Electronic book contextual menu systems and methods
AssigneeGoogle Inc.
InventorsJames Patterson, Nathan Moody, Scott Dougall
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An electronic book system provides interfaces particularly suited to students' use of textbooks. A finger press on a touch screen produces a contextual menu with user choices that relate to where the finger was pressed or what the user was recently doing with the book. A student provisionally navigates through a book by a specific gesture which, when it stops, returns the user to the previous position in the book. Annotations are displayed and hidden using specific gestures and through selective movement of the reader as sensed by its accelerometer.
Claims18
An electronic book reader, comprising:
- a display;
- and
- an input recognition subsystem, operably connected to the display, configured to:
- identify a point on the display based on a position of an object relative to the display as the object becomes proximate to the display;
- initiate a menu-creation animation in response to the object becoming proximate to the display, wherein the menu-creation animation comprises a circle being gradually drawn around the point on the display;
- and
- provide a contextual menu in response to the object remaining at the position until the menu-creation animation completes and turns into the contextual menu, the contextual menu including a plurality of options, the plurality of options included being responsive to the point on the display, wherein creation of the contextual menu is cancelled in response to the object ceasing to remain at the position before the menu-creation animation completes.
A computer implemented method of using an electronic book, comprising:
- displaying the electronic book on a display;
- identifying a point on the display based on a position of an object relative to the display as the object becomes proximate to the display;
- initiating a menu-creation animation in response to the object becoming proximate to the display, wherein the menu-creation animation comprises a circle being gradually drawn around the point on the display;
- determining options to be presented in a contextual menu responsive to the point on the display;
- and
- providing the contextual menu in response to the object remaining at the position until the menu-creation animation completes and turns into the contextual menu, wherein creation of the contextual menu is cancelled in response to the object ceasing to remain at the position before the menu-creation animation completes.
A computer program product that comprises a non-transient computer readable storage medium containing computer executable instructions for using an electronic book, comprising:
- instructions to display the electronic book on a display;
- instructions to identify a point on the display based on a position of an object relative to the display as the object becomes proximate to the display;
- instructions to initiate a menu-creation animation in response to the object becoming proximate to the display, wherein the menu-creation animation comprises a circle being gradually drawn around the point on the display;
- instructions to determine options to be presented in a contextual menu responsive to the point on the display;
- and
- instructions to provide the contextual menu in response to the object remaining at the position until the menu-creation animation completes and turns into the contextual menu, wherein creation of the contextual menu is cancelled in response to the object ceasing to remain at the position before the menu-creation animation completes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.