Enhancing touch and feel on the internet

• US 7,111,252 B1
• Filed: 02/16/2000
• Issued: 09/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Scott C Harris
• Original Assignee: Scott C Harris
• Inventors: Harris, Scott C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Cao (Kevin)
• Application Number:
  US09/505,646
• Time in Patent Office: 2,407 Days
• Field of Search: 345/776, 345/763, 345/765, 345/853, 345/854, 705/25, 705/26, 705/27, 705/10, 705/14, 705/51, 705/50, 715/853, 715/854, 715/765, 715/763, 715/776, 715/738, 715/739, 715/737, 715/736, 715/741, 715/850, 715/851, 715/812
• US Class Current: 715/851
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/02 CAD in a network environment, e.g. collaborative CAD or distributed simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2113/20 Packaging, e.g. boxes or containers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/23 using finite element methods [FEM] or finite difference methods [FDM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23412 for generating or manipulating the scene composition of objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44012 involving rendering scenes according to scene graphs, e.g. MPEG-4 scene graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system for enabling touch and feel over the internet provides a three-dimensional representation of a good being sold, that three-dimensional representation being viewable from a number of different directions. The good being sold is in a package and the package is displayed from the number of different directions. The present invention has the good being a book, and the inside and outside covers of the book are displayed and specified pages of the book can be displayed. The user can read from either the label or the covers just like as if the were actually handling the good.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

in a server of a network, storing a plurality of images representing pages of a book, said images stored with a resolution effective to enable said book to be read;

responsive to a request over the network, sending one of said images to a remote node; and

determining if the request for pages exceeds a certain threshold, and sending said information only if said threshold is not exceeded.

2. A method as in claim 1, wherein said images are classified according to whether they count towards said threshold, and incrementing a counter only when an image that counts towards said threshold is requested.

3. A method as in claim 1 wherein said determining comprises storing information indicative of an amount of reading into a computer file.

4. A method as in claim 3 wherein said computer file is a cookie.

5. A method as in claim 3 wherein said computer file is persistent.

6. A method as in claim 3 wherein said computer file expires after a predetermined time.

7. A method comprising:

receiving, at a client of a network, information about which of a specified plurality of images to be displayed, each of specified plurality of images showing textual information and at least a plurality of said images showing non-textual information, said textual information representative of contents of a book;

displaying said images responsive to said requests;

displaying a screen tip, indicating what the reaction will be to a specified operation.

8. A method as in claim 7 further comprising commanding an opening of the book to see an inside of the book.

9. A method comprising:

receiving, at a client of a network, information about which of a specified plurality of images to be displayed, each of specified plurality of images showing textual information and at least a plurality of said images showing non-textual information, said textual information representative of contents of a book;

displaying said images responsive to said requests; and

wherein each of said images use a graded resolution, which provides readable resolution for readable parts and a different resolution for non-readable parts.

10. A method as in claim 9 wherein said readable parts are in a text format and said different parts are in an image format.

11. A method comprising:

receiving, at a client of a network, information about which of a specified plurality of images to be displayed, each of specified plurality of images showing textual information and at least a plurality of said images showing non-textual information, said textual information representative of contents of an information media;

displaying said images responsive to said requests; and

displaying keys which enable moving a position of viewing of said information media.

12. A method as in claim 11 wherein said keys change meaning depending on their position.

13. A method comprising:

receiving, at a client of a network, information about which of a specified plurality of images to be displayed, each of specified plurality of images showing textual information and at least a plurality of said images showing non-textual information, said textual information representative of contents of an entertainment media;

displaying said images responsive to said requests; and

detecting a number of pages that have been read, and limiting use of said number of pages.

14. A method as in claim 13 further comprising detecting a type of page which is being requested, and limiting use of only a specified type page.

15. A method of reading a book over the Internet, comprising:

requesting a page of a book on a client of the Internet;

determining, in a server of the Internet, if more than a specified number of pages of said book have been requested by a specified user; and

sending said page only if the specified number of pages does not exceed a threshold.

16. A method as in claim 15 wherein the specified pages are specified types of pages, and wherein non-specified types of pages are sent without said limit.

17. A method as in claim 15 further comprising allowing the user to read beyond the specified number of pages after paying a fee.

18. An apparatus comprising:

a computer, providing limited pages of books that can be viewed over a publically available network, and including a connection to the network, and which recieves information indicative of at least one desired page of a book over the connection to the network; and

returns information indicative of only limited images of pages of the book based on said information; and

wherein said computer limits a number of pages that can be displayed.

19. An apparatus as in claim 18, wherein said information is information indicative of additional image information.

20. An apparatus as in claim 18, wherein said information includes information indicative of larger image size.

21. An apparatus as in claim 18, wherein said information includes an image having sufficient image quality to allow reading textual information from the images of the pages.