Interactive content for digital books

• US 9,766,782 B2
• Filed: 08/17/2012
• Issued: 09/19/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Migos, Charles J., Bauducco, Diego, Hagele, Markus, Capela, Jay Christopher, Gehiere, Gary W., Refstrup, Jacob G., Rudolph, Christopher Erich, Rapp, Peter W., Hall, David M., Berger, Peter G., Ward, Simon Antony, Ambachtsheer, Mark, Elseth, Paul, Israelson, Steven J., Rosner, Roger Rock, Gur, Yaniv, MacLean, Alexander C., Emanuel, M. Frank, Murrett, Mac
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Manglesh M
• Application Number:
  US13/588,432
• Publication Number:
  US 20130073932A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,859 Days
• Field of Search: 715201, 715200, 715246, 715863
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/0291 for reading, e.g. e-books constructional details of portable computers G06F1/1613
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/02 with visual presentation of the material to be studied, e.g. using film strip

Abstract

A graphical user interface (GUI) is presented that allows a user to view and interact with content embedded in a digital book, such as text, image galleries, multimedia presentations, video, HTML, animated and static diagrams, charts, tables, visual dictionaries, review questions, three-dimensional (3D) animation and any other known media content, and various touch gestures can be used by the user to move through images and multimedia presentations, play video, answer review questions, manipulate three-dimensional objects, and interact with HTML.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

displaying a table of contents for a digital book, the table of contents including a plurality of references to items of content provided within a body of the digital book;

receiving a de-pinch touch gesture input associated with one of the plurality of references to items of content in the table of contents;

based upon the receiving a de-pinch touch gesture input, determining a particular one of the plurality of references to items of content to be displayed; and

based upon the determining a particular one of the plurality of references to items of content to be displayed, displaying a portion of text from the body of the digital book corresponding to the particular one of the plurality of references to items of content,

wherein displaying the portion of text includes adjusting and maintaining the display of the plurality of references to items of content to accommodate the displaying of the portion of text.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a first touch point and a second touch point based on the de-pinch touch gesture input;

in response to the determining a first touch point and a second touch point, calculating a distance between the first touch point and the second touch point of the de-pinch touch gesture input; and

in response to the calculating a distance, determining the particular one of the plurality of references to items of content to be displayed based at least in part on the calculated distance.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the plurality of references to items of content comprises displaying the plurality of references to items of content in-line in the table of contents.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjusting and maintaining the display of the plurality of references to items of content includes expanding the plurality of references to items of content to accommodate the displaying the portion of text.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a first touch point and a second touch point based on the de-pinch touch gesture input;

in response to the determining a first touch point and a second touch point, calculating a distance between the first touch point and the second touch point of the de-pinch touch gesture input;

comparing the calculated distance to a threshold distance; and

in response to the comparing the calculated distance to a threshold distance, displaying the portion of text based at least in part on the calculated distance.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of references to items of content includes chapters of the digital book, subsections of the digital book, and topics of the digital book.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying a portion of text from the body of the digital book includes displaying chapters of the digital book, sections of the digital book, subtitles of the digital book, and descriptions from the body of the digital book.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying a table of contents for a digital book includes:

determining an orientation of a display device that displays the digital book; and

in response to determining an orientation of a display device that displays the digital book, displaying the table of contents.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the determining an orientation of a display device that displays the digital book includes:

determining whether the display device that displays the digital book is in one of a landscape orientation and a portrait orientation; and

in response to determining whether the display device that displays the digital book is in one of a landscape orientation and a portrait orientation, displaying the table of contents.