Cross-Platform Virtual Rendering Surface Layout with Tile Rendering

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing systems face challenges in rendering electronic documents across different user device platforms, leading to inconsistent views and increased latency due to image loading, especially during collaborative sessions, as they require platform-specific rendering modules and suffer from resource-intensive re-rendering of entire documents.

Innovation Solution

Implementing a shared layout mechanism using a Javascript Virtual Machine (JSVM) to manage layout and rendering across platforms, dividing the canvas into tiles for efficient rendering, and utilizing an underlying canvas to store and restore states, reducing computation complexity and latency through interactive scrolling and zooming.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If the entire document is re-rendered when settings change, then the document layout is updated consistently, but the latency increases due to image loading and processing time

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedocument layout consistencyVSAvoidrendering latency
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent divides the rendering surface into a grid of tiles, allowing the system to render and update only the specific tile regions that contain changed elements rather than re-rendering the entire document. This segmentation enables partial rendering updates, reducing the time required while maintaining layout consistency across the full document.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

2Productivity

If platform-specific rendering modules are used for each user device platform, then the rendering can be optimized for each platform, but the device complexity and integration effort increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improverendering efficiencyVSAvoidrendering module complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements a universal rendering architecture where a single rendering engine can operate across multiple platforms (desktop, mobile, tablet) by adapting to different screen sizes and resolutions. The system uses a common tile-based rendering approach that works consistently across all platforms, eliminating the need for separate platform-specific rendering modules while maintaining rendering efficiency.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

3Adaptability or versatility

If the same electronic document is rendered on different platforms with different screen sizes, then the document adapts to each device, but the views become inconsistent across users

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedevice adaptationVSAvoidview consistency
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSStability of the object's composition

Solution Approach 1:

By dividing the document into a standardized tile grid system, the patent ensures that the same logical tiles are rendered across different platforms regardless of screen size variations. Each tile represents a consistent unit of the document, allowing users on different devices to view the same portions of the document in the same positions, thereby maintaining view consistency while still adapting to different device form factors.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentEP4198962B1Systems and methods for interactively presenting a visible portion of a rendering surface on a user device
Publication Date: 2025.07.02 GOOGLE LLC
  • EP4198962B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4198962B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4198962B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

Systems and methods disclosed herein provide a method of consistently presenting a visible portion of a rendering surface on multiple user devices. The method includes obtaining, at a user device from a remote storage server, content relating to an electronic document stored on the remote storage server, and then determining layout parameters of the content. The layout parameters define a consistent layout on a virtual rendering surface for the content of the electronic document across multiple user devices having different dimensions of display areas. The method further includes obtaining, via a user interface at the user device, a user indication indicative of a visible portion of the electronic document to be displayed via the user interface. The method further includes determining rendering parameters to render the visible portion at the user interface, and rendering the visible portion via the user interface on the user device.