Method, system, apparatus, and computer program product for controlling and browsing a virtual book Number:7,386,804 from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) owispatent A hardware and software system including a controller that can be operatively combined with several methods of display on a display screen under software and hardware control for the purpose of browsing through data stored in a memory device. The browsing of the data stored in a memory device is facilitated in such a way that it allows a rapid view of what contents are present and the organization of the material in the data, as well as rapid access to the items in the data involved. The controllers in the system have specialized functions for effecting various actions on the data displayed on the display screen in such a way that users can rapidly browse through the data involved. The methods of display may include interaction with CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, a portable optical large volume storage disk, a portable large volume non-optical storage medium, a TV, and an HDTV.<H controlling, apparatus, Method, system, a, 7386804.html, Patent, pto, 7386804

Title: Method, system, apparatus, and computer program product for controlling and browsing a virtual book

Abstract: A hardware and software system including a controller that can be operatively combined with several methods of display on a display screen under software and hardware control for the purpose of browsing through data stored in a memory device. The browsing of the data stored in a memory device is facilitated in such a way that it allows a rapid view of what contents are present and the organization of the material in the data, as well as rapid access to the items in the data involved. The controllers in the system have specialized functions for effecting various actions on the data displayed on the display screen in such a way that users can rapidly browse through the data involved. The methods of display may include interaction with CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, a portable optical large volume storage disk, a portable large volume non-optical storage medium, a TV, and an HDTV.

Patent Number: 7,386,804 Issued on 06/10/2008 to Ho, et al.

Inventors: Ho; Seng Beng (Singapore, SG), Liang; Chee Cheng Jeffrey (Singapore, SG), Austin; Jason Bradley (Oakley, AU)
Assignee: E-Book Systems Pte. Ltd. (Singapore, SG)

Appl. No.: 10/661,599

Filed: September 15, 2003

Related U.S. Patent Documents


Application Number	Filing Date	Patent Number	Issue Date
60410278	Sep., 2002

Current U.S. Class: 715/776 ; 345/473; 345/901; 715/700; 715/739

Field of Search: 715/700,739,776 345/901,473

References Cited [Referenced By]

U.S. Patent Documents


5463725	October 1995	Henckel et al.
5909207	June 1999	Ho
6009459	December 1999	Belfiore et al.
6028603	February 2000	Wang et al.
6064384	May 2000	Ho
6229502	May 2001	Schwab
6486895	November 2002	Robertson et al.
7071915	July 2006	Liang et al.
2002/0090934	July 2002	Mitchelmore
2002/0120635	August 2002	Joao
2002/0184189	December 2002	Hay et al.
2003/0210226	November 2003	Ho et al.

Other References

Microsoft Windows Power Point.quadrature..quadrature.Copyright 1987-1999.quadrature..quadrature.Screendumbs. cited by examiner .
Virtual Album.quadrature..quadrature.Radar Software Inc.quadrature..quadrature.Copyright 2001.quadrature..quadrature.www.radar.software.com/valbum.quadrature..qua- drature.. cited by examiner .
Microsoft PowerPoint 2000.quadrature..quadrature.Copyright 1987-1999.quadrature..quadrature.Screen prints. cited by examiner .
Page Flipping Tutorial, NewTek Forum: LightWave Techniques and Tips, Feb. 3, 2002, <http://www.newtek.com/discus/messages/2/16991.html>, pp. 1-5. cited by examiner.

Primary Examiner: Bashore; William L.
Assistant Examiner: Long; Andrea N
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Oblon, Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt, P.C.

Parent Case Text

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT DOCUMENT

This application claims priority to U.S. provisional application 60/410,278 filed on Sep. 13, 2002. This application is related to U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,207; U.S. Pat. No. 6,064,384; U.S. Pat. No. 6,407,757; U.S. Pat. No. 6,340,980; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/617,043 filed Jul. 14, 2000; and allowed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/686,902 filed Oct. 12, 2000; and allowed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/686,965 filed Oct. 12, 2000; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/318,638 filed Sep. 13, 2001; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/029,718 filed Jan. 23, 2001; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/029,868 filed Dec. 13, 2001; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/142,996 filed May 13, 2002; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/142,858 filed May 13, 2002; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/143,005 filed May 13, 2002; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/365,186 filed Mar. 19, 2002; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/367,765 filed Mar. 28, 2002 the entire contents of each of these applications being incorporated herein by reference.

Claims

What is claimed:

