GB2338098A

GB2338098A - Message transmission to display

Info

Publication number: GB2338098A
Application number: GB9905942A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Bernd Hessing
Original assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
Current assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
Priority date: 1998-03-26
Filing date: 1999-03-15
Publication date: 1999-12-08
Anticipated expiration: 2019-03-15
Also published as: DE19813368A1; FR2776871B1; GB9905942D0; JP2000032166A; FR2776871A1; GB2338098B

Abstract

A method of transmitting a message comprising a plurality of characters from a transmitter (1) to a receiver (2), wherein the message is to be displayed on a display (5) of the receiver (2) comprising a display matrix consisting of a plurality of predetermined display matrices, comprises the steps: production of the message in the transmitter (1); allocation of one or more control characters to the message; transmission of the message and the control characters; and establishment of the display format for the message in the receiver (2) by a parser (4) responsive to the control characters, to suit the size of the display (5).

Description

2338098 Method and- alpparatus for message transmission STATE OF THE ART

The present invention relates to a method of transmitting a message comprising a plurality of characters from a transmitter to a receiver, wherein the message is to be displayed on a display device of the receiver comprising a display matrix consisting of a plurality of predetermined display matrices, wherein one character can be displayed on one matrix element. The invention also relates to corresponding data transmission apparatus.

Although it can be applied to methods of message transmission in any technical systems, the present invention and the problem forming the basis thereof will be described in more detail with respect to data transmission in a traffic information system for motor vehicles.

As the need for message transmission and the number and diversity of message transmission services offered grow, the supply of visual output media and displays for messages is increasing.

In the mobile sector, displays for the outputting of messages are often only very small whereas, when the receiver can be rigidly installed, the displays are usually greater and therefore more flexible.

Lengthy lines of text in the message usually have to be displayed on screens of different sizes. This applies, in particular, to pagingassisted information services such as Quix and Skyper, and to telematic traffic systems in which RDS/TMC announcements are displayed, to GSM traffic information services in which positions in navigation systems are displayed and to mobile telephones in which GSM short messages (SMS service) are propagated, in particular by cellular broadcasting.

2 The problem forming the basis of the present invention is to allow the intelligible display in each case, even of lengthy lines which are a portion of the message to be transmitted, on a plurality of output devices which have different display capacities.

when texts are optimised for small screens such as a car radio screen which can consist of only one line and eight columns, the results are unsatisfactory if identical texts are displayed on large screens. Conversely, if the texts are optimised for large screens, the results on small screens are generally unintelligible. Furthermore, it is often not possible or worthwhile to optimise the lines of text to be displayed specifically for the screen used or the display used. This situation exists, for example, if the geometric data of the screen are not known at all or cannot be allowed for when sending lines of text.

An example of this is the sending of texts to different receivers by radio broadcasting. The texts about traffic hold-ups sent by GSM cellular broadcasting can be received by terminals ranging from a simple mobile telephone to a driver information system with a large screen. Now if a specially compiled message is to be produced and sent for each type of display or screen, the expenditure would be very high and the radio traffic would be overloaded.

A further example is the outputting of positions on digital cards which can be used in navigation systems on the screens of different navigation systems.

The state of the art provides only unsatisfactory solutions to the problem of the screen-specific display of the message. Three different methods are basically employed for this purpose. A common feature of all these methods is that the algorithms for carrying out the method are all established in the output device.

3 The first and most simple method is clipping. The text transmitted by the transmitter is clipped, that is cut, to the screen size flush left or flush right if it exceeds the screen size. An example of this would be if the message ',the quick brown fox,, were clipped to lithe quicl, on an eight column display.

The second method is the line break. Long lines of text are automatically converted into several shorter lines. These short lines are then displayed. However, this method can be adopted only if the screen has sufficient lines to make several lines of the message visible simultaneously on the screen. For example, the text "the quick brown fox,, would be converted to "the quicll, Ilk brown", "fox" on an eight column display with three lines. The break is usually made at word boundaries, but this cannot happen with correspondingly long words. Words will therefore be split in a way which markedly impairs the legibility of the split word. Although "the", 11quickil lib read.

