Progressive page transition feature for rendering e-books on computing devices

• US 9,529,432 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2014
• Issued: 12/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rakuten Kobo Inc. (Rakuten Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rakuten Kobo Inc. (Rakuten Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wu, James
• Primary Examiner(s): SIMPSON, LIXI CHOW
• Application Number:
  US14/579,847
• Publication Number:
  US 20160179192A1
• Time in Patent Office: 736 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/013 Eye tracking input arrangements G06F3/015 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

A reader'"'"'s position of progression on a current page of an e-book is tracked. The current page is progressively transitioned to next page based on the reader'"'"'s position on the current page.

Claims

1. A computing device comprising:

a housing;

a display assembly including a display screen provided with the housing;

a set of one or more sensors that are arranged to detect user activity;

a processor that operates to;

render individual pages of an e-book, each page including multiple lines of characters that are arranged, based at least in part on a language origin of the e-book, to have a direction of progression, the pages of the e-book being sequenced;

when rendering a current page from the e-book, detect, using the set of sensors, a user activity in the direction of progression;

at each of multiple instances during when the user'"'"'s activity is detected, correlate a position determined from the activity with a set of character lines of the current page indicating a position of progression; and

during when the user'"'"'s activity is detected on the current page, replace at least one of the multiple lines of characters on the current page with a set of character lines from a next page that follows the current page in the sequence, the at least one of the multiple lines of characters preceding, relative to the direction of progression, the set of character lines that indicate the position of progression.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the set of one or more sensors includes one or more sensors that are provided with a surface of at least one of the display screen or processor to detect user activity corresponding to the user moving an object on the surface.

3. The computing device of claim 2, wherein the set of sensors are integrated with the display assembly, and wherein the surface corresponds to at least a portion of the display screen.

4. The computing device of claim 2, wherein the set of sensors are integrated with the housing, and wherein the surface corresponds to at least a portion of the housing.

5. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the set of one or more sensors includes an image sensor that is directed to capture image data of the user viewing the display screen, and wherein the processor operates to detect user activity corresponding to the user moving his or her gaze in the direction of progression while viewing the display screen.

6. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the e-book includes a horizontally aligned script, and the processor renders each page to include multiple lines of characters that are horizontally aligned, and wherein the processor detects activity that indicates a vertical direction of progression for the horizontally aligned script.

7. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the e-book includes a vertically aligned script, and the processor renders each page to include multiple lines of characters that are vertically aligned, and wherein the processor detects activity that indicates a horizontal direction of progression for the vertically aligned script.

10. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the processor replaces at least one of the multiple lines of characters on the current page when the current position exceed a predetermined threshold of progression for the current position.

11. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the processor replaces at least one of the multiple lines of characters on the current page by (i) replacing a first set of one or more lines or characters with a corresponding set of character lines from the next page when the position determined from the activity indicates a first point of progression on the current page;

and (ii) replacing a second set of one or more lines or characters with a corresponding set of character lines from the next page when the position determined from the activity indicates a second point of progression on the current page.

8. The computing device of 1, wherein the display assembly is an electronic paper type display.

9. The computing device of 1, wherein the display assembly is a liquid crystal display.

12. A method for operating a computing device to render an e-book, the method being implemented by one or more processors of the computing device and comprising:

(a) tracking a reader'"'"'s position of progression on a current page of an e-book, the e-book including a collection of pages, each page of the collection including multiple lines of characters that are arranged, based at least in part on a language origin of the e-book, to have a direction of progression, the pages of the e-book being arranged in a sequence;

(b) progressively transitioning the current page to a next page of the sequence based on the reader'"'"'s position on the current page at least by replacing one or more lines of characters on the current page which precede a line of characters that are indicated by a reader'"'"'s position of progression at a particular instance, with a set of character lines from a next page that follows the current page in the sequence.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein (a) includes tracking a reader activity corresponding to one of (i) the reader'"'"'s movement of an object or (ii) the reader'"'"'s gaze, in the direction of progression while rendering the current page.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the e-book is comprised of horizontally aligned script, and wherein (a) includes detecting activity that is directed in a vertical direction.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the e-book is comprised of vertically aligned script, and wherein (a) includes detecting activity that is directed in a horizontal direction.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein (b) includes replacing one or more lines of characters on the current page when the reader'"'"'s position of progression is detected to exceed a predetermined threshold.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein (b) includes replacing a portion of the current page with a portion of the next page of the sequence in response to detecting the position of progression on the current page exceeding a designated threshold.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising performing (a) and (b) without performing a global page refresh.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium for use with one or more processors of a computing device, the non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

(a) determining a reader'"'"'s current position of progression on a current page of an e-book, the e-book including a collection of pages, each page of the collection including multiple lines of characters that are arranged, based at least in part on a language origin of the e-book, to have a direction of progression, the pages of the e-book being sequenced;

(b) replacing one or more lines of characters on the current page which precede a line of characters that are indicated by the reader'"'"'s current position of progression with a set of character lines from a next page that follows the current page in the sequence.