GB2366034A

GB2366034A - Internet navigation method for communications terminals

Info

Publication number: GB2366034A
Application number: GB0103120A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Frederic Fourre
Original assignee: Sagem SA
Current assignee: Sagem SA
Priority date: 2000-02-11
Filing date: 2001-02-08
Publication date: 2002-02-27
Anticipated expiration: 2021-02-08
Also published as: GB2366034B; DE10106314A1; GB0103120D0; FR2805110A1; FR2805110B1

Abstract

An internet 101 navigation method for communication terminals 14 or server 20 for helping with navigation comprises isolating a link address to a target page from a source page, recording the isolated address and retrieving the target page using the isolated address. The terminal may retrieve the page itself or by means of a server. A location marker may be inserted into the source page for the or each link and may be associated with an identification element. The target page may be translated into a format readable by the terminal. The address and the source page may be inserted into a message as two parts with a recognisable delimiter. The terminal may be a fax machine (facsimile), telephones or any other telephone equipment.

Description

1 2366034 Navigation Method for a Communication Terminal on an Information

Network and Server for Helping with the Navigation 5 An information network such as the Internet makes it possible especially for terminals to visit information sites, more commonly called Web sites.

A Web site comprises a plurality of information pages or 10 Web pages, comprising multimedia information elements (text, image, animations, etc) and hypertext links to other pages of the same site or of another site. Each Web page is associated with a URL (Universal Resource Locator) location address on the Internet.

In order to visit a site, the terminal uses an Internet browser which retrieves a Web page from the site and displays it on a screen of the terminal. To move from one page to another, it is sufficient to activate a hypertext 20 link, contained in the page displayed on the screen, by clicking on it with the aid of a pointer.

Certain facsimile machines have Internet capabilities. However, the capabilities, especially for display, of a 25 facsimile machine being generally limited, for reasons of cost, its Internet capabilities are also limited. The result of this is that facsimile machines are generally incapable of browsing on the Internet, for lack of being able to display or activate the links between Web pages.

The present invention aims to overcome this disadvantage.

To this end, the invention relates to a navigation method for a communication terminal on an information network in which a source information page, with at least one link to a target information page, said link being associated with 5 an electronic address, is retrieved and, through the means of the link, the target page is then retrieved, characterised by the fact that the terminal isolates from the source page the address associated with the link, records the address thus isolated and retrieves the target 10 page by means of the isolated address.

The terminal can thus navigate on the information network, passing from one page to another, thanks to the address of the target page, isolated from the source page and 15 memorised. The navigation takes place without it being necessary to activate links between pages.

In a f irst embodiment, the terminal retrieves the pages itself.

In a second embodiment, the terminal retrieves the pages by means of a server for helping with the navigation.

Advantageously a location marker for the link is inserted 25 into the source page.

Thanks to that, it is possible to display the place of the link on the page.

30 Advantageously, the isolated address is associated with an identification element of the marker of the link and the terminal records the isolated address with the said identification element.

Thanks to that, it is easily possible to make the connection between the location marker of the link and the memorised address associated with this link.

The invention also relates to a server for helping with the navigation and comprising means of acquiring an information page, with at least one link to another page, said link being associated with an electronic address, and 10 means of isolating from the acquired page the address associated with the link.

The invention will be better understood with the aid of the following description of the method of navigation on

15 an information network, with the aid of a telephone terminal, and of the server for helping with the navigation of the invention, with reference to the annexed drawing on which:

- figure 1 represents a functional block diagram of the telephone terminal; - figure 2 represents a functional block diagram of the server for helping with the navigation and - figure 3 represents the telephone terminal linked to the server for helping with the navigation through the 25 Internet.

In the particular example of the description, the telephone terminal 14 is a facsimile machine connected to a telephone network 100, here the STN (Switched Telephone 30 Network) network.

The facsimile machine 14 has access to an information network, in this case the Internet 101, and a messaging service provided by an Internet server. It has in addition a mailbox 16, accommodated by the server 15, with an Internet messaging address which will be taken below to be that of the facsimile machine 14.

The facsimile machine 14 comprises, in standard, manner, a modem 1 for linking to the telephone network 100, a unit 2 for sending and receiving faxes, a scanner unit 3, a printing unit 4, and a man-machine interface.

The unit 2 for sending and receiving faxes, connected to the modem 1, is intended to send and receive faxes through the telephone network 100, here according to the facsimile transmission protocol T30.

The man-machine interface comprises a display 5, here having four lines of display, an input keyboard 6 and a man-machine interface applicat ion 7 managing the display of information and of command menus.

The facsimile machine also comprises an Internet connection block 8, an Internet messaging block 9, an Internet browsing module 10 and two memories 11, 12 for storing Web page URL addresses.

The Internet connection block 8, connected to the modem 1, is intended to connect the facsimile machine 14 to the Internet, through a telephone connection to the server 15.

