Method for flipping pages via electromechanical information browsing device

• US 7,342,569 B2
• Filed: 10/26/2005
• Issued: 03/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sino Star Global Ltd.
• Original Assignee: E-BOOK SYSTEMS PTE. LTD.
• Inventors: Liang, Chee Cheng Jeffrey, Austin, Jason Bradley, Ho, Seng Beng
• Primary Examiner(s): Osorio, Ricardo
• Application Number:
  US11/258,264
• Publication Number:
  US 20060050054A1
• Time in Patent Office: 867 Days
• Field of Search: 345/901, 345/156, 345/173
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/014 Force feedback applied to GUI
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0339 Touch strips, e.g. orthogonal touch strips to control cursor movement or scrolling; single touch strip to adjust parameter or to implement a row of soft keys
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/033 Pointing devices displaced or positioned by the user , e.g. mice, trackballs, pens or joysticks; Accessories therefor digitisers characterised by the transducing means G06F3/041
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0338 with detection of limited linear or angular displacement of an operating part of the device from a neutral position, e.g. isotonic or isometric joysticks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0362 with detection of 1D translations or rotations of an operating part of the device, e.g. scroll wheels, sliders, knobs, rollers or belts
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 345/901 Electronic book with display

Abstract

A method for flipping pages of an electronic book via an electromechanical information browsing device that controls page flipping actions of information displayed as an e-book on a display device. The browsing device includes a controller that provides tactile feedback so as to lessen the user-interface differences between conventional books and e-books. Sensors and control mechanisms in the controller generate a series of electrical signals that are interpreted by the computer that displays the e-book to control various browsing operations, such as flipping pages, controlling a rate of page flipping, jumping to pre-set locations in the e-book, etc.

Claims

1. A method for flipping pages of an electronic book hosted on a computer-readable medium for presentation on a display, comprising steps of:

creating at least one of a set of complex page flipping commands with an input device;

transmitting the at least one of the set of complex page flipping commands from the input device to an electronic information processing device that is configured to read data from said computer-readable medium; and

displaying a result from the at least one of a set of complex page flipping commands on the display, wherein

the set of complex page flipping commands comprises at least one of

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,

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

an unfreeze-frozen-pages-and-let-subgroups-of-pages-flip-in-different-directions 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 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-sigle-page-in-mid-flip-and-collect-other-pages-that-flip-onto-the-sigle-page-in-mid-flip command,

a hold-at-least-one-of-two-pages-and-two-thick-collections-of-pages-in-mid-flip-and -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,

a hold-at-least-one-of-two-pages-and-two-thick-collections-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-two-thick-collections-of-pages-in-mid-flip command,

a select-to-hold-at-least-one-of-at-least-two-pages-and-at-least-two-thick-collections-of-pages command,

a hold-a-single-thick-collection-of-pages-in-mid-flip-while-releasing-one-or-more pages-from-the-collection-command, and

a seleet-a-desired-split-point-on-a-held-single-thick-collection-of-pages-in-mid-flip and-split-the-eollection-of-pages-into-two-separate-colleetions-of-pages.

2. The method of flipping pages of claim 1, further comprising:

using the input device to activate a first complex page flipping command by activating a first part of a page-launching area displayed on the display and a second complex page flipping command is activated by using the input device to activate a second part, different from the first part, of the page launching area displayed on the display.

3. The method of flipping pages of claim 1, further comprising:

controlling said set of complex flipping commands by activating one of the right side page-launching area displayed on the display and the left side page-launching area displayed on the display.

4. The method of flipping pages of claim 1, further comprising:

controlling said set of complex flipping commands by activating both of the right side page-launching area displayed on the display and the left side page-launching area displayed on the display.

5. The method of flipping pages of claim 1, further comprising:

using the input device to place a cursor in at least one of the left side page-launching area and the right side page-launching area and clicking a button.

6. The method of flipping pages of claim 1, wherein the input device includes one of a mouse and a mechanical browser.

7. A method for flipping pages of an electronic book hosted on a computer-readable medium for presentation on a display, comprising steps of:

creating at least one of a set of page flipping commands with an input device;

transmitting the at least one of the set of page flipping commands from the input device to an electronic information processing device that is configured to read data from said computer-readable medium;

activating one of the right side page-launching area displayed on the display and the left side page-launching area displayed on the display to cause a change in a direction of flipping of a trailing page of a set of pages; and

displaying the change in the direction of flipping of the trailing page of the set of pages.

8. The method of flipping pages of claim 7, further comprising:

activating one of the right side page-launching area displayed on the display and the left side page-launching area displayed on the display to control the speed of movement through the electronic book,

wherein the speed of movement through the electronic book depends on what portion of the right side page-launching area displayed on the display and the left side page-launching area displayed on the display is activated.