1. A method for controlling and browsing a virtual book, comprising: one of accessing information relating to an electronic book from a removable memory medium and accessing information relating to an electronic book through one of a wired connection, a wireless connection, and Internet; accessing said information via a memory and control device; displaying information on two pages of said electronic book; displaying a left and a right side book thickness, said left and right side book thicknesses corresponding to a respective amount of information within said electronic book before and after said displayed information; displaying a plurality of pages simultaneously flipping in a first direction; controlling a virtual flipping through said electronic book with a wireless remote control device and said memory and control device, said wireless remote control device physically separate from and in communication with the memory and control device; stopping the flipping of some of the plurality of pages simultaneously flipping; and displaying said stopped some of the plurality of pages flipping in an opposite direction from said first direction while displaying a remainder of said plurality of pages simultaneously flipping in said first direction.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: displaying one of a page-bookmark, an annotation bookmark, a finger bookmark, and a keyword bookmark; and displaying an Internet Universal Resource Locator field.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: jumping to a selected page by one of selecting said page-bookmark, selecting said annotation bookmark, selecting said finger bookmark, selecting said keyword bookmark and activating one of a left and a right jump cursor.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said displaying the plurality of pages comprises: displaying a first collection of pages flipping between a current page and a jumped-to-page, a thickness of said first collection of pages being proportional to a number of pages between the current page and the jumped-to-page.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: displaying one of a left and a right jump cursor.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising: displaying a page number, said page number corresponding to a page selected by said one of a left and a right jump cursor.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: controlling said displaying information, said displaying the left and the right side book thickness, and said displaying a plurality of pages simultaneously flipping with the wireless remote control device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said wireless remote control device comprises at least one of: a computer; a keyboard; a pointing device; and a remote control device having buttons on a first side and on an opposing side and having at least one pressure sensitive thumb pad.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: controlling said virtual flipping through said electronic book with another control device; selecting a menu for display with said another control device; selecting an item displayed on said menu with said another control device; and one of ejecting a tangible memory medium from a memory device or deleting information from said memory device with said another control device.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising: displaying a menu.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising: one of viewing contents of a memory card, viewing contents of a CD or DVD, viewing contents of one or more storage medium, copying contents from the memory card to the CD or DVD, copying contents from the CD or DVD to the memory card, copying contents from a first storage medium to a second storage medium, copying contents from the control device to the memory card, the one or more storage medium, or the CD or DVD, copying contents from one of the memory card, one or more storage medium, CD or DVD to the control device, and applying optional features to one of an image, text, an audio object, a video object, a multimedia object, a page, and the virtual book.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising: viewing said contents of the memory card, the one or more storage medium, or the CD or DVD as thumbnails, as a slide show, or as a flipping book.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising: selecting a folder to be previewed.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising: copying said contents of one of the memory card, the CD or DVD, or the one or more storage medium into a writable medium, said writable medium connected to said control device directly or via a network.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising: copying one of images, text, audio files, video files, and multimedia objects from at least one of the Internet and an intranet.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein said applying comprises: selecting one of a sound effect, an album music, an album theme, a memory card, a compact disc, and an autoplay interval.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising: applying visual effects to an image.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising: one of deleting, rotating, and editing an image on a page.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising: one of applying sound effects and applying music to one of an image and a page.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising: copying an entire virtual book to a writable medium, said writable medium connected to said control device directly or via a network.

21. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of said steps of viewing contents of a memory card, viewing contents of one or more storage medium, viewing contents of a CD or DVD, copying contents from the memory card to the CD or DVD, copying contents from the CD or DVD to the memory card, copying contents from a first storage medium to a second storage medium, copying contents from the control device to the memory card, the one or more storage medium, or the CD or DVD, copying said contents from the memory card, the one or more storage medium, or the CD or DVD to the control device, and applying optional features to an image, text, an audio object, a video object, a multimedia object, a page, or the virtual book comprises: one-button operations.

22. The method of claim 11, said step of copying contents from the control device to the memory card, the one or more storage medium, or the CD or DVD comprises: installing viewing software on the respective memory card, one or more storage medium, CD or DVD from said control device.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein said displaying the plurality of pages comprises: displaying a plurality of pages flipping, individually or in tandem, to a selected page; and adjusting the left and right side thickness to correspond to a jump to said selected page.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising: freezing one or more flipping pages in a partially flipped position.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising: controllably flipping a frozen one or more pages.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising: unfreezing some or all pages frozen by said freezing.

27. The method of claim 1, further comprising: adjusting a speed of displayed movement through said electronic book; and displaying an increased number of pages flipped, said increased number corresponding to the adjusted speed.

28. The method of claim 1, further comprising; displaying one of a coarse and fine thickness indication.

29. The method of claim 1, further comprising: displaying a stationary left and right page while displaying the plurality of pages simultaneously flipping across from a first side to a second side, said plurality of pages simultaneously flipping being located between said stationary left and right page.

30. The method of claim 1, further comprising; adjusting a book browsing speed; displaying more or less pages simultaneously flipping in correspondence to said adjusted book browsing speed; and adjusting the left and right side thickness in proportion to the direction of page flipping and said book browsing speed.

31. The method of claim 1, further comprising: stopping a subset of said plurality of pages simultaneously flipping; and displaying said subset flipping in said first direction while displaying a remainder of said plurality of pages simultaneously flipping in said opposite direction.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising: stopping a flipping of a subset of said remainder of said plurality of pages; and displaying said stopped subset of said remainder of said plurality of pages flipping in said first direction while displaying a remainder of said remainder of said plurality of pages simultaneously flipping in said opposite direction.

33. The method of claim 1, wherein said controlling comprises: using at least one of a zoom button, a flipping direction button, a bookmark button, and a flip-to button on the wireless remote control device.

34. The method of claim 1, further comprising: deleting information from said memory device with said wireless remote control device.

35. The method of claim 1, further comprising: ejecting the removable memory medium from the memory and control device based upon a signal from said wireless remote control device.

