Synchronizing physical and electronic copies of media using electronic bookmarks

• US 9,049,398 B1
• Filed: 03/28/2012
• Issued: 06/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Moscovich, Tomer, Yun, Tiffany
• Primary Examiner(s): KAU, STEVEN Y
• Application Number:
  US13/433,156
• Time in Patent Office: 1,161 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/002 Specific input/output arrangements not covered by G06F3/01 - G06F3/16 other optical apparatus G02B27/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/40 Picture signal circuits H04N1/387 takes precedence

Abstract

Described herein are techniques for synchronizing reading locations of electronic copies of a print medium with page numbers associated with physical copies of the print medium. A page number is derived from an image of a page of a physical copy of the print medium, and the image is captured by an electronic bookmark or electronic device in proximity to the physical copy of the print medium. The page number or image is provided to a synchronization service which synchronizes the page number with one or more reading locations or other page numbers.

Claims

1. An electronic bookmark comprising:

a body having a bookmark form factor designed to fit between pages of a closed physical copy of a print medium, the body including;

a processor and memory, the memory storing instructions that when executed by the processor program the processor to perform operations comprising;

determining one or more indicia from an image of at least a portion of a page of the physical copy of the print medium;

determining a match between one or more indicia for an electronic copy of the print medium and the one or more indicia from the image of the at least a portion of the page; and

specifying page information comprising a physical page number corresponding to the image;

a network interface communicatively coupled to the processor;

an imaging unit communicatively coupled to the processor and configured to capture the image of the at least a portion of the page of the physical copy of the print medium; and

a synchronization module configured to be operated by the processor to receive the image from the imaging unit and to provide the image to a synchronization server via the network interface for synchronization between one or more reading locations associated with the image of the physical copy of the print medium and one or more reading locations of one or more electronic copies of the print medium.

2. The electronic bookmark of claim 1, wherein the imaging unit performs the capturing at least partly responsive to:

the physical copy of the print medium being closed;

the physical copy of the print medium being opened;

a change in a directional orientation of the electronic bookmark;

sensed motion of the electronic bookmark;

or

a change in an environment of the electronic bookmark.

3. The electronic bookmark of claim 1, wherein the electronic bookmark captures the image when the electronic bookmark has a vertical directional orientation relative to the physical copy of the print medium and electronically highlights content of the print medium when the electronic bookmark has a horizontal directional orientation relative to the physical copy of the print medium.

4. The electronic bookmark of claim 3, wherein the body has one or more sensors along an edge for sensing movement along the one or more sensors, the detected movement used along with the captured image in performing electronic highlighting.

5. The electronic bookmark of claim 1, further comprising a control located on the body, wherein the imaging unit performs the capturing responsive to actuation of the control.

6. The electronic bookmark of claim 1, further comprising a rendering mechanism configured to render a synchronization page suggestion received from the synchronization server.

7. The electronic bookmark of claim 6, wherein the rendering mechanism is further configured to render a purchase suggestion received from the synchronization server.

8. The electronic bookmark of claim 1, further comprising one or more modules configured to be operated by the processor to identify a last read page upon placement of the electronic bookmark on a location on or within the physical copy of the print medium.

9. The electronic bookmark of claim 1, wherein the synchronization module receives a set of print media or a reading history, uses the set of print media or the reading history to derive a physical page number from the image, and provides an indication of the physical page number to the synchronization server.

10. A method comprising:

under control of one or more processors of an electronic bookmark designed to fit between pages of a closed print medium;

capturing, with an imaging unit of the electronic bookmark, an image of at least a portion of a page of a physical copy of a print medium; and

sending, over a network interface of the electronic bookmark, the image to a synchronization server to cause the synchronization server to synchronize one or more reading locations associated with the image of the at least a portion of the page and one or more reading locations associated with one or more electronic copies of the print medium;

receiving, from the synchronization server, one or more indicia for an electronic copy of the one or more electronic copies of the print medium;

determining one or more indicia from the image of the at least a portion of the page;

determining a match between the one or more indicia for the electronic copy of the one or more electronic copies of the print medium and the one or more indicia from the image of the at least part of the page of the print medium; and

specifying page information comprising a physical page number corresponding to the image.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving, from the synchronization server, directions for synchronizing the physical copy of the print medium with a reading location in an electronic copy of the print medium; and

displaying, on a display surface of the electronic bookmark, the directions for synchronizing the physical copy of the print medium with the reading location in the electronic copy of the print medium.

12. The method of claim 11,

wherein the capturing the image is in response to determining that the physical copy of the print medium has been opened;

and

wherein the directions include a synchronization page.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining, based on sensor input from a sensor of the electronic bookmark, a rotation of the electronic bookmark over content of the physical copy of the print medium; and

in response to determining the rotation, sending an indication to the synchronization server, wherein the indication indicates that the content includes highlighted content.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the rotation of the electronic bookmark is from a vertical position to a horizontal position.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the image is a first image, and wherein the method further comprises:

in response to an actuation of a control button of the electronic bookmark, capturing a second image from the physical copy of the print medium; and

sending an indication to the synchronization server, wherein the indication indicates that the second image includes highlighted content.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the image is a first image, and wherein the method further comprises:

in response to an actuation of a touch sensitive surface on the electronic bookmark, capturing a second image from the physical copy of the print medium; and

sending an indication to the synchronization server, wherein the indication indicates that the second image includes highlighted content.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving, from the synchronization server, a purchase suggestion; and

displaying, on a display surface of the electronic bookmark, the purchase suggestion.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the directions include a number of pages to be turned for the physical copy of the print medium to be synchronized with the electronic copy of the print medium.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic bookmark, perform:

capturing, by the electronic bookmark in proximity to a first physical page of a physical copy of the print medium, a first image of at least a portion of the physical page; and

sending, to a synchronization server, a first page number derived from the first image to a synchronization server to cause the synchronization server to synchronize one or more reading locations associated with the first image of the at least a portion of the page and one or more reading locations associated with one or more electronic copies of the print medium;

receiving a synchronization page from the synchronization server; and

causing directions to be displayed on the electronic bookmark for synchronizing the physical copy of the print medium with the one or more electronic copies of the print medium, wherein the directions indicate turning a number of pages of the physical copy of the print medium in a given direction, wherein the number of pages is based on a difference between the synchronization page and the first physical page.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the computer instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic bookmark, further perform:

sensing, using one or more sensors of the electronic bookmark, that the physical copy of the print medium has been opened, wherein the capturing is in response to the sensing.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the image is a first image and the physical page is a first physical page, and wherein the computer instructions, when executed by the one or more processors of the electronic bookmark, further perform:

in response to determining that the physical copy of the print medium has been closed, capturing a second image of at least a portion of a second physical page of the physical copy of the print medium; and

sending the second image to the synchronization server.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the computer instructions, when executed by the one or more processors of the electronic bookmark, further perform:

receiving, from the synchronization server, one or more page indicia mappings corresponding to the physical copy of the print medium; and

deriving the first page number based at least partly on the one or more page indicia mappings.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the computer instructions, when executed by the one or more processors of the electronic bookmark, further perform:

deriving one or more indicia from the first image of the first physical page;

comparing the one or more indicia from the first image of the first physical page with the received one or more page indicia mappings; and

deriving, based at least in part on the comparison, the first page number.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the one or more indicia derived from the first image of the first physical page comprise one or more visual or textual patterns.