GB2374773A

GB2374773A - Image display

Info

Publication number: GB2374773A
Application number: GB0024329A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Angela Crossley; Stephen Dunkley
Original assignee: PUBLIC FORUMS INTERNET
Current assignee: PUBLIC FORUMS INTERNET
Priority date: 2000-10-04
Filing date: 2000-10-04
Publication date: 2002-10-23
Also published as: GB0024329D0

Abstract

A system is disclosed which selects the size of the image to be displayed on a visual display device depending upon the number of pixels the image display device is using. Differently sized versions of an image can be created so that the size of the displayed image is independent of the number of pixels being used. Also disclosed is a method for filling an area 10 on a screen by selecting an image and displaying the image 12 if it fits into the area 10, or selecting another image if it doesn't. This process is repeated until the area is filled or the remaining space is too small to fit an image.

Description

Image Display This invention relates to methods and means for displaying images on a screen particularly, although not exclusively, a computer screen.

With the recent explosive growth in usage and access to the World Wide Web ("the Web") on the Internet, the commercial importance of effective advertising on the Web is ever increasing. To date, by far the most dominant form of advertising has been the banner advertisement. This usually takes the form of a rectangular box containing the advert which acts as a hyperlink to the advertiser's Web site-that is to say, if a user clicks on the banner, his or her browser will be redirected to the advertiser's Web site. Such an occurrence is termed a"hit"and is used to judge the effectiveness of the advertisement.

Banner advertisements are usually designed to be small enough to fit onto and be properly viewable on the smallest likely screen size on which it will be viewed.

Thus, typically the banner advert will be designed for a screen of 800 x 600 pixels or even as small as 640 x 480 pixels. If a Web page including the advert is viewed on a screen with a larger resolution, however,-e. g. , up to 1600 x 1200 pixels-the relative size of the banner advert will be diminished as its fixed size in pixels will be a smaller proportion of the total screen area.

The applicant has recognised that the change in relative size of images such as banner adverts depending upon the user's screen resolution is undesirable. This is particularly so with the current tendency towards greater numbers of users having higher screen resolutions, whereas advertisers wish their adverts to be viewable on all screen sizes. The result of this is that declining numbers of viewers actually see an advert at the size at which it was intended to be seen.

The present invention aims to improve this . 11 arrangement and when viewed from a first aspect provides a system for displaying an image on one of a plurality of visual display means such that the size of said image is independent of the number of pixels on said visual display means ; comprising means for determining a measure of the number of pixels used by said visual display means and means for selecting the size of said image according to the determined number of pixels used by said visual display means.

Similarly when viewed from a second aspect the invention provides a method of displaying an image on one of a plurality of visual display means such that the size of said image is independent of the number of pixels on said visual display means ; comprising determining a measure of the number of pixels used by said visual display means and selecting the size of said image according to the determined number of pixels used by said visual display means.

Thus, it will be seen that, in accordance with the invention, the size of the image is selected according to the resolution of the screen or the like on which it is to be displayed. The image sizes selected for given numbers of pixels may not necessarily be in proportion to the actual number of pixels. Preferably, however, the two are in proportion. This ensures that the size at which the image is viewed will be constant, regardless of the resolution of the screen on which it is viewed.

The set of images for given screen sizes could be simple enlargements and/or reductions of a single basic image-e. g. , generated using suitable software.

However, both enlargement and reduction of an image are undesirable as the algorithms which are required to interpolate or extrapolate pixels tend to reduce the clarity of an image. Preferably, therefore, two or more images are specifically created for a given size or

range of sizes. Most preferably, an image is created tu il specifically for each standard screen size expected.

This makes it easy to control exactly how each image will be reproduced-e. g. , on a user's screen.

The images for each display size or size range could be substantially the same-i. e. , appear the same to a user. Alternatively, one or more may be different.

For example, additional detail or parts could be included in larger images with corresponding less detail included on those for smaller display sizes. In this way, important elements of an image could become a larger proportion of a smaller image at the expense of less important elements.

Indeed, continuing the above concept further, the images for respective different display sizes could be completely different. For example, in the case where the image is an advertisement, a different advertisement could be shown depending on the space available.