1 rownll,"fox" requires four lines, it is easier to The third method is scrolling. Different portions of a line of text are displayed at different time intervals using specific control functions of the screen device or generally of the output device or optionally of the receiver. For example, the text "the quick brown fox,, would be scrolled through with time control on an eight column display. ',the quicl, would appear in the first second, "he quick,' in the second second, lie quick,' in the third second,..., and "brown fox" in the eleventh second.

All these methods are employed in various terminals. It can be assumed as an empirical value that, the smaller the screen of the device, the fewer the production capacities for complex algorithms in the device.

The fact that the appearance of the text of the message in the screen of the terminal cannot be controlled by the 4 transmitter is a drawback of the above-mentioned known solutions. This results in a loss of intelligibility and user friendliness.

There are various methods in data systems technology for defining texts independently of the output device, such as printer or screen, as achieved, for example, with the programming language Tex, the rich text format (RTF), the hypertext markup language (HTML) or the structured general markup language (SGML). However, these languages have a complexity which rules out their use in pagers and other simple terminals. Furthermore, there is a lack of specific programming language elements which are required for displaying lines of text on output devices which are as small as desired.

ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION The method of message transmission according to the invention having the characteristics of claim 1 and the corresponding.apparatus for message transmission according to claim 6 have the advantage over known solutions that lines of text can be transmitted by a transmitter to a plurality of different output devices by a simple method in such a way that they can be usefully displayed on different screens and display sizes which vary markedly in the number of characters which can be displayed in a line and in the number of lines available. This affords the advantage that a message can be displayed in such a way that it is still easily legible and intelligible for the observer of a screen with a small display capacity.

The present invention is based on the notion that each message is provided with control characters which are defined explicitly or implicitly in their meaning between transmitter and receiver. These control characters are also transmitted from the transmitter to the receiver. Possible segmentation and abbreviation is predefined by these control characters for each message, in other words with elements which are to appear on the output device mandatorily or optionally, i.e. according to its capabilities. In the output device, the actual output is preceded by an algorithm which segments the received line of text into the possible partial displays. The various partial displays form a quantity of possible output line formats. With the algorithm present in the output device, one of the possible output line formats is selected and output.

The sub-claims provide advantageous developments and improvements to the method of message transmission described in claim 1 and the apparatus for message transmission described in claim 5.

According to a preferred development, the control characters are embedded in the characters of the message, wherein components of the message can be grouped between two control characters and control characters can be nested. This affords the advantage that the method has a very broad range of application and the (original) message can be provided rapidly and effectively with the control characters prior to the sending thereof.

According to a further preferred development, for determining the display format, all configurations of the display format permitted by the arrangement of the control characters are determined and the optimum form of the display format for the respective display device is then selected. The form of the display format is also very readily adaptable to the respective display matrix, i.e. the number of lines and columns provided in the display device can be adapted for the display of characters. This systematic determination of the optimum form of the displayed message is permitted for the first time by the method according to the invention.

6 According to a further preferred development, a component is mandatorily displayed on the display device if it has to be passed through on the route from the beginning to the end in any case and/or a component is optionally displayed if it can be passed through on the route from the beginning to the end and/or two components are displayed selectively if either one or other has to be passed on the route from the beginning to the end.

DRAWINGS Embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the drawings and described in more detail in the following description.

Fig. 1 is a schematic view of the construction of an embodiment of an apparatus used for the method according to the invention; Fig. 2 is a schematic view showing segmentation of a transmitted message by means of the concurrently transmitted control characters by the method according to the invention.- DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Fig. 1 is a schematic view of the construction of an embodiment of an apparatus used for the method according to the invention.

In Fig. 1, reference numeral 1 designates a transmitter, 2 a receiver, 3 a processing unit, 4 a parser, 5 an output device in the form of a line display and 6 a memory.