36. A method for controlling and browsing a virtual book, comprising: one of accessing information relating to an electronic book from a removable memory medium and accessing information relating to an electronic book through one of a wired connection, a wireless connection, and Internet; accessing said information via a memory and control device; displaying information on two pages of said electronic book; displaying a left and a right side book thickness, said left and right side book thicknesses corresponding to a respective amount of information within said electronic book before and after said displayed information; displaying a plurality of pages flipping, individually or in tandem, across said electronic book to a selected page; controlling a virtual flipping through said electronic book with a wireless remote control device and said memory and control device, said wireless remote control device physically separate from and in communication with the memory and control device; adjusting the left and right side book thickness to correspond to a jump to said selected page; freezing one or more flipping pages in a partially flipped position; unfreezing some or all pages frozen by said freezing; displaying unfrozen pages flipping in a direction equal to a pre-freezing flipping direction; displaying unfrozen pages flipping in a direction opposite to a pre-freezing flipping direction; and displaying a first subset of unfrozen pages flipping in a direction equal to the pre-freezing flipping direction while displaying a second subset of unfrozen pages flipping in a direction opposite to the pre-freezing flipping direction.

37. A method for controlling and browsing a virtual book, comprising: one of accessing information relating to an electronic book from a removable memory medium and accessing information relating to an electronic book through one of a wired connection, a wireless connection, and Internet; accessing said information via a memory and control device; displaying information on two pages of said electronic book; displaying a left and a right side book thickness, said left and right side book thicknesses corresponding to a respective amount of information within said electronic book before and after said displayed information; displaying one or more pages flipping, individually or in tandem, across said electronic book; controlling a virtual flipping through said electronic book with a wireless remote control device and said memory and control device, said wireless remote control device physically separate from and in communication with the memory and control device; displaying one of a page-bookmark, an annotation bookmark, a finger bookmark, and a keyword bookmark; displaying an Internet Universal Resource Locator field; jumping to a selected page by one of selecting said page-bookmark, selecting said annotation bookmark, selecting said finger bookmark, selecting said keyword bookmark and activating one of a left and a fight jump cursor; jumping to a second selected page by one of selecting another one of said page-bookmark, said annotation bookmark, said finger bookmark, and said keyword bookmark and activating one of said left and a right jump cursor; and displaying a second collection of pages flipping between a current page and a second jumped-to-page, a thickness of said second collection of pages being proportional to a number of pages between a trailing edge page and the second jumped-to-page, wherein said jumping to a second selected page occurring while displaying a first collection of pages flipping between a current page and jumped-to-page.

38. A method for controlling and browsing a virtual book, comprising: one of accessing information relating to an electronic book from a removable memory medium and accessing information relating to an electronic book through one of a wired connection, a wireless connection, and Internet; accessing said information via a memory and control device; displaying information on two pages of said electronic book; displaying a left and a right side book thickness, said left and right side book thicknesses corresponding to a respective amount of information within said electronic book before and after said displayed information; displaying one or more pages flipping, individually or in tandem, across said electronic book; controlling a virtual flipping through said electronic book with a wireless remote control device and said memory and control device, said wireless remote control device physically separate from and in communication with the memory and control device; controlling said displaying information, said displaying the left and the right side book thickness, and said displaying one or more pages flipping simultaneously with the wireless remote control device; holding said one or more flipping pages stationary on a display; and moving said held one or more pages across the display by controlling a position control component of the wireless remote control device.

39. A method for controlling and browsing a virtual book, comprising: one of accessing information relating to an electronic book from a removable memory medium and accessing information relating to an electronic book through one of a wired connection, a wireless connection, and Internet; accessing said information via a memory and control device; displaying information on two pages of said electronic book; displaying a left and a right side book thickness, said left and right side book thicknesses corresponding to a respective amount of information within said electronic book before and after said displayed information; displaying one or more pages flipping, individually or in tandem, across said electronic book; controlling a virtual flipping through said electronic book with a wireless remote control device and said memory and control device, said wireless remote control device physically separate from and in communication with the memory and control device; controlling said displaying information, said displaying the left and the right side book thickness, and said displaying one or more pages flipping simultaneously with the wireless remote control device; picking up a first page or a first collection of pages from one of said right side book thickness and said left side book thickness; collecting onto the picked-up first page or the picked-up first collection of pages a collection of additional pages into a first book subsection; and holding or flipping said first book subsection.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising: dropping at least one page from said first book subsection.

41. The method of claim 39, further comprising: picking up a second single page or a second collection of pages with said control device to form a second book subsection; and forming a sub-book with said first and second book subsections.

42. The method of claim 41, further comprising: dropping at least one page from at least one of said first and second collection of pages.

43. A method for controlling and browsing a virtual book, comprising: one of accessing information relating to an electronic book from a removable memory medium and accessing information relating to an electronic book through one of a wired connection, a wireless connection, and Internet; accessing said information via a memory and control device; displaying information on two pages of said electronic book; displaying a left and a right side book thickness, said left and right side book thicknesses corresponding to a respective amount of information within said electronic book before and after said displayed information; displaying one or more pages flipping, individually or in tandem, across said electronic book; controlling a virtual flipping through said electronic book with a wireless remote control device and said memory and control device, said wireless remote control device physically separate from and in communication with the memory and control device; controlling said displaying information, said displaying the left and the right side book thickness, and said displaying one or more pages flipping simultaneously with the wireless remote control device; picking up a first collection of one of one page and more than one page from one of said right side book thickness and said left side book thickness; holding or flipping said first collection of pages.

44. The method of claim 43, further comprising: dropping at least one page from said first collection of pages.

45. The method of claim 43, further comprising: displaying one of a page-bookmark, an annotation bookmark, a finger bookmark, and a keyword bookmark; and displaying an Internet Universal Resource Locator field.

