Abstract:
The present invention relates to an audio recording electronic book apparatus featuring a recording function to take an audio note, comprising a display module for displaying the contents of an electronic book; a memory unit for storing at least one electronic book file; a micro process unit for reading an electronic book file and displaying it on the display module; a recording/broadcasting module for inputting an audio note after startup and storing in the memory unit as an audio data file; and a correspondence table for recording the linkage relationship related to the audio data file and the electronic book file.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a display device; in particular, the present invention relates to an electronic book apparatus featuring a recording function and a touch input function for note taking. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     The electronic book apparatus is a new type of display devices manufactured by using a bistable displayer which enables electrical power-saving capability because of the bi-stability thereof. Additionally, the electronic book apparatus can be configured with an extremely large memory space allowing to store a great amount of electronic books, and also provides features of small and slim sizes, convenient operations as well as suitability for long-time readings and the like, further offering advantages in terms of convenient access to the contents of electronic books via wireless transmissions, such that the electronic book apparatus has now become popular progressively and has been applied widely. 
     However, even with the aforementioned advantages in the electronic book apparatus, it is still unable to satisfactorily meet the requirements on reading and learning for numerous students and readers. For many students and readers, they usually have to carry various books around to facilitate effective and complete learning, while the electronic book apparatus may eliminate or reduce such a carry-on burden in weight caused by printed books and also provides a display device suitable for long-time readings. Nevertheless, for general readers or students, taking notes or learning remarks during reading or learning may facilitate more efficient reviews or prompts for future individual studies, yet currently available electronic book apparatuses or other types of display devices can only provide the display function, lacking of features for taking notes or learning remarks; hence general readers or students are not allowed to promptly take notes during classes or any learning annotations in real-time, or else other tools, e.g., papers and pens, are needed for recording. For common users, this may cause great inconvenience in use, further reducing the effect of student learning and willingness of use. Besides, since notes or annotations recorded by means of papers can not be related with the contents of the electronic book apparatus, misplacement of notes or remarks, or even problems of paper note or remark losses, may occur. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An electronic book apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises: a display module; a memory unit, storing an electronic book file; a micro process unit, connected to the memory unit and the display module to read the electronic book file and display a part of the contents of the electronic book file on the display module; a recording/broadcasting module, connected to the micro process unit to input an audio note, in which the micro process unit receives the audio note and stores it in the memory unit as an audio data file; and a correspondence table, connected to the micro process unit to record a linkage data which records the linkage relationship between the audio data file and the electronic book file. 
     An electronic book apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises: a display module, displaying the contents of an electronic book; a touch module, generating a text note or a graphic note; and a recording/broadcasting module, generating an audio note; wherein the text note, the graphic note and the audio note respectively have a corresponding linkage relationship to the contents of the electronic book. 
     A control method for an electronic book apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises the following steps: accessing an electronic book file and displaying the electronic book file on a display module; selecting a part of the contents displayed on the display module; opening a recording/broadcasting module to generate an audio data file; and storing the generated audio data file in a memory unit and generating a linkage relationship corresponding to the selected contents, being stored in the correspondence table. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of the electronic book apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIGS. 2A and 2B  are schematic diagrams illustrating the implementation of the electronic book apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention; and 
         FIG. 3  is a control flowchart for the electronic book apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     As shown in  FIG. 1 , the electronic book apparatus  1  comprises, a micro process unit  10  which generates a control signal, reads an electronic book file, and reads/stores an audio data file, a text data file and a graphic image file; a display module  11  which displays the contents of the electronic book files or the contents of the text data/graphic image files read by the micro process unit  10 ; a touch module  12  which allows a user to input a control signal or a text/graphic note; a recording/broadcasting module  13  which provides recording and broadcasting functions to generate an audio note and broadcast based on the contents of the audio data file read by the micro process unit  10 ; a memory unit  14  which stores the electronic book files, the text data/graphic image files inputted by the user, and the audio data file; and a correspondence table  15  which records the linkage relationship of the text data/graphic image file inputted by the user and the audio data file corresponding to a specific page number, a specific text or a specific figure within the referred electronic book. 
