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EP0982668A2
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EP
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A method and system for downloading graphic images on internet
Assignee: International Business Machines Corp
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Filing: 1999-08-09
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2019-08-09
Abstract
Abstract In a method and system for downloading graphic images on the Network, at least one high-resolution graphic image file of a reference image is stored at a network server. At least part of the reference image is compressed and downloaded at reduced resolution from the network server to a client connected to the network server. Upon suitable decompression, a corresponding low-resolution image is displayed and size data uniquely specifying a portion of the displayed image is uploaded from the client to the network server. The specified portion of the high-resolution graphic image file is extracted from the network server and downloaded to the client where it is displayed. Such an approach obviates the need to transfer high-resolution data intensive graphic files to the client and further allows the heavy image processing to be performed on the server much faster than is achieved in prior approaches where processing is performed locally at the client.
Inventors
- 👤 Benjamin Cohen
- 👤 Hagai Krupnik
- 👤 Zohar Sivan
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-09 13:38
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06T; G06T3/00; G06T3/40; G06T3/4092; G06F; G06F16/00; G06F16/50; G06F16/51; G06F16/90; G06F16/95; G06F16/951
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 21
Claim 1
Independent Claim
139 words
A method for downloading graphic images from a network server which
stores at least one high-resolution graphic image file of a reference
image and a corresponding low-resolution graphic image file, the method
comprising the steps of: (a) downloading at least part of said low-resolution graphic
image file from the network server to a to a client connected to the
network server for displaying a corresponding low-resolution image on a
display device at the client, (b) uploading from the client to the network server size data
uniquely specifying a portion of the image displayed in (a), (c) extracting said portion of the high-resolution graphic image
file from the network server and downloading to the client, and (d) conforming said portion of the high-resolution graphic image
to a display area of the display device for display in said display area
thereof
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
38 words
The method according to Claim 1, wherein step (d) of conforming the
portion of the high-resolution graphic image to the display area of the
display device is performed at the network server prior to downloading to
the client.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
16 words
The method according to Claim 2, wherein the display area is
dictated by the network server.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
26 words
The method according to Claim 2, wherein the display area is
included as part of the size data uploaded to the network server by the
client
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
38 words
The method according to Claim 1, wherein step (d) of conforming the
portion of the high-resolution graphic image to the display area of the
display device is performed at the client upon receiving the downloaded
high-resolution graphic image.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
64 words
The method according to Claim 1, further comprising prior to step
(b): (e) extracting and zooming said portion from the low-resolution
graphic image file at the client so as to produce a pseudo-zoomed,
low-resolution image, and (f) displaying the pseudo-zoomed, low-resolution image at the
client prior to displaying said portion of the high-resolution graphic
image file downloaded to the client by the network server
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
46 words
The method according to Claim 1, wherein step (b) comprises the
steps of: (i) arbitrarily selecting said portion of the low-resolution
graphic image file using a pointing device, (ii) calculating the size data defining said portion, and (iii) uploading the size data to the network server
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
85 words
The method according to Claim 1, wherein the portion selected has a
different aspect ratio to that of the display device, and there are
further included the steps of: (h) displaying an area of the high-resolution image containing
the selected portion, said area having an aspect ratio equal to that of
the display device so as to include a sub-portion of the reference image
outside of the selected portion, and (i) displaying said sub-portion with a different display
characteristic to that of the selected portion.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
62 words
The method according to Claim 1, wherein the portion selected is
too small after zooming to fill the display, and there are further
included the steps of: (j) displaying the selected portion after zooming leaving a
peripheral sub-portion of the reference image surrounding the selected
portion, and (k) displaying said sub-portion with a different display
characteristic to that of the selected portion.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
23 words
The method according to Claim 8 or 9, wherein said sub-portion is
displayed at a reduced brightness to that of the selected portion.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
80 words
The method according to Claim 1, wherein step (b) comprises the
steps of: (i) downloading from the network server to the client at reduced
resolution a plurality of graphic image files so as to store at the
client a corresponding plurality of low-resolution graphic image files, (ii) displaying a corresponding plurality of low-resolution images
at the client each corresponding to a respective one of the
low-resolution graphic image files, and (iii) selecting one of said low-resolution images for further
processing.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
51 words
The method according to Claim 1, further including the steps of: (a1) compressing said at least part of the reduced resolution
graphic image file prior to downloading to the client, and (a2) decompressing the reduced resolution graphic image downloaded
to the client file prior to storing the low-resolution graphic image
file.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
44 words
The method according to Claim 1, further including the step of: (h) uploading to the server a user reset, and (i) aborting step (f) of extracting the selected portion of the
high-resolution graphic image file from the network server and
downloading to the client.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
78 words
The method according to Claim 6, further including the steps of: (j) uploading to the network server a user reset, (k) aborting step (f) of extracting the selected portion of the
high-resolution graphic image file from the network server and
downloading to the client, (l) aborting step (h) of extracting and pseudo-zooming the
selected portion of the low-resolution graphic image file from the
client, and (m) re-displaying on the display device the low-resolution image
displayed in step (a).
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
52 words
The method according to Claim 1, wherein the display area of the
display device is less than a total area of the display device, and there
are further included the steps of: (i) displaying in a remaining portion of the display device
information independently of the image data in said display area.
Claim 16
Independent Claim
222 words
A system for downloading graphic images on a network, the system
comprising: a network server having a network memory for storing at least one
high-resolution graphic image file of a reference image and a
low-resolution graphic image file corresponding thereto, a communication line for downloading said low-resolution graphic
image file from the network server to a client connected to the network
server via the communication line, a memory at the client for storing the low-resolution graphic image
file, a display device coupled to the memory for displaying a
low-resolution image at the client corresponding to the low-resolution
graphic image file, a zoom control coupled to the memory for uniquely specifying a
portion of the low-resolution image which is to be displayed at
high- resolution, a client processor coupled to the memory and responsively coupled
to the zoom control for determining size data uniquely defining said
portion and for uploading said size data via the communication line to
the network server, a network processor responsive to the size data for extracting said
portion of the high-resolution graphic image file from the network server
and downloading via the communication line to the client for display in
said display area of said display device, and an image processor for conforming the portion of the
high-resolution graphic image to a display area of the display device.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
53 words
The system according to Claim 16, further including: a reset control for accepting a user reset for conveying to the
server via the communication line; the network processor being responsive to the reset control for
aborting extraction of the selected portion of the high-resolution
graphic image file therefrom and downloading to the client.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
43 words
The system according to Claim 16, wherein the zoom control
includes: a pointing device for arbitrarily selecting said portion of the
low-resolution graphic image file, said client processor being responsively coupled to the pointing
device for calculating the size data defining said portion.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
44 words
The system according to Claim 16, wherein: the network is the Internet, the server is an HTTP Web server having associated therewith an
image processor and image database and running a Java servlet for
handling communication therewith, and the client runs a Java applet.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
36 words
The system according to Claim 19, wherein: the image processor runs
a processing module written in native code and being linked to the Java
servlet through a Java Native Interface (JNI) defined by the Java
language.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
53 words
The system according to Claim 16, wherein: the display area of the display device is less than a total area of
the display device, and the network processor includes a peripheral data processor for
downloading information to a remaining portion of the display device
independently of the image data in the display area.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
US6396507B1
Cited
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