Patent Application
20110208614
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a method and system for using electronic books in a vehicle and, more particularly, to a method and system for buying, downloading, storing, and listening to electronic book materials using a vehicle's built-in systems—either with or without a separate electronic book device.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Electronic book devices have become a popular choice for people who want to receive and consume their reading materials in an electronic format. Electronic book devices are available on the commercial market which feature large, easy to read screens, memory capable of holding thousands of books, and wireless network connectivity which allows fast and easy download of almost any publication which is available electronically. Many different types of publications are available in electronic book format, including books, magazines, and newspapers. Electronic book devices make it easy for a person to have multiple publications available for reading at any time, and keep track of what has been read with a bookmarking feature. The devices have become especially popular among people who spend a lot of time commuting or traveling.
Modern vehicles commonly include a variety of sophisticated electronic devices—including entertainment, communication, and navigation systems. Virtually all vehicles have stereo systems capable of delivering high quality audio, and most include the ability to interface an external audio source to the vehicle's stereo system, either wirelessly or via a cable. However, vehicles do not currently offer the ability to interface an electronic book device with the vehicle's electronic systems, other than in a very rudimentary fashion. Consumers would realize a significant benefit if they could interface their electronic book device with a vehicle's audio system, such that they could seamlessly transition from reading a publication on their electronic book device to listening to the same publication in their vehicle, even if their electronic book device does not include a text-to-speech feature. Additional benefits could be provided by offering other electronic book features—such as purchase, download, storage, and synchronization—on the vehicle's systems.
In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, methods and systems are disclosed for using electronic books in a vehicle. The vehicle's electronic systems can be used in an integrated fashion with a user's handheld electronic book device, such that the vehicle's systems can be used to recite electronic book materials, media files can be shared between the vehicle and the handheld device, bookmarks can be synchronized, and the user can seamlessly switch from one system to the other. The vehicle's electronic systems can also be used independent of any other electronic book device, such that the vehicle's systems provide all electronic book device functionality—including browsing for reading materials, purchase, download, storage, reading, and listening.
Additional features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
The following discussion of the embodiments of the invention directed to a method and system for using electronic books in a vehicle is merely exemplary in nature, and is in no way intended to limit the invention or its applications or uses.
The present invention discloses various methods and systems for using electronic book materials and devices in a vehicle. The purpose of the methods and systems disclosed herein is to extend all of the functionality of a typical electronic book device to a vehicle environment, so that a user can seamlessly switch, for example, from reading a book on an electronic book device to listening to the same book in his or her vehicle, and vice versa.
As used in this disclosure, the term electronic book material(s) refers to the electronic form of a published material, such as a book or magazine, and the electronic file(s) that contain those materials. The files could either be in the form of written text and illustrations, such as a pdf (Portable Document Format, by Adobe Systems) file, or in the form of an audio file such as mp3. These types of files are referred to as media files. The terms electronic book device and handheld ebook unit in this disclosure refer to a hardware device used to read electronic book materials, such as those devices sold by Sony and Amazon.
One of the main reasons people use electronic book devices is so that they can read their chosen material wherever they are, whenever they have time. The reading materials may include daily newspapers, periodical publications such as magazines, and published books. The ability to download these materials on demand, and store them on a single portable device, is very attractive. However, many people spend a significant amount of time each day driving in a vehicle. For obvious safety reasons, drivers cannot read electronic books while driving, but they could listen to them.
In one embodiment, where the vehicle 12 serves solely as an interface to the separate electronic book device 10, the vehicle's electronic systems 20 could include a Human Machine Interface (HMI) 22, a playback buffer 24 for temporarily storing data during playback, a Text To Speech (TTS) system 26 for converting text from an electronic book media file to spoken output, and an audio system 28 including an amplifier and speakers. In another embodiment, where the vehicle 12 offers electronic book device functionality in its onboard systems, the vehicle's electronic systems 20 would also include a web browser or other application 30 for purchasing new electronic book materials, a storage system 32 which could include flash memory or other types of data storage, a controller 34, a display screen 36, and an antenna 38 for connecting to the internet or online stores. Media files 40 could reside on the electronic book device 10 or in the storage system 32 of the vehicle 12, as described below.
Throughout the process 50, two-way communication would be needed between the vehicle's electronic systems 20 and the electronic book device 10, so that the vehicle's electronic systems 20 could send the electronic book device 10 information, such as whether to continue reading, when to pause or resume, commands for navigation through the reading material, updated bookmark locations, and the rate at which text is being consumed. In this embodiment, all of the handling of the electronic book materials would remain with the electronic book device 10, including storage of the media files 40, bookmarking, and so forth. As such, when the user exits the vehicle 12 with the electronic book device 10, the electronic book device 10 would naturally be on the right page of the reading material, so that the user can continue reading. The vehicle's electronic systems 20 would be used to convert text to speech and play the sound, and would serve as an interface between the user and the electronic book device 10 for controls such as starting, stopping, and navigation, and would do so in a way that is simple for the user to operate.