     Herein the display module  11  may be one of a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel or a bistable displayer which is taken as an embodiment for illustration according to the present invention; the touch module  12  may be one of a resistive touch panel, a capacitive touch panel, an electromagnetic touch panel or an optical touch panel and the like, and is placed over the display module  11 ; the recording/broadcasting module  13  consists of at least one recording component and one broadcasting component so as to perform recording and broadcasting functions; the correspondence table  15  may be an individual memory or integrated into the memory unit  14 . 
     In use, the electronic book apparatus  1  is initially to be turned on and the micro process unit  10  reads out a list of electronic book files stored in the memory unit  14  and displays it on the display module  11 . The user may input a control signal through the touch module  12  and select to open an electronic book file, and the micro process unit  10  accordingly opens the selected electronic book file and displays it on the display module  11 . In the present embodiment, since a bistable displayer is used as the display module  11  for implementations, the display technology of electronic paper can be exploited by the bistable displayer; hence, inasmuch as the feature of the electronic paper, it consumes electrical power only when the screens need to be updated. Yet no power needs to be continuously supplied when no screen updates are required, so the present embodiment consumes extremely low amount of electrical power, thereby providing an advantageous electrical power-saving feature. 
     The embodiment of the present invention consists of a recording/broadcasting module  13  which enables recording and broadcasting functions. When the user wants to record, it is possible to input a control signal through the touch module  12  or a recording switch (not shown), and the micro process unit  10  accordingly drives the recording/broadcasting module  13  to record, and then the micro process unit  10  receives the audio note generated by the recording/broadcasting module  13  and stores the generated audio note in the memory unit  14  as an audio data file; meanwhile, a correspondence data is created at the correspondence table  15  to record the linkage relationship between the audio data file and the electronic book file or alternatively any specific pages, texts, figures or forms existing within the electronic book. 
     The user is only required to, after startup of the electronic book apparatus  1 , open an electronic book file, assign therein any specific pages, specific texts, specific figures or forms etc. through the touch module  12  and then start the recording/broadcasting module  13  by means of the touch module  12  or a recording switch (not shown) to record. The micro process unit  10  stores the audio note generated by the recording/broadcasting module  13  in the memory unit  14  and creates a correspondence data in the correspondence table  15  in order to record the linkage relationship between the audio data file associated with the specific pages designated, specific texts selected, specific figures or forms chosen and so on. After completion of recording, an icon is shown on the side of the designated specific pages, specific texts, figures or forms in the electronic book thereby illustrating that such specific pages, specific texts, figures or forms have an audio data file connected therewith. 
     The user may touch on such an icon and a control signal can be accordingly generated through the touch module  12 , and the micro process unit  10  accesses the corresponding audio data file in the memory unit  14  based on the control signal and then broadcasts the corresponding audio note via the recording/broadcasting module  13 , so that the user is allowed to listen to the audio note corresponding to such specific pages, specific texts, figures or forms. 
     When the user browses the contents of the electronic book through the display module  11 , it is possible to select any specific pages, specific texts, figures or forms through the touch module  12 , choose the input function for the text/graphic note and generate a control signal. While the micro process unit  10  generates an edit-mode control window (not shown) on the display module  11  according to the control signal generated, thereby allowing the user to input texts or graphics by means of the touch module  12  (or else through a keyboard for text inputs). Upon completion of input by the user, the micro process unit  10  stores the contents held in the edit-mode control window into the memory unit  14  as a text/graphic image file; at the same time, a linkage relationship involving the text/graphic image file and the specific pages, specific texts, figures or forms etc. designated by the user is also recorded in the correspondence table  15 . Meanwhile, after completion of recording, an icon is shown on the side of the specific pages, specific texts, figures or forms selected by the user in the electronic book, thereby illustrating that such specific pages, specific texts, figures or forms have a text/graphic image file connected therewith. The user may touch on the icon so as to generate a control signal by the touch module  12 , thus the micro process unit  10  accesses the corresponding text/graphic image file in the memory unit  14  according to the control signal and displays on the display module  11  for browsing by the user. 
     In the embodiment of the present invention, the user is also allowed to activate the recording/broadcasting module  13  to record and open the edit-mode control window so as to simultaneously perform recording for an audio note, a text note or a graphic note. By way of simultaneous operating and recording the audio note, the text note or the graphic note, the user is enabled to annotate the information intended to be recorded more completely and efficiently, thereby preventing any possible losses. 
