Visual thumbnail scrubber for digital content

• US 10,620,796 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2013
• Issued: 04/14/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Barnes & Noble College Booksellers LLC (Barnes & Noble Education, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Barnes & Noble College Booksellers LLC (Barnes & Noble Education, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cueto, Gerald B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsui, Wilson W
• Application Number:
  US14/134,093
• Publication Number:
  US 20150177933A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,308 Days
• 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

Techniques are disclosed for providing a thumbnail scrubber mode in electronic devices, such as a touch screen device. In an embodiment, a thumbnail scrubber may be displayed to the user in response to a distinguishable touch screen gesture, or in response to a toolbar command. A toolbar may be displayed on the device including a scrubber bar, and the thumbnail scrubber mode may be invoked when a user interacts with the scrubber bar. The thumbnail scrubber displays multiple thumbnail images of pages of digital content and allows the user to preview and scroll through the digital content while continuing to display the current page in the main viewer of the device. After scrubbing through the digital content pages, the user may select one of the thumbnail images in the scrubber in order to access that page of the digital content.

Claims

1. A device, comprising:

a touch screen display for displaying digital content to a user and allowing user input, wherein the digital content includes pages that belong to chapters, and each of the chapters with a corresponding chapter title; and

a user interface including a thumbnail scrubber mode configured to display (i) current page belonging to a current chapter of the digital content, (ii) a scrubber bar, and (iii) a thumbnail scrubber, wherein the thumbnail scrubber includes a chapter information region and a thumbnail region, the chapter information region identifying the chapter title of the current chapter of the digital content to which thumbnail images currently displayed in the thumbnail region belong, the thumbnail region including a plurality of thumbnail images representing the pages of the digital content belonging to the current chapter, and wherein the thumbnail scrubber mode is further configured to

scroll the thumbnail images within the displayed thumbnail scrubber in a sequential fashion in response to a scrolling gesture performed over the thumbnail scrubber region while continuing to display the current page of digital content, such that a scrolling gesture in a first direction scrolls the thumbnail images representing pages of the digital content that occur prior to the current page and a scrolling gesture in a second direction opposite the first direction scrolls the thumbnail images representing pages of the digital content that occur subsequent to the current page, and wherein the thumbnail scrubber region displays a chapter break indicator between (i) first one or more of the thumbnail images representing pages belonging to a first chapter in the digital content and (ii) second one or more of the thumbnail images representing pages belonging to a second chapter in the digital content, when the scrolling results in displaying the thumbnail images of the first and second chapter, and simultaneously updating the current chapter title of the digital content with the title of a different chapter when one of the thumbnails belonging to the different chapter is scrolled into the thumbnail scrubber, and

update the current chapter title of the digital content identified in the chapter information region and simultaneously scroll the thumbnail images in a block fashion by chapter of the digital content in response to a scrolling gesture performed over the chapter information region while continuing to display the current page of digital content, such that a scrolling gesture in a first direction causes a previous chapter of the digital content to be identified in the chapter information region and a scrolling gesture in a second direction opposite the first direction causes a next chapter of the digital content to be identified in the chapter information region,

wherein the scrubber bar includes (i) one or more chapter markers displaying one or more locations of one or more corresponding chapter breaks within the digital content, (ii) an interactive scrubber knob to dynamically move to a position that indicates a location of the currently displayed thumbnail images within the digital content relative to the one or more locations of the one or more corresponding chapter breaks, wherein the scrubber knob can be moved to scroll the thumbnail images in the thumbnail scrubber, and (iii) a current page marker that is added to the scrubber bar when the scrubber knob is moved, wherein the current page marker indicates a location of the current page within the digital content relative to (a) the one or more locations of the one or more corresponding chapter breaks and/or (b) the location of the currently displayed thumbnail images.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein the thumbnail scrubber mode is further configured to display the thumbnail scrubber in response to a thumbnail scrubber activation gesture performed over the current page of digital content.

