Edge navigation user interface

• US 9,026,932 B1
• Filed: 04/16/2010
• Issued: 05/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Dixon, Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Ng, Amy
• Assistant Examiner(s): DRAGOESCU, CLAUDIA B
• Application Number:
  US12/761,747
• Time in Patent Office: 1,845 Days
• Field of Search: 715/776, 715/702, 715/712, 715/863, 345/473, 345/901
• US Class Current: 715/776
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

A user interface for a touch-screen display of a computing device is described. The user interface has an edge navigation feature designed to facilitate navigation through digital content items, such as electronic books, in response to user input received via the touch-screen display. This navigation may be to an arbitrary point within the content, or to previously defined bookmarks. The user interface provides a representation of a virtual edge of the content object, such as a book or album. Presentation of this virtual edge, overlaid with bookmark indicators, allows the user to spatially visualize the position of content within the book, and select a desired location or bookmark.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

under control of an electronic device configured with specific executable instructions,

displaying a first page of an electronic book on a touch-screen display of the electronic device in a reading mode of operation, wherein the electronic book includes a total number of pages;

while the electronic device is operating in the reading mode, detecting user input via the touch-screen display;

determining whether to transition the electronic device from the reading mode to an edge navigation mode of operation based at least in part on whether the user input includes a single touch input or a multi-touch input;

in response to determining that the user input includes multi-touch input associated with a substantially horizontal swiping motion, transitioning the electronic device from the reading mode of operation to the edge navigation mode of operation, the edge navigation mode of operation depicting a virtual edge of the electronic book, the virtual edge having one or more dimensions proportionate to, at least in part, the total number of pages of the electronic book and a location of the displayed first page determined with respect to the total number of pages of the electronic book, wherein;

the virtual edge is displayed to the right of the displayed first page when the substantially horizontal swiping motion includes a multi-touch right-to-left swiping motion; and

the virtual edge is displayed to the left of the displayed first page when the substantially horizontal swiping motion includes a multi-touch left-to-right swiping motion; and

responsive to user selection of a location within the virtual edge, displaying a second page of the electronic book on the touch-screen display associated with the selected location.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the depicting of the virtual edge of the electronic book provides an appearance of viewing an edge of a physical book.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user selection of the location comprises a tap gesture.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user selection of the location comprises a touch and slide.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

while the electronic device is operating in the edge navigation mode, detecting a second user input via the touch-screen display; and

transitioning the electronic device back to the reading mode of operation in response to determining that the second user input comprises a horizontal swiping motion of two or more coincident touches upon the touch-screen display.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising redisplaying the first page of the electronic book in the reading mode of operation responsive to at least one of a second user input received via the touch-screen display or an elapsed period of time.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the virtual edge further presents one or more bookmark indicia, the one or more bookmark indicia representing one or more corresponding bookmarks placed in the electronic book.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the depicting the one or more bookmark indicia comprises displaying one or more marks or icons to represent bookmarks previously placed in the electronic book, the one or more marks or icons arranged spatially relative to one another based at least in part upon their relative positions within the electronic book.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the bookmarks comprise location marks, notes, searches, data accesses, chapters, segments, tracks, sections, or topical headings associated with a specified location.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising providing a chapter number or location identifier in association with each of the one or more bookmark indicia.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising narrowing a horizontal dimension of the virtual edge of the electronic book responsive to the user selection of the location within the virtual edge.

26. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein:

the virtual edge includes a vertical line that is associated with a particular bookmark located at a particular page of the electronic book; and

a horizontal location of the vertical line along the virtual edge is determined based on a location of the particular page relative to the total number of pages of the electronic book.

27. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user input detected while the electronic device is operating in the reading mode includes a multi-touch right-to-left swiping motion, the method further comprising:

while the electronic device is operating in the edge navigation mode, detecting a second user input via the touch-screen display; and

transitioning the electronic device back to the reading mode in response to determining that the second user input comprises a multi-touch left-to-right swiping motion.

28. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

while the electronic device is operating in the edge navigation mode, detecting a second user input via the touch-screen display; and

transitioning the electronic device back to the reading mode of operation in response to determining that the second user input comprises a single-touch horizontal swiping motion.

