Preview Functions for Web Browsing Using Cellular Phones

Cellular phones are widely used to access the Web. However, because of their small screens and poor interfaces, it is inconvenient to browse Web pages designed for desktop PCs. In this paper, we propose two novel functions that virtually extend a cellular phone´s screen so that users can acquire more information from the small screens than the traditional Web browsing using cellular phones. The first function presents previews of adjacent areas of the currently displayed area of a Web page so that users can understand what information is in the neighboring areas. The other presents previews of Web pages linked from the current page to help users to select an appropriate link connecting to a page containing the information of interest. As a platform for the implementation of these functions, we use cellular phones equipped with sensors to provide a user-friendly interface.