Device for including enhancing information with printed information and method for electronic searching thereof

• US 5,517,407 A
• Filed: 06/30/1994
• Issued: 05/14/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Technology Innovations, LLC
• Original Assignee: In-Dex
• Inventors: Weiner, Michael L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hajec, Donald T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le, Thien Minh
• Application Number:
  US08/269,920
• Time in Patent Office: 684 Days
• Field of Search: 235/380, 235/375, 364/419.07, 364/419.13, 364/419.19, 283/83, 283/76, 434/309, 434/311, 434/335
• US Class Current: 704/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1632 External expansion units, e.g. docking stations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/0283 for data storage and retrieval

Abstract

An enhanced book includes, in addition to printed material, enhancing material such as additional text, graphics and sounds, the nature of which is limited solely by the ability to store the additional information in digital format, stored in a memory device attached to the book, together with a connector for allowing the enhanced book to be connected to an external computing device for accessing and presenting the enhanced information to the reader.

Claims

1. A device for determining the location in a publication of printed information of interest to a reader, comprising:

a publication having the printed information therein;

means for storage in a machine readable format of information representative of the printed information and its location within said publication, said means for storage mounted to said publication;

processor means for searching the contents of said means for storage and identifying the location in said publication of the printed information of interest; and

,

connector means for removably interconnecting said means for storage with said processor means, said connection means mounted to said publication.

2. A device for determining the location in a publication of printed information of interest to a reader, as set forth in claim 1, wherein said publication includes a binding and said means for storage and said connector means are mounted within said binding.

3. A device for determining the location in a publication of printed information of interest to a reader, as set forth in claim 2, wherein said connector means is mounted within said binding at the perimeter thereof.

4. A device for determining the location in a publication of printed information of interest to a reader, as set forth in claim 3, further including interface cable means for electrically connecting said storage means and said processor means and having a first end for engagement with said connector means and a second end for engagement with said processor means, said interface cable means including I/O processor means for interfacing the contents of said storage means with said processor means.

5. A device for determining the location in a publication of printed information of interest to a reader, as set forth in claim 3, wherein said processor means is external to said publication, said device further including interface cable means for electrically connecting said storage means and said processor means and having a first end for engagement with said connector means and a second end for engagement with said processor means, said processor means including input means for reader entry of indicia of the printed information of interest and display means for displaying the location in said publication of the printed information of interest.

6. A device for determining the location in a publication of printed information of interest to a reader, as set forth in claim 3, wherein said processor means is external to said publication and includes means for direct connection to said connector means, input means for reader entry of indicia of the printed information of interest and display means for displaying the location in said publication of the printed information of interest.

7. A device for determining the location in a publication of printed information of interest to a reader, as set forth in claim 1, wherein said processor means is mounted to said publication.

8. A device for determining the location in a publication of printed information of interest to a reader, as set forth in claim 1, wherein said processor means includes means for receiving and storing the contents of a plurality of said means for storage for determination of publications having printed information of interest to the reader and the location thereof.

9. A system for determining printed information in a publication of interest to a reader, comprising:

a publication having the printed information therein;

means for storage in a machine readable format of information representative of the printed information within said publication, said means for storage mounted to said publication;

processor means for searching the contents of said means for storage and identifying the printed information in said publication of interest, said processor means further including display means for presenting said identified printed information in a human readable format; and

, connector means for removably interconnecting said means for storage with said processor means, said connection means mounted to said publication.

10. A method for determining the location in a publication of printed information of interest to a reader, comprising the steps of:

storing in machine readable format in storage means information representative of the printed information and its location within said publication;

mounting said storage means to said publication;

mounting connector means to said publication and connecting said connector means with said storage means;

removably connecting a processor means to said connector means; and

, searching the contents of said storage means with said processor means to identify the location in said publication of the printed information of interest.

11. A method for determining the location in a publication of printed information of interest to a reader, as set forth in claim 10, wherein said publication includes a binding and said step of mounting said storage means to said publication includes the step of mounting said storage means to said binding, and said step of mounting a connector means to said publication includes the step of mounting said connector means to said binding.

12. A method for determining the location in a publication of printed information of interest to a reader, as set forth in claim 11, further including the step of interconnecting said connector means and said processor means with interface cable means, said step of interconnecting including the step of interfacing the contents of said storage means with said processor means.

