freely combined with each other as desired by a person skilled in the art unless specifically noted to the contrary. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0027]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram showing a mobile device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0028]      FIG. 2  is a flow diagram for illustrating a method according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0029]      FIG. 3A  is an example for a display of a part of a webpage according to an embodiment. 
           [0030]      FIG. 3B  is an example of an update notification on the display of  FIG. 3A  according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0031]    In the following, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail. It is to be understood that the following description of embodiments is given only for the purpose of illustration and is not be taken in a limiting sense. The scope of the invention is not intended to be limited by the embodiments described hereinafter or by the drawings, which are taken to be illustrative only, but is intended to be limited only by the appended claims and equivalents thereof. 
         [0032]    It should be noted that the drawings are to be regarded as being schematic representations only, and elements in the drawings are not necessarily to scale with each other. Rather, the representation of the various elements is chosen such that their function and general purpose become apparent to a person skilled in the art. 
         [0033]    It is also be understood that in the following description of embodiments, any direct connection or coupling between functional blocks, devices, components, circuit elements or other physical or functional units shown in the drawings or described herein, i.e. any connection or coupling without intervening elements, could also be implemented by an indirect connection or coupling, i.e. a connection or coupling with one or more additional intervening elements. Furthermore, it should be appreciated that the partitioning of embodiments into functional blocks or units shown in the drawings is not to be construed as indicating that these units necessarily are implemented as physically separate units, but functional blocks or units may be implemented as separate circuits, chips or circuit elements, but one or more functional blocks or units may as well be implemented in a common circuit or chip. 
         [0034]    It is to be understood that the features of the various embodiments described hereinafter may be combined with each other unless specifically noted otherwise. 
         [0035]    Furthermore, it is to be understood that describing an embodiment comprising a plurality of elements or features is not to be construed as indicating that all these elements or features are necessary for practicing the present invention. Instead, in other embodiments, only some of such elements or features may be implemented, and/or alternative or additional elements or features may be provided. 
         [0036]    Turning now to  FIG. 1 , a mobile electronic device  20  according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown. Mobile electronic device  20  of  FIG. 1  may be a mobile phone, but may also be another kind of portable electronic device like a personal digital assistant, a laptop computer, a gaming device, a portable music player, a navigation system or a combination thereof. It should be noted that in  FIG. 1  only some components of mobile electronic device  20  are shown, and the mobile electronic device may or may not comprise further components depending on the type of mobile electronic device. For example, in case the mobile electronic device is a mobile phone, components conventionally found in mobile phones like an antenna, a microphone, a SIM card or interface therefore or other electronic components may be present although not explicitly shown in  FIG. 1 . 
         [0037]    Mobile electronic device  20  of the embodiment of  FIG. 1  comprises a user input  21 , which for example may comprise a keypad, one or more buttons, a joystick, and/or any other input means commonly found in mobile electronic devices. Information input by a user via user input  21  is processed by a processor  22 . Furthermore, mobile electronic device  20  comprises a display  23  controlled by processor  22  for displaying information and an audio unit  25  for outputting audio messages, sound, or music. It should be noted that display  23  may be a so-called touch screen display and therefore also serve as or as part of user input  21 . 
         [0038]    Mobile electronic device  20  furthermore comprises a telecommunication circuit  26  for communicating with a network  29 . For example, in case mobile electronic device  20  is a cellular phone, telecommunication circuit  26  may be a telecommunication circuit communicating according to a GSM, GPRS, EDGE or UMTS telecommunication standard. In another embodiment, telecommunication circuit  26  may for example be a wireless LAN circuit, a Bluetooth communication circuit or a wire-based communication circuit. 
         [0039]    In an embodiment, via network  29  which may be any suitable telecommunication network mobile electronic device  20  can access information, for example information of the internet, like webpages of the so-called world wide web (WWW). To display such webpages on display  23 , a browser program  27  is provided in a memory  24  of mobile electronic device  20 . When processor  22  executes browser program  27 , a user can navigate through the world wide web, but may also navigate webpages or view pages encoded in a language parsible by browser  27  like HTML (hypertext mark-up language), JAVA or XML which pages may for example be stored in memory  27 . 
         [0040]    As already mentioned in the introductory portion, such webpages are often designed for being viewed on a computer having a comparatively large display, for example a 15 inch display, a 17 inch display or a 21 inch display, with a corresponding high resolution. In an embodiment, display  23  of mobile electronic device  20  is considerably smaller than that. For example, displays of mobile phones or personal digital assistants typically have a screen diagonal of about 2.5 to about 4 inches depending on the type of mobile phone or personal digital assistant and typically have resolutions of the order of 300×300 pixels, e.g. 240×320 pixels, although embodiments of the invention are not limited in this respect. Therefore, with many webpages only a comparatively small part of the webpage may be displayed at a given time in full size. In an embodiment, browser  27  additionally provides an overview mode where the complete webpage is displayed in miniaturized form on display  23 , and then a user can chose which part of the webpage to view. 
         [0041]    Nowadays, webpages often comprise dynamic content, i.e. parts of the webpage may change dynamically, for example in response to a user input or due to updates by a corresponding web server. In case a part of the webpage is changed or updated which is not currently displayed on display  23 , in order to make the user aware of the change, an add-on  28  to browser  27  is provided which has the function of making the user aware of the change. Add-on  28  may for example be a so-called plug-in for browser  27 . In another embodiment, no separate add-on  28  is provided, but the corresponding functions are directly integrated in browser  27 , for example a user interface of browser  27 . In still another embodiment, a user alerting function as will be described in more detail hereinafter is provided in a separate software program which is responsible for displaying webpages provided by a browser. 
