WO2010001371A1

WO2010001371A1 - Document management system

Info

Publication number: WO2010001371A1
Application number: PCT/IB2009/053240
Authority: WO
Inventors: Devasenapathi Periagraharam Seetharamakrishnan
Original assignee: France Telecom
Priority date: 2008-06-30
Filing date: 2009-06-30
Publication date: 2010-01-07

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for sharing one electronic document stored on a first portable device with other portable devices, the method comprising for the first portable device the act of detecting at least a second portable device, associating a portion of the electronic document to each detected portable device, transferring to each detected portable device display data representative of its associated portion for further display of said associated portion, and displaying another portion of the electronic file distinct from all the associated portions.

Description

DOCIMENTMANAGEMENTSYSIEM

HEID OFTHEFΪΦSENTSYSIEM: This invention relates to digital document technologies, and more specific ally to the sharing of such documents among d isp Ia y units.

BACKGROUND OFTHE INVENTION:

Digital document technologies offer many benefits. Among otherthings, a large number of digital documents c an be easily stored in small physical space. Fb r instance, a single DVD disk, that is a few inches in diameter and few millimeters in thickness, can store several gigabytes of data. Furthermore, the stored digital documents are easy to manipulate: searching, sorting, viewing and editing information in digital documents is most of the time straightforward, even if these documents are several hundred pages long. Additionally, digital documents can be easily shared and transferred to other parties even if they are located in a different part of the world, using one of the many convenient fate me t a p p Hc a tio ns sue h a s e Ie c tro nic mai fa spite of these benefits of digital document technologies, paper continues to dominate office and business environments, defeating repeated attempts to create paperless office environments. Office workersare notwiUing to let go of the paper due to certain conveniences offered by paper, as explained by Sellen and Harperin "The Myth of the Paperless Office" published by the MIT Press. Among the conveniences, the authors state that since paper is tangible, readers can be literally hands-on as they move through a text, skimming text, flicking through pages, and feeling where they are all at the same time, fa essence, paperoffers quick, flexible navigation through and around documents. Furthermore, as paper is inexpensive, light and mobile, readers can spread documents in space in such a way that they can read across an arrangement of documents or pages. For instance, they c an stack them in piles, pull them in and out of the c enter of the workspace, and glance quickly from one to another, or simply place them side-by-side to display several documents all at once. Larger formats of paper documents are also available when handling a map, a sp re a d she e t, o r a b lue p rint. Although paper documents have these attractive properties, it is desirable to reduce paperusage, as the c osts of delivering, distributing, pro c essing, storing, archiving and destroying paperare high.

Today electronic papers (e-papers) bring a promising solution to a paperless office. Like ordinary display units, they can display electronic documents with the "feel" of paper be cause they reflect light like ordinary paper (unlike a conventional flat panel displays that use a backlight to illuminate their pixels) and are capable of holding text and images indefinitely without consuming electricity or proc essor power. These portable devices can function like other known electronic display technologies since their contents can be electronically changed.

Different document management systems can be built around the use of e-papers, such as the one described in Applicant's US 11/768,146, entitled "Document management system". One of the interesting usage of e-papers as disclosed in this pending application is the easy sharing of electronic documents from one e-paper to neighboring e-papers through automated wireless transmission.

F this usage is handy ahead of a meeting so that all users of e-papers can access the same electronic document, a problem arises when the shared electronic document c omprises several pages or a large image, and that users want to spread for instance all the e-papers in spac e and read across all the content of the shared electronic document. Regular papers still holds a clear advantage over e-papers, and more generally over portable devices with user inte rfa c e s. Today there is a need for an electronic document sharing system that allows an easy ac cess to all the content of an electronic document. There is a further need for a system that offers the tangibility and flexibility of traditional papers when spread in spac e fora rapid glanc e at the c ontent.

SUVIMAEy OFTHE FRESENTINVESmO N:

1 is an object of the p re se nt inve ntio n to recite a system and a method to overcome disadvantages and/ormake improvements in the priorart.

Ace o id ing Iy, the p re se nt inve ntio n re Ia te s to method a method forsharing one electronic document stored on a first portable device with other portable devices, the method comprising for the first portable device the act of: - detecting at least a second portable devic e,

-associating a distinct portion of the electronic document to each detected portable device,

-transferring to each detected portable device display data representative of its associated distinct portion for further display of said distinct p o rtio n,

-displaying another portion of the electronic file distinct from all the associated distinct portions.