46. The method of claim 45, further comprising: jumping to a selected page by one of selecting said page-bookmark, selecting said annotation bookmark, selecting said finger bookmark, selecting said keyword bookmark and activating one of a left and a right jump cursor.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein said displaying the plurality of pages comprises: displaying a first collection of pages flipping between a current page and a jumped-to-page, a thickness of said first collection of pages being proportional to a number of pages between the current page and the jumped-to-page.

48. The method of claim 43, further comprising: displaying one of a left and a right jump cursor.

49. The method of claim 48, further comprising: displaying a page number, said page number corresponding to a page selected by said one of a left and a right jump cursor.

50. The method of claim 43, further comprising: controlling said displaying information, said displaying the left and the right side book thickness, and said displaying a plurality of pages simultaneously flipping with the wireless remote control device.

51. The method of claim 50, wherein said wireless remote control device comprises at least one of: a computer; a keyboard; a pointing device; and a remote control device having buttons on a first side and on an opposing side and having at least one pressure sensitive thumb pad.

52. The method of claim 50, further comprising: displaying a menu.

53. The method of claim 50, further comprising: one of viewing contents of a memory card, viewing contents of a CD or DVD, viewing contents of one or more storage medium, copying contents from the memory card to the CD or DVD, copying contents from the CD or DVD to the memory card, copying contents from a first storage medium to a second storage medium, copying contents from the control device to the memory card, the one or more storage medium, or the CD or DVD, copying contents from one of the memory card, one or more storage medium, CD or DVD to the control device, and applying optional features to one of an image, text, an audio object, a video object, a multimedia object, a page, and the virtual book.

54. The method of claim 53, further comprising: viewing said contents of the memory card, the one or more storage medium, or the CD or DVD as thumbnails, as a slide show, or as a flipping book.

55. The method of claim 54, further comprising: selecting a folder to be previewed.

56. The method of claim 53, further comprising: copying said contents of one of the memory card, the CD or DVD, or the one or more storage medium into a writable medium, said writable medium connected to said control device directly or via a network.

57. The method of claim 53, further comprising: copying one of images, text, audio files, video files, and multimedia objects from at least one of the Internet and an intranet.

58. The method of claim 53, wherein said-applying comprises: selecting one of a sound effect, an album music, an album theme, a memory card, a compact disc, and an autoplay interval.

59. The method of claim 53, further comprising: applying visual effects to an image.

60. The method of claim 53, further comprising: one of deleting, rotating, and editing an image on a page.

61. The method of claim 53, further comprising: one of applying sound effects and applying music to one of an image and a page.

62. The method of claim 53, further comprising: copying an entire virtual book to a writable medium, said writable medium connected to said control device directly or via a network.

63. The method of claim 53, wherein at least one of said steps of viewing contents of a memory card, viewing contents of one or more storage medium, viewing contents of a CD or DVD, copying contents from the memory card to the CD or DVD, copying contents from the CD or DVD to the memory card, copying contents from a first storage medium to a second storage medium, copying contents from the control device to the memory card, the one or more storage medium, or the CD or DVD, copying said contents from the memory card, the one or more storage medium, or the CD or DVD to the control device, and applying optional features to an image, text, an audio object, a video object, a multimedia object, a page, or the virtual book comprises: one-button operations.

64. The method of claim 53, said step of copying contents from the control device to the memory card, the one or more storage medium, or the CD or DVD comprises: installing viewing software on the respective memory card, one or more storage medium, CD or DVD from said control device.

65. The method of claim 43, wherein said displaying the plurality of pages comprises: displaying a plurality of pages flipping, individually or in tandem, to a selected page; and adjusting the left and right side thickness to correspond to a jump to said selected page.

66. The method of claim 65, further comprising: freezing one or more flipping pages in a partially flipped position.

67. The method of claim 66, further comprising: controllably flipping a frozen one or more pages.

68. The method of claim 66, further comprising: unfreezing some or all page frozen by said freezing.

69. The method of claim 43, further comprising: adjusting a speed of displayed movement through said electronic book; and displaying an increased number of pages flipped, said increased number corresponding to the adjusted speed.

70. The method of claim 43, further comprising; displaying one of a coarse and fine thickness indication.

71. The method of claim 43, further comprising: displaying a stationary left and right page while displaying the plurality of pages simultaneously flipping across from a first side to a second, said plurality of pages simultaneously flipping being located between said stationary left and right page.

72. The method of claim 43, further comprising; adjusting a book browsing speed; displaying more or less pages simultaneously flipping in correspondence to said adjusted book browsing speed; and adjusting the left and right side thickness in proportion to the direction of page flipping and said book browsing speed.

73. A system for displaying and editing an electronic book, comprising; a display screen; a memory and control device; a controller physically separated from said memory and control device, and configured to one of access information relating to the electronic book from a removable memory medium and access information relating to the electronic book through one of a wired connection, a wireless connection, and Internet, access said information via said memory and control device, display information on two pages of said electronic book, display a left and a right side book thickness, said left and right side book thicknesses corresponding to a respective amount of information within said electronic book before and after said displayed information, display a plurality of pages simultaneously flipping in a first direction, control a virtual flipping through said electronic book, stop the flipping of some of the plurality of pages simultaneously flipping, and display said stopped some of the plurality of pages flipping in an opposite direction from said first direction while displaying a remainder of said plurality of pages simultaneously flipping in said first direction.

