Computer user interface system and method having book image features

• US 6,340,980 B1
• Filed: 05/15/2000
• Issued: 01/22/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sino Star Global Ltd.
• Original Assignee: E-BOOK SYSTEMS PTE. LTD.
• Inventors: Ho, Seng Beng
• Primary Examiner(s): dela Torre, Crescelle N.
• Application Number:
  US09/571,364
• Time in Patent Office: 617 Days
• Field of Search: 345/350, 345/351, 345/349, 345/348, 345/339, 345/901, 345/302, 345/473, 345/701, 345/702, 345/739, 345/764, 345/775-778, 345/835, 345/839, 707/501, 707/512, 707/530, 707/500.1, 707/501.1
• US Class Current: 715/776
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/002 Specific input/output arrangements not covered by G06F3/01 - G06F3/16 other optical apparatus G02B27/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• 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 computer user interface system and method arranges a set of information hosted on a computer into a set of books, where each book includes a subset of the set of information, labels each book with a respective portion of the subset of the set of information, and selects a book from the set of books. Selecting the book from the set of books includes steps of displaying the respective portions of the books as a book document image that includes pages which correspond to the respective portions of the books, generating a command for moving through the pages, displaying an animated image of the pages of the book document being at least one of flipped, scrolled, slid and flashed images, and selecting the book when a selected one of the pages containing a selection portion of the book is earlier displayed.

Claims

1. A method for displaying a computer-based set of information on a display screen controlled by a computer-based information browsing device, comprising the steps of:

displaying said set of information as a book image, respective portions of said set of information being displayed as an open page of said book image that overlaps another page that was previously moved from a right side of said book to a left side of said book, and open pages of said book remain at a fixed location with respect to said display screen as different pages of said book image are displayed;

displaying a thickness image of said book image corresponding to an amount of said information on a left side and a right side of said display screen, a left portion of said thickness image displayed on said left side of said screen being proportional to a first amount of the information preceding a point in said set of information currently being displayed and a right portion of said thickness image displayed on said right side of said display screen being proportional to a second amount of information following the point in said set of information currently being displayed;

jumping to a jump position in said set of information corresponding to a current position of an instrument on a sensor device of said computer-based information browsing device; and

displaying a thickness image of pages skipped over in said jumping step to the jump position in the said set of information, showing said thickness image of pages to move across the book image from right to left if the jump position is within the right portion of said thickness image, showing said thickness image of pages to move across the book image from left to right if the jump position is within the left portion of said thickness image, and said thickness being proportional to the number of pages skipped over in said jumping step.

2. An operating system method for browsing a computer-based set of operating system related entities, comprising the steps of:

generating a command to move a pointer through said set of operating system related entities, said operating system entities including at least one of

respective labeled computer files,

a collection of hierarchically arranged computer files, and

a software application user interface of a software application;

displaying said set of operating system related entities in respective book images and organized in groups, a portion of said system related entities being displayed as being graphically contained within a book image for one of the operating system related entities;

moving said pointer in at least one of a forward direction and a backward direction through said computer-based set of operating system related entities in response to said command generated in said generating step;

adjusting a speed of said movement of said pointer through said computer-based set of operating system related entities corresponding to said command generated in said generating step;

jumping to a selected location in said computer-based set of operating system related entities, said jumping step comprising the steps of,

receiving a jump command, and

moving said pointer from a current position in said computer-based set of operating system related entities to a user-defined jump position; and

displaying a thickness image of pages skipped in said jumping step the selected position in said set of operating system related entities, showing said thickness image of pages to move across the book image from right to left if the selected position is within the right portion of said thickness image, showing said thickness image of pages to move across the book image from left to right if the jump position selected is within the left portion of said thickness image, and said thickness being proportional to the number of pages skipped.

3. A method for displaying a computer-based set of information on a display screen controlled by a computer-based information browsing device, comprising the steps of:

displaying said set of information as a book image, respective portions of said set of information being displayed as an open page of said book image that overlaps another page that was previously moved from a right side of said book to the left side of said book, and open pages of said book remain at a fixed location with respect to said display screen as different pages of said book image are displayed;

displaying a thickness image of said book image corresponding to an amount of said information on a left side and a right side of said display screen, a left portion of said thickness image displayed on said left side of said screen being proportional to a first amount of the information preceding a point in said set of information currently being displayed and a right portion of said thickness image displayed on said right side of said display screen being proportional to a second amount of information following the point in said set of information currently being displayed;

displaying a finger-bookmark in a first image format on said display screen corresponding to a finger-bookmark position;

displaying a permanent bookmark in a second image format on said display screen corresponding to a permanent bookmark position;

producing a new bookmark corresponding to a currently displayed image;

displaying said new bookmark in at least one of said first image format or said second image format; and

jumping to a jump position in said set of information corresponding to a current position of an instrument on a sensor device of said computer-based information browsing device;

displaying a thickness image of pages skipped over in said jumping step to the jump position in the said set of information, showing said thickness image of pages to flip across the book image from right to left if the jump position is within the right portion of said thickness image, showing said thickness image of pages to flip across the book image from left to right if the jump position is within the left portion of said thickness image, and said thickness being proportional to the number of pages skipped over in said jumping step.

