Patent Publication Number: US-2009222756-A1

Title: Electronic device capable of showing page flip effect and method thereof

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS  
     This application is related to a co-pending U.S. patent application filed concurrently herewith whose Attorney Docket No is US 18135 and entitled “ELECTRONIC DEVICE CAPABLE OF SHOWING PAGE FLIP EFFECT AND METHOD THEREOF”, which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND  
     1. Technical Field 
     The disclosure relates to electronic devices and, particularly, to an electronic device capable of showing page flip effect and method thereof. 
     2. General Background 
     Nowadays, many electronic devices, e.g., mobile phones, digital photo frames, electronic readers (e-reader), are capable of storing and displaying electronic documents (e.g., digital images, digital texts, etc). Usually, readability of these electronic devices deviates greatly from real paper print. For example, when people flip a page of an electronic document on these electronic devices, the page is directly changed without any visual effect simulating the turning of a page; as a result, it is difficult for people to get the feeling of reading real paper. 
     In order to resolve this problem, a software capable of generating a page flip effect when flipping through the pages of the digital document is introduced. However, a powerful processing unit is needed to run the software, which results in increase of the cost of these electronic devices. 
     Therefore, it is necessary to provide an electronic device and a method to overcome the above-identified deficiencies. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The components in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the electronic device. Moreover, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views. 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of an electronic device capable of showing information with a page flip effect in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram illustrating a page fillip effect in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. 
         FIGS. 3   a - 3   f  are a series of schematic diagrams illustrating a full processing of flipping a page in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. 
         FIG. 4  is a block diagram of an electronic device capable of showing information in a page flip effect in accordance with another exemplary embodiment. 
         FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a method for showing information in a page flip effect applied in the electronic device of  FIG. 1  or  FIG. 4  in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , an electronic device  1 , capable of showing information with a page flip effect in accordance with an exemplary embodiment, includes a processing unit  10 , a display unit  20 , a storage unit  30 , an interface unit  40 , an input unit  50 , and a power source  60 . The electronic device  1  can be an e-reader, a mobile phone, or a digital photo frame, etc. 
     The interface unit  40  is configured to connect to an external electronic device (not shown). The external device can be a storage card (for example, a secure digital (SD) card, a compact flash (CF) card) or another electronic device (for example, a digital camera, a mobile phone, or a computer). 
     The input unit  50  is configured to generate instructions in response to user operations. The input unit  50  can be an input key (button), a knob, and the like. In the exemplary embodiment, the input unit  50  is a keyboard that includes a page up key  501 , a page down key  502 , and other function keys (not shown). The page up key  501  is configured to produce a page up instruction and the page down key  502  is configured to produce a page down instruction. The power source  60  is configured to provide power to elements of the electronic device  1 , such as the processing unit  10  and the display unit  20 . 
     The storage unit  30  is configured to store electronic documents. The display unit  20  is configured to display the electronic documents. The electronic documents may include, but are not limited to, audio files, videos, digital images, texts, etc. In the exemplary embodiment, the storage unit  30  is a built-in storage unit, such as a flash memory, a micro drive, and so on. The storage unit  30  also stores a plurality of effect pages of a full page flipping process. 
     Referring also to  FIG. 2 , each of the effect pages includes a first part  201 , a second part  202 , and a third part  203 . The first part  201  is a transparent figure. The second part  202  is a flip-page figure representing the flip effect, such as a dog-ear when flipping a page. The dog-ear can be a triangle, a quadrangle, and a pentagon, etc. The third part  203  can be a transparent figure or other figures. The three parts of each of the effect pages are different. Those effect pages are pre-numbered in the full page flipping processing. A series of effect pages combines with a current page and a target page to form a series of combined pages in sequence as shown in  FIGS. 3   a - 3   f.    FIG. 3   a  shows a current image without page flipping effect. Then, a first effect page combines with the current page and the target page to form a first combined page is shown in  FIG. 3   b,  a second effect page combine with the current page and the target page to form a second combined page is shown in  FIG. 3   c.  The process goes on as illustrated in  FIGS. 3   d - 3   f  until all of the effect pages have been processed. The series of combined pages exhibit the page flip effect as if flipping a physical page from the current page to the next page. 
     The processing unit  10  includes an instruction receiving module  101 , an obtaining module  102 , a combination module  103 , an effect setting module  104 , a page determining module  105 , and a display control module  106 . Functions of the above modules will be described in combination with  FIGS. 3   a - 3   f  below. 
     Referring again to  FIGS. 3   a - 3   f,  when a user views a electronic documents (e.g., a digital text file, or a digital image) through the electronic device  1 , the user may input a flip-page instruction through the input unit  50 . The instruction receiving module  101  is configured to receive the flip-page instruction generated by the page up key  501  or the page down key  502 . The page determining module  105  is configured to determine the target page according to the flip-page instruction. For example, if the flip-page instruction is generated by the page up key  501 , the page determining module  105  determines that the target page is the previous page; if the flip-page instruction is generated by the page down key  502 , the page determining module  105  determines that the target page is the next page. 
