INTERACTIVE IMAGING FOR MOBILE PHONES

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates to cell phones that display images.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] With the advent of color displays on cell phones, and operating systems for developing software applications, digital images are being used on cell phones in a variety of applications. Aside from the aesthetics of images, from the standpoint of information digital images convey a Jot of information, much more than can _be conveyed with text on the small cell phone displays. A picture's worth a thousand word. Consider, for example, a cell phone user who wishes to find directions to get from one location to another. An image of a map conveys much more information than a textual description.

[0003] Many cell phones today interact with a user with menu-driven text selections. Such in interface is cumbersome, and often involves many stages of user selection, each stage involving pressing a key or tapping a light pen. Use of images has the advantage of simplifying and accelerating the interface.

[0004] WO 01 / 63392 discloses a visual display for an electronic device, which is partitioned into regions. Each of the regions is associated with a key on a keypad. A visual correspondence is provided for the user to associate choices illustrated in the regions with the numbered keys. The regions display visual information such as graphics and / or text to identify a selection option. The keys are associated with the regions such that when a key is selected the selection option associated with the region is chosen.

[0005] EP 1033644 discloses a two-way mobile communication device having a display screen capable of displaying an image map. The image map has displayed therein a plurality of graphical symbols which identify resident applications which can be launched. Existing keys or buttons of the two-way mobile communication device are used to activate (or launch) these resident applications.

[0006] WO 2006 / 034137, having a claimed priority date of 21st September 2004, discloses a cellular PDA communication system for allowing a plurality of cellular phone users to monitor each other's location and status, to initiate cellular phone calls by touching a symbol on the display screen with a stylus or finger which can also include conferencing calling.

[0007] There is thus a need for an interactive imaging applications that enable a cell phone user to find the information he desires in a simple and rapid way, with an intuitive and aesthetic user interface.SUMMARY OF THE DESCRIPTION

[0008] The present invention provides a method and system for interactive imaging on cellular phones. Using the present invention, a cell phone may run software or hardware that enables a user to interactively view virtual tours of various sites, and jump from one tour to another by means of "hot spots". Hot spots are active areas within a virtual tour that the user can activate in order to jump to a virtual tour specific to the active area. For example, the user can jump from a city map to virtual tours of sites of interest by activating hot spots for the sites that are located within the city map. Moreover, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, hot spots can be used to automatically activate functions of the cell phone, such as a dial function. For example, a user viewing a virtual tour of a site can automatically call an office for the site by activating a hot spot within the virtual tour.

[0009] It may thus be appreciated that the present invention provides the capability for automatically linking functions of a cell phone to hot spots within interactive virtual tours rendered on the cell phone's display.

[0010] There is thus provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention a method for interactive imaging on a cellular phone as defined in claim 1.

[0011] There is moreover provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention a system for interactive imaging, as defined in claim 5.

[0012] There is further provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention a computer-readable storage medium as defined in claim 9.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013] The present invention will be more fully understood and appreciated from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the drawings in which: FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate a Nokia smart cell phone running an interactive imaging application, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; FIGS. 2A - 2G illustrate a virtual tour of Paddington Station displayed on a cell phone, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 3A - 3H illustrate illustrate a virtual tour of London displayed on a cell phone, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and FIGS. 4A - 4D are images used to generate the virtual tour of Paddington Station, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. LIST OF APPENDICES

[0014] Appendices A1 - A4 are source listings of XML files used to implement a system for interactive imaging, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0015] The present invention concerns a method and system for interactive imaging on cellular phones.

[0016] The present invention is implemented within a cell phone that includes a central processing unit, memory units for storing programs and data, an input device and a display. Preferably the input device is a keypad. Preferably, the central processing unit, memory units, and device drivers for the keypad and display are coupled communicatively together using a conventional data bus. Preferably the central processing unit runs an operating system such as Symbian OS.

[0017] FIGS. 1A - 1G illustrate operation of the present invention within a Nokia cell phone.