Thanks to the present method, if there are multiple portable devicesinthe vicinity, their display interfaces - or displays in short - can be used c o lie c tive Iy to provide either a large aggregate display or multiple displays to the user. Hence with distinct portions of the shared electronic document shown on all displays, the use re an have at a glance a global view on this document.

The present invention also relates to a portable device for sharing with otherportable devices one electronic document stored on said portable device, the portable device being arranged to:

- detect at least another portable device,

- associate a portion of the electronic document to each detected portable device, - transfer to each detected portable device display data representative of its associated portion for further display of said associated portion,

- display another portion of the electronic file distinct from all the associated portions.

The present invention also relates to a system for sharing an electronic document on a plurality of portable devices, the electronic document being stored in a first portable device, the portable device being arranged to:

- detect at least another portable device,

-associate a portion of the electronic document to each detected portable device, - transfer to each detected portable device display data representative of its associated portion for further display of said associated portion,

-display another portion of the electronic file distinct from all the associated portions. the detected portable device being further arranged to: display the received associated portion.

The present invention also relates an applic ation embodied on a computer readable medium and arranged to share one electronic document stored on a first portable device with other portable devices, the application c omprising: - instruc tio ns to detect at least a second portable device,

- instiuc tio ns to associate a portion of the electronic document to each detected portable device,

-instructions to transfer to each detected portable device display data representative of its associated portion for further display of said associated p o rtio n,

- instruc tio ns to display another portion of the electronic file d istinc t fro m a 11 the associated portions.

EREFDESCRIPπON OFTHEDHVWINGS: The present devic e is explained in further detail, and by way of example, with re fe re nc e to the accompanying drawings wherein:

Figure IA illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the present system;

Figure IB illustrates another exemplary embodiment of the present system;

Figure 2 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a portable device used in the p re se nt syste m ;

Figure 3 show a flow chart of an exemplary embodiment of the present me tho d ;

Figure 4 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of e-paper used in the present system; Figure 5A illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the present system when nine e-papersare aggregated to form a 3x3 matrix;

Figure 5B illustrates another exemplary embodiment of the present system when foure-papers are aggregated to form an inc omplete square matrix;

Figure 6 show a flow chart of an exemplary embodiment of the present method corresponding to the scaling of an initial image :

Figure 7 shows another exemplary embodiment of an incomplete square matrix of e-papers used to pan an image with the method of Figure 6;

Figure 8A-8C illustrate another embodiment of the present method corresponding to the panning of an initial image: Figure 9 shows a flow chart of another exemplary embodiment of the present method, c orresponding to the panning mode of Figures 8A-C.

DEEULED DESCKIPIION OFTHEFRESEKΓSYSIEM: The following are descriptions of illustrative embodiments that when taken in conjunction with the following drawings will demonstrate the above noted features and advantages, as wellas furtherones.

In the following description, for purposes of explanation rather than limitation, illustrative details are set forth such as architecture, interfaces, techniques, element attributes, display interfaces, portable devices, etc. However, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that other embodiments that depart from these details would stillbe understood to be within the scope ofthe appended claims.

For instance, the present method willbe illustrated with the use ofe-papers as portable devices. Other portable devices, c omprising a display area may also b e use d in c o njunc tio n with the p re se nt te a c hing s.

Moreover, for the purpose of clarity, detailed descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, modeling tools, analysis techniques and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the present system. It should be expressly understood that the drawings are included for illustrative purposes and do not represent the scope ofthe present system.

The system according to the invention combines the benefits of conventional paper and digital documents into a composite display interface that is c o nve nie nt and natural to use . An first exemplary embodiment ofthe proposed system 1 is depicted in FlG.

IA. The p re se nt syste m c o mp rise s:

-a first portable device 110, illustrated as an e-paper in FTG. 1, with a display interfa c e 115, such a portable device has a storage c apacity (not shown) for storing at least one electronic document, which may be any type of document that c an be displayed on a display interface. In the present illustration of FTG. 1, the document is a text document, using for e.g. Adobe Acrobat®, Mic ro so ft Wo rd® o r the like s,

- at least a second portable device 120, also c omprising a display interfa c e 125, and some storage capacity. Both portable devices comprise communication interfaces (not shown) which allow data to be transferred between them . h one additional embodiment of the present system, the portable devices may exchange data through a wireless technology 130 as illustrated in FTG. IA. In this instance, the data exchange may occur without the need to put the portable devices into contact with each other. The first portable device is thus adapted to detect all other portable devices in its vicinity, the vicinity depending for instance of the typ e o f c ho se n wire Ie ss te c hno Io gy.

The electronic document may forinstanc e be a text document comprising several pages, or a picture file comprising e.g. a map, a picture, a blueprint, ...

