Invariant referencing in digital works

• US 9,116,657 B1
• Filed: 11/18/2010
• Issued: 08/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ryan, Thomas A., Goodwin, Robert L., Lattyak, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Song, Daeho
• Application Number:
  US12/949,115
• Time in Patent Office: 1,741 Days
• Field of Search: 715/232, 715/233, 715/238, 715/206
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/147 using display panels
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191

Abstract

A method of presenting a digital work includes displaying a portion of the digital work on a display screen under a set of display conditions, and providing one or more invariant location reference identifiers corresponding to the portion of the digital work on the display screen. The invariant location reference identifiers are separate from the digital work, and each invariant location reference identifier is provided along with the corresponding portion of the digital work, regardless of the display conditions under which the portion of the digital work is displayed.

Claims

1. A method of presenting eBook content on an eBook reader device, the method comprising:

displaying a portion of the eBook content on a display screen of the eBook reader device under a set of display conditions; and

displaying on the display screen of the eBook reader device an invariant location reference identifier based at least in part upon a non-repeating sequential byte-number corresponding to the portion of the eBook content displayed on the display screen, wherein a plurality of the non-repeating sequential byte numbers are associated with the eBook content, such that the eBook content is unaltered by provision of the non-repeating sequential byte numbers.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the invariant location reference identifier concurrently with the corresponding portion of the eBook content, regardless of the display conditions under which the portion of the eBook content is displayed, wherein display conditions include at least one of a screen size of the eBook reader, a font type of the eBook content, a font size of the eBook content, a display margin of the eBook content, a line spacing of the eBook content or a screen resolution of the eBook reader.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a reading pane and a navigation pane on the display screen of the eBook reader device, the portion of the eBook content being displayed in the reading pane and the invariant location reference identifier being displayed in the navigation pane.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-repeating sequential byte number corresponds to at least one of:

a text character, a word or string of words, a sentence, a paragraph, a figure, an image, a chart, a table, or a non-text object of the eBook content.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting a search field for entry of another invariant location reference identifier.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising at least partly in response to user entry of the other invariant location reference identifier in the search field, updating the display screen to display a portion of the eBook content corresponding to the other invariant location reference identifier.

7. A method comprising:

displaying a portion of a digital work on a display; and

providing on the display an invariant location reference identifier corresponding to the portion of the digital work on the display, the invariant location reference identifier being separate from content of the digital work, wherein at least one of an image, figure, table, chart, or non-text object of the digital work is associated with the invariant location reference identifier.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining the invariant location reference identifier based at least in part upon an associated sequential byte number.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising displaying the invariant location reference identifier concurrently with the corresponding portion of the digital work, regardless of display conditions under which the portion of the digital work is displayed, wherein display conditions include at least one of a screen size of the display, a font type of the digital work, a font size of the digital work, a display margin of the digital work, a line spacing of the digital work or a screen resolution of the display.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising displaying a reading pane and a navigation pane on the display, the portion of the digital work being displayed in the reading pane and the invariant location reference identifier being displayed in the navigation pane.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining the invariant location reference identifier as a numeric identifier.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising truncating the numeric identifier to comprise four or fewer digits.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the number of invariant location reference identifiers is standard amongst a plurality of electronic content items.

14. A method of presenting electronic content on an electronic reader device, the method comprising:

displaying a reading pane and a navigation pane on a display screen of the electronic reader device;

displaying a portion of the electronic content in the reading pane displayed on the display screen of the electronic reader device under a set of display conditions; and

displaying, in the navigation pane on the display screen of the electronic reader device, an invariant location reference identifier, wherein the invariant location reference identifier is associated with a sequential byte number associated with the displayed portion of the electronic content.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining the invariant location reference identifier based at least in part upon a byte number corresponding to the portion of the electronic content displayed in the reading pane on the display screen, the invariant location reference identifier being separate from the electronic content, such that the electronic content is unaltered by provision of the location reference identifier.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising displaying the invariant location reference identifier concurrently with the portion of the electronic content, regardless of the display conditions under which the portion of the electronic content is displayed, wherein display conditions include at least one of a screen size of the electronic reader device, a font type of the electronic content, a font size of the electronic content, a display margin of the electronic content, a line spacing of the electronic content or a screen resolution of the electronic reader device.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the invariant location reference identifier corresponds to at least one of:

a text character, a word or string of words, a sentence, a paragraph, a figure, an image, a chart, a table, or a non-text object of the electronic content.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining that the electronic content has associated data comprising a plurality of invariant location reference identifiers; and

providing the invariant location reference identifiers based at least in part on the associated data comprising invariant location reference identifiers.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the associated data includes at least one of metadata or an index file.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining that metadata associated with the electronic content does not contain a plurality of invariant location reference identifiers; and

providing the invariant location reference identifiers based at least in part on byte data representing the displayed portion of the electronic content.