Patent Application
20120240036
This disclosure relates to displaying and facilitating the manipulation of electronic text, for example, the text of an electronic book (“eBook”) being read on an electronic device.
Much like an ordinary printed book, electronic books (“eBooks”), or more generally, electronic documents, can be used to present text and pictures to readers. Instead of ink and paper, however, an electronic book is a collection of digital data that software, known as an electronic book reader application, can interpret and present on a display. A variety of devices run electronic book reader software such as desktop and notebook computers, eBook readers, smart phones and/or other mobile devices. One available format for eBooks is defined by the “ePub” standard, which is maintained by The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF).
Implementations of the subject matter described here may include one or more of a method performed by an electronic device, a system that includes an electronic device having a processor and memory hat holds instructions for execution by the processor, and/or an article bearing machine-readable instructions that when executed by a processor perform specified operations. In any case, such implementations may include one or more of the following features. For example, a reader application executing on the electronic device may display a first portion of content of an electronic document, detect that a user of the reader application has performed a predetermined action that triggers repagination of the electronic document, and repaginate the electronic document to cause the reader application to display a second portion of content of the electronic document. The second portion may include at least some of the first portion of content and at least some newly visible content that appears visually different from the first portion of content that remains visible.
Detecting that the user has performed a predetermined action that triggers repagination may include determining that the user has selected to change a font size, a font style or a font type of the displayed content, and/or that the user has rotated the electronic device from a portrait orientation to a landscape orientation or vice versa.
The reader application may also display the remaining visible first portion of content in a same manner as prior to repagination and displaying the newly visible content in a different manner. Alternatively, the reader application may display the newly visible content in a same manner as the first portion of content appeared prior to repagination and displaying the remaining visible first portion of content in a different manner after repagination. The reader application may also transition appearance of the newly visible content or the remaining visible first content portion, or both, to a state in which the newly visible content and the remaining first content portion appear alike. Repaginating the electronic document may include applying a visual transition effect (e.g., a fade, a wipe, a pop, a transition and/or a float) to the new visible content or the remaining first content portion or both. Alternatively, or in addition, the visual transition effect may include one or more of changing color, changing opacity, applying highlighting, changing font size, changing font style, changing font type, or displaying a pointer.
A translation effect may include moving a block of old text from a first position on a display screen of the electronic device to a second position on the display screen of the electronic device. A float effect may include causing a block of old text to appear to move in a Z-plane from a perspecitive of a user viewing a display screen of the electronic device.
A visual difference between the newly visible content and the remaining visible first content portion may be transitory or may persist until occurrence of a predetermined event (e.g., repagination, receiving input from the user, passage of a predetermined duration of time).
Newly visible content that precedes the first content portion in the electronic document may be displayed in a visually different manner. Alternatively, newly visible content that follows the first content portion in the electronic document may be displayed in a same manner as the remaining visible first content portion.
Details of one or more implementations are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, aspects and advantages will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.
Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.
In general, an aspect of the subject matter described here is that an eBook reading application may be implemented to help a reader find the location in the book at which the reader was reading—referred to interchangeably as the “reading location” or the “page location”—when an event occurs that causes the eBook to be repaginated or otherwise change its display such that the words of the eBook change positions on the currently displayed page.
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Depending on implementation, the eBook reader application may need to repaginate (e.g., changing the set of words displayed in the current view) in response to events such as change of font size, type or style, rotation of the device from portrait to landscape view and the like. For example, if while viewing an open eBook in an eBook reader application, the user changes the font size, the eBook reader in response may automatically repaginate to change the current view to display one or more of the currently displayed words at different locations on the visible page. In addition, as a result of the repagination, some currently visible words may disappear from view altogether and/or new words not previously visible may become visible in the newly displayed view of the eBook. For the purpose of this description, text that was visible before the repagination is referred to as “old text” and text that becomes newly visible as a result of the repagination is referred to as “new text.”
As a more specific example, if the user increases the current font size, the current display will change to display larger characters but, as a result, fewer words will necessarily be visible since the amount of screen real estate is fixed. Conversely, if the user decreases the current font size, the current display will change to display smaller characters and thus more words, including words not previously visible (i.e., new text), will become visible as a result.