     For example, if the current page displayed on the display unit  20  is page  7 / 100  as shown in  FIG. 3   a,  wherein 100 represents a total page number of a current text/album and  7  represents the current page. Therefore, if the flip-page instruction is generated by the page down key  502 , the page determining module  105  determines the target page is page  8 . The obtaining module  102  obtains the first effect page of those effect pages from the storage unit  30 . The combination module  103  covers the current page (i.e., page  7 ) with the first effect page, obtains a part of the target page (i.e., page  8 ) whose size and location is the same as that of the third part of the first effect page through a predetermined obtaining manner, and covers the third part of the first effect page with the obtained part of page  8 , and thus to obtain the first combined page as shown in  FIG. 3   b.    
     With the predetermined obtaining manner, in the exemplary embodiment, the combination module  103  determines a part of the target page whose size and location is the same as that of the third part of the first effect page, and copies the part from the target page (i.e., page  8 ) to cover the third part of the first effect page. 
     The display control module  106  controls the display unit  20  to display the first combined page after it has been combined by the combination module  103 . Because a part of the first combined page corresponding to the first part of the first effect page is a part of the current page (i.e., page  7 ), a part of the first combined page corresponding to the second part of the first effect page is the dog-ear, and a part of the first combined page corresponding to the third part of the first effect page is a part of the next page (i.e., page  8 ), then, the first combined page shows the flipping effect that the page  7  is turned over a corner of page. 
     After combining and displaying the first combined page, the obtaining module  102 , the combination module  103 , and the display control module  106  repeats obtaining, covering, and displaying processes described above at each of the predetermine time intervals, using the second combined page as shown in  FIG. 3   c,  then the third combined page as shown in  FIG. 3   d,  etc, until the target page (i.e., page  8 ) is fully displayed on the display unit  20  as shown in  FIG. 3   f.  That is, after the display unit  20  displays one combined page, the obtaining module  102  determines whether there is a next effect page to be processed. If yes, the obtaining module  102 , the combination module  103 , and the display control module  106  repeats the obtaining, covering, and displaying processes described above. If not, the display control module  106  controls the display unit  20  to display the whole next page as shown in  FIG. 3   f.  By using the series of combined pages in sequence as shown in  FIGS. 3   a - 3   f,  the page flip effect has the appearance of a physical page being turned. 
     Before the user operates the electronic device  1  to view electronic documents, the user can set flipping effect information through the input unit  50 . In detail, the effect setting module  104  sets the flipping effect information in response to setting operations on the input unit  50 . The flipping effect information may include, but is not limited to, content of the second part of the effect page, the number of the effect pages to be used in the process of completely flipping a page, and the predetermined time interval of obtaining each effect page and displaying each combined page. The content of the second part of the effect page can be, but not limited to, image, text, and blank. 
     The number of the effect pages is the number of the effect pages obtained by the obtaining module  102  in the process of completely flipping a page. For example, if the number of the effect pages is set as five, then the obtaining module  102  would obtain five effect pages from the storage unit  30 , and the number of the effect pages is equal to the number of the combined pages. 
     Referring to  FIG. 4 , the input unit  50 ′ of an electronic device  1 ′ in another exemplary embodiment is a touch panel  50 ′. The touch panel  50 ′ includes a plurality of touch sensors (not shown), and the touch sensors can be capacitive touch sensors, resistive touch sensors, and the like. 
     When the user touches the touch panel  50 ′ to input the flip-page instruction, the page determining module  105  determines the target page according to the movement direction of the user&#39;s touch. For example, if the movement direction is from left to right, the page determining module  105  determines the target page is the previous page, otherwise, the page determining module  105  determines the target page is the next page. The movement direction is determined by the page determining module  105  according to a sequence of touch signals produced by the touch sensors. 
     After the page determining module  105  determines the target page, the obtaining module  102 , the combination module  103 , and the display control module  106  execute the corresponding function as described in the first exemplary embodiment, then the display control module  106  controls the display unit  20  to display the combined pages predetermined time intervals in sequence, thus obtaining the page flip effect. 
       FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a method for showing page flip effect applied in the electronic device  1 / 1 ′ in an exemplary embodiment. In step S 501 , the instruction receiving module  101  receives the flip-page instruction generated by the input unit  50 / 50 ′ in response to the user&#39;s operations. 
     In step S 502 , the page determining module  105  determines the target page according to the flip-page instruction. For example, if the flip-page instruction is the page up instruction, the page determining module  105  determines the target page is the previous page; if the flip-page instruction is the page down instruction, the page determining module  105  determines the target page is the next page. 
     In step S 503 , the obtaining module  102  obtains one of the effect pages from the storage unit  30  in sequence. For example, if the previous obtained effect page is a second effect page, the obtaining module  102  obtains a third effect page. 
     In step S 504 , the combination module  103  covers the current page with the obtained effect page, and then covers the third part  203  of the obtained effect page with a part of the target page whose size and location is the same as that of the third part of the obtained effect page, thus obtaining the combined page. 
     In step S 505 , the display control module  106  controls the display unit  20  to display the combined page. 
     In step S 506 , the obtaining module  102  determines whether there is still another effect page to be processed after the display unit  20  displays the combined page thereon. 
     If there is still another effect page to be processed, the procedure returns to step S 503 . Otherwise, in step S 507 , the display control module  106  controls the display unit  20  to display the whole target page when the predetermined time interval elapses. 
     It is believed that the present embodiments and their advantages will be understood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention or sacrificing all of its material advantages, the examples hereinbefore described merely being preferred or exemplary embodiments of the present invention.