Method, system, apparatus, and computer program product for controlling and browsing a virtual book

• US 20040164975A1
• Filed: 09/15/2003
• Published: 08/26/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sino Star Global Ltd.
• Original Assignee: E-BOOK SYSTEMS PTE. LTD.
• Inventors: Liang, Chee Cheng J., Ho, Seng Beng, Austin, Jason Bradley
• Granted Patent: US 7,386,804 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 345/901 Electronic book with display

Abstract

A hardware and software system including a controller that can be operatively combined with several methods of display on a display screen under software and hardware control for the purpose of browsing through data stored in a memory device. The browsing of the data stored in a memory device is facilitated in such a way that it allows a rapid view of what contents are present and the organization of the material in the data, as well as rapid access to the items in the data involved. The controllers in the system have specialized functions for effecting various actions on the data displayed on the display screen in such a way that users can rapidly browse through the data involved. The methods of display may include interaction with CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, a portable optical large volume storage disk, a portable large volume non-optical storage medium, a TV, and an HDTV.

Claims

1. A method for controlling and browsing a virtual book, comprising:

displaying information on two pages of an electronic book;

displaying a left and a right side book thickness, said left and right side book thicknesses corresponding to a respective amount information within said electronic book before and after said displayed information; and

displaying one or more pages flipping, individually or in tandem, across said electronic book.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying one of a page-bookmark, an annotation bookmark, a finger bookmark, and a keyword bookmark;

displaying an Internet Universal Resource Locator field.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying one of a left and a right jump cursor.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

controlling said display with a control device.

5. The method of claim 4, said control device comprising at least one of:

a computer;

a keyboard;

a mouse; and

a remote control device.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

displaying a page number, said page number corresponding to a page selected by said one of a left and a right jump cursor.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

jumping to a selected page by one of selecting one of said page-bookmark, said annotation bookmark, said finger bookmark, and said keyword bookmark and activating one of said left and said right jump cursor.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

displaying one or more pages flipping, individually or in tandem, to said selected page; and

adjusting the left and right side thickness to correspond to a jump to said selected page.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adjusting a speed of displayed movement through said electronic book; and

displaying an increased number of pages flipped, said increased number corresponding to the adjusted speed.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

freezing one or more flipping pages in a partially flipped position.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

controllably flipping said frozen one or more pages.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising;

displaying one of a coarse and fine thickness indication.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a stationary left and right page while displaying additionally pages being flipped across from a first side to a second side simultaneously, said additional pages being located between said stationary left and right page.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising;

adjusting a book browsing speed;

displaying more or less pages simultaneously flipping in correspondence to said adjusted book browsing speed; and

adjusting the left and right side thickness in proportion to the direction of page flipping and said book browsing speed.

15. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

displaying a first collection of pages flipping between a current page and a jumped-to-page, a thickness of said first collection of pages being proportional to a number of pages between the current page and the jumped-to-page.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a plurality of pages simultaneously flipping in a first direction;

stopping the flipping of one or all of the plurality of pages simultaneously flipping; and

displaying said stopped one or all pages flipping in an opposite direction from said first direction while displaying a remainder of said plurality of pages simultaneously flipping in said first direction.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

stopping the flipping of a subset of said one or all of the plurality of pages simultaneously flipping; and

displaying said stopped subset of said one or all pages flipping in said first direction while displaying a remainder of said subset simultaneously flipping in said opposite direction direction.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

stopping the flipping of a subset of said remainder of said plurality of pages; and

displaying said stopped subset of said remainder of said plurality of pages flipping in said opposite direction while displaying a remainder of said remainder of said plurality of pages simultaneously flipping in said first direction.

19. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

unfreezing some or all of said one or more frozen pages.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising one of:

displaying unfrozen pages flipping in a direction equal to a pre-freezing flipping direction;

displaying unfrozen pages flipping in a direction opposite to a pre-freezing flipping direction; and

displaying a first subset of unfrozen pages flipping in a direction equal to a pre-freezing flipping direction while displaying a second subset of unfrozen pages flipping in a direction opposite to a pre-freezing flipping direction.

21. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

jumping to a second selected page by one of selecting another one of said page-bookmark, said annotation bookmark, said finger bookmark, and said keyword bookmark and activating one of said left and a right jump cursor;

displaying a second collection of pages flipping between said current page and a second jumped-to-page, a thickness of said second collection of pages being proportional to a number of pages between a trailing edge page and the second jumped-to-page,

said jumping to a second selected page occurring while displaying a first collection of pages flipping between a current page and jumped-to-page.

22. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

holding said one or more flipping pages stationary on said display; and

moving said held one or more pages across the screen by controlling a position control component of a control device.

23. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

picking up a first page or a first collection of pages from one of said right side thickness and said left side thickness;

collecting onto the picked-up first page or the picked-up first collection of pages a collection of additional pages into a first book subsection; and

holding or flipping said first book subsection.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

dropping at least one page from said first book subsection.

25. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

picking up a first collection of pages from one of said right side thickness and said left side thickness; and

one of

holding or flipping said first collection of pages.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

dropping at least one page from said first collection of pages.

27. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

picking up a second single page or a second collection of pages with said control device to form a second book subsection;

forming a sub-book with said first and second book subsections.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

dropping at least one page from at least one of said first and second collection of pages.

29. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

displaying a menu.

30. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

one of

viewing contents of a memory card,

viewing contents of a CD or DVD,

viewing contents of one or more storage medium,

copying contents from the memory card to the CD or DVD,

copying contents from the CD or DVD to the memory card,

copying contents from a first storage medium to a second storage medium,

copying contents from the control device to the memory card, the one or more storage medium, or the CD or DVD,

copying contents from one of the memory card, one or more storage medium, CD or DVD to the control device, and

applying optional features to one of an image, text, an audio object, a video object, a multimedia object, a page, and the virtual book.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

viewing said contents of the memory card, the one or more storage medium, or the CD or DVD as thumbnails, as a slide show, or as a flipping book.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

selecting a folder to be previewed.

33. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

copying said contents of the one of a memory card, the CD or DVD, and the one or more storage medium into a writable medium, said writable medium connected to said control device directly or via a network.

34. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

copying one of images, text, audio files, video files, and multimedia objects from at least one of the Internet and an intranet.

35. The method of claim 30, said step of setting parameters comprising:

selecting one of a sound effect, an album music, an album theme, a memory card, a compact disc, and an autoplay interval.

36. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

applying visual effects to an image.

37. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

one of deleting, rotating, and editing an image on a page.

38. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

one of applying sound effects and applying music to one of an image and a page.

39. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

copying an entire virtual book to a writable medium, said writable medium connected to said control device directly or via a network.

40. The method of claim 30, wherein at least one of said steps of viewing contents of a memory card, viewing contents of one or more storage medium, viewing contents of a CD or DVD, copying contents from the memory card to the CD or DVD, copying contents from the CD or DVD to the memory card, copying contents from a first storage medium to a second storage medium, copying contents from the control device to the memory card, the one or more storage medium, or the CD or DVD, copying said contents from the memory card, the one or more storage medium, or the CD or DVD to the control device, and applying optional features to an image, text, an audio object, a video object, a multimedia object, a page, or the virtual book comprises:

one-button operations.

41. The method of claim 30, said step of copying contents from the control device to the memory card, the one or more storage medium, or the CD or DVD comprises:

installing viewing software on the respective memory card, one or more storage medium, CD or DVD from said control device.

53. An apparatus configured to perform at least one of the methods recited in claims 1-41.

54. A computer program product configured to host instructions corresponding to at least one the methods recited in claims 1-41.

42. A system for displaying and editing an electronic book, comprising;

a display screen;

a memory and control device; and

a controller.

43. The system of claim 42, wherein said display screen comprises one of:

a computer screen,

a TV screen.

44. The system of claim 43, wherein said TV screen comprises one of a:

an analog display screen;

a digital display screen;

a wide-aspect display screen;

a non-wide-aspect display screen;

an NTSC display screen; and

a PAL display screen or any other kind of display screen.

45. The system of claim 42, wherein the controller comprises one of:

a mouse;

a keyboard, and

a wired or wireless remote controller.