Similarly, if the eBook reader application is executing on a rotatable device such as a tablet or a smart phone and the user rotates the mobile device either from portrait to landscape view (typically causing the eBook reader to change from displaying a single page of the eBook to displaying two adjacent pages of the eBook) or from landscape view to portrait view (typically causing the eBook reader to change from displaying two adjacent pages of the eBook to displaying a single page of the eBook), re-pagination occurs in a similar manner to change the display of the viewable text. The resulting view typically (but not necessarily) includes a combination of at least a portion of old text and some new text appearing either before or after, or both, old text.
In any of the above-described scenarios, it is possible, if not likely, that a change in pagination by the eBook reader will cause the word at the user's current reading location to appear at a different location in the display following the change in display resulting from the pagination. As a result, repagination often may cause the reader to lose sight of his or her current reading position. To help the reader to find his or her reading location following such a change, various visual aids have been developed that provide signals to the reader that aid in pinpointing the reader's reading location.
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In this example, as often may be the case in actual usage, the user's reading point 203 in fact is not visible in the repaginated page of text 214 in
Depending on implementation details and design choices, various different transition effects can be used to signal to the user the distinction between old text and new text following repagination. For example, as in the example of
In this manner, the user is able to differentiate old text from new text, as well as receive a visual clue as to the post-pagination position of anchor point 304, and thus able to use that information to discern and pick up reading at the reading point. Alternatively, instead of having the entire block of old text 310 to pop, a “word pop” transition could be implemented in which only a single word—for example, the anchor word 304—would pop out at the user. Also, instead of having the old text 310 pop, the page location indication transition could be implemented to have the new text 312 pop as the transition effect.
Other variations of the wipe effect could be implemented, for example, a side-to-side wipe or a wipe that starts at the top of the eBook page and progresses downwards. More generally, any or all of the transition effects described here could be modified or substituted with essentially any desired transition effect that serves to provide a visual clue about which text following repagination is new and which is old, thereby facilitating the user's re-location of his or her reading location. For example, instead of, or in addition to the transition effects described here, visual elements such as color, highlighting, pointers, animations, cursors or the like could be used to help the user relocate the reading location.
Moreover, although in the examples described above the transition effect is applied only to portions of new text that appear prior to the pre-repagination anchor point. Alternatively, similar transition effects could be applied to any new text that comes after the old text and which becomes newly visible as a result of repagination (which, for example, may occur when repagination occurs in response to user input specifying that the font size is to be decreased).
Other transition effects may be used. For example, a translation effect could be used in which at least a portion of the old text that will remain visible following a repagination event could be animated to appear to move as a block from its pre-pagination position on a page to its post-pagination position on the displayed page or pages. A potential implementation of such a translation effect could occur, for example, where a user changes font size, rotates the devices or otherwise triggers a repagination event. In response, a portion of the old text could fade away (because it will no longer be visible post-repagination) while the words forming a remainder of the old text (specifically, that portion that will remain visible post-pagination) move en masse from their original positions to their new positions. Then, for example, the newly displayed text could become visible via a fade in transition, or any of the other above-discussed transitions.
Optionally, as part of the translation effect, the block of words forming the old text that will remain visible post-pagination could be made to appear to float up and away from the page (i.e., appear to move closer to the user in the Z-plane), then float in the X-Y plane to the new post-pagination position, and then float down (i.e., appear to move away from the user in the Z-plane) to become part of the newly repaginated page.
At 504, in response to repagination, the eBook reader displays a repaginated page of eBook text that includes a visual indication that aids the user in relocating the user's reading location. As described above, such a visual indication could include a transition effect such as a fade, a wipe or a pop that helps the user differentiate between old text and new text, and thus gives a visual clue that helps the user pinpoint his or her reading location. Alternatively, or in addition, the visual indication could be another type of indicator such as the use of different colors or including a pointer or cursor in the display that suggests information helpful to finding the reading location.
At 506, after a predetermined duration of time, the eBook reader display changes to display the repaginated page of eBook text but without the visual indication. Depending on design and implementation preferences, removing the visual indication from the display is optional. That is, the visual indication that aids in pinpointing reading location could persist, for example, until the user has turned to another page or triggers another repagination event.