13. A method for determining the location in a publication of printed information of interest to a reader, as set forth in claim 11, further including the steps of inputting to said processor means indicia of the printed information of interest and displaying the location in said publication of the printed information of interest.

14. A method for determining the location in a publication of printed information of interest to a reader, as set forth in claim 13, wherein said step of removably connecting further includes the step of directly removably connecting said processor means to said storage means.

15. A method for determining the location in a publication of printed information of interest to a reader, as set forth in claim 10, further including the step of mounting said processor means to said publication.

16. A method for determining the location in a publication of printed information of interest to a reader, as set forth in claim 10, further including the step of receiving and storing the contents of a plurality of said storage means, and determining said publications having information of interest to the reader and the location thereof in each said publication.

17. A method for determining in a publication printed information of interest to a reader, comprising the steps of:

storing in machine readable format in storage means information representative of the printed information within said publication;

mounting said storage means in said publication;

removably interconnecting said storage means with processor means;

searching by said processor means the contents of said storage means to identify in said publication the printed information of interest; and

,

displaying said identified printed information in a human readable format.

18. A method for determining in said publication printed information of interest to a reader, as set forth in claim 17, further including the steps of connecting a connector means to said storage means, mounting said connector means in said publication, and removably interconnecting said storage means with said connector means.

19. Apparatus for enhancing access to printed information comprising:

a book including a plurality of pages containing information in printed form;

a mass storage device attached to the book, the mass storage device containing information for enhancing the printed text information contained in the book;

a connector physically attached to the book and electrically connected to the mass storage device for providing electrical signals to the device for retrieving stored information from the device.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 in which the stored information comprises at least a portion of the text information in machine readable form.

21. The apparatus of claim 19 in which the stored information comprises additional information related to the text information.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 in which the related information comprises indexing information.

23. The apparatus of claim 21 in which the related information comprises visual information related to the text of the book.

34. The apparatus of claim 19 in which the stored information comprises hierarchical dictionary information.

35. The apparatus of claim 19 in which the stored information comprises thesaurus information.

36. The apparatus of claim 19 in which the stored information comprises language translations information.

24. A book with integral machine readable memory accessible to a heterogeneous plurality of computers by way of a standard interface comprising:

a plurality of pages of printed information;

enhancing information stored in machine readable memory permanently attached to the book;

a connector attached to the book for connecting the machine readable memory and external computing device; and

machine operating instructions stored in the machine readable memory for controlling the operation of a computing machine attached to the connector.

25. The book of claim 24 further comprising an interface adapter comprising:

a first connector compatible with the connector on the book;

a microcomputer connected to the first connector;

random access memory connected to the microcomputer for temporarily storing information relating to the operation of the microcomputer; and

an industry standard second connector for supplying information from the memory in the book to an external computing machine.

26. The apparatus of claim 25 in which the information stored in the machine readable memory in the book comprises operating system instructions for controlling the operation of the microcomputer in the interface adapter.

27. The apparatus of claim 26 in which the information stored in the machine readable memory comprises type identifying information for identifying the type of information stored in the machine readable memory, such as text information, graphics information, and sound information.

28. The apparatus of claim 27 in which the information stored in the machine readable memory comprises addressing information for identifying the address where in the machine readable memory different elements of the enhancing information are stored, so that the enhancing information can be retrieved non-sequentially.

29. The apparatus of claim 28 in which the machine readable memory in the book comprises address connections, data connections, and control connections, and in which the first connector comprises a multi-pin electrical connector, including address pins, data pins, and control pins.

30. The apparatus of claim 28 in which the industry standard connector comprises a serial connector.

31. The apparatus of claim 25 in which the first connector comprises a wireless connector for electromagnetically coupling the machine readable memory to the interface adapter.

32. The apparatus of claim 25 in which the first connector comprises an optical connector for optically coupling the machine readable memory to the interface adapter.

33. The apparatus of claim 26 in which the operating system instructions in the machine readable memory attached to the book comprises instructions for retrieving data from the external computing device via the second, industry standard connector in the form of requests for information;

locating the information stored in the machine readable memory by using the addressing information; and

decompressing the information and providing the decompressed information to the external computing device by way of the industry standard connector.