This is advantageous as a particular image-e. g. , an advert-could be created at an optimum size and it would only then be displayed at that size and would not have to be reduced or enlarged. The creator of the image can therefore be confident of how the image will appear to all viewers.

Indeed, the idea of displaying images of predetermined sizes, depending on the space available, is applicable more generally, not just in the context of displaying an image according to the number of pixels used by a visual display means. Thus, when viewed from another aspect, the present invention provides a method of displaying one or more images on an electronic visual display means comprising selecting an image from a group of images of differing sizes, determining whether said image will fit within a predetermined area of the visual display means to be used and either displaying said image in said area if it fits or selecting an image of different size and/or shape.

Similarly when viewed from a further aspect the I > invention provides apparatus for displaying one or more invention provide images on an electronic visual display means comprising means for selecting an image from a group of images of differing sizes, means for determining whether said image will fit within a predetermined area of the visual display means to be used, the apparatus being arranged either to display said image in said area if it fits or select an image of different size and/or shape.

Thus, it will be seen that, in accordance with this aspect of the invention, one of a collection of images can be selected and displayed according to the space available. For example, where a given space is available, this could be filled with the largest image from the group which is still small enough to fit within the space. Alternatively, two or more smaller images could be used to fill the space.

Preferably, the group of images used have sizes which depend upon the number of pixels used by the visual display means on which they are to be displayedi. e. the images are in accordance with the first aspect of the invention.

In a preferred embodiment, an image is selected at random from the group and displayed subject to it being sufficiently small to fit in the available space.

Preferably the remaining space, if any, is treated as a new available space and the process is repeated. The iterative process could be repeated a predetermined number of times or indeed, any other criteria could be applied. Preferably, such an iterative process is repeated either until there is no available space left or until the available space is smaller than the smallest image in the group.

Of course, random selection is only one possible way of selecting the images. The order of images could be predetermined-e. g. with any images that are too large to fit into the available space being skipped

over. In some embodiments predetermined numbers or ./1 ratios of certain image sizes could be prescribed or images could be weighted in importance in order to skew the probability of their appearance. All such selection schemes are considered to be within the scope of the invention.

Where random selection is employed, the group from which the selection is made could be the same each time.

More preferably, however, once an image is selected from the group, it is removed from the group and so will not be selected again until the rest of the group has been displayed. Equivalently a random cyclic sequence of images could be defined from which images are taken in order until all have been used at which point the cycle repeats. This makes it possible to ensure that all images are displayed before being repeated, which may be desirable in some circumstances. More importantly, it can make it possible to ensure that all of the images will be displayed in a finite time.

In a particularly preferred method, an available space is filled by selecting an image at random, placing said image in a predetermined position-e. g. top lefthand corner-of said space and determining a further available space on the basis of the portion of the original area remaining after the selected image has been displayed. The remaining space could be filled using any suitable method, but preferably it is filled by repeating the foregoing steps.

The images specified in accordance with the invention could in fact display anything visually perceptible-e. g. pictorial images, text, etc.

Furthermore, the contents need not be fixed and so could - e. g. be animated or a moving image such as a video.

Preferably the images in accordance with the invention further comprise a hyperlink to a Web page associated with the image.

The size and shape of the visible part of the image

need not correspond to the size and shape which the image is treated as having for display purposes. In a common example each image may have a blank border around it which is taken into account in assessing whether the image will fit into a given space.

More generally the visible part of the image could be a non-tessellating or irregular shape, with the actual shape of the image being a simple geometric box.

This allows many different visible image shapes to be accommodated in accordance with the invention without having to deal with complex or irregular shapes which could make calculations such as those to assess whether a sufficient space is available to display an image, excessively complicated. Thus it will be understood that as used herein the term"image"does not necessarily mean just that part of it which is visible, but rather a unitarily defined'object'which could include, blank spaces, borders etc.

As mentioned above, the whole image could be any shape. Where a plurality of images is available they may be different shapes but are preferably the same.

Preferably, particularly in the context of the second aspect of the invention, the shape of the image or images is such that it can tessellate fully. This allows the available space to be filled without gaps.

As mentioned above, this does not mean necessarily that the whole of the display area is filled with visible matter-indeed this would probably be undesirable for reasons of clarity-but rather that all parts of the display area are assigned to an image. Most preferably, the or each image is rectangular (or of course square, as a special case thereof). This gives rise to the most convenient tessellation, particularly with varying sizes.

