Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
1997-12-18
2002-06-18
dela Torre, Crescelle N. (Department: 2173)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06407757
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer based browsing computer program product, system and method for browsing through documents stored in a computer. Specifically, the present invention facilitates the browsing of a document stored in a computer in such a way that it allows a rapid and holistic view of what contents are present and the organization of the material in the document, as well as rapid access to the items in the document involved. The document-browsing system in the present invention is also generalized to provide a novel human-computer interface, not just for browsing documents but also for interacting with and operating a computer to achieve the various functionalities normally carried out on the computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, the method for viewing documents stored in a computer is through a computer monitor screen. For documents that are longer/larger than can be contained within one screen, a way 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 trend of increased computer usage, 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 computer 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. Reading textual material on the computer screen for a prolonged period of time also leads to visual fatigue. But there are times when a reader does not need to read for a prolonged period of time and is quite happy to sit at a desk in front of a desktop computer or handle a notebook computer 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 computer software packages (included in computer readable media, such as optical disks, magnetic disks, semiconductor memory, etc.) 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 computer, e.g., the use of a mouse combined with scroll bars and buttons on the computer 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. These destroy the ability of the reader to form an idea of the contents and structure—i.e., a holistic view—of the document involved.
Because material in a book is organized into pages, it allows the reader to quantify approximately the amount of coverage given to each topic—e.g., three-quarters of a page, three-and-a-half pages, etc. In addition, page-oriented organization together with the fact that the pages are joined together in a sequential order with a continuity of material from page to page enhance the ability of the reader to better remember the location of various portions of the material involved (e.g., roughly how many pages from the pages currently in view). 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. This, together with the page-oriented organization that enhances the user's impression of the locat
dela Torre Crescelle N.
E-Book Systems PTE LTD.
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