30 The Internet messaging block 9, connected to the modem 1, makes it possible to send and receive messages via the Internet 101 and to create messages.

An electronic message comprises a header, a message body and possibly one or more attachments. The header comprises especially an origin field and a destination field, respectively intended to contain the Internet mail

5 addresses of the sender and of the receiver of the message.

It is recalled moreover that the Internet comprises Web sites for distributing pages of information, or "Web" 10 pages, generally in HTML format. Each Web page has a location address on the Internet 101, more commonly called a URL (Universal Resource Locator) address. These pages: can contain information elements of various types (images, animations, text, etc.) and links termed "hypertext" to 15 other pages. By definition, "source page" will describe a Web page containing at least one link to another Web page which will be called "target page". In a source page, each link to a target page is associated with the URL address of this target page.

The memory 11 contains a list of Web page URL addresses.

The memory 12 is intended to store temporarily, for each source Web page received, the URL addresses of the target 25 pages linked to the source page and references associated with these addresses, as explained further on.

Through the means of the man-machine interface, a user can view on the display 5 the memorised Web page URL 3o addresses, select one of them and control the acquisition of the corresponding Web page.

The Internet browsing module 10, connected to the modem 1, is intended to retrieve at least one source Web page, selected by a user, and to isolate from this source page, via an Internet server 20 helping with the navigation, the 5 target page URL addresses associated with the links contained in the source page, as will be explained further on in the description of the navigation method.

The facsimile machine 14 also comprises a control block 10 13, in this case a microprocessor, to which all the abovedescribed elements are connected and which is intended to control the functioning of the facsimile machine 14.

The Internet server 20 for helping with navigation is 15 connected to the Internet 101 through a network interface 21. It comprises a block for receiving messages 22, a block 23 for sending messages, a mailbox 24 and a block 25 for processing request messages received. The receiving block and the transmitting block are linked to the network 20 interface 21.

The server 20 is intended to receive messages requesting the acquisition of one or more source Web pages, originating from telephone terminals, to process these 25 request messages and to send response messages back to the requesting terminals.

The mailbox 24, connected to the receiving block 22, has an Internet mail address, which will be taken in what 30 follows to be that of the server 20. It is intended to store temporarily the messages received requesting the acquisition of a Web page or pages.

The processing block 25, connected to the mailbox 24, is intended to process the messa. ges received requesting the acquisition of a Web page or pages. It comprises a module 251 for acquiring Web pages, a module 252 for isolating 5 target page URL addresses, a module 253 for translating Web pages, a module 254 for inserting a link marker or markers and a module 255 for creating a response message.

Module 251, connected to the interface 21, is intended to 10 search for the required Web pages, on the Internet 101, in Web sites for distributing these pages.

The isolation module 252 is intended to isolate from each retrieved source Web page the target page URL addresses, is associat ed with the links contained in the source page.

The translation module 253, is intended to translate, or convert, each retrieved source Web page into a format which can be exploited by the requesting terminal.

The insertion module 254 is intended to insert into each source Web page retrieved one or more location markers of a link to a target page, substantially at the place where this link is situated. Each link marker has an 25 identification reference for the link.

Module 255, connected to the transmitting block 23, is intended to create a response message, as will be explained further on, and to control the transmission of 30 same to the requesting terminal. The response message comprises especially the source Web page(s) requested and the isolated target page addresses associated with the links contained in these source pages.

The server 20 comprises in addition a control block, not represented, to which all the above-mentioned elements are connected and which is intended to control the functioning 5 of the server 20.

The facsimile machine's 14 method of navigating on the Internet 101 will now be described.

10 To obtain a Web page, the URL address of which is stored in the facsimile machine 14, a user commands the display of the memorised URL addresses, selects the address of the desired Web page and commands the acquisition of this page, with the aid of the man-machine interface. In the 15 particular example of the description, the required Web page is a source page containing a plurality of links to target Web pages.

The following steps, aiming at retrieving the selected Web 20 page, are carried out by the facsimile machine, automatically, under the control of the navigation module 10.

The facsimile machine 14 connects to the Internet 101 and 25 addresses to the server for helping with navigation 20 a message requesting the acquisition of the selected source Web page. The message request contains, in the origin field, the Internet mail address of the facsimile machine 14, in the destination field, the Internet mail address of

30 the server 20, and in the body of the message, the URL address of the required source page and the reading capabilities of the facsimile machine 14. "Reading capabilities" are intended to designate the formats of data files which can be exploited by the facsimile machine. In this case, the formats which can be exploited by the facsimile machine 14 are the image format TIFF and the text format TXT.

After having sent the request message, the facsimile machine 14 regularly checks the contents of its mailbox 16 in order to retrieve a response message f rom the server 20, as will be explained further on.