The method and apparatus of the invention are preferably implemented at least partially using software, e. g. computer programs. It will thus be seen

that when viewed from a further aspect, the present "II invention provides computer software specifically adapted to carry out the methods hereinabove described when installed on data processing means.

Furthermore it will be appreciated that the means specified in the apparatus of the invention may similarly comprise computer software specifically adapted to carry out the methods hereinabove described when installed on data processing means, and a computer program element comprising computer software code portions for performing the methods hereinabove described when the program element is run on a computer.

The invention also extends to a carrier comprising such software which when used to operate an apparatus for displaying an image on one of a plurality of visual display means such that the size of said image is independent of the number of pixels on said visual display means, said apparatus comprising a digital computer, causes, in conjunction with said computer, said apparatus to carry out the steps of the method of the present invention.

Similarly the invention also extends to a carrier comprising such software which when used to operate an apparatus for displaying one or more images on an electronic visual display means, said apparatus comprising a digital computer, causes, in conjunction with said computer, said apparatus to carry out the steps of the method of the present invention.

Such a carrier could be a physical storage medium such as a ROM chip, CD ROM or disk, or could be a signal such as an electronic signal over wires, an optical signal or a radio signal such as to a satellite or the like.

It will further be appreciated that not all steps of the invention need be carried out by computer software or indeed software on a single carrier or running on a single machine and thus from a further

broad aspect the present invention provides computer J II software such software installed on a carrier for carrying out at least one of the steps of the methods set out hereinabove. Similarly, not all of the means specified in the apparatus of the invention need comprise computer software and thus in the general preferred case, it is at least one of such means which comprises computer software.

More specifically, it will be appreciated that in preferred embodiments of the invention, software is to operate in a distributed fashion, such as over a remote network link-for example, on respective client and server machines. The invention specifically extends separately to the software associated with each individual distributed element. Thus, in general terms the invention extends to a software element which in operation in association with one or more corresponding software elements carries out the methods disclosed herein and/or realises the apparatus herein when operated with standard data processing equipment.

Thus when viewed from a further aspect the invention provides server software for displaying an image on one of a plurality of client visual display means such that the size of said image is independent of the number of pixels on said visual display means ; comprising means for receiving a measure of the number of pixels used by said client visual display means and means for selecting the size of said image according to the received measure of the number of pixels used by said visual display means.

The invention also provides software for a client machine operating a visual display means for operation in association with the above server software, said software comprising means for transmitting a measure of the number of pixels used by the visual display means to the server and means for causing an image returned from the server to be displayed on the visual display means.

Certain preferred embodiments of the present t c invention will now be displayed, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a process diagram showing the operation of a system in accordance with the present invention; Figures 2a to 2c show schematically three stages in the operation of a second embodiment in filling a screen with adverts; and Figure 3 is a table giving the relative size of the images in the group from which the second embodiment selects.

Turning firstly to Figure 1, this is a process diagram showing the communications between three functional modules involved in the operation of a first embodiment of the invention.

In this embodiment, the images to be displayed on the user's computer screen are rectangular boxes containing advertisements communicated from a remote server via the Internet. The content of the images is not important to the operation of the described embodiment. The three functional modules are the user's computer representing a client machine 2, browser software 4 running on the client machine 2 and a remote server 6.

The system operates as follows. Firstly, at step A, the client machine 2 starts running the browser software 4. Then, once a connection to the Internet has been established, the user chooses to visit a particular Web site and therefore, at step B, the browser 4 requests the initial page from the selected site which is held on the server 6. The server 6 then returns the requested page, together with a code to detect the width of the screen associated with the client machine 2.

This information is held by the browser 4 and it, therefore, returns it, at step D, when the next request is made to the server. The server 6 then stores the screen width information (the screen height being unique

for a given width) together with other information regarding the browser session between the client machine 2 and the server 6-e. g. the version of the browser 4, etc.

