Hiding content of a digital content item

• US 8,826,169 B1
• Filed: 06/04/2012
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Yacoub, Sherif M., Long, Xi, Zhao, Ming, Zhang, Xuping, Gopalakrishnan, Manikandan
• Primary Examiner(s): PHANTANA ANGKOOL, DAVID
• Application Number:
  US13/488,071
• Time in Patent Office: 820 Days
• Field of Search: 715/776, 715/202, 715/730, 715/704
• US Class Current: 715/776
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• 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

Abstract

In some implementations, content of a content item may be presented on an electronic device and a portion of the content item may be selected to be hidden from presentation. The electronic device may hide the selected portion of the content during presentation of the content. Further, selection information identifying at least the location of the selected portion of the content item may be communicated over a network to a computing device to enable synchronization of the hidden content with other instances of the content item on other devices of the user. In some examples, the user may select one or more chapters of the content item to be hidden by selecting one or more chapter identifiers in a table of contents of the content item. Hidden content may include text, images, audio and/or video content, depending on the type of content item that is accessed.

Claims

1. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media maintaining instructions executable by one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving, over a network, from a first device, hidden content information including location information identifying at least a location, in a content item, of a portion of content to be hidden during presentation of the content item;

determining a user account associated with the first device;

determining a second device associated with the user account, the second device maintaining an instance of the content item; and

sending the hidden content information to the second device based at least in part on determining that the second device is associated with the user account, the hidden content information including at least the location information identifying the portion of content to be hidden when the second device is used to access the instance of the content item.

2. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the hidden content information is included in metadata made available for delivery to the second device, the metadata associated with the instance of the content item.

3. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, the operations further comprising aggregating the hidden content information received from the first device with additional hidden content information, related to the content item, received from one or more other devices associated with one or more other user accounts to determine one or more portions of the content item that have been hidden by a plurality of users.

4. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 3, the operations further comprising making aggregated hidden content information available for delivery to at least one of the first device or the second device.

5. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the hidden content information further includes additional location information indicating a location of a portion of content to be unhidden when the second device is used to access the instance of the content item.

6. A method comprising:

under control of one or more processors configured with executable instructions,

presenting content of a content item on a device;

receiving selection information indicative of a portion of the content to be hidden from presentation;

sending the selection information over a network to a computing device, wherein the selection information does not include the content to be hidden from presentation; and

hiding the portion of content from presentation during presentation of the content of the content item.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein receiving the selection information indicative of the portion of the content further comprises receiving selection information indicative of a portion of text of the content item.

8. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein:

receiving the selection information indicative of the portion of the content further comprises receiving a selection of a chapter identifier in a table of contents of the content item; and

the portion of content is a chapter of the content item corresponding to the chapter identifier.

9. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the portion of the content includes an image.

10. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising, prior to receiving the selection information indicative of the portion of the content to be hidden from presentation, displaying an interface overlaid on presentation of the content item, the interface including a control that is selectable to hide the portion of the content.

11. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising, during presentation of the content of the content item, displaying an indicator of hidden content at a location in the content in place of the portion of content to be hidden.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising displaying with the indicator, or as the indicator, a control that is selectable to unhide the portion of content.

13. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein sending the selection information includes sending at least location information, the location information identifying a location in the content of the portion of the content to be hidden.

14. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the content item includes at least one of:

text content;

video content;

audio content;

or

image content.

15. A device comprising:

a display;

one or more processors;

one or more computer-readable media; and

one or more modules maintained on the one or more computer-readable media and executed by the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

displaying, on the display, one or more identifiers of one or more respective portions of content of a content item, wherein the one or more identifiers comprise at least one of a chapter identifier or an image identifier;

receiving a selection of at least one of the identifiers for hiding at least one portion of content corresponding to each selected identifier; and

when displaying content of the content item, not displaying the at least one portion of content corresponding to the at least one selected identifier.

16. The device as recited in claim 15, wherein the one or more identifiers are chapter identifiers displayed in a table of contents of the content item and the respective portions of content are chapters of the content item corresponding to the chapter identifiers.