3. The device of claim 1 wherein a single thumbnail image represents multiple pages worth of digital content.

4. The device of claim 1 wherein the thumbnail scrubber mode is further configured to display a toolbar in the thumbnail region, the toolbar including the scrubber bar, and wherein the thumbnail scrubber mode is further configured to display the thumbnail scrubber in response to a user interaction with the scrubber bar.

5. The device of claim 4 wherein the scrolling gesture performed over the thumbnail region comprises dragging the scrubber knob along the scrubber bar.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein when the thumbnail images are being scrolled, the thumbnail region simultaneously displays (i) the first one or more of the thumbnail images representing pages belonging to a first chapter in the digital content and (ii) the second one or more of the thumbnail images representing pages belonging to the second chapter in the digital content, and the chapter information region simultaneously displays (i) at least a part of the chapter title of the first chapter and (ii) at least a part of the chapter title of the second chapter.

7. The device of claim 1 wherein the thumbnail scrubber mode is further configured to display a chapter bar in the chapter information region to indicate the chapter title of the current chapter of the digital content to which thumbnail images currently displayed in the thumbnail region belong, and wherein the scrolling gesture performed over the chapter information region comprises a swipe gesture performed over the chapter bar.

8. The device of claim 7 wherein, in response to a selection of the chapter title, the thumbnail scrubber mode is further configured to display a first page of digital content associated with the selected chapter title.

9. The device of claim 1 wherein the scrolling gesture performed over at least one of the chapter information region and the thumbnail region comprises a swipe gesture performed without contacting the touch screen display.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the first one or more thumbnail images, the chapter break indicator, and the second one or more thumbnail images are arranged in a linear manner.

11. The device of claim 1 wherein, in response to a selection of a thumbnail image, the thumbnail scrubber mode is further configured to display a page of digital content associated with the selected thumbnail image.

12. The device of claim 1 wherein the thumbnail scrubber mode is further configured to exit out of the thumbnail scrubber mode in response to a period of time wherein no user input has been detected.

13. A mobile computing system, comprising:

a processor and a touch screen display for displaying digital content to a user and allowing user input, wherein the digital content includes pages that belong to chapters, and each of the chapters has a corresponding chapter title; and

a user interface executable on the processor and including a thumbnail scrubber mode configured to display (i) a current page belonging to a current chapter of the digital content, (ii) a scrubber bar, and (iii) a thumbnail scrubber, wherein the thumbnail scrubber includes a thumbnail region and a chapter information region, the chapter information region including at least one of a chapter number and the chapter title for a current chapter of the digital content to which thumbnail images currently displayed in the thumbnail region belong, and the thumbnail region including a plurality of thumbnail images representing the pages of the digital content belonging to the current chapter, and wherein the thumbnail scrubber mode is further configured to

scroll the thumbnail images within the displayed thumbnail scrubber in a sequential fashion in response to a scrolling gesture performed over the thumbnail scrubber region while continuing to display the current page of digital content, such that a scrolling gesture in a first direction scrolls the thumbnail images representing pages of the digital content that occur prior to the current page and a scrolling gesture in a second direction opposite the first direction scrolls the thumbnail images representing pages of the digital content that occur subsequent to the current page, and wherein the thumbnail scrubber region displays a chapter break indicator between (i) first one or more of the thumbnail images representing pages belonging to a first chapter in the digital content and (ii) second one or more of the thumbnail images representing pages belonging to a second chapter in the digital content, when the scrolling results in displaying the thumbnail images of the first and second chapter, and simultaneously updating the current chapter title of the digital content with the chapter title of a different chapter when one of the thumbnails belonging to the different chapter is scrolled into the thumbnail scrubber, and

update the current chapter title of the digital content identified in the chapter information region and simultaneously scroll the thumbnail images in a block fashion by chapter of the digital content in response to a scrolling gesture performed over the chapter information region while continuing to display the current page of digital content, such that a scrolling gesture in a first direction causes a previous chapter of the digital content to be identified in the chapter information region and a scrolling gesture in a second direction opposite the first direction causes a next chapter of the digital content to be identified in the chapter information region,