     In the embodiment of the present invention, it is also possible to use a set of camera module (not shown) to record an image note. Relevant approaches and means are well-known to those skilled ones in the art and herein omitted for brevity. 
     The electronic book apparatus  1  according to the embodiment of the present invention, as shown in  FIG. 2A , may perform recording through the recording/broadcasting module  13  and opens an edit-mode control window  21  thereby allowing the user to input texts or graphics etc. by means of a finger or a touch pen in order to input an audio note, a text note or a graphic note and so forth. Furthermore, as shown in  FIG. 2B , an icon  22  can be generated on the side of the specific pages, specific texts, specific figures or forms selected to illustrate that such specific pages, texts, figures or forms have an audio data file or a text/graphic image file connected therewith, so that the user is allowed to touch the icon  22  to open the corresponding audio data file or text/graphic image file. 
     Referring conjunctively to  FIGS. 1 to 3  for the electronic book apparatus  1  according to the embodiment of the present invention, the user initially turns on the electronic book apparatus  1 , as shown in Step S 30 , then the micro process unit  10  reads out the list of electronic book files stored in the memory unit  14  and displays it on the display module  11 . The user is only required to select the electronic book file intended to read so as to generate a control signal by the touch module  12 , then the micro process unit  10  reads out the electronic book file intended to be opened from the memory unit  14  based on the control signal and displays the contents of the electronic book on the display module  11 , as shown in Step S 31 . Meanwhile, upon accessing the electronic book file, the micro process unit  10  also looks for in the correspondence table  15  the linkage data corresponding to any one of the pages or the texts, figures and forms existing within the electronic book file, as shown in Step S 32 . Suppose any linkage data corresponding to the pages of the electronic book file or alternatively to the texts, figures or forms for the contents thereof is found to be stored in the correspondence table  15 , then the contents of the page and the icon  22  are simultaneously displayed on the display module  11 , as shown in Step S 33 ; in case no linkage data corresponding to the page is found, then the display module  11  displays the contents of the page, as shown in Step S 35 . 
     In displaying the contents of the electronic book and the icon as Step S 33 , the user needs only to touch on such icons  22  and a control signal can be generated by the touch module  12 , and the micro process unit  10  reads/opens the corresponding audio data file or the text data/graphic image file in the memory unit  14  according to the control signal and broadcasts through the recording/broadcasting module  13  or displays on the display module  11 , as shown in Step S 34 . If the user intends to browse the next page, it is possible to generate a control signal through the touch module  12  or a next page button (not shown), and the micro process unit  10  displays the contents of the next page on the display module  11  based on the control signal, as shown in Step S 38 ; additionally, upon selecting the action of browsing the next page by the user, the operation step in the flowchart returns to Step S 32  to re-inquire whether any corresponding linkage data exists for the next display page or else for the contents thereof. 
     In case that no linkage data corresponding to the page is found in Step S 32 , then the micro process unit  10  directly displays the contents of the page, as shown in Step S 35 . At this moment, if the user needs to record a note, it is possible to select the specific pages, specific texts, figures or forms etc. and choose the intended recording method, as shown in Step S 36 . Upon completion of recording, the micro process unit  10  stores the audio notes and text/graphic notes in the memory unit  14  respectively for generating a corresponding audio data file or a text/graphic image file, and generates a corresponding linkage data in the correspondence table  15  to record the linkage relationship involving the audio data file or text/graphic image file and the specific pages, specific texts, figures or forms selected, as shown in Step S 37 . After completion of note filing by the user, the icon  22  can be displayed on the side of the specific pages, specific texts, figures or forms selected to illustrate the existence of the corresponding note file, as shown in Step S 33 . 
     In the electronic book apparatus  1  according to the embodiment of the present invention, it is possible as well to edit such audio data files or text/graphic image files, or otherwise to annotate audio noted or text/graphic notes on the other texts, figures or forms etc. of the same page, as shown in Steps S 33  to S 36 . Therefore, by applying the electronic book apparatus  1  according to the embodiment of the present invention, the user is allowed to record notes or annotations in an untrammeled and efficient fashion.