When the browser 4 next requests a Web page, at step F, the server 6 reads the stored screen width from the session information for that client and uses this to select which of a store of images of different sizes to display on the page. In this particular example, the images are all the same, except for their size, but are each specially created at the particular size at which it will be displayed. Also, as well as an actual visible image, the image which is stored on the server also comprises information to allow the image to act as a hyper-link thereby redirecting a user's browser to a Web page associated with the image in the event that a user clicks the image.

The Web page is then returned, together with the image specially created for the screen size of the client's machine 2, to the browser 4.

Since neither the server 6, nor the browser 4, is required to apply image reduction or enlargement algorithms in order to resize the images, the clarity with which the images were originally produced is retained.

The following table gives the possible screen sizes (in pixels) which are supported by the system.

Width Height 800 600 1024 768 1152 864 1280 960 1600 1200 Thus, each image which it is desired to display in

accordance with the invention is created in five . different versions corresponding to the five supported screen sizes. This will clearly entail extra work at the creation stage, but will afford a consistency of display clarity, whatever the size of the screen.

A second embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to Figures 2a-2c and Figure 3.

Considering firstly Figure 2a, the outermost box 10 represents the available display area of a computer screen. This could correspond to the physical size of the screen or could be a smaller predefined area thereof - e. g. window, HTML frame, etc. In accordance with this embodiment, the procedure described in relation to the first embodiment is followed up to step F. However, in the present embodiment, once the server 6 has ascertained the size of the screen on which the image is to be displayed, rather than selecting a unique image to be returned to the browser 4, the server 6 constructs a tessellated array of rectangular images to fill the display area 10. The method by which it does this will be explained below.

The images are selected randomly from an image database, grouped by screen size and their order randomly shuffled. In this example there are ten different original image sizes for each screen size.

This is shown more clearly in the table of Figure 3.

Thus, it will be seen that once the browser's screen size has been ascertained, one particular column from the table will be selected accordingly. However, in contrast to the previous embodiment, rather than the screen size determining a single image, e. g. advert, there are ten different sizes available. Moreover, there are typically a large number of each size available.

In order to construct a display area 10 to return to the browser, the server firstly selects a display

area to fill. Initially, this will be the whole of the ,. display area 10. Next, an image is selected at random from the image database. The image may, therefore, be any of the ten nominal sizes for the given screen width.

Thus, to take an example, if the browser 4 has informed the server 6 that the size of the screen used by the client machine 2 is 1024 pixels wide by 768 pixels high and an image of nominal size three is randomly selected, its actual size will be 618 x 240 pixels. The software on the server 6 then tests the selected image against the area to be filled to check that it will fit.

In the described embodiment for the first iteration, the image will always fit the screen since the display area 10 is chosen to be a full screen and even the largest nominal advert size, labelled size 0 in Figure 3, is chosen so that it will fit onto a whole screen. This can of course, be ensured since the largest image size will be different, depending upon the actual screen size (number of pixels).

The selected image 12 is then placed in the top left-hand corner of the display area 10, as may be seen in Figure 2a. Once this has been done, the software defines two further areas 14,16 remaining to be filled.

The algorithm for defining the two remaining areas specifies that the first area 14 consists of the largest possible rectangle to the right of the filled region 12, whilst the second area 16 is the rectangle immediately below the filled area 12. Of course, it will be understood that although, in general, there will be two areas 14 and 16, two special cases are shown in Figures 2b and 2c, whereby, in Figure 2b, only one area 18 remains since there is no space to the right of the filled region 20. Similarly, Figure 2c shows the case where the whole area has been filled and there is no remaining area.

Once the two remaining areas 14,16 have been defined, each is treated separately as a brand new area

to be filled. The rightmost area 14 is selected first B and is thus, treated as the new area to be filled. The steps described above for selecting and displaying images, and defining further remaining areas are repeated recursively until the area 14 is completely filled.

Once the first area 14 of the original two has been filled, the second area 16 is selected as the area to be filled and the procedure is repeated until it, too, is completely filled. The entire screen 10 will then have been filled.

It should be noted that the nominal sizes 0-9 of the images in the embodiment described hereabove have been chosen so that the screen can always be completely filled without leaving a gap smaller than the smallest image size which would otherwise, therefore, remain empty. It should be noted, however, that this is not essential and it may be that the sizes are chosen such that small gaps remain. It should also be noted that the Web page on which the screenfull of images is displayed may comprise more than one screen, in which case as many screens as required may each be filled using the algorithm above and then placed adjacent one another on the page. For example, in the preferred embodiment, four such screens are generated for a Web page and are placed one above the other on the page so that a user can scroll down and see all four pages.