[0018] Reference is now made to FIG. 1A, which is an illustration of a Nokia Series 60 smart cell phone 100 that includes a keypad 110, control buttons and a color display 120. Keypad 110 includes conventional buttons for the ten digits 1 -0, and buttons for "*" and "#". The control buttons include four directional buttons 130, an "OK" button 140, and buttons 150 for activating the commands appearing at the bottom left and right of display 120. It may be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other input devices may be used instead of or in conjunction with keyboard 110 and buttons 130, 140 and 150, such as a light pen for tapping the screen. Such an input device is included, for example, with SonyEricsson cell phones.

[0019] Upon startup of cell phone 100, icons 160 for various applications loaded on the phone appear in display 130. The currently selected application is identified by a box frame 170 surrounding it. A user can navigate through the various icons by pressing directional buttons 130. The user can launch the selected application by pressing on the OK button 140.

[0020] One such icon 160 is for an interactive imaging application named "iSeeVU", in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. When iSeeVU is launched, a list of maps appear in display 120, as shown in FIG. IB. Each map is a virtual tour of one or more sites, as described hereinbelow. The currently selected map is indicated by shaded text. The user can navigate up and down through the list of maps by pressing the up and down directional buttons 130, and can activate the currently selected map by pressing on the "OK" button.

[0021] Reference is now made to FIG. 2A, which illustrates cell phone 100 with a map for a virtual tour of Paddington appearing in display 120. The Paddington map is larger than the display area of display 120, and can be moved left, right, up and down by using the four directional buttons 130.

[0022] Within the Paddington map are active areas 205 indicated by square icons, referred to as "hot spots". When a user activates a hot spot, the virtual tour jumps from one display to another, as described hereinbelow. The currently active hot spot 210 is designated by a double-lined thick border 215. For the map shown in FIG. 2A, the hot spot for Paddington Station is currently the active hot spot. This is also evidenced by the description 220 at the top of display 120. Preferably, the user navigates from one hot spot to another by pressing on the "*" key, and the user activates the currently selected hot spot by pressing on the "OK" button.

[0023] Reference is now made to FIG. 2B, which shows a different currently selected hot spot 225, described as "St. Mary's Hospital" at the top of display 120. Hot spot 225 is located at the intersection of Praed Street and Norfolk in the Paddington map.

[0024] When the user activates hot spot 225, by pressing on the "OK" button, the virtual tour jumps to a panoramic scene of St. Mary's Hospital on Praed Street, as illustrated in FIG. 2C. The changeover from a map view to a panoramic scene, referred to as an "Eye View" is also indicated by the tabs 230 and 235. Preferably, the user can toggle between the map view and the panoramic scene by pressing the "1" key on keypad 110. In fact, there is a third view, referred to as a "Meta View" that the user can select, as described below with reference to FIG. 2F, and the user can toggle between all three views.

[0025] The panoramic scene of St. Mary's Hospital is larger than can fit within display 120. Preferably, the user can navigate through the panorama by pressing the directional buttons on the cell phone. Reference is made to FIG. 2D, which shows a view of St. Mary's Hospital when the user presses the left directional arrow. The distance that the panorama moves between FIG. 2C and FIG. 2D is apparent from hot spot 240. In FIG. 2C hot spot 240 is positioned near the center of display 120, and in FIG. 2D hot spot 240 has moved to the right.

[0026] Going back to Paddington Station in FIG. 2A, when the user activates hot spot 210, the virtual tour jumps to a panoramic image of Paddington Station, illustrated in FIG. 2E. Shown in FIG. 2E is a hot spot 245 described as "META / General Information" at the top of display 120. Hot spot 245 is an information hot spot. The user activates hot spot 245 and the view changes from Eye View to Meta View, as illustrated in FIG. 2F, and as indicated by tabs 235 and 250. Shown in FIG. 2F is informational text, referred to as meta-data, about Paddington Station. Below the information are telephone hot spots 255, for calling various services related to Paddington Station. Preferably, the user navigates through the telephone hot spots by pressing the "*" key. The currently selected telephone hot spot 260 is indicated by a square frame 265 surrounding it. The user activates the selected telephone hot spot by pressing on the "OK" button.

[0027] Reference is now made to FIG. 2G, which appears after the user has activated the "Thames Trains" hot spot. The phone number for the Thames Trains appears in display 120. Cell phone 100 dials the phone number automatically if the user selects "Yes", by pressing on left button 150.