The transmitter 1 transmits, as indicated by the arrow, a message of a specific length which, as described hereinafter, is provided with control characters, to the receiver 2. The receiver 2 contains a processing unit 3 for 7 receiving and processing the message, a parser 4 for analysing the message and the output device 5 with an output line of a predetermined length, which serves as a display for outputting the message analysed by the parser 4. The memory 6 is provided for the intermediate storage of messages and results of analysis in the parser 4. Further components of the receiver 2 are omitted in the illustration in Fig. 1 for the sake of clarity.

The transmitter 1 and the receiver 2 are split over various devices in this embodiment, for example over two GSM mobile telephones of which one is the transmitter of an SMS short message and another device receives and displays this SMS short message.

The entire text of the message to be tran.smitted is provided by the transmitter 1 prior to transmission with specific additional information for controlling the output on screens or displays. This additional information is designated generally hereinafter as control characters. The message is then sent together with the control characters and received in the receiver 2 and read into the memory 6 as a digital string of characters and analysed by the parser 4, i.e. interpreted sequentially by analysis.

The line of text is split by the control characters into individual partial blocks or tokens consisting of individual (partial) strings of characters. on the output matrix of the display device 5, finally, is displayed a subset predetermined by the control characters, i.e. a subset of the line which at best has the same length of text characters as the original message of maximum length. The control characters are obviously not displayed.

The following steps are carried out for analysing the received message with the control characters:

8 (1) Reception of the message containing the control characters and storage thereof in the memory 6.

(2) Analysing interpretation of the line of text and segmentation thereof into components or "tokens" corresponding to the control characters contained in the line of text.

(3) The tokens are structured in a sequential and branched manner as a list. The list is stored in the memory 6. All the possible routes from the beginning to the end along an evaluating route of the line, as produced by interpretation of the control characters, forms the basis for the selection of the output line subsequently selected as optimum for the display device 5.

A token has the property "mandatory" or,obligatory" during a passage if it has to be passed through in any case on the route from the beginning to the end of the line.

A token has the property,optional,' during a passage if it can be passed on the route from the 'beginning to the end of the line but does not have to be.

Two tokens have the property "alternate,, if either one or the other has to be passed on the route from the beginning to the end.

Tokens can basically be nested in one another, as described in detail hereinafter.

(4) Selection within the device of a route suitable for the display with existing screen geometry and assembly of the line from the tokens passed on this route between beginning and end.

(5) Output of the text on the screen.

9 These operations are repeated in the same manner for each individual line of text received. They resemble the operations carried out when reading (parsing) a source text into a translation program of a programming language (compiler).

Therefore, a simple programming language for segmenting of the t ransmitted texts is defined by the control characters. It consists of two different parts.

In a first agreement part, the set of characters and the control characters used for the programming language are agreed. The agreement part can preferably be carried out explicitly by an agreement block at the beginning of a message or a line or implicitly. An implicit agreement is made in the example described in more detail below, using the ISO 8859/2 character set. Concrete binary values or also characters for the language elements of the programming language are agreed in the agreement part.

An example of a selection of control characters with their respective meanings is compiled in the following table:

(Programming) Display as Meaning Language el emen t control character StartOption Beginning of an optional component of the character string Endoption End of an optional component of the character string StartGroup Beginning of a sequence of characters which are only to be displayed coherently EndGroup End of a sequence of characters which are only to be displayed coherently OrOperator Identifies branches of the token structure to be interpret.ed alternatively EscapeOperator Obliterates subsequent control character Character All other Characters of the message characters of which are to be displayed the ISO 8859 2 character set For the sake of simplicity, displayable individual characters are selected as control characters. However, it is also possible to use several characters for a language element such as ',<opt>" and "</opt>" as control characters for the elements StartOption and Endoption. It can also be agreed to use non-displayable characters (binary codes) for the language elements, for example binary 02 (STX) as StartGroup element.

With the above-mentioned implicit agreement, transmitter 1 and receiver 2 know how the language elements are mapped onto control characters. With the explicit agreement, the control characters are transmitted to the output device before the actual beginning of processing and parameterise 11 the parser 4 there. In a syntax based on HTML, an agreement block of this type could be transmitted, for example, as the following line of text:

<StartOption=11[11> <EndOption=11]11> <StartGroup="{ii> <EndGroup="}if> <OrOperator=llill> <EscapeOperator=ri \ to> <CharacterSet=IIIS08859-2"> For the sake of simplicity, the same control characters as in the abovementioned example of an implicit agreement have been selected.

