# US 2010/0169765 A1 · Categorizing document elements based on display layout

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- Number: US 2010/0169765 A1
- Document ID: US20100169765A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 12/345,627
- Filed: 2008-12-29
- Published: 2010-07-01
- Earliest claimed: 2008-12-29
- Assignees: Microsoft Corporation
- Inventors: Hai Cui; Chundong Wang; Paul Clanton Nelson
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20100169765A1

## CPC

- G06T 1/20: Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining
- G06T: IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL

## Abstract

Identifying panel types of elements for display on a computing device. Documents such as web pages have a layout for the elements with some elements positioned in the header, footer, and sidebar regions of the document. A browser or other application receives the elements for display (e.g., on a mobile computing device) and analyzes each of the elements to define header, footer, sidebar, and content regions. The panel types are assigned based on the region in which the element resides. Aspects of the disclosure enable manipulation of the elements by, for example, presenting the elements corresponding to content panels, centering the web page within a display area on the computing device, and preventing advertisements from being displayed.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A system for identifying panels for display on a mobile computing device, said system comprising:
a memory area for storing a web page comprising a plurality of elements, each of said plurality of elements being positioned on the web page, and each of the plurality of elements having a height and width associated therewith; and
a processor programmed to:
receive, by an application program executing on the mobile computing device, the web page; and
for each of the plurality of elements:
determine a ratio between a height and a width of the element;
calculate a threshold distance based at least on the determined ratio, said threshold distance corresponding to a quantity of pixels measured perpendicularly from an edge of the web page;
determine whether the element is positioned within an area defined by the edge and the threshold distance;
identify the element as a header panel, footer panel, or sidebar panel if the element is positioned within the area based on the position determination; and
identify the element as a content panel if the element is not positioned within the area based on the position determination.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to recursively subdivide one or more of the plurality of elements into sub-elements having an area less than a defined threshold, said threshold being defined based on a size of a display area.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the memory area stores the elements as hypertext markup language elements.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, farther comprising:
means for identifying content panels in the plurality of elements; and
means for modifying the web page for display based on the identification of the elements as content panels.

### Claim 5

A method comprising:
accessing a plurality of elements for display in a display area, each of said plurality of elements occupying a position within the display area, and each of the plurality of elements having a height and width associated therewith; and
for at least one of the accessed plurality of elements:
determining a ratio between a height and a width of the element;
calculating a threshold distance based at least on the determined ratio, said threshold distance being measured perpendicularly from an edge of the display area;
determining whether the element is positioned within an area defined by the edge and the threshold distance; and
assigning an element type to the element based on said determining, wherein the assigned element type identifies a region of the display area.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The method of claim 5, further comprising associating the assigned element types with the elements, wherein an application program displays the elements based on the assigned element types.

### Claim 7 (depends on 5)

The method of claim 5, further comprising providing the elements and the assigned element types for display on a computing device.

### Claim 8 (depends on 5)

The method of claim 5, wherein an application program executing on a computing device associated with the display area performs said accessing, said determining the ratio, said calculating, said determining whether the element is positioned within the area, and said assigning.

### Claim 9 (depends on 5)

The method of claim 5, wherein a web service communicating with a computing device associated with the display area performs said accessing, said determining the ratio, said calculating, said determining whether the element is positioned within the area, and said assigning.

### Claim 10 (depends on 5)

The method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of elements are associated with a web page, and further comprising requesting the web page prior to accessing the plurality of elements.

### Claim 11 (depends on 5)

The method of claim 5, wherein x represents the determined ratio, and wherein calculating the threshold distance comprises calculating N to identify header panels, where
N
=
200
+
40
20
*
x
+
1

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The method of claim 11, wherein determining whether the element is positioned within the area defined by the edge and the threshold distance comprises determining if the element is positioned within the top N rows of the display area.

### Claim 13 (depends on 5)

The method of claim 5, wherein x represents the determined ratio of height to width, and wherein calculating the threshold distance comprises calculating N to identify footer panels, where
N
=
240
+
40
20
*
x
+
1

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, wherein determining whether the element is positioned within the area defined by the edge and the threshold distance comprises determining if the element is positioned within the bottom N rows of the display area.

### Claim 15 (depends on 5)

The method of claim 5, wherein y represents the determined ratio of width to height, and wherein calculating the threshold distance comprises calculating M to identify sidebar panels, where
M
=
0.3
*
Width
DISPLAYAREA
+
40
20
*
y
+
1

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The method of claim 15, wherein determining whether the element is positioned within the area defined by the edge and the threshold distance comprises determining if the element is positioned within a leftmost M columns of the display area.

### Claim 17 (depends on 15)

The method of claim 15, wherein determining whether the element is positioned within the area defined by the edge and the threshold distance comprises determining if the element is positioned within a rightmost M columns of the display area.

### Claim 18

One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable components, said components comprising:
an interface component for receiving a plurality of elements for display in a display area, each of said plurality of elements occupying a position within the display area, and each of the plurality of elements having a height and width associated therewith; and
a subdivision component for recursively dividing one or more of the elements received by the interface component into sub-elements having an area less than a defined threshold, said threshold being defined based on a size of the display area; and
a category component for assigning an element type to one or more of the elements received by the interface component and the elements from the subdivision component, wherein the category component:
determines a ratio between a height and a width of the element;
calculates a threshold distance based at least on the determined ratio, said threshold distance being measured perpendicularly from an edge of the display area;
determines whether the element is positioned within an area defined by the edge and the threshold distance; and
assigns the element type to the element based on the determined position.

### Claim 19 (depends on 18)

The computer-readable media of claim 18, wherein the category component assigns one of the following element types to the element: a header panel, a footer panel, a sidebar panel, and a content panel.

### Claim 20 (depends on 18)

The computer-readable media of claim 18, wherein the subdivision component recursively divides the elements having more than 250,000 pixels, and wherein the category component further discards elements having a ratio less than 0.01.