46. The system of claim 42, wherein at least one of said controller and said memory and control device comprises at least one of:

a STANDBY button;

a CLOSE button;

a ZOOM-LEFT button;

a ZOOM-RIGHT button

an UP button;

a DOWN button;

an OK button;

a LEFT button;

a RIGHT button;

a LEFT THICKNESS button;

a RIGHT THICKNESS button;

a BOOKMARK button;

a MENU button;

an AUTOFLIP button;

a FLIPTO button;

a COPY button;

an EJECT button; and

a DELETE button.

47. The system of claim 46, wherein at least one of said buttons operates in concert with a displayed menu.

48. The system of claim 42, wherein at least one of said controller and said memory and control device is configured to initiate at least one of

a direction of movement command;

a speed of movement command;

a select-to-jump-to-a-specified-point-in-a-document command;

a jump-to-a-specified-point-in-a-document command;

a permanent-bookmarking command;

a finger-bookmarking command;

a launch-a-single-flipping-page command;

a-launch-multiple-flipping-pages-at-a-specific-interval command;

a reverse-direction-of-a-single-last-trailing-page command;

a reverse-direction-of-multiple-last-trailing-pages command;

a reverse-direction-of-a-selected-group-of-flipping-pages command;

a freeze-at-least-one-flipping-pages-in-mid-flip command;

an-unfreeze-frozen-pages-and-let-pages-continue-to-flip-in-directions-prior to-freezing command;

an unfreeze-frozen-pages-and-let-pages-all-flip-in-a-same-direction command;

an unfreeze-frozen-pages-and-some-pages-flip-to-a-left-side-and-some-to-a-right-side-of-book command;

an unfreeze-frozen-pages-and-let-a-subgroup-of-pages-flip-in-different-directions command;

a jump-and-make-a-thick-collection-of-pages-flip-together command;

a launch-flipping-pages-while-a-thick-collection-of-pages-is-flipping command;

a launch-at-least-one-other-thick-collections-of-pages-while-other-pages-are-flipping command;

a select-to-hold-a-page command;

a move-a-held-single-page-in-a-selected-direction-at-a-selected-speed command;

a select-to-hold-a-thick-collection-of-pages command;

a move-a-held-single-thick-collection-of-pages-in-a-selected-direction-and-at-a-selected-speed command;

a select-to-hold-at-least-one-of-at-least-two-pages-and-a-thick-collection-of-pages command;

a move-at-least-one-of-a-held-pages-and-a-thick-collection-of-pages-in-a-selected-direction-and-at-a-selected-speed command;

a hold-a-single-page-in-mid-flip-and-collect-other-pages-that-flip-onto-the-single-page-in-mid-flip command;

a hold-a-single-thick-collection-of-pages-in-mid-flip-and-collect-other-pages—

that-flip-onto-the-single-thick-collection-of-pages-in-mid-flip command;

a hold-at-least-one-of-a-single-page-and-a-thick-collection-of-pages-in-mid—

flip-and-execute-at-least-one-of-the-set-of-page-flipping-commands-between-the-at—

least-one-of-a-single-page-and-a-thick-collection-of-pages-in-mid-flip-and-a-thickness-of-a-side-of-a-book-command; and

a hold-at-least-one-of-to-pages-and-a-thick-collection-of-pages-in-mid-flip—

and-execute-at-least-one-of-the-set-of-page-flipping-commands-between-the-at-least—

one-of-two-pages-and-a-thick-collection-of-pages-in-mid-flip command.

49. The method of claim 48, wherein at least one of said commands is executed via a menu.

50. The system of claim 42, wherein said memory and control device comprises:

a computer.

51. The system of claim 42, wherein said memory and control device comprises at least one of:

a memory integrated with said computer;

a portable memory module;

a memory card;

a memory stick; and

a compact disk.

52. The system of claim 42, further comprising one of:

a CD-R;

a CD-RW;

a DVD;

a portable optical large volume storage disk;

a portable large volume non-optical storage medium; and

a storage medium resident in said memory and control device or connected to the memory and control device through a wired or wireless connection or through the Internet.