It will be appreciated that the arrangement described above allows a screen to be filled with a collection of differently sized images, e. g. adverts which tessellate to fill the screen. This provides a pleasing appearance and furthermore the random nature of the selection of differently sized adverts at each stage of the filling process, means that the overall appearance of the screen will be different each time it is generated, thus creating fresh appeal for a viewer.

In the preferred embodiments each advert comprises

a hyperlink so that a viewer may be immediately directed J. II

to a corresponding Web site by clicking on the advert. to a correspondin This is not however essential to the invention.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that many variations and modifications to the arrangement described above are possible within the scope of the present invention. For example, the images need not be adverts, but could be any other desired images or even boxes displaying moving pictures such as video. It is also not necessary for the display boxes to be rectangular, although it will be appreciated that if the boxes are not of a naturally tessellating shape, complete filling of the screen will not be possible. It will also be seen that each advert is displayed at the size and clarity at which it was originally created and thereby maximising its visual quality and impact.

Claims

Claims :,, 1. A system for displaying an image on one of a plurality of visual display means, said system comprising : means for determining a measure of the number of pixels used by said visual display means and means for selecting the size of said image according to the determined number of pixels used by the visual display means.
2. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the size of said image is proportional to the number of pixels used by the visual display means.
3. A system as claimed in claim 1 or 2 further comprising a plurality of images, created at a plurality of specific sizes.
4. A system as claimed in claim 1,2 or 3 wherein said images comprise a hyperlink to a World Wide Web site.
5. A method of displaying an image on a visual display means, comprising determining a measure of the number of pixels used by said visual display device and selecting the size of said image according to the determined number of pixels used by said visual display device.
6. A method as claimed in claim 5 comprising creating a plurality of images at a plurality of specific sizes.
7. A method as claimed in claim 5 or 6 wherein said images comprise a hyperlink to a World Wide Web site.
8. A method of displaying one or more images on an electronic visual display means, said method comprising: a) selecting an image from a group of images of

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differing sizes ; b) determining whether said image will fit within a predetermined area of the visual display means to be used; and either: c) i) displaying said image in said area if it fits; or: ii) selecting a second image of different size and/or shape if it doesn't fit.
9. A method as claimed in claim 8 wherein the sizes of the images in said group of images are dependent upon the number of pixels used by said visual display means.
10. A method as claimed in claim 8 or 9 further comprising, if said image fits in said selected area, selecting the remaining portion of said selected area as a new selected area and repeating the steps of claim 8 using said new selected area.
11. A method as claimed in claim 10, comprising repeating the step of claim 10 until the remaining area is smaller than the smallest of said group of images.
12. A method as claimed in any of claims 8 to 11 comprising removing the image, if it is displayed, from said group of images until all of said group of images has been displayed.
13. A method as claimed in any of claims 8 to 12 wherein said images have tessellating shapes.
14. Computer software adapted to carry out the method of any of claims 5 to 13 when installed on a data processing device.

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15. Apparatus for displaying one or more images on an electronic visual display means comprising means for selecting an image from a group of images of differing sizes, means for determining whether said image will fit within a predetermined area of the visual display means to be used, the apparatus being arranged either to display said image in said area if it fits or select an image of different size and/or shape if it does not.
16. Apparatus as claimed in claim 15 wherein said images comprise a hyperlink to a World Wide Web site.
17. Apparatus as claimed in claim 15 or 16 wherein said images have tessellating shapes.
18. A system or apparatus as claimed in any of claims claim 1 to 4 or 15 wherein said means comprise computer software.
19. Server software for displaying an image on one of a plurality of client visual display means such that the size of said image is independent of the number of pixels on said visual display means; comprising means for receiving a measure of the number of pixels used by said client visual display means and means for selecting the size of said image according to the received measure of the number of pixels used by said visual display means.
20. Software for a client machine operating a visual display means for operation in association with the above server software, said software comprising means for transmitting a measure of the number of pixels used by the visual display means to the server and means for causing an image returned from the server to be displayed on the visual display means.