4. An operating system method for browsing a computer-based set of operating system related entities, comprising the steps of:

generating a command to move a pointer through said set of operating system related entities, said operating system entities including at least one of

respective labeled computer files,

a collection of hierarchically arranged computer files, and

a software application user interface of a software application;

displaying said set of operating system related entities in respective book images and organized in groups, a portion of said system related entities being displayed as being graphically contained within a book image for one of the operating system related entities;

moving said pointer in at least one of a forward direction and a backward direction through said computer-based set of operating system related entities in response to said command generated in said generating step;

adjusting a speed of said movement of said pointer through said computer-based set of operating system related entities corresponding to said command generated in said generating step;

jumping to a selected location in said computer-based set of operating system related entities, said jumping step comprising the steps of,

receiving a jump command, and

moving said pointer from a current position in said computer-based set of operating system related entities to a user-defined jump position; and

bookmarking a desired portion of said computer-based set of operating system related entities, said desired portion comprising a selected subset of a text or a graphics information, said bookmarking step comprising the steps of,

receiving a bookmark command via a user-entry, and

marking said desired portion of said computer-based set of operating system related entities corresponding to said user entry;

displaying a thickness image of pages skipped in said jumping to the selected position in said set of operating system related entities, showing said thickness image of pages to flip across the book image from right to left if the selected position is within the right portion of said thickness image, showing said thickness image of pages to flip across the book image from left to right if the jump position selected is within the left portion of said thickness image, and said thickness being proportional to the number of pages skipped.

5. A display for a computer-based set of information, comprising:

a display screen configured to present said computer-based set of information to a reader;

a transducer configured to receive a jump signal corresponding to a force applied by a single digit; and

a computer-based information browsing device configured to cause said display screen to display said computer-based set of information as a book image including a thickness image of said book image corresponding to an amount of said information on a left side and a right side of said display screen, a left portion of said thickness image displayed on said left side of said screen being proportional to a first amount of the information preceding a point in said set of information currently being displayed and a right portion of said thickness image displayed on said right side of said display screen being proportional to a second amount of information following the point in said set of information currently being displayed, said computer-based information browsing device configured to receive said jump signal and to cause said display screen to jump to a point in said set of information selected based upon said jump signal with a speed of movement of pages across the book image determined based upon said jump signal.

6. A method for displaying a computer-based set of information on a display screen controlled by a computer-based information browsing device, comprising the steps of:

displaying said set of information as a book image, respective portions of said set of information being displayed as an open page of said book image that overlaps another page that was previously moved from a right side of said book to a left side of said book;

displaying a thickness image of said book image corresponding to an amount of said information on a left side and a right side of said display screen, a left portion of said thickness image being proportional to a first amount of the information preceding a point in said set of information currently being displayed and a right portion of said thickness image displayed on said right side of said display screen being proportional to a second amount of information following the point in said set of information currently being displayed; and

jumping to a jump position in said set of information based upon a jump signal, said jump signal determining both said jump position and a speed of a movement of pages to said jump position, said jumping step comprising showing said movement of said thickness image of pages across the book image from right to left if the jump position is within the right portion of said thickness image and showing said movement of said thickness image of pages across the book image from left to right if the jump position is within the left portion of said thickness image, said thickness being proportional to the number of pages jumped to said jump position.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein said showing said movement step comprises one of showing one of an open fan movement of pages and showing a collapsed fan movement of pages.

8. A method for displaying a computer-based set of information on a display screen controlled by a computer-based information browsing device, comprising the steps of:

displaying said set of information as a book image, respective portions of said set of information being displayed as an open page of said book image that overlaps another page that was previously moved from a right side of said book to a left side of said book;

displaying a thickness image of said book image corresponding to an amount of said information on a left side and a right side of said display screen, a left portion of said thickness image being proportional to a first amount of the information preceding a point in said set of information currently being displayed and a right portion of said thickness image displayed on said right side of said display screen being proportional to a second amount of information following the point in said set of information currently being displayed; and

jumping to a jump position in said set of information based upon a jump signal, said jumping step comprising showing one of an open fan movement of pages and showing a closed fan movement of pages, a respective of said showing one of an open fan movement of pages and said showing a collapsed fan movement of pages selected based upon said jump signal.

9. A method for displaying a computer-based set of information on a display screen controlled by a computer-based information browsing device, comprising the steps of:

displaying said set of information as a book image, respective portions of said set of information being displayed as an open page of said book image that overlaps another page that was previously moved from a right side of said book to a left side of said book, and open pages of said book remain at a fixed location with respect to said display screen as different pages of said book image are displayed;

displaying a thickness image of said book image corresponding to an amount of said information on a left side and a right side of said display screen, a left portion of said thickness image displayed on said left side of said screen being proportional to a first amount of the information preceding a point in said set of information currently being displayed and a right portion of said thickness image displayed on said right side of said display screen being proportional to a second amount of information following the point in said set of information currently being displayed;

jumping to a jump position in said set of information corresponding to a current position of an instrument on a sensor device of said computer-based information browsing device; and

displaying more than two flipping pages simultaneously, said flipping pages showing information from corresponding parts of said set of information.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein said displaying step comprises displaying increasingly more flipping pages simultaneously as a document browsing speed is increased.