74. The system of claim 73, wherein said display screen comprises one of: a computer screen, and a TV screen.

75. The system of claim 73, wherein said TV screen comprises one of a: an analog display screen; a digital display screen; a wide-aspect display screen; a non-wide-aspect display screen; an NTSC display screen; and a PAL display screen or any other kind of display screen.

76. The system of claim 73, wherein the controller comprises one of: a pointing device; a keyboard, a wireless remote controller, and a remote controller having buttons on a first side and on an opposing side, and having at least one pressure sensitive thumb pad.

77. The system of claim 73, wherein at least one of said controller and said memory and control device comprises at least one of: a STANDBY button; a CLOSE button; a ZOOM-LEFT button; a ZOOM-RIGHT button an UP button; a DOWN button; an OK button; a LEFT button; a RIGHT button; a LEFT THICKNESS button; a RIGHT THICKNESS button; a BOOKMARK button; a MENU button; an AUTOFLIP button; a FLIPTO button; a COPY button; an EJECT button; and a DELETE button.

78. The system of claim 77, wherein at least one of said controller and said memory and control device includes a button that operates in concert with a displayed menu.

79. The system of claim 73, wherein at least one of said controller and said memory and control device is configured to initiate a command that includes at least one of a direction of movement command; a speed of movement command; a select-to-jump-to-a-specified-point-in-a-document command; a jump-to-a-specified-point-in-a-document command; a permanent-bookmarking command; a finger-bookmarking command; a launch-a-single-flipping-page command; a-launch-multiple-flipping-pages-at-a-specific-interval command; a reverse-direction-of-a-single-last-trailing-page command; a reverse-direction-of-multiple-last-trailing-pages command; a reverse-direction-of-a-selected-group-of-flipping-pages command; a freeze-at-least-one-flipping-pages-in-mid-flip command; an-unfreeze-frozen-pages-and-let-pages-continue-to-flip-in-directions-pri- or to-freezing command; an unfreeze-frozen-pages-and-let-pages-all-flip-in-a-same-direction command; an unfreeze-frozen-pages-and-some-pages-flip-to-a-left-side-and-some-to-a- -right-side-of-book command; an unfreeze-frozen-pages-and-let-a-subgroup-of-pages-flip-in-different-direc- tions command; a jump-and-make-a-thick-collection-of-pages-flip-together command; a launch-flipping-pages-while-a-thick-collection-of-pages-is-flipping command; a launch-at-least-one-other-thick-collections-of-pages-while-other-pages-ar- e-flipping command; a select-to-hold-a-page command; a move-a-held-single-page-in-a-selected-direction-at-a-selected-speed command; a select-to-hold-a-thick-collection-of-pages command; a move-a-held-single-thick-collection-of-pages-in-a-selected-direction-and-- at-a-selected-speed command; a select-to-hold-at-least-one-of-at-least-two-pages-and-a-thick-collection-- of-pages command; a move-at-least-one-of-a-held-pages-and-a-thick-collection-of-pages-in-a-se- lected-direction-and-at-a-selected-speed command; a hold-a-single-page-in-mid-flip-and-collect-other-pages-that-flip-onto-the- -single-page-in-mid-flip command; a hold-a-single-thick-collection-of-pages-in-mid-flip-and-collect-other-pag- es-that-flip-onto-the-single-thick-collection-of-pages-in -mid-flip command; a hold-at-least-one-of-a-single-page-and-a-thick-collection-of-pages-in-mid- -flip-and -execute-at-least-one-of-the-set-of-page-flipping-commands-betwe- en-the-at-least-one-of-a -single-page-and-a-thick-collection-of-pages-in-mid-flip-and-a-thickness-- of-a-side-of-a-book-command; and a hold-at-least-one-of-two-pages-and-a-thick-collection-of-pages-in-mid-fli- p-and -execute-at-least-one-of-the-set-of-page-flipping-commands-between-t- he-at-least-one-of-two -pages-and-a-thick-collection-of-pages-in-mid-flip command.

80. The method of claim 79, wherein said command is executed via a menu.

81. The system of claim 73, wherein said memory and control device comprises: a computer.

82. The system of claim 73, wherein said memory and control device comprises at least one of: a memory integrated with said computer; a portable memory module; a memory card; a memory stick; and a compact disk.

83. The system of claim 73, further comprising one of: a CD-R; a CD-RW; a DVD; a portable optical large volume storage disk; a portable large volume non-optical storage medium; and a storage medium resident in said memory and control device or connected to the memory and control device through a wired or wireless connection or through the Internet.

84. The system of claim 73, wherein said controller is further configured to delete information from said memory and control device.

85. An apparatus configured to control an electronic book, comprising: a controller configured to one of access information relating to the electronic book from a removable memory medium and access information relating to the electronic book through one of a wired connection, a wireless connection, and Internet, access said information, display information on two pages of said electronic book, display a left and a right side book thickness, said left and right side book thicknesses corresponding to a respective amount of information within said electronic book before and after said displayed information, display a plurality of pages simultaneously flipping in a first direction, control a virtual flipping through said electronic book, stop the flipping of some of the plurality of pages simultaneously flipping, and display said stopped some of the plurality of pages flipping in an opposite direction from said first direction while displaying a remainder of said plurality of pages simultaneously flipping in said first direction.

