Patent Application
20120200487
The present disclosure relates generally to electronic content viewers and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus to delivering content to a multi-page electronic content viewer.
Electronic books (e-books) are typically digital publications that may be stored in and displayed via different types of electronic viewer or reading devices including stationary and portable devices. Some known e-book viewers are software applications installed in processor systems such as computers or portable devices, while other e-book viewers are dedicated devices that provide functionality specifically tailored for reading published works in electronic format. Some known portable electronic devices for displaying e-books are e-book viewers, or e-book readers, personal digital assistants, and smart phones. Acquiring e-books may involve purchasing and downloading from an online store or purchasing e-books stored on a removable storage medium. E-books viewers provide a single viewing or reading surface. Many people do not use current e-book viewers because the devices do not sufficiently replicate the experience of reading a physical book. Examples are the physical sensation of turning a page, seeing two pages together, and opening and closing a book.
Accordingly, methods and apparatus that enable improved multi-page electronic content viewers remain highly desirable.
Further features and advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in combination with the appended drawings, in which:
a to 6c show the operation of the example multi-page electronic content viewer;
It will be noted that throughout the appended drawings, like features are identified by like reference numerals.
In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a method of displaying content on a multi-page electronic content viewer, the method comprising receiving sensor input associated with at least one display panel from a plurality of displays panels infinitely rotatable around a common edge of a binding element; determining a direction of movement of the at least one display panel around an axis of the binding element based upon the received sensor input; sending a request for content to a storage device, the request including a direction indicator determined by the direction of movement of the at least one display panel around the binding element; and displaying received content on display screens of one or more of the plurality of display panels.
In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a multi-page electronic content viewer comprising: a binding element; a plurality of display panels attached lengthwise along an axis of the binding element, each of the plurality of display panels infinitely rotatable around the binding element; a sensor for determining an orientation and rotation of the display panels around the axis of the binding element; a communications interface for sending a request and receiving for content from a content storage device and receiving requested content; and a processor for receiving sensor input and displaying content on the plurality of displays and determining a direction of one or more of the plurality of displays around the axis of the binding element and sending a content request including a direction indicator sent via the communications interface to the content storage device.
In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a computer readable memory coupled to a processor, the memory containing instructions which when executed by processor for displaying content on a multi-page electronic content viewer, the instructions comprising: receiving sensor input associated with at least one display panel from a plurality of displays panels rotatable around a common edge of a binding element; determining a direction of movement of the at least one display panel around an axis of the binding element based upon the received sensor input; sending a request for content to a storage device, the request including a direction indicator determined by the direction of movement of the at least one display panel around the binding element; and displaying received content on display screens of one or more of the plurality of display panels.
Although the following discloses example methods and apparatus including, among other components, software executed on hardware, it should be noted that such methods and apparatus are merely illustrative and should not be considered as limiting. For example, it is contemplated that any or all of these hardware and software components could be embodied exclusively in hardware, exclusively in software, exclusively in firmware, or in any combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware. Accordingly, while the following describes example methods and apparatus, persons having ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that the examples provided are not the only way to implement such methods and apparatus.
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, where considered appropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements. In addition, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments described herein. However, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments described herein may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures and components have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the embodiments described herein. Also, the description is not to be considered as limiting the scope of the embodiments described herein.
The example methods and apparatus described herein may be used to implement multi-page electronic content viewers to display content including electronically published/stored books, electronically stored documents, web-based content, and/or any other content. In some example implementations, a multi-page electronic content viewer implemented in accordance with the example methods and apparatus disclosed herein may be a multi-page electronic content viewer including three or more display panels, which may be single-sided or dual-sided display panels. In some example implementations, the multi-page electronic content viewer may be adapted to include removably attachable display panels to facilitate after-market re-configurations thereof by adding additional display panels thereto and/or removing display panels therefrom. In addition, some example display panels may be configured to be physically interchanged or shared between three or more multi-page electronic content viewers. Such physically interchangeable display panels may be used to facilitate sharing content between different electronic content viewers.