[0028] Reference is now made to FIGS. 3A - 3H, which illustrate a virtual tour of London. Such a virtual tour is activated when the user selects "London" from the list of maps shown in FIG. 1B, and presses the "OK" button.

[0029] Shown in FIG. 3A is a map of London with a currently selected hot spot 310 for Greater London, as indicated in the description 320 at the top of cell phone 100. By pressing on right navigational directional button 130, the map moves to the right. The movement of the map is evident by the position of hot spot 310 in FIG. 3A vis a vis its position in FIG. 3B.

[0030] The user activates hot spot 310 by pressing on "OK" button 140, and the virtual tour jumps from a Map View of London to an Eye View of Greater London illustrated in FIG. 3C. The map in FIG. 3C contains various hot spots 330, the currently selected hotspot 340 for jumping to a map of Waterloo.

[0031] The user activates hot spot 340 by pressing on "OK" button 140, and the virtual tour jumps from the Eye View of Greater London to an Eye View of Waterloo illustrated in FIG. 3D. In turn, the map of Waterloo contains a hot spot 350 for jumping to the Golden Jubilee Bridge.

[0032] The user activates hot spot 350 by pressing on "OK" button 140, and the virtual tour jumps to a panoramic scene of the Golden Jubilee Bridge shown in FIG. 3E. The panoramic scene includes a hot spot 360 for jumping back to the Waterloo map. The user navigates through the panoramic image by pressing on directional buttons 130. The user can also move through hot spots by pressing on the "*" key. FIG. 3F shows a section of the panoramic scene that is rotated approximately 90° from the section shown in FIG. 3E, including a meta-data hot spot 370.

[0033] The user activates hot spot 370 by pressing on "OK" button 140, and the information text shown in FIG. 3G appears on the display. Shown in FIG. 3G is a telephone hot spot 380, which the user can activate by pressing on "OK" button 140. When the user activates hot spot 380, the phone number is displayed as in FIG. 3H, and the user selects the "Yes" command at the bottom left of the display by pressing on left button 150. In response, cell phone 100 automatically dials the indicated phone number.

[0034] The present invention is preferably implemented through XML documents that define areas for hot spots and actions to be taken when a hot spot is activated. Reference is now made to Appendix A1, which is a listing of an XML document used to implement the virtual tour of Paddington illustrated in FIGS. 2A - 2G, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As can be seen in the listing, an ImageFile tag references a JPEG image Paddington_map.jpg, which is shown in FIG. 4A. It is noted that the image has icons for the hot spots embedded within it.

[0035] The listing in Appendix A also includes a plurality of hot spots. Whenever a user presses the "*" key of the cell phone, he advances through the hot spots. Each hot spot specifies: (i) a rectangular position for the hot spot within the display, based on normalized coordinates; (ii) an XML file for the hot spot; and (iii) a tip, which includes a brief description of the hot spot. Thus the hot spot for St. Mary's Hospital extends in width from 0.558 to 0.6, and extends in height from 0.620588 to 0.679412. These coordinates are normalized so that the entire display has a width and height of 1. The hot spot for St. Mary's Hospital references an XML file named st_marys_hospital.xml, and has a tip with text "St. Mary's Hospital". Thus, when this hot spot is the currently selected hot spot, the text "St. Mary's Hospital" appears in the cell phone display, as illustrated in FIG. 2B. When this hot spot is selected by the user, the virtual tour jumps to the XML file for St. Mary's Hospital.

[0036] The XML file for St. Mary's Hospital is listed in Appendix A2, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The listing references a spherical panoramic image, st_marys_hospital.jpg, which is shown in FIG. 4B. The tag for the panoramic image includes several viewing parameters, such as a vertical field of view and a pitch range. The listing also references two hot spots, one for "Praed South Wharf" and one for Praed London St". It is noted that the panoramic image has icons for the two hot spots embedded within it.