9. A method for flipping pages of an electronic book hosted on a computer-readable medium for presentation on a display, comprising steps of:

displaying a one-sided book interface on the display, wherein one of a right side of the electronic book and the left-side of the electronic book is displayed as slanted outward with respect to another side of the electronic book and the slanted side of the electronic book displays a jump cursor on a left side edge of the slanted side, which when activated, causes a jump to a new position in the electronic book, and

displaying an animated image of at least one page in said electronic book being flipped.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein one or more pages are shown on the display to flip onto the slanted side and merge into the slanted side.

11. A method for flipping pages of an electronic book hosted on a computer-readable medium for presentation on a display, comprising steps of:

displaying a one-sided book interface on the display, wherein one of the right side of the electronic book and the left-side of the electronic book is displayed as slanted inward toward the midline of the electronic book and the slanted side of the electronic book displays a jump cursor on a left side edge of the slanted side, which when activated, causes a jump to a new position in the electronic book, and

displaying an animated image of at least one page in said electronic book being flipped.

12. A method for flipping pages of an electronic book hosted on a computer-readable medium for presentation on a display, comprising steps of:

displaying at least one of a left side thickness of the electronic book, a right side thickness of the electronic book, a left bottom thickness of the electronic book, and a right bottom thickness of the electronic book to comprise a detailed thickness area, and

enabling the detailed thicKness area to operate a fine jump cursor control mechanism; and

enabling an operation of a fine jump cursor control by speed of movement of a jump cursor on one of the left side thickness of the electronic book, the right side thickness of the electronic book, the left bottom thickness of the electronic book, and the right bottom thickness of the electronic book.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein

the fine jump cursor control mechanism is a mouse or other input device.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

enabling an operation of a fine jump cursor control mechanism by a click of a button on the mouse or other input device.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

entering into a fine jump cursor control mode when a speed of the jump cursor is reduced to below a predetermined value.

16. A method for flipping pages of an electronic book hosted on a computer-readable medium for presentation on a display, comprising steps of:

creating at least one of a set of complex page flipping commands with a mouse or other input device;

transmitting the at least one of the set of complex page flipping commands from the mouse or other input device to an information processing device that is configured to read data from said computer-readable medium; and

displaying a result from the at least one of a set of complex page flipping commands on the display, wherein

the set of complex page flipping commands comprises all of

a select-to-jump-to-a-specified-point 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-one-or-more-flipping-pages-in-midflip command

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

an unfreeze-frozen-pages-and-let-some-pages-continue-to-flip-in-a-direction-prior-to-freezing,

an unfreeze-frozen-pages-and-let-some-pages-flip-to-a-left-side-and-some-pages-flip-to-a-right-side command,

an unfreeze-frozen-pages-and-let-subgroups-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 move-a-held-single-page-in-a-selected-direction-at-a-selected-speed command,

a move-a-held-single-thick-collection-of-pages-in-a-selected-direction-and-at-a-selected-speed 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-more-than-one-page 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,

a hold-at-least-one-of-two-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,

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

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

a select-to-hold-a-page command,

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

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

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

a hold a single thick collection of pages in mid-flip while releasing one or more pages from the collection command, and

a select a desired split point on a held single thick collection of pages in mid-flip and split the collection of pages into two separate collections of pages.

17. A computer readable medium encoded with instructions, which when executed by a computer causes the computer to implement a method for flipping pages of an electronic book for presentation on a display, the method comprising steps of:

creating at least one of a set of page flipping commands with an input device;

transmitting the at least one of the set of page flipping commands from the input device to an electronic information processing device that is configured to read data from said computer-readable medium;

activating one of a right side page-launching area displayed on the display and the left side page-launching area displayed on the display to cause a change in a direction of flipping of a trailing page of a set of pages; and

displaying the change in the direction of flipping of the trailing page of the set of pages.

18. A method for flipping pages of an electronic book hosted on a computer-readable medium for presentation on a display, comprising steps of:

displaying at least one of a left side thickness of the electronic book, a right side thickness of the electronic book, a left bottom thickness of the electronic book, and a right bottom thickness of the electronic book to comprise a detailed thickness area,

enabling the detailed thickness area to operate a fine jump cursor control mechanism, and

entering into a fine jump cursor control mode when a speed of the jump cursor is reduced to below a predetermined value.

19. A method for flipping pages of an electronic book hosted on a computer-readable medium for presentation on a display, comprising steps of:

creating at least one of a set of page flipping commands with an input device by using one of a right side page-launching area and a left side page-launching area, wherein the right side page-launching area is identified as an area on a right-side page of the electronic book and the left side page-launching area is identified as an area on a left-side page of the electronic book;

transmitting the at least one of the set of page flipping commands from the input device to an electronic information processing device that is configured to read data from said computer-readable medium; and

displaying a result from the at least one of a set of page flipping commands on the display, wherein said step of creating comprises a substep of activating one of the right side page-launching area displayed on the display and the left side page-launching area displayed on the display to cause a change in a direction of flipping of a trailing page of a set of pages.