The electronic document may generally be any type of file that can be divided into distinct portions for subsequent display on a display interface of a device. In the illustration of FlG. IA, the electronic document is a text file that comprises at least two pages. When a use rp lac es the first portable device 110 in the presence of a second device 120, the first device will:

-detecting other devices in its vicinity (i.e. a detection act), here the second portable device 110,

-associate a distinct portion of the electronic document, that can be divided for instance into pages. Thus one page may be associated to each detected device, here illustrated as page 2 associated to portable device 120,

-transferto each detected portable device display data representative of its associated distinct portion for further display of said distinct portion (ie. a data transfer act). Here the display data may comprise the one page associated to each detected portable device, for instance page 2 transferred to portable device 120, which is then displayed on the display interfac e 125,

-display another portion of the electronic file distinct from all the associated distinct portions, here forinstance page 1.

Thus, thanks to the present method, as illustrated with the exemplary embodiment of FlG. IA, distinct portions of an electronic document may be displayed through a plurality of neighboring portable devices.

The wireless technology used so that the portable devic es c ommunicate with each other may be forinstance any wireless networking technology such as EEE 802.11 (like WIFl), UWB (Ultra Wide Band), NFϋ (near field communication), Hue Tboth, Infra Red and the likes. One may note that the technology used to detect portable devices and the technology used to exchange data may be different. For instanc e, the detection may use id entific a tion technologies suchas RFTD (Radio Frequency Identification) or NFC (Near Field Communication) tags, while any of the above-mentioned wireless networking technologies may be used fordata transfer.

A second exemplary embodiment of the p re se nt syste m is illustra te d in FlG. IB, the sa me numb e r re fe rring to the sa me e Ie me nts unle ss sp e c ifie d o the iwise . A first portable device 110 may detect otherportable devices 120 through contacts of the portable devices together. A contact sensing technology 135, such as sensors (not shown) available around the edges of first portable device 110, is used to detect the first portable display neighboring devices. The present method is then carried out as described before. AH portable devices may be equipped with the same type of sensing technology so that each portable device may detect all the otherportable devic es in contact with its edges (up to for if the portable devices presents a rectangle shape). As illustrated later on, when several devices are positioned against each other through their edges, the first device may detect remote devices through messages exchanges using the intermediary devices places that are placed in between. The exchange of data between devices in this case may use the same technology 135 or another technology as described lateron.

An exemplary embodiment of a portable device used in the present system is shown in FlG.2. The portable device 200, through its display interface 205, is the element in the p re se nt syste m use d to display an electronic document, ora portion of it. The portable display will be illustrated here after as an e-paper. Otherportable devices, that may display electronic documents through a display interface, may be readily used to carry out the present method. The different features of the portable device 200 described with respect to an e-paper are exemplary illustrations. A person skilled in the art may easily adapt these features to an ordinary portable device, such as, but not limited to, a PDA ora mobile phone, an image viewer, ora portable computer.

As shown in FlG.2, the portable device 200 may be an electronic paper and maybe enhanc ed with one of mo re of the following elements. E-paper 200 is provided with a screen or display interface 205 to present to the user an electronic document or a portion of it. The screen 205 may be enhanced with a touch screen interface for an easier handling of documents. E-paper 200 also c o nip rise s a niic ro c o ntro lie r 235 as the mainco nip uta tio na 1 unit o f the d e vie e , the niic ro c o ntro lie r managing the different elements of the device, such as the screen 205, sensor 225 and transceiver 210. The microcontroller 235 is also adapted to cany out the different act of the present method. A microprocessor may also be used instead of the microcontroller. In this document, the terms "microprocessor" and "micro -controller" are used interchangeably to describe a Central Processing Unit (CPU).

In an exemplary embodiment of the present system, for instance as illustrated in FTG. IA, e-paper 200 further comprises one or more contactless sensors 225, or proximity sensors, adapted to detect nearby similar devices. In the exemplary embodiment of wireless portable devices as in FlG. IA, identification tags such as RFTD (Radio Frequency Identification) or NFC (Near Field Communication) tags. Proximity sensor 225 may be, for instance, a contact-less reader, which may also emulate an identification tag so that other portable device may recognize it. Thus contactless reader 225 may behave like an identification tag (e.g. storing a device identifier) when another contactless readerwantsto communicate with it. This characteristic allows an e-paper 200 to easily identify neighboring portable devices. Other proximity sensors may include a capacitive sensor, a magnetic sensor, an inductive sensor, a passive thermal infrared sensor, a passive optical sensor, or other known technologies readily available to the man skilled in the art.

