Electronic Document Reader

• US 20090113291A1
• Filed: 06/13/2008
• Published: 04/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: FlexEnable Limited (Plastic Logic JSC)
• Original Assignee: Plastic Logic Limited (Plastic Logic JSC)
• Inventors: Merrick, Barry, Barclay, Duncan, Farmer, Steven, Nirmalananthan, Anusha, Hayton, Carl, Jones, Simon, Cain, Paul A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,539,341 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/243
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133388 with constructional differences between the display region and the peripheral region
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/147 using display panels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/0232 Special driving of display border areas
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/04 Changes in size, position or resolution of an image
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0407 Resolution change, inclusive of the use of different resolutions for different screen areas
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2380/14 Electronic books and readers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/393 Enlarging or reducing

Abstract

We describe a method of displaying a document page with a predetermined size using a display device having edges defining lateral dimensions not substantially larger than said predetermined size and having a central re-writable display portion and a non-re-writable border, said document page comprising a central, foreground portion bearing one or both of text and graphics, a background having a background colour and at least one margin having said background colour, the method comprising: inputting page data defining a page for display; processing said page data to crop margins of said page such that, when displayed on said re-writable display portion, said non-re-writable border gives the appearance of said cropped margins, said processing generating cropped page data; and outputting said cropped page data for display on said re-writable display portion of said display.

Claims

1. A method of displaying a document page with a predetermined size using a display device having edges defining lateral dimensions not substantially larger than said predetermined size and having a central re-writable display portion and a non-re-writable border, said document page comprising a central, foreground portion bearing one or both of text and graphics, a background having a background colour and at least one margin having said background colour, the method comprising:

inputting page data defining a page for display;

processing said page data to crop margins of said page such that, when displayed on said re-writable display portion, said non-re-writable border gives the appearance of said cropped margins, said processing generating cropped page data; and

outputting said cropped page data for display on said re-writable display portion of said display.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said lateral dimensions of the display device are within 1 cm to that of a standard paper size, in particular ISO 216 or ANSI/ASME Y14.1.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said central foreground portion displayed on said central rewritable portion extends to a distance of less than 5 mm away from the non-rewritable border.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said display device includes a display device computer system to drive said display, and wherein said processing of said page data is performed in a host computer system separate to said display device computer system, said host computer system also generating said page data for processing.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein said host computer system comprises a laptop computer, desktop computer, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), mobile telephone or smart telephone.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said central re-writable display portion comprises an electrophoretic display element.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein processing said page data further comprises formatting a layout of one or both of said text and graphics of said document page such that said text and graphics are displayable on said re-writable display portion.

8. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said outputting of said cropped page data comprises outputting page image data.

9. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said processing comprises determining, for each of a plurality of said document pages together comprising a document for display, a margin size of at least one margin of the pages;

identifying a smallest said margin size; and

cropping margins of said pages using said smallest said margin size.

10. A method of driving a paper-emulation display, the display having a re-writeable electrophoretic display area bordered by a non-displaying surface coloured to match a background colour of said electrophoretic display area, the method comprising inputting page data defining a page for display, processing said page data to crop margins of said page such that when displayed on said electrophoretic display said non-displaying surface gives the appearance of said cropped margins, said processing generating cropped page data, and outputting said cropped page data for display on said electrophoretic display area of said paper-emulation display.

11. A method as claimed in claim 10 further comprising displaying said cropped page data on said paper-emulation display using a display device computer system configured to drive said display, and wherein said processing of said page data is performed in a host computer system separate to said display device computer system, said host computer system further generating said page data for processing.

12. A method as claimed in claim 10 wherein said paper-emulation display comprises a non-volatile display

13. A method as claimed in claim 10, wherein said re-writeable electrophoretic display area is touch sensitive, the method further comprising inputting touch data from said display, generating mark-up data representing a marked-up version of said page, and outputting said mark-up data.

14. A method as claimed in claim 13 wherein said processing comprises determining, for each of a plurality of said document pages together comprising a document for display, a margin size of at least one margin of the pages;

identifying a smallest said margin size; and

cropping margins of said pages using said smallest said margin size.

15. A method of displaying a document page with a predetermined size at substantially 1:

1 scale using a display device having edges defining lateral dimensions not substantially larger than said predetermined size and having a central re-writable display portion and a non-re-writable border, said document page comprising a central, foreground portion bearing one or both of text and graphics, a background having a background colour and at least one margin having said background colour, the method comprising;

inputting page data defining a page for display;

processing said page data to crop margins of said page such that, when displayed on said re-writable display portion, said non-re-writable border gives the appearance of said cropped margins, said processing generating cropped page data; and

outputting said cropped page data for display on said re-writable display portion of said display.

16. A method as claimed in claim 15 wherein said processing comprises determining, for each of a plurality of said document pages together comprising a document for display, a margin size of at least one margin of the pages;

identifying a smallest said margin size; and

cropping margins of said pages using said smallest said margin size.

17. A method of formatting a document for display on an electronic document reader having a non-rewriteable border adjacent a re-writable display portion, the method comprising:

inputting page data for a plurality of pages of said document for display on said electronic document reader;

processing said page data to determine, for each of said plurality of pages, a margin size of at least one margin of each of said pages;

identifying a smallest said margin size from amongst said determined margin sizes;

scaling, using said smallest margin size, said page data for display on said re-writable display portion.

18. A method as claimed in claim 17 wherein said scaling comprises scaling said page data such that a page with said smallest margin size substantially completely fills said re-writeable display portion when said margin is discounted.

19. A method as claimed in claim 17 wherein said page data comprises an image of each said page.

20. A method as claimed in claim 19 wherein a said margin comprises an edge region of a said page in which there is substantially no difference in information content between said pages of said plurality of pages.

21. A method as claimed in claim 17 wherein said border is present on four sides of said re-writable display portion, and wherein said method determines a said margin size, and identifies a said smallest margin size, for top, bottom, left and right margins of said pages.

22. A method as claimed in claim 17 further comprising learning a said scaling to apply to said page data from one said document for display and applying a learnt said scaling to a second said document for display.

23. A carrier carrying processor control code to, when running, implement the method of claim 17.

24. An electronic document reader for displaying a document page with a predetermined size, the electronic document reader having edges defining lateral dimensions not substantially larger than said predetermined size and having a central re-writable display portion and a non-re-writable border, said document page comprising a central, foreground portion bearing one or both of text and graphics, a background having a background colour and at least one margin having said background colour;

and wherein the electronic document reader is configured to input page data defining a page for display;

process said page data to crop margins of said page such that, when displayed on said re-writable display portion, said non-re-writable border gives the appearance of said cropped margins, said processing generating cropped page data; and

output said cropped page data for display on said re-writable display portion of said display.

25. An electronic document reader having a non-rewriteable border adjacent a re-writable display portion, the electronic document reader further comprising:

an input to receive page data for a plurality of pages of said document for display on said electronic document reader;

non-volatile memory for storing said page data;

program memory for storing processor control code for controlling said electronic document reader;

a display for displaying a said page of said document; and

a processor coupled to said non-volatile memory to said program memory, to said input, and to said display, and wherein said processor control code is configured to control said processor to;

process said page data to determine, for each of said plurality of pages, a margin size of at least one margin of each of said pages;

identify a smallest said margin size from amongst said determined margin sizes;

scale, using said smallest margin size, said page data for display on said re-writable display portion; and

provide said scaled page data for displaying on said display.

26. An electronic document reader as claimed in claim 25 wherein said processor control code is configured to scale said page data such that a page with said smallest margin size substantially completely fills said re-writeable display portion when said margin is discounted.