[0037] The XML file for Paddington Station is listed in Appendix A3, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. This file is invoked from the hot spot for Paddington Station listed in Appendix A1. The listing references a spherical panoramic image, paddington_station_interior.jpg, which is shown in FIG. 4C. The listing in Appendix A3 indicates two hot spots, one designated "Walkway to Praed St." and one designated "META / General Information.txt". The general information text file includes the text illustrated in FIG. 2F. The graphic for the telephone hot spots is shown in FIG. 4D.

[0038] The automatic dialing of the cellular phone is preferably implemented through the Symbian operating system functions call.OpenNewCall(line, newCallName) and call.Dial(aPhoneNumber), where line is an instance of Symbian class RLine, and call is an instance of Symbian class RCall.

[0039] In reading the above description, persons skilled in the art will realize that there are many apparent variations that can be applied to the methods and systems described. Thus, although the present specification describes interactive imaging for image content that is already stored in the cell phone, in an alternative embodiment the image content may be dynamically downloaded from a server computer. Specifically, when the cell phone user downloads the iSeeVU software application, illustrated in FIG. 1A, from a server computer, the download may include all of the image content, part of the image content, or none of the image content. Furthermore, when the cell phone runs the iSeeVU application, it may or may not be connected to the Internet. If the cell phone is not connected to the Internet, then it runs the iSeeVU application using whatever local content is available. If the cell phone is connected to the Internet, then it downloads content from a server, either by the cell phone pulling content on demand or by the server pushing content to the cell phone.

[0040] The ability to download content dynamically enables additional functionality, including inter alia the ability to make custom content available to users based on user profiles, and the ability to regularly change content.

[0041] In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to the specific exemplary embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.APPENDIX A1

[0042] APPENDIX A2

[0043] APPENDIX A3

[0044] APPENDIX A4

[0045] APPENDIX B1

[0046] APPENDIX B2

[0047]

Claims

1. A method for interactive imaging on a cellular phone, comprising: rendering an image on a display (120) for a cellular phone (100), the image having a plurality of icons (205, 210, 245) corresponding to a plurality of active areas embedded therein; detecting that a user has selected at least one of the active areas indicated by at least one of the icons of the image using an input device for the cellular phone; and automatically activating a function of the cellular phone corresponding to the active area of the rendered image; wherein the image further comprises a selected one of: a map view showing at least a portion of a selected map including at least one of the active areas which, when selected by the user, activates a rendering function to display a corresponding eye view of a selected site in the map view; the corresponding eye view showing a finer detail map of the selected site and including at least one of the active areas which, when selected by the user, activates a rendering function to display a corresponding meta view regarding the selected site; and the corresponding meta view including at least one of the active areas associated with a telephone number of a service related to the selected site.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the input device is a light pen or a keypad.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the function of the cellular phone is a dialling function when the at least one of the active areas associated with the telephone number is selected by the user.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the function of the cellular phone is a display function.

5. A system for interactive imaging, comprising: a cellular phone (100), comprising: a display (120) housed on said cellular phone for displaying an image, wherein the image has a plurality of icons (205, 210, 245) corresponding to a plurality of active areas embedded therein; and a processor housed inside said cellular phone and coupled to said display for detecting that a user has selected one of the plurality of active areas indicated by at least one of the icons of said image using an input device for said cellular phone, and for automatically activating a function of said cellular phone corresponding to the selected one of the plurality of active areas of said image; wherein the image further comprises a selected one of: a map view showing at least a portion of a selected map including at least one of the active areas which, when selected by the user, activates a rendering function to display a corresponding eye view of a selected site in the map view; the corresponding eye view showing a finer detail map of the selected site and including at least one of the active areas which, when selected by the user, activates a rendering function to display a corresponding meta view regarding the selected site; and the corresponding meta view including at least one of the active areas associated with a telephone number of a service related to the selected site.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the input device is a light pen or a keypad.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein the function of the cellular phone is a dialling function when the at least one of the active areas associated with the telephone number is selected by the user.

8. The system of claim 5 wherein the function of the cellular phone is a display function.

9. A computer-readable storage medium storing program code which, when executed by a cellular phone causes the cellular phone to perform the steps of any one of claims 1-4; wherein the cellular phone comprises a central processing unit, memory units for storing programs and data, an input device and a display.