In an alternative embodiment of the present system, a plurality of c ontact sensors 225 may be provided to detect other portable de vie es placed inc ontact with the edges of the first portable device. Such contact sensors may be for instance mechanical sensors, electronic s sensors or electro-optical sensors. Such sensors equipped on one ormore edges of the portable devices could help the micro c o ntro lie r detect similar de vie es that are in its proximity. &paper 200 further comprises a transceiver 210 used for establishing communication and communicating (sending and receiving data) between two ormore neighboring e-papers. The data transfer may be wireless (i.e. using a wireless transc eiver 210, as described before with FlG. IA) ora wired transfer through the contact of two e-papers transceivers (as in the exemplary embodiment of FlG. IB). When using a wired transfer, two portable devices must make physic al c ontact to affect data tra nsfe r.

One may note that whe the r wire Ie ss or not, the sensors and transceivers may be one and the same, ie. that the same technology is used for both the detection and the data transfer.

E-paper200 may also be equipped with different sensors 220 to determine various usage and environmental conditions. For instance, capacitive sensor affixed on the edges of the papercanbe used to determine the way the useris holding the paper and change the orientation (landscape/portrait) accordingly. A motion sensormay be used to determine whethera useris currently holding the portable device, if so, wake up the device automatically, if it was in sleep mode. Sleep mode is used to minimize power c onsumption by automatically turning off the portable device whe never it is not in use.

E-paper 200 may also comprise a non-volatile storage 230. The AP may support two types of non-volatile storage:

1. a fixed non-volatile storage such as a flash memory or EEPROM , used to store system-level information such as passwords and cryptographic keys, and a software program or component to manage the different elements of the devices listed above, as well asanapplicationprogramto carryout the present method. This nonvolatile storage medium may also contain some electronic documents orportions of it for further display,

2. a removable non-volatile storage such as Compact Hash (CF) c ard orMulti Media card (MMC) may be used to increase the storage capacity.

The device 200 may also be equipped with rechargeable batteries 215 such as lithium-polymer batteries to provide a lightweight portable source of power.

An e-paper 200 may be further equipped with a soft keypad (not shown in FlG.2). In addition to the usual alphanumeric , punctuation and function keys, the following specialkeys may be present on this keypad: 1. Page Up and Page Down -These keys may be used to browse through an electronic document,

2. Browse -to view the different electronic documents stored on device 200, asthe device may comprise several different documents, 3. Zoom In/ Zoom Out - These keys may be used to increase/decrease the size of text orimage from the document currently displayed,

4. System Lock - which locks the contents of the device so that the documents cannot be ace essed without required login credentials, 5. Po wer- to turn ON/OFFthe device 200,

6. Recycle -to empty the documents stored on device 200,

A person skilled in the art will understand that this list is not exhaustive or comprehensive. Keys can be added or removed as needed in different embodiments of the present system. Thanks to the present method and system, the same benefit of conventional paper documents may be achieved as a user can view many portion of an electronic documents simultaneously and spread the portable devices displayed them around in physical space. Indeed with multiple portable devices in the same vicinity, their displays can be used collectively to provide a larger display surface, such as e.g. a large aggregate display, to the user. In the present method and system, this collective display can function in two modes:

1. Disjoint display mode -This mode is used when portions of a document presented on multiple display interfac es need notbe physic ally adjacent to each o the r, 2. Joint display mode - The joint display mode is used when portions of a document presented on multiple display interfaces must be physically adjacent to e a c h o the r.

An exemplary embodiment of the present method, which corresponds to the illustration of FTG. IA, willbe described in relation to FlG.3. This mode maybe used when an electronic document may be displayed on multiple devices that do not need be physically adjacent to each other. For example, if a user is working on a document that has multiple pages and she needs to referto several pages simultaneously, she can use multiple neighboring devices of the present system, each of them displaying a different page as illustrated in FlG. IA. ha preliminary act 300 a user may gather a plurality of e-p ape rs close to eac h other, ie. within the detection range of the chosen wireless technology. For instance the user may place at least two e-papers close enough so that the proximity sensors of these devices may read one another. One of the devices, here after called the first device, contains the electronic document to display. The user may further initiate the disjoint display mode by pressing a button such as e.g. a "MOVE' or"SHARE' button on the first device to activate the disjoint mode. Alternatively, the disjoint mode may be triggered automatically through the detection of other de vie es by the first one. The acts described below are c arried o ut b y this first d e vie e .

In a further and optional act 310, the fist device will check whether the document is a private one, and will prompt for a user verific ation (password for instance) or willg o directly to act350to skip the sharing of this private document.