The client device 600 also includes a storage device 610 that can be configured to store information including media, configuration data, user preferences, and operating instructions. The storage device 610 can be any type of non-volatile storage, including a hard disk device or a solid-state drive. For example, media received from an external media server can be stored on the storage device 610. The received media thus can be locally accessed and processed. Further, configuration information, such as the resolution of a coupled display device or information identifying an associated media server, can be stored on the storage device 610. Additionally, the storage device 610 can include one or more sets of operating instructions that can be executed by the processor 605 to control operation of the client device 600. In an implementation, the storage device 610 further can be divided into a plurality of partitions, wherein each partition can be utilized to store one or more types of information. Additionally, each partition can have one or more access control provisions.
A communication bus 615 couples the processor 605 to the other components and interfaces included in the client device 600. The communication bus 615 can be configured to permit unidirectional and/or bidirectional communication between the components and interfaces. For example, the processor 605 can retrieve information from and transmit information to the storage device 610 over the communication bus 615. In an implementation, the communication bus 615 can be comprised of a plurality of busses, each of which couples at least one component or interface of the client device 600 with another component or interface.
The client device 600 may also include a plurality of input and output interfaces for communicating with other devices, including media servers and presentation devices. A wired network interface 620 and/or a wireless network interface 625 each can be configured to permit the client device 600 to transmit and receive information over a network, such as a local area network (LAN) or the Internet, thereby enabling either wired and/or wireless connectivity and data transfer. Additionally, an input interface 630 can be configured to receive input from another device through a direct connection, such as a USB, eSATA or an IEEE 1394 connection.
Further, an output interface 635 can be configured to couple the client device 600 to one or more external devices, including a television, a monitor, an audio receiver, and one or more speakers. For example, the output interface 635 can include one or more of an optical audio interface, an RCA connector interface, a component video interface, and a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI). The output interface 635 also can be configured to provide one signal, such as an audio stream, to a first device and another signal, such as a video stream, to a second device. Further, a non-volatile memory 640, such as a read-only memory (ROM) also can be included in the client device 600. The non-volatile memory 640 can be used to store configuration data, additional instructions, such as one or more operating instructions, and values, such as one or more flags and counters. In an implementation, a random access memory (RAM) also can be included in the client device 600. The RAM can be used to store media content received in the client device 600, such as during playback or while the user has paused playback. Further, media content can be stored in the RAM whether or not the media content is stored on the storage device 610.
Additionally, the client device 600 can include a remote control interface 645 that can be configured to receive commands from one or more remote control devices (not pictured). The remote control interface 645 can receive the commands through wireless signals, such as infrared and radio frequency signals. The received commands can be utilized, such as by the processor 605, to control media playback or to configure the client device 600. In an implementation, the client device 600 can be configured to receive commands from a user through a touch screen interface. The client device 600 also can be configured to receive commands through one or more other input devices, including a keyboard, a keypad, a touch pad, a voice command system, and a mouse.
In implementation, the computing device can be a portable communications device such as a mobile telephone that also contains other functions, such as PDA and/or music player functions. Exemplary embodiments of portable multifunction devices include, without limitation, the iPad®, iPhone® and iPod Touch® devices from Apple, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. Other portable devices such as laptops or tablet computers with touch-sensitive surfaces (e.g., touch screen displays and/or touch pads) may also be used. In some implementations, the device is not necessarily a portable communications device, but rather can be a desktop computer, for example, with or without a touch-sensitive surface (e.g., a touch screen display and/or a touch pad). The computing device may include a display and a touch-sensitive surface and/or may include one or more other physical user-interface devices, such as a physical keyboard, a mouse and/or a joystick.
The device can be capable of supporting a variety of applications, such as one or more of the following: a drawing application, a presentation application, a word processing application, a website creation application, a disk authoring application, a spreadsheet application, a gaming application, a telephone application, a video conferencing application, an e-mail application, an instant messaging application, a workout support application, a photo management application, a digital camera application, a digital video camera application, a web browsing application, a digital music player application, and/or a digital video player application.
The various applications that may be executed on the device may use at least one common physical user-interface device, such as the touch-sensitive surface. One or more functions of the touch-sensitive surface as well as corresponding information displayed on the device may be adjusted and/or varied from one application to the next and/or within a respective application. In this way, a common physical architecture (such as the touch-sensitive surface) of the device may support the variety of applications with user interfaces that are intuitive and transparent.
Device 600 as represented in