The agreements can also be deposited variably in a nonvolatile parameter memory, for example in a separate region of the memory 6 of the receiver 2.

The programming language elements therefore define structures on the message which consist of individual components usually of successive characters of the (original) message of the message. The components can be of different lengths. These component structures or token structures are preferably produced for the individual lines of the original message. In addition to the details provided in the table, the above-mentioned individual language elements have the following functions:

The beginning or the end of an optional token is defined by start and end option control characters. The tokens after the StartOption character to before the Endoption character can be removed from the line of text such as: 11 [quick] 11.

Groups of characters are defined as tokens by start and end group control characters. Start and end group control characters are defined by the OrOperator for defining branches of the token list to be passed through alternatively, such as: ll{oneltwo},,. Therefore, either one or two can be displayed if both are not enclosed by brackets, i.e. are optional.

12 The immediately following character is interpreted by the EscapeOperator not as a control character but as a character to be displayed, in other words it is,obliterated" for example as: which would lead to the display of a bracket.

A possible output line is made up of various successively arranged tokens, each token having a defined length which is required for the display. The token structure is incorporated into the lines prior to transmission by the transmitter of the message editing of the transmitter. Prior to outputting, the token structure is so evaluated that the existing output width of the respective output line is utilised in the best possible way by the tokens contained.

With reference to Fig. 1 again, Fig. 2 shows a schematic view of segmentation of a transmitted message by means of the concurrently transmitted control characters by the method of the invention, more specifically the example of a message from a traffic information centre is described hereinafter.

In the receiver 2 which is a car radio designed for this purpose in this embodiment, there is provided an evaluation algorithm as described above in the parser 4 which segments the line of text or message received into specific individual parts. The different parts then form a quantity of possible output lines. with a desired algorithm provided in the car radio, one output line is selected from the possible output lines and is output on the display device 5.

For this purpose, a message concerning a motorway junction is to be output as text on the display 5 of the car radio, that is the "screen". The text proposed for transmission in the transmitter 1 reads:

11A42/E52 Anschlustelle 43 Frankfurt am Main Friedberger Landstraoell 13 This text is 66 characters long. Token formation by control characters is a task which is carried out automatically or manually in the transmitter 1 independently of the receiver 2.

The message is provided with control characters at the transmitter 1 in the following manner:

"A42[/E52][ {{ASIAnschlupstelle} \[43}1 F[[rankfurt] am MainP This text is translated by the parser 4 after reception as a message into the token structure shown in Fig. 2. The start and the end and all alternatives of the token passage therebetween are shown in Fig. 2. A token is displayed in characters in each case in a rectangular block T1 to T9 together with its length.

All possible above-defined language elements are used in this token structure:

mandatory tokens (T1, T7) and optional tokens (T2 to T6, T8, T9) which are also nested, are grouped or ordered in groups with OrOperator. The control characters are displayed as text by using the EscapeOperator.

on the display device 5, this token structure requires at least 5, i.e. T1 and T7, and a maximum of 44, i.e. T1 to T9, characters for display purposes. The various results are achieved in that, in the structure shown in Fig. 2, there are different routes at nodes K1 to KS of the lines in order to pass from the starting node shown on the left at the beginning of the line to its end node on the right at the end of the line. If possible combinations of the individual alternatives are considered, the following routes are produced for breaking down the structure:

