Electronic document reader

• US 8,539,341 B2
• Filed: 06/13/2008
• Issued: 09/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: FlexEnable Limited (Plastic Logic JSC)
• Original Assignee: Plastic Logic Limited (Plastic Logic JSC)
• Inventors: Barclay, Duncan, Farmer, Steven, Hayton, Carl, Nirmalananthan, Anusha, Cain, Paul A., Merrick, Barry, Joines, Simon
• Primary Examiner(s): Stork, Kyle
• Assistant Examiner(s): Velez-Lopez, Mario M
• Application Number:
  US12/138,835
• Publication Number:
  US 20090113291A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,922 Days
• Field of Search: 715/243, 715/247, 715/251, 715/252, 715/253, 345/206, 345/1.1, 345/204
• US Class Current: 715/243
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133388 with constructional differences between the display region and the peripheral region
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/147 using display panels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/0232 Special driving of display border areas
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/04 Changes in size, position or resolution of an image
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0407 Resolution change, inclusive of the use of different resolutions for different screen areas
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2380/14 Electronic books and readers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/393 Enlarging or reducing

Abstract

We describe a method of displaying a document page with a predetermined size using a display device having edges defining lateral dimensions not substantially larger than said predetermined size and having a central re-writable display portion and a non-re-writable border, said document page comprising a central, foreground portion bearing one or both of text and graphics, a background having a background color and at least one margin having said background color, the method comprising: inputting page data defining a page for display; processing said page data to crop margins of said page such that, when displayed on said re-writable display portion, said non-re-writable border gives the appearance of said cropped margins, said processing generating cropped page data; and outputting said cropped page data for display on said re-writable display portion of said display.

Claims

1. A method of displaying a document comprising a plurality of document pages using a display device having a central re-writable display portion and a non-re-writable border, each of said document pages comprising a central, foreground portion bearing one or both of text and graphics, and at least one margin,

the method comprising:

inputting page data defining said document for display to a management program;

automatically processing said page data, using said management program to determine a margin size of said at least one margin for each of said plurality of document pages;

identifying a smallest margin size from said predetermined margin sizes, wherein said smallest margin size determines the amount which can be safely cropped from each of said at least one margin of said plurality of documents;

cropping margins of each of said plurality of document pages using said smallest margin size; and

outputting said cropped page data for display on said re-writable display portion of said display.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said lateral dimensions of the display device are within 1 cm to that of a standard paper size, in particular ISO 216 or ANSI/ASME Y14.1.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said central foreground portion displayed on said central rewritable portion extends to a distance of less than 5 mm away from the non-rewritable border.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said display device includes a display device computer system to drive said display, and wherein said processing of said page data is performed in a host computer system separate to said display device computer system, said host computer system also generating said page data for processing.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein said host computer system comprises a laptop computer, desktop computer, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), mobile telephone or smart telephone.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said central re-writable display portion comprises an electrophoretic display element.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein processing said page data further comprises formatting a layout of one or both of said text and graphics of said document page such that said text and graphics are displayable on said re-writable display portion.

8. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said outputting of said cropped page data comprises outputting page image data.

9. A method of formatting a document for display on an electronic document reader having a non-rewriteable border adjacent a re-writable display portion, the method comprising:

inputting page data for a plurality of pages of said document for display on said electronic document reader to a management program;

automatically processing said page data using said management program to determine, for each of said plurality of pages, a margin size of at least one margin of each of said pages;

identifying, using said management program, a smallest margin size from amongst said determined margin sizes, wherein said smallest margin size determines the amount which can be safely cropped from each of said at least one margin of said plurality of documents;

scaling, using said smallest margin size, said page data for display on said re-writable display portion; and

cropping, using said smallest margin size, each of said plurality of document pages in said page data to generate cropped page data such that when said cropped page data is displayed on said re-writable display portion, said non-re-writable border becomes said margins.

10. A method as claimed in claim 9 wherein said scaling comprises scaling said page data such that a page with said smallest margin size substantially completely fills said re-writeable display portion when said margin is discounted.

11. A method as claimed in claim 9 wherein said page data comprises an image of each said page.

12. A method as claimed in claim 11 wherein said margin comprises an edge region of a said page in which there is substantially no difference in information content between said pages of said plurality of pages.

13. A method as claimed in claim 9 wherein said border is present on four sides of said re-writable display portion, and wherein said method determines a said margin size, and identifies a said smallest margin size, for top, bottom, left and right margins of said pages.

14. A method as claimed in claim 9 further comprising learning a said scaling to apply to said page data from one said document for display and applying a learnt said scaling to a second said document for display.

15. A non-transitory carrier carrying processor control code to, when running, implement the method of claim 9.

16. An electronic document reader having a non-rewriteable border adjacent a re-writable display portion, the electronic document reader further comprising:

an input to receive page data for a plurality of pages of said document for display on said electronic document reader;

non-volatile memory for storing said page data;

program memory for storing processor control code for controlling said electronic document reader;

a display for displaying a said page of said document; and

a processor coupled to said non-volatile memory to said program memory, to said input, and to said display, and wherein said processor control code is configured to control said processor to;

process said page data to determine, for each of said plurality of pages, a margin size of at least one margin of each of said pages;

identify a smallest said margin size from amongst said determined margin sizes of said plurality of pages, wherein said smallest margin size determines the amount which can be safely cropped from each of said at least one margin of said plurality of documents;

scale, using said smallest margin size, said page data for display on said re-writable display portion;

crop, using said smallest margin size, each of said plurality of pages of said page data to generate cropped page data such that when said cropped page data is displayed on said re-writable display portion, said non-re-writable border becomes said margins, and

provide said scaled and cropped page data for displaying on said display.

17. An electronic document reader as claimed in claim 16 wherein said processor control code is configured to scale said page data such that a page with said smallest margin size substantially completely fills said re-writeable display portion when said margin is discounted.

18. A method of formatting a document for display on an electronic document reader, the method comprising:

inputting page data for a plurality of pages of said document for display on the electronic document reader to a management program;

automatically processing said page data using said management program to determine, for each of said plurality of pages, a margin size of at least one margin of each of said pages;

identifying, using said management program, a smallest margin size from amongst said determined margin sizes, wherein said smallest margin size determines the amount which can be safely cropped from each of said at least one margin of said plurality of documents; and

modifying, using said smallest margin size, each of said plurality of documents pages in said page data.

19. A method as claimed in claim 18, wherein said modifying comprises modifying each of said plurality of pages using said smallest margin size.