         [0042]    In the embodiment of  FIG. 1 , processor  22  together with browser  27  and add-on  28 , i.e. programs, stored in memory  24  serve as a display control circuit for controlling display  23  and displaying webpages thereon. In other embodiments, such a display control circuit may be implemented in a different manner, for example by firmware. 
         [0043]    Next, with reference to  FIGS. 2 ,  3 A and  3 B, the operation of add-on  28  or a similar element as mentioned above will be discussed in detail. 
         [0044]    In  FIG. 2 , a flow diagram illustrating a method which may be implemented for example via add-on  28 , but which for example may also be implemented in browser  27  itself, is illustrated. In an embodiment, the method is executed in parallel to displaying of a webpage. The method is started at  10 . At  11 , an event is registered which may lead to a change of a part of the webpage. As an example, at  11  it may be registered that the user clicks on an element like a check box on the page, for example using a pointer controllable by a keypad, a joystick of a mobile electronic device or user input  21  of  FIG. 1 . Another event which may be registered is a user input via a keypad. A further event which may be registered is data received for example via telecommunication circuit  26  of the embodiment of  FIG. 1  from a web server. It should be noted that in an embodiment all these kinds of events may be registered, while in other embodiments only some or one of these kinds of events is registered. In an embodiment, which event is registered or monitored may be user configurable. 
         [0045]    If the method is implemented in the embodiment of  FIG. 1 , user input  21  and/or telecommunication circuit  26  may therefore serve as circuitry or elements for obtaining information leading to a change of the webpage. 
         [0046]    At  12  it is checked whether the event registered at  11 , for example an action performed by the user, results in a dynamic update, i.e. a change, of the webpage in an area which is not currently displayed. If this is not the case, i.e. either no change results or the change is within the area currently displayed, the method of the embodiment of  FIG. 2  jumps back to  10 . If the registered event results in a dynamic update outside the displayed portion of the webpage, at  13  the user is alerted to the update. For example, in an embodiment the changed area of the webpage is displayed on a transparent area, i.e. in a transparent manner, on the display. “Transparent” in this context indicates that the content displayed before the displaying of the changed area on the transparent area remains visible. For example, in an embodiment, an overview of the whole webpage may be displayed in a transparent manner where the location of the changed portion is indicated. In another embodiment, only the changed portion may be displayed. In still another embodiment, instead of displaying in a transparent manner, the display may be made without transparency. In some embodiments, the display of the changed area of portion may be performed for a predetermined period of time, for example for five seconds, although shorter or longer times are also possible. In yet another embodiment, the display may use a suitable color and/or animations to draw the user&#39;s attention to the area or portion of the webpage where the change took place. In yet another embodiment, additionally or alternatively an acoustic signal or message is given, for example via audio unit  25  of the embodiment of  FIG. 20 , to alert the user of the change. 
         [0047]    At  14  it is checked whether the user indicates that he or she wishes to view the updated area, i.e. the area where the change has been performed, on the display. The user in an embodiment may for example do this by clicking on the portion where the changed area is displayed in a transparent or non-transparent manner at  13 . In another embodiment, the user may for example press a specific key to activate the updated area. In still another embodiment a query may be presented to the user where he can expressly indicate whether he wants to view the updated area or not by choosing for example a yes-button or a no-button. 
         [0048]    In case the user indicates that she or he wishes to see the updated area, at  16  a zoom is performed to the updated page area which previously for example was displayed in the transparent area or, in other words, the updated area is displayed on the display. In case the user does not activate the updated area, at  15  the transparent area is “hidden” again, i.e. the display reverts to the state before the changed area was displayed on the transparent area at  13 . The hiding of the transparent area, as indicated above, may be performed after a predetermined time period has elapsed, or when the user expressly indicates, for example by clicking a corresponding button, that he or she does not wish to view the changed area. 
         [0049]    In order to further illustrate the method of  FIG. 2 , an example for operations  11 - 13  of the embodiment of  FIG. 2  will be illustrated with reference to  FIGS. 3A and 3B . In  FIG. 3A , a display  30  is illustrated on which a simple example for a part of a webpage is shown. In this part of the webpage, the user may as an example choose between a full list or a short list of some kind of items, wherein the choosing may be performed by clicking on a box before “full list” or “short list”. In this example, the choice of the user leads to a full list or a short list being displayed on some other part of the webpage, i.e. some other part of the webpage which is currently not displayed changes to show the full list or the short list. 
         [0050]    To alert the user of the update, as shown in  FIG. 3B  a transparent area (shown in grey in  FIG. 3B ) is displayed which in the illustrative example of  FIG. 3B  shows an overview of the whole webpage. In the example of  FIG. 3B , the words “you are here” indicate the location of the part of the webpage currently shown on display  30  (i.e. the part shown in  FIG. 3A ), whereas the words “update here” indicate the location of the part where the update took place. In an embodiment, for example by clicking on the “update here” portion the updated portion will be displayed, while by clicking on any other part the transparent display is removed. As already indicated above, the way of alerting the user of the update shown in  FIG. 3B  is just one of many possibilities, and the other possibilities mentioned above may also be implemented. For example, as an animation, a colored, e.g. red, rectangle may be displayed which moves starting from the part of the webpage which is currently displayed to the part of the webpage which has been updated in an overview of the complete webpage displayed, either in a transparent or in an intransparent manner. 
         [0051]    It should be noted that while in the above embodiments webpages retrieved from the internet were taken as an example, in other embodiments webpages from an internal or external storage like a memory or an hard disk drive may be displayed on a corresponding display, or pages or other graphical representations other than webpages may be displayed the content of which changes dynamically in areas not currently displayed. 
         [0052]    Therefore, as obvious from the above explanations, many modifications and variations are possible without departing from the scope of the present invention, which is intended to be defined only by the appended claims and equivalents thereof.