wherein the scrubber bar includes (i) one or more chapter markers displaying one or more locations of one or more corresponding chapter breaks within the digital content, (ii) an interactive scrubber knob to dynamically move to a position that indicates a location of the currently displayed thumbnail images within the digital content relative to the one or more locations of the one or more corresponding chapter breaks, wherein the scrubber knob can be moved to scroll the thumbnail images in the thumbnail scrubber, and (iii) a current page marker that is added to the scrubber bar when the scrubber knob is moved, wherein the current page marker indicates a location of the current page within the digital content relative to (a) the one or more locations of the one or more corresponding chapter breaks and/or (b) the location of the currently displayed thumbnail images.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the thumbnail scrubber mode is further configured (i) to display a toolbar in the thumbnail region, the toolbar including the scrubber bar, and (ii) to display the thumbnail scrubber in response to a user dragging the scrubber knob along the scrubber bar.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the chapter break indicator, the first one or more of the thumbnail images representing pages belonging to the first chapter in the digital content, the second one or more of the thumbnail images representing pages belonging to the second chapter in the digital content are arranged in a same line.

16. The system of claim 13 wherein the chapter information region includes a chapter bar located adjacent to the thumbnail region.

17. A non-transitory computer program product comprising a plurality of instructions encoded thereon that when executed by one or more processors cause a process to be carried out, the process comprising:

display on an electronic device a current page of digital content, wherein the digital content includes pages that belong to chapters, and each of the chapters is a corresponding section with a corresponding section title;

display on the electronic device, in response to a thumbnail scrubber activation gesture, (i) a scrubber bar, (ii) a section information region, and (iii) a thumbnail region, the section information region identifying the section title of the current section of the digital content to which thumbnail images currently displayed in the thumbnail region belong, the thumbnail region including a plurality of thumbnail images representing the pages of the digital content belonging to the current section;

scroll the thumbnail images within the displayed thumbnail scrubber in a sequential fashion in response to a scrolling gesture performed over the thumbnail scrubber region while continuing to display the current page of digital content, such that a scrolling gesture in a first direction scrolls the thumbnail images representing pages of the digital content that occur prior to the current page and a scrolling gesture in a second direction opposite the first direction scrolls the thumbnail images representing pages of the digital content that occur subsequent to the current page, and wherein the thumbnail scrubber region displays a chapter break indicator between (i) first one or more of the thumbnail images representing pages belonging to a first chapter in the digital content and (ii) second one or more of the thumbnail images representing pages belonging to a second chapter in the digital content, when the scrolling results in displaying the thumbnail images of the first and second chapter, and simultaneously updating the section information region with the title of the current section with the title of a different section when one of the thumbnails belonging to the different section is scrolled into the thumbnail scrubber, and

update the current section title of the digital content identified in the section information region and simultaneously scroll the thumbnail images in a block fashion by section of the digital content in response to a scrolling gesture performed over the section information region while continuing to display the current page of digital content, such that a scrolling gesture in a first direction causes a previous section of the digital content to be identified in the section information region and a scrolling gesture in a second direction opposite the first direction causes a next section of the digital content to be identified in the section information region,

wherein the scrubber bar includes (i) one or more chapter markers displaying one or more locations of one or more corresponding chapter breaks within the digital content, (ii) an interactive scrubber knob to dynamically move to a position that indicates a location of the currently displayed thumbnail images within the digital content relative to the one or more locations of the one or more corresponding chapter breaks, wherein the scrubber knob can be moved to scroll the thumbnail images in the thumbnail scrubber, and (iii) a current page marker that is added to the scrubber bar when the scrubber knob is moved, wherein the current page marker indicates a location of the current page within the digital content relative to (a) the one or more locations of the one or more corresponding chapter breaks and/or (b) the location of the currently displayed thumbnail images.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the scrolling gesture performed over the thumbnail region comprises a dragging gesture performed over the scrubber knob.