Importance

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Abstract

A television-based hyperlink content navigation system includes a display device having a viewing area for displaying visual content such as an Internet Web document. Generally, the visual content has a content area that is larger than the viewing area, and includes a plurality of selectable objects such as hyperlinks and image maps. A user-manipulated operator such as a joystick allows navigation through the various hyperlinks and image maps, and also initiates scrolling of the visual content. Assuming that a focus is initially on a first one of the objects, moving the trackball tabs the focus to a nearby second object if the second object is within a predefined linear distance from the first object. If there is no second object within the predefined distance, moving the trackball causes the visual content to scroll at a speed that is proportional to the trackball speed. If a currently focused object is an image, such as an image map, that has a continuous two-dimensional range of selectable points, moving the trackball moves a pointer over the image in a continuous manner. Such a pointer is displayed only when the focus is on such a continuous image.

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First Claim