86. A computer readable storage medium encoded with instructions, which when executed by processor causes the processor to implement a method for controlling and browsing a virtual book, comprising: one of accessing information relating to an electronic book from a removable memory medium and accessing information relating to an electronic book through one of a wired connection, a wireless connection, and Internet; accessing said information via a memory and control device; displaying information on two pages of said electronic book; displaying a left and a right side book thickness, said left and right side book thicknesses corresponding to a respective amount of information within said electronic book before and after said displayed information; displaying a plurality of pages simultaneously flipping in a first direction; controlling a virtual flipping through said electronic book with a wireless remote control device and said memory and control device, said wireless remote control device physically separate from and in communication with the memory and control device; stopping the flipping of some of the plurality of pages simultaneously flipping; and displaying said stopped some of the plurality of pages flipping in an opposite direction from said first direction while displaying a remainder of said plurality of pages simultaneously flipping in said first direction.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a hardware and software system including a controller that can be operatively combined with several methods of display on a display screen under software and hardware control for the purpose of browsing through data stored in a memory device. This facilitates the browsing of the data stored in a memory device in such a way that it allows a rapid view of what contents are present and the organization of the material in the data, as well as rapid access to the items in the data involved. Specifically the present invention relates to controllers that have specialized functions for effecting various actions on the data displayed on the display screen in such a way that users can rapidly browse through the data involved.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Currently, the method for viewing documents stored in a virtual is through a virtual monitor screen. For documents that are longer/larger than can be contained within one screen, a means is provided to scroll the document up and down or to jump to a particular point in the document (through the use of, for example, a "mouse" coupled with scroll bars at the edges of the document displayed on the screen or through the use of hypertext links).

However, most people do not find this a particularly convenient way to view a document, as compared with a book. That this is true is evidenced in the fact that despite the fact that the virtual has been in increasing use, there is not only no corresponding reduction in paper use, but an increase in paper quantity is required to print what is conveniently stored in a virtual that can be seemingly easily and flexibly manipulated for viewing. Sometimes the printed version of the information involved is necessary, like in the case of printing a picture on a sheet of paper to be pasted on some surface (e.g., a wall), or in the case of the convenience of having a relatively light, hardy paperback book for reading in almost any possible situation and location, but there are times when a reader is quite happy to sit at a desk in front of a desktop virtual or handle a notebook virtual away from the desk, and yet the reader would still prefer a printed version of the document in a hand-held format. This is especially true in the case of looking through manuals, including software manuals, to understand how to operate a device or software application. The irony is that virtual software packages usually come with thick and heavy manuals containing information which can easily be stored on a light-weight CD-ROM, and even if the manuals are sometimes dispensed in the form of a CD-ROM, more often than not people would print them out into a hard-copy format in order to facilitate reading.

What is involved when one interacts with the printed material in a book is a subtle and complicated process. To start with, material in a book is presented in a sequential order, with a continuity of material from page to page, and there is also a hierarchical structure in the material presented (as the material is organized into chapters, sections, subsections, etc.) because ideas in the material are related to each other in some kind of conceptual hierarchy. The human perceptual system inputs data in a sequential manner, and after a book is read from the beginning to the end in a sequential fashion, the brain then recreates the conceptual hierarchy after viewing the material involved. However, very often one does not read a book (or input the material involved) from the beginning to the end because (a) one wants to have an overview of the material present; (b) one is searching for something of interest to him/her; or (c) one is interested in reading only portions of the book (in the case of, say, reading the manual to understand how to operate something). In these cases, one browses through the subject book to find the material of unique interest to that reader.

Two basic things are achieved in the browsing process. First, the browser has a glimpse of what are the contents of the book document. Second, the browser has an idea of approximately where the items of interest are so that the browser can (a) return to look for them later when needed, and (b) have an understanding of the relationships between the material currently being viewed and other material (i.e., an understanding of the hierarchical structure involved). When browsing a book document, many finger-operations are required of the browser in order to flip through the pages and, together with the inherent sequential order imposed by the pages, very quickly allow the browser to have an understanding of the nature, location and organization of the material involved.

In the process of browsing through a book, one can perform the following operations: (a) flip through the pages at varying speeds depending on the level of detail at which one wishes to view the material in the book; (b) jump to the approximate location of the item of interest; (c) change the direction of flipping (forward or backward) very rapidly because (i) one would like to compare and contrast material on different pages, (ii) after jumping to an approximate location of some items of interest one would like to find their exact locations, or (iii) one is unsure of where the item of interest is and is in the process of searching for it; and (d) mark the locations of some pages of interest that one may want to later return.

All these operations are performed very rapidly with the fingers interacting with the flipping pages and with minimal unnecessary movements of the fingers and hands. Interestingly, a book/magazine with soft and flexible pages is harder to handle because more finger and hand movements are needed to browse through it, while books with stiff pages can be browsed with almost no movement of the hand.

In currently available methods of browsing through documents stored in a virtual, e.g., the use of a mouse combined with scroll bars and buttons on the virtual screen, more movements of the hands are necessary to effect the various operations described above. Also, fine control of the hand or fingers (depending on whether the mouse uses hand movement to move the cursor on the screen or finger movement like in the case of a track ball) is necessary to position the cursor on the screen at the required places. The process is both lengthy and clumsy. The lengthiness of the process taxes the human short term memory s ability to remember items encountered in the recent past for the purpose of establishing the relationships between items and the clumsiness of the process creates distraction and interferes with the short term memory process, a well known effect in perceptual psychology.

