Electronic Reading Device Mimicking a Reading experience of a Paper Document

• US 20080259057A1
• Filed: 08/31/2006
• Published: 10/23/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: IRX IP B.V.
• Original Assignee: IRX IP B.V.
• Inventors: Brons, Johannes
• Application Number:
  US12/066,613
• Publication Number:
  US 20080259057A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/184
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/0291 for reading, e.g. e-books constructional details of portable computers G06F1/1613
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor

Abstract

An apparatus comprises a display screen (DS) for visualizing digital information page by page, and a flip bar (FB) being movable upon user activation in at least two directions for flipping pages of the digital information back and forth, respectively. Such an apparatus may be an electronic reading device mimicking a reading experience of a paper document.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising

a user interface and an input (ICO) for retrieving digital information,

a display screen (DS) for visualizing the digital information page by page, and

a flip bar (FB) being movable upon user activation in at least two directions for flipping pages of the digital information back and forth, respectively.

2. An apparatus for retrieving and visualizing information as claimed in claim 1 further comprising attached electronics, software and mechanics.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the flip bar (FB) is moveable in two opposite directions for flipping the pages of the digital information back and forth to provide a paper like reading experience to the user.

4. An apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the flip bar (FB) is moveable to left and right when the apparatus is oriented such that the digital information is readable by a user.

5. An apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the flip bar (FB) is positioned to enable the user to position the thumb of a hand holding the apparatus on it.

6. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the flip bar (FB) is arranged at a side of the display screen (DS).

7. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the flip bar (FB) is an elongated key.

8. An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the flip bar (FB) is arranged parallel to a side of the display screen (DS).

9. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the flip bar (FB) is arranged along a longest side of the display screen (DS).

10. An apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the flip bar (FB) is arranged on a left hand side of the display screen when the apparatus is oriented such that text of the digital information is readable by a user.

11. An apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the flip bar (FB) has a length ratio in a range from 1.2 to 0.2 between a length (f) of the flip bar (FB) and a length (d) of the side of the display screen (DS) to which the flip bar (FB) is arranged in parallel.

12. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the length ratio is selected between 0.8 and 0.2.

13. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the wherein the length ratio is selected to be larger than 0.75.

14. An apparatus according to claim 1, being constructed for flipping one page when the flip bar (FB) is activated one time.

15. An apparatus according to claim 14, being constructed for flipping one page when the flip bar (FB) is activated during a period in time shorter than 1 second.

16. An apparatus according to claim 1, being constructed for flipping a group of pages when the flip bar (FB) is one time activated longer than a predetermined prolonged time period.

17. An apparatus according to claim 16, being constructed for flipping the group of pages when the flip bar (FB) is one time activated longer than 1.5 second.

18. An apparatus according to claim 16, wherein a number of pages in a group is 5.

19. An apparatus according to claim 16, wherein number of pages in a group is set by a user.

20. An apparatus according to claim 1, being constructed for continuing flipping of the pages upon activating the flip bar (FB) and wherein a speed of flipping through the pages increases the longer the flip bar (FB) is activated.

21. An apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the flip bar (FB) is activated by moving the flip bar (FB) in the at least one direction and pressing down the flip bar (FB).

22. An apparatus according to claim 1, being constructed for giving an audio feedback upon activating the flip bar (FB).

23. An apparatus according to claim 22, wherein the audio feedback is a bleep, a sound of turning a page of a paper book, or a click.

24. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the flip bar (FB) is constructed for rotating around an axis parallel to a side of the display screen (DS) upon activation.

25. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the flip bar (FB) is constructed for shifting away from and towards the display screen (DS).

26. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising at least one button (AB) for selecting an application category.

27. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising at least two buttons (AB) for selecting different application categories.

28. An apparatus according to claim 27, wherein the different application categories include Books and Newspapers and/or Documents.

29. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising page-navigator buttons (PN) for content navigation for selecting content sections (SC) and/or hyperlinks of a page being displayed.

30. An apparatus according to claim 29, comprising three page navigator buttons (PN), two for navigating up and down, respectively, through sections (SC) of the page being displayed, and one for indicating a decision or selection.

31. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an i-connector (ICO) for downloading content from a content provider.

32. An apparatus according to claim 31, wherein the i-connector (ICO) is constructed for connecting the apparatus to a content server (COS) to download content from a content provider.

33. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the i-connector (ICO) is constructed for connecting the device to a content server via internet (INT).

34. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a button (MM) for mode/menu activation for displaying a menu.

35. An apparatus according to claim 34, wherein the menu shows usage modes.

36. An apparatus according to claim 35, wherein the usage modes comprise:

printed media, audio/video, and/or personal settings.

37. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a level-up button (LU) for going to a level higher than the current level.

38. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the flip bar (FB) is fitted with a sensor (FP) to navigate through content on a display page being displayed on the display screen (DS).

39. An apparatus according to claim 38, wherein a length of the flip bar (FP) symbolizes the whole content length of a display page, or all the links/sections/blocks on a display page, and wherein the sensor (FP) registers a position at which the flip bar (FP) is touched for controlling a position of a cursor on the display page.

40. An apparatus according to claim 39, wherein the cursor is one link in a series of links hidden in the content displayed on the display screen (DS).

41. An apparatus according to claim 1, being constructed for displaying a page-indicator (PI) on the display screen (DS) being related to a number of a page of a digital document.

42. An apparatus according to claim 41, being constructed for displaying the page-indicator (PI) representing a number of pages (LP) of a digital document, the number of pages (LP) indicating a thickness of the digital document.

43. An apparatus according to claim 41, being constructed for displaying the page-indicator (PI) representing a page number of the page being displayed on the display screen (DS).

44. An apparatus according to claim 41, being constructed for displaying the page-indicator (PI) to display a row of vertical lines at a bottom of the display screen (DS) when the display screen (DS) is oriented such that a user can read the information displayed, wherein the row of vertical lines indicates the thickness of the digital document.

45. An apparatus according to any one of the claims 41, being constructed for refreshing the page-indicator (PI) with page turning and/or is controllable by a stylus/pen.

46. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a touch sensor (TS) associated with the display screen (DS).

47. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display screen (DS) is a bi-stable display based on LCD and/or electrophoretic displays.

48. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a player (10) is included.

49. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a CD player (10) is included.

50. An apparatus according to claim 1 being an electronic reading device.