11. A computer-implemented method comprising:

under control of an electronic device having a touch sensor and configured with specific executable instructions,

while the electronic device presents a first page of an electronic book on a display of the electronic device in a reading mode, detecting user input via the touch sensor;

determining whether to transition from the reading mode to an edge navigation mode based at least in part on whether the user input includes a single touch input or a multi-touch input associated with a substantially horizontal swiping motion in a direction from a first side of the first page toward a second side of the first page;

in response to determining that the user input includes multi-touch input associated with the substantially horizontal swiping motion, presenting the electronic book in the edge navigation mode, the edge navigation mode showing a representation of the first page adjacent to the first side of the first page, and depicting a virtual edge of the electronic book having one or more dimensions proportionate to, at least in part, a total number of pages of the electronic book and a location of the first page determined with respect to the total number of pages of the electronic book;

receiving via the touch sensor a selection of a second page of the electronic book; and

presenting on the display a representation of the second page while concurrently presenting the representation of the first page.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising:

responsive to receiving user input, altering the presentation of the representation of the first and second pages such that the first page fills a greater portion of the display than the second page.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the first and second pages are presented in a perspective view to provide an appearance of viewing an edge of a physical book.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the user input comprises a touch proximate to a snap region associated with a bookmark within the electronic book.

15. An electronic device, comprising:

a processor;

a memory accessible by the processor;

a display to present a visible representation of an electronic book, wherein the electronic book includes a total number of pages;

a touch sensor to accept user input; and

one or more modules stored in the memory and executable on the processor to present, in response to determining that the user input includes a substantially horizontal swiping motion of two or more coincident touches, a graphical user interface that facilitates user navigation through different locations in the electronic book, the graphical user interface including a representation of an edge of the electronic book and the one or more modules facilitating the user navigation in response to user selection of different locations represented on the edge of the electronic book via the touch sensor, wherein one or more dimensions of the representation of the edge are proportionate to, at least in part, the total number of pages of the electronic book and a location of a displayed page determined with respect to the total number of pages of the electronic book, wherein;

the representation of the edge is displayed to a right of a displayed page when the substantially horizontal swiping motion includes a multi-touch right-to-left swiping motion; and

the representation of the edge is displayed to a left of the displayed page when the substantially horizontal swiping motion includes a multi-touch left-to-right swiping motion.

16. The electronic device of claim 15, wherein the representation of the edge of the electronic book includes one or more bookmark indicia associated with respective bookmarks previously inserted by a user of the electronic device.

17. The electronic device of claim 16, wherein the bookmark indicia are arranged upon the edge of the electronic book such that they are spatially relative to one another based at least in part upon relative positions within the electronic book which each corresponding bookmark index references.

18. The electronic device of claim 15, wherein the touch sensor and the display form a touch-sensitive display.

19. A computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions, which when executed by an electronic device, cause the electronic device to generate a user interface comprising:

one or more content regions to present a part of a digital content item on a display; and

an edge navigation region disposed adjacent to the one or more content regions, the edge navigation region presenting a virtual edge having one or more dimensions proportionate, at least in part, to a total length of the digital content item and a location of the part of the digital content item determined with respect to the total length of the digital content item, wherein;

the edge navigation region is displayed in response to detecting a substantially horizontal swiping motion of two or more coincident touches in a direction from a first side of the one or more content regions toward a second side of the one or more content regions; and

a location of the edge navigation region is determined to be adjacent to the first side of the one or more content regions.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, further comprising presenting one or more bookmark indicia within the edge navigation region, the one or more bookmark indicia each being associated with a corresponding bookmark within the digital content item.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the bookmark comprises at least one of:

a location mark, a note, a search, a data access, a chapter, segment, a track, a section, or a topical heading associated with specified locations within the digital content item.

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the digital content item comprises an electronic book.

23. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the digital content item comprises an electronic book, each of the one or more content regions comprises a respective page of the electronic book, and one or more bookmark indicia are presented upon an edge of the electronic book.

24. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the digital content item comprises one of an electronic book, a video item, or a multimedia item.