Because material in a book is organized into pages, it also enhances the ability of the reader to better remember the location of various portions of the material involved. Also, unlike the process of scrolling through a document on a screen like what is normally done in a word-processor, wherein the contents become a blur and reading is impossible, when one moves through the material in a book through flipping, one is still able to read at least the approximate contents, if not the details. It is due to these features that a person browsing through a book can acquire a good understanding of its contents, the location of specific items and organization of the material.

It is because of the reasons set forth above, people still prefer to read a book in their hands, rather than a document image displayed on a virtual screen using currently available methods.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,102 (Kuno et al.) discloses a device for document viewing that consists of two display screens. One of the purposes of using two display screens is to allow the user to display two different pages from the document so that they can be read side-by-side (e.g., a diagram and its textual explanation). Another purpose is to allow a large picture to be displayed simultaneously on both pages. The Kuno et al. device allows users to change the speed of movement through the document through a pressure sensor--the more pressure applied, the faster the pages in the document are moved through. The Kuno et al. device also allows the document to be viewed in the forward or backward direction by pressing on a forward sensor area or a reverse sensor area respectively. One can also select a page to jump to by pressing on an icon displayed on the screen. However the Kuno et al. device still does not provide the same convenience as browsing through a book, primarily because when switching between the operations for different controls--the speed of movement through the document, the change of direction of viewing, and the jumping to different parts of the document--there are a lot more hand and finger movements than is the case in manipulating a physical book. Moreover, the Kuno et al. device is a specialized, relatively costly device with sensors and hardware built onto two display screens, whereas the present inventor recognizes that a lower cost and more practical device would be one that adds modularly to the existing virtual system.

Currently, there are also virtual mice that can eliminate the above-mentioned problem of positioning cursor on the virtual screen with a conventional mouse (i.e., fine control of the hand or fingers is needed). These mice allow the user to specify "hot locations" on the screen on which the cursor "homes onto" with less fine control than conventional mice. Furthermore, a subset of these mice can generate "vertical only" or "horizontal only" movement of the cursor so that the scrolling process requires less fine control of the muscle than is required with a conventional mouse. These mice eliminate some, but not all, of the problems associated with the conventional methods of virtual input as far as virtual-based document browsing is concerned.

In U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,575 (1995) McTaggart discloses an electronic book that comprises laminated sheets bound together in the form of a book. On each of these sheets, printed material is arranged on the top layer and below that layer is an electronic backdrop containing thin light-emitting diodes (LED's) and pressure sensitive switches affixed onto a backing sheet. The LED's generate visual signals that can be seen through the top layer for the purpose of highlighting parts of the printed material. The pressure switches, positioned under certain items in the printed material, are for the purpose of sensing the user's selection of those items. A speaker is also provided on the book to generate audio signals for explaining the text or giving the user audio feedback. Contact or photo-sensitive switches are also embedded in the pages to allow the electronic circuits to know which pages are currently being viewed, so that the appropriate audio and visual signals can be generated. Even though this apparatus is in a form that allows a person to handle it like handling a typical book, with visual and audio enhancements of the printed material as well as facilities that accept the user's feedback, it is basically a hard-wired device that is not reprogrammable and different hardware has to be configured for books with different contents. No provision is available for downloading document files from a virtual for display on the electronic book nor is the electronic book able to display any arbitrary document file. This device is hence not suitable for browsing through documents stored in a virtual.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,207 (Ho) discloses a virtual-based system that allows users to view and manipulate documents in the form of an electronic virtual book that addresses the above problems in browsing information in the electronic medium. This virtual book system simulates the paper book very closely and has two major components. One is the representation of the paper book on the virtual screen, complete with realistic flipping pages and thickness representation. The other is the use of a browsing device that allows 1. rapid change of direction of flipping, 2. rapid change of speed of flipping, 3. selection and jumping to any desired page, and 4. bookmarking of the pages.

The browsing device allows one to use the fingers to manipulate the pages in the book much in the same way as in the case of the paper book. Therefore, the virtual manipulation of the pages together with the book image on the screen constitutes a virtual book system. This virtual book system improves on the methods used in current electronic means of information browsing in a very significant way such that the ease of browsing information can approach that obtainable with a paper book. This allows users to be able to quickly browse through a large number of pages (perhaps thousands of pages) of information and obtain the idea of the structure and contents involved and hence a good overview of the entire collection of material in the "virtual book". Other than being able to have a good idea of the structure and contents of the material involved, the process of browsing through the material presented in the form of a virtual book much like in the case of the paper book also facilitates subsequent searches for items in the material.

In U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,207 (Ho) the virtual book browsing device basically consists of a pressure and position sensor. The pressure the finger exerts on the pressure sensor controls the speed of flipping through the pages of the virtual book. The movement of the finger on the position sensor on the browsing device in the virtual book system corresponds to the movement of the finger on the thickness of the paper book to select a page to jump to. The combination of the pressure and position sensor therefore allows one to rapidly browse through the virtual book.

However, the method of presenting and browsing information described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,207 (Ho) can be improved further by putting together the various components of the system into an integrated system with simple, one-button operations for most of the desired functions. This will greatly improve the consumer use of the system.