17. The device as recited in claim 15, wherein the one or more identifiers are one or more image identifiers and the respective portions of content are images included in the content corresponding to the image identifiers.

18. The device as recited in claim 15, wherein the at least one selected identifier is not hidden during display of the content of the content item.

19. The device as recited in claim 15, further comprising displaying an indicator in association with the at least one selected identifier indicating the corresponding content is hidden.

20. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more computer-readable media; and

one or more modules maintained on the one or more computer-readable media to be executed by the one or more processors to perform operations including;

receiving, from a first device associated with a first user, hidden content information for hiding a portion of content in a content item; and

including the hidden content information with an instance of the content item made available to a second device associated with a second user, the instance of the content item configured to cause a presentation module on the second device to prevent the second user from accessing the hidden portion of content.

21. The system as recited in claim 20, wherein the hidden content information includes at least location information indicating a location in the content item of the portion of content to be hidden when the second user accesses the content item.

22. The system as recited in claim 20, the operations further comprising:

receiving from the first device additional hidden content information for unhiding the portion of content, the additional hidden content information including at least location information indicating a location in the content item of the portion of content to unhide; and

making available to the second device the additional hidden content information for unhiding the portion of content.

23. The system as recited in claim 20, further comprising:

determining that an event has occurred; and

making available to the second device additional hidden content information for unhiding the portion of content, the additional hidden content information including at least location information indicating a location in the content item of the portion of content to unhide.

24. The system as recited in claim 23, wherein the event comprises at least one of:

receiving an indication that the second device is located inside or outside of a geographic region;

arrival of a predetermined date;

or

passage of a predetermined period of time from an identified point in time.

25. The system as recited in claim 23, wherein the instance of the content item is configured to cause the presentation module on the second device to prevent the second user from accessing the hidden portion of content by causing the presentation module to not display controls to unhide the hidden content.

26. The system as recited in claim 23, wherein the instance of the content item is configured to cause the presentation module on the second device to prevent the second user from accessing the hidden portion of the content by causing the presentation module to require a user credential to unhide the hidden content.

27. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more computer-readable media; and

one or more modules maintained on the one or more computer-readable media to be executed by the one or more processors to perform operations including;

receiving, from a computing device, a content item having a portion of content in a first version compatible with a first content item file format and in a second version compatible with a second content item file format, wherein;

the first version and the second version of the portion of content are encoded to cause a first device, able to display the first content item file format, but not the second content item file format, to not display the second version of the portion of content when displaying content of the content item; and

the first version and the second version of the portion of content are encoded to cause a second device, able to display both the first content item file format and the second content item file format, to not display the first version of the portion of content when displaying the content of the content item; and

making the content item available for delivery to at least one of the first device or the second device.

28. The system as recited in claim 27, wherein the computing device is a computing device of at least one of:

an author;

or

a publisher.

29. The system as recited in claim 27, wherein:

the first device includes a first presentation module able to present the first content item file format and not able to present the second content item file format; and

the second device includes a second presentation module able to present both the first content item file format and the second content item file format.

30. A device comprising:

a display;

one or more processors;

one or more computer-readable media; and

one or more modules maintained on the one or more computer-readable media and executed by the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

displaying, on the display, content of an electronic book;

receiving a user selection of a selected portion of the content of the electronic book;

displaying, concurrently with the content, a control selectable to hide at least one of;

the selected portion of content;

or

a section of the electronic book including the selected portion of content;

receiving, via the control, a user input to hide at least one of the selected portion of the content or the section of the electronic book; and

when displaying the content of the electronic book on the display, hiding the at least one of the selected portion of content or the section of the electronic book based at least in part on the user input.

31. The device as recited in claim 30, the acts further comprising, when displaying the content of the content item, displaying an indicator of hidden content at a location in the content in place of the selected content.

32. The device as recited in claim 31, the acts further comprising displaying with the indicator, or as the indicator, a control that is selectable to unhide the selected content.

33. The device as recited in claim 30, wherein:

the receiving the selection of the selected portion of the content includes receiving a selection of one or more chapter identifiers displayed in a table of contents of the electronic book; and

the selected portion of content is a respective one or more chapters of the electronic book.