Interactive electronic book operating systems and methods

An interactive electronic operating system for science, engineering and other technical and professional books, comprising:

• a computer platform having a single viewing screen, the single viewing screen for displaying pages of an open book;
• a digital book having contents selected from the group consisting solely of a scientific topic and a technical topic stored in the computer platform;
• at least one image on the viewing screen for replicating a complete open page of the digital book;
• plural pages each having up to four different difficulty layers, each of the up to four different difficulty layers containing text on a topic at a different level of difficulty, different techniques of solutions, each technique being selectable as either purely symbolic or purely numerical, and a set of rolling images each having the same elements arranged in a different configuration, the rolling images including an arrow for switching between images in the set;
• an icon menu on the viewing screen including—a page flipping icon on the viewing screen for allowing backward flipping of pages of the digital book, and forward flipping of pages of the digital book that includes increasing and decreasing a displayed thickness of the pages based on current flipping;
• a quiz me icon on the screen that activates a quiz me module, the quiz me module allowing the user to select one of a login mode or an anonymous mode, to selectively take interactive tests to solve plural multiple choice questions on any section and chapter of the open book within a selected time period, and providing feedback to the user at the end of the quiz;
• a seeded content corresponding to end of chapter drill problems, practice designs and quiz to allow an instructor to selectively assign a different seed for each student so that plural students each solve the same problem with different seed values for fixed values in each drill problem, practice design or quiz resulting in a different answer or to selectively assign a same seed value for a class to solve the same drill problems, practice designs and quiz resulting in the same answer;
• and
• a dynamic table of contents icon on the screen that activates a dynamic table of contents module, the dynamic table of contents module allowing the user to customize a table of contents of sections and chapters and parts of the open book, the dynamic table of contents module comprising:
• a default table of contents created by the publisher that cannot be deleted by the user;
• a dynamic table of contents selectable by the user, each dynamic table of contents identified by at least one of a table of content name, description, creation date and last modified date, each dynamic table of contents including selectable chapters and sections that are modified by the user and saved in a database;
• a customized table of content profile developed by an instructor for a course, the customized table of content profile including chapters and sections designed by the instructor to meet the instructor's course and imported into the dynamic table of content of a student in the course, the digital book material added and deleted to/from the viewable contents of the digital book in accordance with the selected customized table of content profile;
• an import/export table of content option to allow the user to export the selected table of content to an external file and to import the exported table of contents to a different stored digital book;
• and
• a manage profiles option to view a list of table of content profiles showing the default table of content, one or more dynamic table of contents, the customized table of content and the imported table of content each identified with a name, description, creation date and last modified date to allow the user to select one of the listed table of content profiles as the active table of contents for the digital book, to add a new table of contents, update an existing table of content, and delete one of the listed table of contents.

An interactive electronic operating system for science, engineering and other technical and professional books, comprising:

• a computer platform having a single viewing screen, the single viewing screen for displaying pages of an open book;
• a digital book having contents selected from the group consisting solely of a scientific topic and a technical topic stored in the computer platform;
• at least one image on the viewing screen for replicating a complete open page of the digital book;
• an icon menu on the viewing screen including:
• a sequential page flipping icon on the viewing screen for allowing backward flipping of pages of the digital book, and forward flipping of pages of the digital book;
• and
• a section title along an edge of the page displayed when the user moves a cursor over a left or right edge of the page and to allow the user to click on a corresponding section title to open a section corresponding to the section title;
• a lecture me icon that links to one or more of an animation, a video and an audio lecture content stored in a database that corresponds to a topic in the section;
• a tutor me icon on the screen that activates a tutor me module, the tutor me module allowing the user to be interactively tutored with additional teaching materials on any section and chapter of the open book, the tutor me module comprising:
• a login to allow the user to select one of a login mode or an anonymous mode;
• a first tutor session combining a lecture me module and a quiz me module;
• a problem solving session requiring a student to input a symbolic equation as a solution to the problem, the system analyzing the symbolic equation, expanding and chopping the symbolic equation into terms to compare term by term to a correct term and display an error message corresponding to the term by term comparison;
• and
• a symbolic simulation tool for linear electronic circuits for a user to obtain a symbolic time response and frequency response corresponding to a node of an electrical circuit.

An interactive electronic operating system for science, engineering and other technical and professional books, comprising:

• a computer platform having a single viewing screen, the single viewing screen for displaying pages of an open book;
• a digital book having contents selected from the group consisting solely of a scientific topic and a technical topic stored in the computer platform;
• at least one image on the viewing screen for replicating a complete open page of the digital book;
• an icon menu on the viewing screen including:
• a sticky note icon to allow the user to write a note and attach the written note to an object in the digital book, to delete a note previously attached, to manage notes by listing notes attached in the digital book and to select one note and view page on which the note is attached;
• a page flipping icon on the viewing screen for allowing backward flipping of pages of the digital book, and forward flipping of pages of the digital book with animated page flipping, the page flipping icon including page flipping arrow displayed on the right and left corner of each page to control page flipping direction, page flipping speed and group page flipping;
• a key points to remember message displayed at an end to a topic to remind the user of key points on the topic;
• an attachment icon to allow the user to attach a file including a presentation, an audio/video file and an image to the object, delete an attachment, and manage attachments in the digital book;
• plural pages each having up to four different difficulty layers, each of the up to four different difficulty layers containing text on a topic at a different level of difficulty, different techniques of solutions, each technique being selectable as either purely symbolic or purely numerical, and a set of rolling images each having the same elements arranged in a different configuration, the rolling images including an arrow for switching between images in the set;
• a lecture me module that includes one or more of a video, audio and animation about a selected subject;
• a tutor me icon that combines the lecture me module with a quiz feature to compare a user's solution to a problem to a correct answer including checking the number of terms in the solution, analyzing plural terms, and making a term by term comparison and displaying an appropriate message selected from one or more of “wrong sign,” “wrong term,” “too many terms,” or “missing a term,” in response to the comparison that identifies error in the user's solution, allow the user to view the correct answer;
• and
• a seed generator icon on the screen that activates a seed generator module, the seed generator module allowing an instructor to selectively insert a different selected value for at least one drill problem, or design example, quiz or end of chapter problem in the open book, the seed generator module including an assignable seed corresponding to a fixed variable in a drill problem, design example, quiz and end of chapter problem;
• a seed selection to allow an instructor to select one of:
• a different seed for each student to solve a different drill problem, design example, quiz and end of chapter questions,
• a same seed for each student to solve the same drill problem, design example, quiz and end of chapter questions;
• and
• a random seed assigned to each student to solve the different random drill problem, design example, quiz and end of chapter questions.