The example multi-page electronic content viewers disclosed herein may be configured to display unprotected content (e.g., open content) and protected content. Protected content may include content protected from undesired or impermissible distribution or accessibility. Some content may be protected from being displayed on some electronic content viewers (or to particular users or types of users), while not being protected from displaying on other electronic content viewers (or to particular users or types of users). To protect the distribution or accessibility of such content, the example methods and apparatus disclosed herein may be used to create, store, access, and/or enforce content protection policies. Such content protection policies may be pre-defined or commercially available protection policies or end-user-created protection policies. Pre-defined protection policies may be created by, for example, content publishers prior to publishing electronically presentable content (e.g., electronic books, web content, and/or other media). Enduser-created protection policies may be created by, for example, end users of electronic content viewers or other individual persons that generate documents or supplemental information to pre-existing documents and desire to protect their documents or supplemental information from access by persons other than those for which permissions are specifically granted.
The example methods and apparatus disclosed herein may be used to deliver content to the multi-page electronic content viewer using a mobile device. The delivery of the content may include content protection policies using one or more content protection enforcement techniques. For example, some content protection techniques may involve conditional transmission/reception of content between two or more electronic content viewers depending on protection policies of content and permissions associated with target recipients. Such content protection techniques and others disclosed herein may be used in connection with an electronic document or published work in its entirety or in piecemeal fashion on portions (e.g., individual pages) of such documents or published works.
In some example implementations, the example methods and apparatus described herein may be used in connection with mobile communication devices, mobile computing devices, or any other device capable of communicating wirelessly with a wireless network. Such devices also referred to as terminals, wireless terminals, or user equipment (UE), may include mobile smart phones (e.g., a BlackBerry® smart phone), wireless personal digital assistants (PDA), laptop/notebook/netbook/tablet computers with wireless adapters, etc.
The displays may be implemented using any suitable display technology including, for example, e-paper, liquid crystal display (LCD), organic light emitting diode (OLED), high contrast bi-stable ink technology or other suitable low power, highly readable display technology that approaches the reading experience of paper. In some example implementations the display panels may additionally be provided with touchscreens overlaid on the displays (e.g., the displays 212, 214, 222, 224, 232 and 234) to enable user input and control of the multi-page electronic content viewer 100. Additionally or alternatively, the display panels and/or the binding 202 may be provided with one or more user interface buttons or keys (not shown) to enable user-input and control of the multi-page electronic content viewer 100.
In the illustrated example of
Upon sensing a page turn, the binding 202 may cause the visible displays (e.g., the displays 212, 214, 222, 224, 232 and 234) of the display panels 210, 220 and 230 to display sequentially next pages of an electronic publication or document. In this manner, users may progress or move through a multi-page publication or document by turning the display panels about the binding. The infinite rotation capabilities of the display panels about the binding provide an infinite number of page turns and, thus, the multi-page electronic content viewer 100 may be used to present multi-page publications or documents having any number of pages.
In the illustrated example of
The apparatus 500 is provided with one or more communication subsystem(s) 550 to enable sending and receiving content. The communication subsystem(s) 550 may be wireless as provided by an RF transceiver 552, wired 552, or short-range wireless communication 554 or a combination thereof. Example wireless communication technologies that may be employed to implement the one or more communication subsystem(s) 550 include, for example, IEEE® 802.11 radio technology, BLUETOOTH® radio technology, ZIGBEE® radio technology, wireless USB radio technology, and ultra-wideband (UWB) radio technology.
In the illustrated example, the apparatus 500 is also provided with a system memory 536 and a storage memory 534. The system memory 536 may be implemented using a volatile memory such as a random access memory (RAM) and used to store immediately available computer readable instructions and data (e.g., content presentable via the multi-page electronic content viewer 100, content protection policies, etc.) to control the operation of the apparatus 500. The storage memory 534 may be implemented using a non-volatile memory such as a flash memory and may be used as long-term storage of computer readable instructions and/or data.
To enable a user to use and interact with or via the multi-page electronic content viewer 100, the apparatus 500 is provided with a display interface 538 and a user input interface 532. The display interface 538 can be an LCD display interface, an e-paper display interface, an organic light emitting diode (OLED) interface, etc. The user interface 532 input mechanism could be an alphanumeric keyboard and/or telephone-type keypad, a multi-direction actuator or roller wheel with dynamic button pressing capability, a touch panel, individual keys/buttons, etc. The display interface provides the required information to the display panel or display screen for rendering. In the illustrated example, the apparatus 500 is a battery-powered device and is, thus, provided with a battery interface 530 to interface with, for example, a battery.