Therefore, the inventor has identified there exists a need for a specialized system for presenting the virtual book system for a consumer-oriented market. In particular, there is a need for a specialized system for presenting the virtual book system that can be interfaced to a computer, a regular or widescreen television (TV), or a regular or widescreen high definition television (HDTV). There is also a need to interface a virtual book system with a CD-R, CD-RW, a DVD, and a similar optical/non-optical portable large volume storage disk or non-disk medium.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the aforementioned short-comings of presently available schemes for providing consumers with a one-button, simple operations for effecting various desired actions on a virtual book system, such as controlling and browsing a virtual book, one objective of the present invention is to provide a memory and control device to provide one button operations for data transfer and display operations.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a controller that works with the memory and control device for the purpose of effectively and rapidly control and browse a virtual book on a virtual book system.

Yet another objective of the invention is that the positioning and design of the controls for the operations performed by the fingers on the controller are such that they allow minimal movements of the fingers, thus maximizing the ease of browsing through the displayed virtual book. The dexterity of the human fingers is to be fully exploited for these controls.

Each of these objectives include the objective to display on a computer, a regular or widescreen television (TV), or a regular or widescreen high definition television (HDTV) and/or to interface with a CD-R, CD-RW, a DVD, and a similar optical/non-optical portable large volume storage disk or non-disk medium.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete appreciation of the invention and many of the attendant advantages thereof will be readily obtained as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1A is a top perspective view of the virtual book displayed on the display screen that is used to display information from a memory and control device.

FIG. 1B is a top perspective view of the virtual book displayed on the display screen in the process of jumping to a number of pages ahead in the book.

FIG. 1C is a top perspective view of the virtual book displayed on the display screen in the process of flipping to the next page.

FIG. 1D is a top perspective view of the virtual book displayed on the display screen in the process of flipping many pages simultaneously.

FIG. 1E is a top perspective view of the exemplary virtual book displayed on the display screen during the process of selecting a page where the thickness is expanded to allow finer resolution during page selection;

FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of a virtual book display and control system in which there are three main components: a display screen, a memory and control device and a controller.

FIG. 3A is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing the basic flipping process.

FIG. 3B is a top perspective views of a few virtual books showing the process of jumping to a selected page.

FIG. 4A is a top perspective view of a virtual book at the beginning of some complex flipping processed.

FIG. 4B is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing the change of direction of all the flipping pages.

FIG. 4C is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing the change of direction of a trailing page.

FIG. 4D is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing the change of direction of a group of trailing pages.

FIG. 4E is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing the opening up of a region in the flipping pages.

FIG. 4F is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing the change of direction of the trailing page in a right subgroup of flipping pages.

FIG. 4G is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing the change of direction of a number of trailing pages in a right subgroup of flipping pages.

FIG. 4H is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing the change of direction of a number of trailing pages in a left subgroup of flipping pages,

FIG. 4I is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing the freezing of flipping actions of the pages in the midst of flipping across the virtual book.

FIG. 5A is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing a collection of flipping pages followed by a series of single flipping pages.

FIG. 5B is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing more than one collection of flipping pages together with a number of single flipping pages.

FIG. 6A is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing a right-hand page being picked up.

FIG. 6B is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing a picked-up page being held and flipped about.

FIG. 7 is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing a picked-up page being held while other pages return to their respective resting positions on the left and right sides of the virtual book.

FIG. 8 is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing a collection of pages being held and flipped about.

FIG. 9 is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing a number of single pages and collections of pages being held and flipped about.

FIG. 10A is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing a single page being held while a number of other flipping pages are collected onto it.

FIG. 10B is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing the effect of holding a collection of a number of pages and flipping it about.

FIG. 10C is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing the effect of releasing a number of pages from a collection of pages.

FIG. 11A is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing a collection of pages being held and forming a sub-book together with the right side thickness of the virtual book while flipping and browsing actions are carried out on a number of pages between them.

FIG. 11B is a top perspective view of a virtual book showing two collections of pages being held forming a sub-book between them while flipping and browsing actions are carried out on a number of pages between them.

FIG. 12 is a list of the basic and complex flipping actions.

FIG. 13 is a top perspective view of a controller that controls the virtual book and other displayed items on a display screen.

FIG. 14 is a front perspective view of a memory and control device that sends signals to display and control images displayed on a display screen.

FIG. 15 is a interface displayed on a display screen for the selection and manipulation of images displayed on the display screen.

FIG. 16 is a front perspective view of a virtual book display and control system in which there are three main components: a display screen, a memory and control device and a controller, as well as a menu displayed on the display screen.

FIG. 17 is the top level menu of a virtual book system showing selections for viewing from various memory sources and for activating memory to memory copy.

FIG. 18 is the menu for selecting folders on memory sources to operate on.

FIG. 19 is another menu for selecting folders on memory sources to operate on.

FIG. 20 is a menu for setting system parameters.

FIG. 21 is a front perspective view of a virtual book displayed on a display screen of the main system.

FIG. 22 is a menu superimposed on the front perspective view of a virtual book displayed on a display screen of the main system, showing various selections including the writing of a virtual book onto a memory medium.

FIG. 23 is a front perspective view of a virtual book displayed on a display screen of the main system with a jump cursor being indicated.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals designate identical or corresponding parts throughout the several views, and more particularly to FIG. 1A thereof which depicts one