20. The method of flipping pages of claim 19, wherein

said creating step comprises substeps of

activating one of the right side page-launching area displayed on the display and the left side page-launching area displayed on the display,

wherein said substep of activating one of a right side page-launching area displayed on the display and the left side page-launching area displayed on the display causes a set of pages to flip.

21. The method of flipping pages of claim 20, wherein the right and left page-launching areas are smaller than the area occupied by left and right open pages of the electronic book.

22. The method of flipping pages of claim 20, wherein the left side page-launching area is an area defined by an outline of a left resting page, and

the right side page-launching area is an area defined by an outline of a right resting page.

23. The method of flipping page of claim 20, wherein

at least one of the left side page-launching area and the right side page-launching area includes a bookmark.

24. The method of flipping pages of claim 19, wherein

said step of creating comprises a substep of

activating one of the right side page-launching area displayed on the display and the left side page-launching area displayed on the display to cause a change in a direction of flipping of a set of pages.

25. The method of flipping pages of claim 19, wherein

said step of creating comprises a substep of

activating one of the right side page-launching area displayed on the display and the left side page-launching area displayed on the display to cause a jump to a specified point in the said electronic book.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein

said step of activating one of the right side page-launching area displayed on the display and the left side page-launching area displayed on the display to cause the jump to the specified point in the said electronic book includes activating one of a right side thickness, a right bottom thickness, a left side thickness, and a left bottom thickness.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein

said step of activating one of the right side page-launching area displayed on the display and the left side page-launching area displayed on the display to cause the jump to the specified point in the said electronic book includes activating one of a right side jump control area, a right bottom jump control area, a left side jump control area, and a left bottom jump control area.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein

said step of activating one of the right side page-launching area displayed on the display and the left side page-launching area displayed on the display to cause the jump to the specified point in the said electronic book includes activating one of a right side jump cursor, a right bottom jump cursor, a left side jump cursor, and a left bottom jump cursor.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein

said step of activating one of the right side page-launching area displayed on the display and the left side page-launching area displayed on the display to cause the jump to the specified point in the said electronic book includes activating one of a right side bookmark, a right bottom bookmark, a left side bookmark, and a left bottom bookmark.

30. The method of flipping pages of claim 19, wherein

said step of creating comprises a substep of

activating the right side page-launching area displayed on the display and the left side page-launching area displayed on the display to simulate opposing forces on a set of pages.

31. The method of flipping pages of claim 19, wherein

said step of creating comprises a sub step of

activating one of the right side page-launching area displayed on the display and the left side page-launching area displayed on the display to create a penetrating opposing force on a set of pages.

32. The method of flipping pages of claim 19, wherein

said step of creating comprises a sub step of

activating one of the right side page-launching area displayed on the display and the left side page-launching area displayed on the display to control a speed of movement through the electronic book.

33. The method of flipping pages of claim 32, wherein

the speed of movement through the electronic book depends on what portion of the right side page-launching area displayed on the display and the left side page-launching area displayed on the display is activated.

34. A method for displaying a computer-based set of information on a display screen, comprising:

displaying a book image on the display screen, said image of the electronic book including a plurality of control areas that control flipping pages of the electronic book;

selecting one of the plurality of control areas;

generating a complex page flipping command corresponding to the one of the plurality of control areas;

creating a complex flipping image corresponding to the complex page flipping command;

displaying on said display screen the complex flipping image and a stationary page image, at least one of the complex flipping image and the stationary page image including a portion of the set of information,

wherein said complex page flipping command comprises at least one of

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,

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

an unfreeze-frozen-pages-and-let-subgroups-of-pages-flip-in-different-directions 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 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,

a hold-at-least-one-of-two-pages-and-two-thick-collections-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-two-thick-collections-of-pages-in-mid-flip command,

a select-to-hold-at-least-one-of-at-least-two-pages-and-at-least-two-thick-collections-of-pages command,

a hold-a-single-thick-collection-of-pages-in-mid-flip-while-releasing-one-or-more pages-from-the-collection-command, and

a select-a-desired-split-point-on-a-held-single-thick-collection-of-pages-in-mid-flip and-split-the-collection-of-pages-into-two-separate-collections-of-pages.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

while displaying said complex flipping image, fragmenting a control area into a plurality of fragments; and

using one of the plurality of fragments to control a region between two successive flipping pages or one flipping page and one resting page.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising:

displaying each of the plurality of fragments on a different page of the electronic book.