Af ter receiving the request message, with the aid of the different modules of the processing block 25, the server 20 retrieves the required source Web page, isolates from this source page the URL addresses of the target pages is associated with the links contained in the source page, translates the source page into a format which can be exploited by the requesting terminal, here into the TIFF format, and finally inserts into the translation of the source page location markers of the links contained in the 20 source page. Each marker carries a link identification reference, here a number, and is placed substantially at the location of the corresponding link.

With the aid of block 255, the server 20 then creates a 25 response message. This message contains the mail address of the server 20, in the origin field, the mail address of the facsimile machine 14 in the destination field. The server 20 inserts, in the response message, firstly the translation of the Web page and secondly the isolated

30 target page addresses and the corresponding link references, respectively in an image part and in a text part and separates these two parts by a delimiter, made up here of a chain of characters recognisable by the facsimile machine 14.

Finally, the server 20 sends the response message to the 5 requesting facsimile machine 14, through the internet 101. The response message is temporarily stored in the mailbox 16 until it is downloaded into the facsimile machine 14.

After receiving the response message, with the aid of the 10 navigation module 10, the facsimile machine 14 detects the delimiter, separates the image part and the text part of the message, then prints the source page and records the isolated URL addresses of the target pages and the corresponding link references in the memory 12.

The printed source page contains the link markers. The user can view on the display 5 the URL addresses of the target pages, connected to this source page, and the associated link references. To retrieve one of the target 20 pages, the user selects its URL address, identified with the aid of the associated reference, and commands the acquisition of this page with the aid of the man-machine interface.

25 The facsimile machine 14 then retrieves the selected target page, thanks to the isolated address, through the server for helping with the navigation 20, as explained previously.

30 In the preceding description, the facsimile machine retrieves the Web pages by means of the server for helping with the navigation. As a variant, the facsimile machine itself retrieves the Web pages and retransmits them to the server for helping with the navigation, in order to isolate the URL addresses of the target pages. In this case, the navigation module of the facsimile machine is capable of itself retrieving the Web pages, from the 5 appropriate Web sites. After having retrieved a source Web page containing at least one link to a target page, the facsimile machine retransmits it to the server for helping with the navigation which isolates from the received source page the URL address associated with the 10 link to the target page, possibly translates the source page and sends back the translation of the source page and the isolated address of the target page to the facsimile machine. In this case, the server for helping with the navigation acquires the source page by means of the 15 facsimile machine.

The facsimile machine and the server for helping with the navigation could communicate with one another by using a communication protocol different from the one which has 20 been described. It could particularly be envisaged that they establish between themselves a direct communication in real time.

The invention could apply to any other type of telephone 25 terminal, and especially to telephones.

The reader's attention is directed to all papers and documents which are filed concurrently with or previous to this specification in connection with this application and

30 which are open to public inspection with this specification, and the contents of all such papers and documents are incorporated herein by reference.

All of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), and/or all of the steps of any method or process so disclosed, may be combined in any combination,

5 except combinations where at least some of such features and/or steps are mutually exclusive.

Each feature disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), may be

10 replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar features.

The invention is not restricted to the details of the foregoing embodiment(s). The invention extend to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims,

20 abstract and drawings), or to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the steps of any method or process so disclosed.

Claims

1 Navigation method for a communication terminal on an information network, wherein a source information 5 page, with at least one link to a target information page, said link being associated with an electronic address, is retrieved and, through the means of the link, the target page is then retrieved, characterised by the fact that the terminal isolates from the source 10 page the address associated with the link, records the address thus isolated and retrieves the target page by means of the isolated address.

2. Method according to claim 1, wherein the terminal 15 retrieves the pages itself.

3. Method according to claim 1, wherein the terminal retrieves the pages by means of a server for helping with the navigation.

4. Method according to one of claims 1 and 2, wherein a location marker for the link is inserted into the source page.

5. Method according to claim 4, wherein the isolated address is associated with an identification element of the link marker and the terminal records the isolated address, with the said identification element.

6. Method according to one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the target page is translated into a format which can be exploited by the terminal before being delivered to same.

7. Method according to one of claims 3 to 6, wherein, 5 after having isolated from the source page the address associated with the link, the isolated address and the actual page are respectively inserted into two parts of a message and the two parts of the message are separated by a delimiter recognisable by the terminal.

8. Server for helping with navigation, comprising means for acquiring a source information page, with at least one link to a target page, said link being associated with an electronic address, and means for isolating 15 from the acquired source page the address associated with the link to the target page.

9. Server according to claim 8, wherein means for translating the acquired source page are provided.

10. Server according to one of claims 8 and 9, wherein there are provided means for creating a message, inserting in it the isolated address and the acquired page respectively in two parts and separating the 25 latter by a delimiter.

11. Navigation method substantially as described herein, with reference to the drawings that follow.

12. Server substantially as described herein, with reference to Figure 2 of the drawings that follow.