a to 6c show the operation of the example multi-page electronic content viewer in different configuration states (a) to (i). As shown in (a), in a closed or locked position, the multi-page electronic content viewer 100 only has one display panel 210 providing display screen 212. When the display panel 210 is turned, as shown in (b), the direction of the motion of the page turning is determined and a request including a direction indicator is sent to a content storage device, for example, through a Bluetooth™ connection to a mobile device. The request can include a content identifier, a direction indication and/or an index identifier to provide a relative determination of the content required by the multi-page electronic content viewer. The device providing the content to the electronic content viewer would then provide the content to the device via a wired or wireless mechanism for the next two opposing screens (214 and 222) that will be viewed based upon the detected direction of the page turn around the binding. The content is then displayed, as shown in (c), on screen 214 of display panel 210 and screen 222 of display panel 220. On the next panel rotation around the binding, as shown in (d), another request is made to the content storage, and content is provided for screen 214 of display panel 220 and opposing screen 232 of display panel 230. The process is repeated, as shown in (e) to (h), with content being display on the next viewable panel until the first display panel 210 with display 214 and display panel 220 with screen 222 is in the viewing position. At shown in (i), the display panel is back to the viewing configuration as shown in
As shown by way of example in
The mobile device 150 also includes an operating system 860 and software components 862 to 872 which are described in more detail below. The operating system 860 and the software components 862 to 872 that are executed by the main processor 810 are typically stored in a persistent store such as the flash memory 850, which may alternatively be a read-only memory (ROM) or similar storage element (not shown). Those skilled in the art will appreciate that portions of the operating system 860 and the software components 862 to 872, such as specific device applications, or parts thereof, may be temporarily loaded into a volatile store such as the RAM 852. Other software components can also be included, as is well known to those skilled in the art.
The subset of software applications that control basic device operations, including data and voice communication applications, may be installed on the mobile device 150 during its manufacture. Other software applications include a message application 862 that can be any suitable software program that allows a user of the mobile device 150 to send and receive electronic messages. Various alternatives exist for the message application 862 as is well known to those skilled in the art. Messages that have been sent or received by the user are typically stored in the flash memory 850 of the mobile device 150 or some other suitable storage element in the mobile device 150. In at least some embodiments, some of the sent and received messages may be stored remotely from the device 150 such as in a data store of an associated host system that the mobile device 150 communicates with.
The software applications can further comprise a device state module 866, a Personal Information Manager (PIM) 868, and other suitable modules (not shown). The device state module 866 provides persistence, i.e. the device state module 866 ensures that important device data is stored in persistent memory, such as the flash memory 850, so that the data is not lost when the mobile device 150 is turned off or loses power. The PIM 868 includes functionality for organizing and managing data items of interest to the user, such as, but not limited to, e-mail, contacts, calendar events, voice mails, appointments, and task items.
The mobile device 150 may also comprise a connect module 870, and an IT policy module 872. The connect module 870 implements the communication protocols that are required for the mobile device 150 to communicate with the wireless infrastructure and any host system, such as an enterprise system, that the mobile device 150 is authorized to interface with.
The connect module 870 includes a set of APIs that can be integrated with the mobile device 150 to allow the mobile device 150 to use any number of services associated with the enterprise system. The connect module 870 allows the mobile device 150 to establish an end-to-end secure, authenticated communication pipe with the host system. A subset of applications for which access is provided by the connect module 870 can be used to pass IT policy commands from the host system to the mobile device 150. This can be done in a wireless or wired manner. These instructions can then be passed to the IT policy module 872 to modify the configuration of the device 150.
Some examples of other software components 864 that may be executed by the operating system 860 may include, peer-to-peer or instant messaging application, social networking, mapping, internet browser, calendar, address book and phone applications It will be appreciated that the various applications may operate independently or may utilize features of other applications. For example, the phone application and messaging application may use the address book for contact details. An electronic viewer management application may also include electronic viewer content management for access content from one or more remote content stores through the wireless network in addition to servicing requests from the electronic content viewer through for example the short-range communications interface 830. The electronic book application determines the content required by the electronic viewer and provides the content to the electronic content viewer 100 through the same interface through which the request was provided. The electronic viewer application may be preconfigured to know the configuration of the electronic content viewer in terms of the number of displays during a pairing process. The configuration may include the memory capacity and amount of content it should provide, user features provided by the user and the number of display screens and display panels. In addition the application may provide configuration controls to manage the functions of the multi-page electronic content viewers or the presentation of content therein. For example the locking of the display panels may be performed through the mobile device to deactivate page motion.
Although certain methods, apparatus, and computer readable memory have been described herein, the scope of coverage of this disclosure is not limited thereto. To the contrary, this disclosure covers all methods, apparatus, computer readable memory, and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope of the appended claims either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents.