14 No 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 11 12 13 14 is 16 17 18 Length 5 9 12 18 24 28 13 17 20 24 32 36 21 25 28 32 40 44 Line output on screen A42 F A42/E52 F A42 AS [43 F A42/E52 AS [43 F A42 Anschluostelle [43 F A42/E52 Anschlustelle [43 F A42 Frankfurt A42/E52 Frankfurt A42 AS [43 Frankfurt A42/E52 AS [43 Frankfurt A42 Anschlustelle [43 Frankfurt A42/E52 Anschlupstelle [43 Frankfurt A42 Frankfurt am Main A42/E52 Frankfurt am Main A42 AS [43 Frankfurt am Main A42/E52 AS [43 Frankfurt am Main A42 Anschlupstelle [43 Frankfurt am Main A42/E52 Anschlustelle [43 Frankfurt am Main In a display device 5 with 16 characters, the lines 1, 2, 3 and 7 can be used as a display. A decision about which of these lines is selected must be made in the receiver 2 itself. with the rule "maximum utilisation of the positions in the display matrix", which is to be designated as "simple", 11A42 Frankfurt" would therefore be displayed in this example No. 7.

The method according to the invention for the transmission of messages therefore allows an intelligible output on output devices with any display format, the number of columns of the display matrix available for outputting not having to be known by the transmitter 1. Despite this lack of knowledge, the message is displayed linewise such that i appears optimally legible to the reader.

is Although the present invention has been described hereinbefore with reference to a preferred embodiment, it is not restricted thereto but can be modified in many ways.

For example, the transmitter 1 and the receiver 2 can also be joined together to form a device, for example a RDS/TMC car radio device in which the transmitter corresponds to a list of locations stored on a chip card. The processing uni 3 is then an interface within the device.

In particular, special characters of a different character set or also pictorial information which is built up on the basis of pixels can also be processed by the foregoing principle.

The method according to the invention and the apparatus are suitable, in particular, if the text is transmitted via an air interface, for example the GSM short message service, to the output device or if the lines of text on data carriers are introduced into a terminal. This would be the case with navigation systems if a generally usable data CD, for example the "Tele-Atlas", is introduced into a specific navigation system.

1 1 -1-9r, Method and apparatus for message transmission LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS 1 2 3 4 5 6 transmitter monitor receiving unit parser output unit memory Tl - T9 tokens K1 - K5 nodes 1 17 t-T Method and apparatus for message transmission

Claims

1. Method of transmitting a message comprising a plurality of characters from a transmitter (1) to a receiver (2), wherein the message is to be displayed on a display device (5) of the receiver (2) comprising a display matrix consisting of a plurality of predetermined display matrices, wherein a character can be displayed on a matrix element, with the steps:

production of the message in the transmi tter (1); allocation of one or more control characters to the message, which establish a branch structure of message components to be displayed unconditionally and optionally according to the display matrices; transmission of the message and the control characters; and determination of the display format for the message in the receiver (2) while allowing for the control character or characters and the display matrix of the receiver (2) and corresponding display of the message on the display device (5).

2. Method according to claim 1, characterised in that the control characters are inserted into the message between the characters.

3. Method according to claim 2, characterised in that, in the receiver, the branch structure is passed through in all possible ways from the beginning to the end, wherein each of the possible routes thus determined from the beginning to the end forms a possible display format on the display device (5) and in that the actual display format is i's determined from the beginning to the end forms a possible display format on the c display device (5) and in that the actual display format is determined with reference to the line width of the display device (5).

4. Method according to claim 3, characteiised In that a component is 0 mandatonily displayed on the display, device (5) if it has to be passed through on the route from the beginning to the end in any case and/or in that a component is optionally displayed if it can be passed through on the route from the beginning to the end and/or in that two components are displayed selectively if either one or other has to be passed on the route from the beginning to the end.

0 0

5. Apparatus for carrying out the method according to one of the preceding claims with:

a receiver (2) for receiving and processing the message which comprises:

0 a processing device (3, 4) for evaluating the control characters and determinina the current display format; and 0 a display device (5) for displaying the message in the established display format.

Apparatus according to claim 5, characterised in that it contains an intermediate memory (6) for storing the message or evaluated parts thereof

6.

7. Apparatus according to claim 5 or 6, characterised in that the processing device (3, 4) contains a parser device (4) for processing the control characters identifying the components of the message.

M Z-9-

8. Method of transmitting a message substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

CI

9. Apparatus for transmitting a message substantially as hereinbefore c described with reference to the accompanying dralAings,