In a slightly more advanced embodiment, the vehicle's electronic systems 20 could provide additional functionality via the electronic book device 10. This could include the ability to browse, purchase and download new electronic book materials from an online store. In this embodiment, the purchase, download, and storage of electronic book materials still occur on the electronic book device 10. The vehicle's electronic systems 20 are used only as an interface to the electronic book device 10, including the browse, purchase, and download functions, which would be supported via the HMI 22.
A user may find it even more convenient to have all of the capabilities for consuming electronic book materials embodied directly in the vehicle's electronic systems 20.
The user can then proceed to listen to the newly purchased electronic book materials by selecting the Play option at box 98. At box 100, the vehicle 12 uses the TTS system 26 to recite text from the media file 40 stored in the storage system 32, using the audio system 28. At box 102, the user listens to the electronic book materials, stops, starts, and navigates through the material via the HMI 22. The controller 34 keeps track of progress in reading the material, as shown at box 104. At box 106, the controller 34 periodically synchronizes bookmarks with the electronic book device 10. Throughout the playback of the electronic book materials, the vehicle 12 could display the written material on the display screen 36, just as any handheld ebook unit does. This feature could be useful for non-driving passengers, or when the vehicle 12 is parked. At box 108, the electronic book device 10 is removed from the vehicle 12. The user could stop playback via the HMI 22, but this is not necessary as the playback would stop when the communication link between the electronic book device 10 and the vehicle's electronic systems 20 is broken. At box 110, the user can continue reading any chosen materials on the electronic book device 10 outside the vehicle 12. The electronic book device 10 would have bookmarks in the proper places for all materials consumed while in the vehicle 12, as the controller 34 handled this task at box 106. The next time the electronic book device 10 is introduced into the vehicle 12, the controller 34 would synchronize bookmarks for all electronic book materials which reside on both the electronic book device 10 and the vehicle's storage 32, as shown at box 112.
Throughout the process 80, the user could switch to any other electronic book materials which reside either on the electronic book device 10 or in the vehicle's storage 32. Also, electronic book materials which reside only on the electronic book device 10 could be uploaded to the vehicle's storage 32, and synchronization would thereafter be maintained.
In another embodiment, the vehicle's electronic systems 20 could provide all of the capabilities of a handheld ebook unit, without requiring a separate electronic book device 10. In this scenario, the vehicle's electronic systems 20 would have all of the elements and features of the system shown in
It is emphasized that the flow chart diagrams in
Some electronic book materials are available in audio file format as an alternative or complement to text files. In another embodiment, the vehicle 12 would have the ability to download and store the audio file versions of electronic book materials, and play them through the vehicle's audio system 28. The vehicle 12 could also maintain bookmark synchronization with a text file version of the same electronic book materials residing on an electronic book device 10. This approach would allow the user to purchase electronic book materials either via the vehicle 12 or the electronic book device 10, consume those materials using either the vehicle's electronic systems 20 or the electronic book device 10, and seamlessly transition from one to the other. In this embodiment, however, the vehicle 12 would not need a text-to-speech converter, as it would be playing audio files, which is a capability that virtually all modern vehicle audio systems would inherently have. Eliminating the need for a text-to-speech converter would lower the cost of the vehicle's electronic systems 20. This option may gain in popularity as audio file versions of electronic book materials become more widely available, especially if sellers allow consumers to download an audio file to one device and a text file to another device for the price of a single electronic book material purchase.
Throughout the preceding discussion, the concept of bookmarking has been mentioned repeatedly. Bookmarking is a common feature of handheld ebook units currently on the market, and becomes even more useful when electronic book materials reside on more than one device as disclosed in the present invention. In order for a user to get the most benefit out of bookmarking electronic book materials, bookmarks must be handled consistently between different devices, and should be handled in a way that is most intuitive to the user. These objectives can be met by placing bookmarks at a paragraph-based level of granularity. Page-based bookmarking is impractical because the notion of a page is vague in electronic book materials, since different devices have different size display screens, thus allowing one device to display more text at one time than another device does. And clearly, chapter-based bookmarking would be too coarse for most reading materials. On the other extreme, word-based bookmarking, and even sentence-based bookmarking, while technically feasible, are too fine in granularity to be intuitive to the user.
It is observed that most users, when they stop reading something and then resume again later, will begin reading at the paragraph where they previously stopped. If a user stops reading in the middle of a paragraph, he or she will usually re-read that entire paragraph for context. If a user stops reading after finishing a paragraph, he or she will resume later at the next paragraph. This natural pattern can be emulated in bookmarking electronic book materials. As used here, the term paragraph refers to the next coarser level of granularity from the sentence. The term paragraph does not necessarily only refer to a formal, indented paragraph, but could refer to any grouping of sentences, which could take other forms given the wide variety of publications which can be read on electronic book devices.
The foregoing discussion discloses and describes merely exemplary embodiments of the present invention. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from such discussion and from the accompanying drawings and claims that various changes, modifications and variations can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.