In a further act 320, the first device will check through its sensors for neighboring devices. F it does not detect any other device, i.e. no other devices are found, it will end in act 350. F at least one other device is found, the first devic e will in a further and optional act 330 check if the found devices can share the electronic document. This may be achieved through a message session between the detected devices and the first device. ha further act 340, the first portable device will associate a portion of the electronic document to share to each detected (found) portable device. The electronic document may be forinstance a text document comprising a number of pages that can be displayed on each portable device through a text editor (like e.g. Acrobat Reader®, Microsoft Word® and the likes) provided on these d e vie e s.

In a further embodiment of the present method, the associated portion is a distinct portion from the o the r a sso c ia te d p o rtio ns. Fo r insta nc e , in the case ofthe text document, one distinct page may be associated to each found portable device. The association of act 340 may be achieved e.g. through dividing the e Ie c tro nic doc ume nt in NIMBER_DEVIC ES d istinc t p o rtio ns, with:

NUMBER_DEVIC ES = numb erofdetected d e vie e s + lto acco unt fo r the first device.

F for instance the electronic document has NIMBER_DEVIC ES or more pages, a different page may be associated to each portable device. The document may also be a collection of pictures, with one picture associated to each portable device.

More generally, the electronic document may be divided into at least two distinct portions as at least one portion is to be associated to the detected devices (may be the same portion), while a distinct one is to be associated to the first d e vie e .

In a subsequent act 350, display data representative of the associated portions are transferred to the detected devices for subsequent display. The display data may c omp rises the associated portion itself, or data (comprising the electronic document itself) to select it from the electronic document itself. Act 350 also comprises the display by the first device of a portion distinct from all the associated portions. As a result, at least two distinct portions may be displayed with the present method, a first one on the first device, and a second one on the d e te c te d d e vie e s.

When distinct portions are associated in act 340, each portable device, including the first device, will display distinct portions. This embodiment may be selected for instance when enough distinct portions can be derived from the electronic document, e.g. when the document have more pages, more pictures, ...thenthe totalnumberof devic es NUMBER_DEVIC ES.

The disjoint mode may be useful to browse through a plurality of distinct portions of an electronic document. The same mode can also be used to show the same document on multiple displays. Forexample, if a userwantsto share the same portion of the document with the fellow attendees of a meeting. h an alternative embodiment of the present method and system, the collective display may be achieved using whatwillbe referred to hereafteras the joint display mode. The joint display mode is used when an electronic document presented on multiple portable that must be physically adjacent to each other. This mode requires that the different devices involved are touching and aligned with each other. This mode maybe useful for instance to enlarge the display of an electronic document, like a picture, a map, a blueprint, ... This mode may be usefulfortwo types of sc enarios: a. Scaling -to present an enlarged view of an electronic document (also referred to hereafterthe content), b. Panning -to displaymore content.

Both these modes are explained in detailbelow.

a - scaling mode

In the he re after embodiment, the electronic document will be described as an image to facilitate the scaling illustration. The present teachings may be readily adapted by the person skilled in the art to any type of electronic document that c an be viewed on a portable device.

The scaling mode may be used when a userwants to get more details of the current content of a first e -paper. For example, as illustrated in FlG.4, a user is viewing an image 410 in an e-paper400 with a display interface 405. This user may need an enlarged view as the display interface 405 is too small for the content to really see all the details. Thanks to the present scaling mode, he/she may get an enlarged view by aligning multiple e -papers along the four edges of the originale- paper 400 (also referred to as first e -paper). In the illustration of FlG.5A, eight e-papers 501 to 508 have been placed around the original one 400 (from FlG.4), so as to form a 3x3 arrangement (or matrix) 510 of e-papers adjacent to each other. As all e-papers of FlG.5 A have the same display interface area, the total area of the resulting (aggregated) display interface 510 is 9 times larger than that of the original display interface 405. Thanks to the present method, the user can get an image enlarged by three times from its original size. One may note that the scaling does not require e- papers to be attached on all sides. For instance, the user c an get an enlarged view of only a part of the c ontent as illustrated in FlG.5B. Three e-papers 501 to 503 have been placed on 3 outof4 of the original e -paper 400 so as to form an aggregated display interface 511. The present scaling mode, as explained in further detail here-below, will allow the adapt the scaling to the aggregated display in terfa c e surface, here 4 times larger than the initial one.

FlG.6 shows an embodiment of the sc a ling mode , in accordance with the present method. The different acts will be illustrated in conjunction with the illustrative arrangement of assembled e-papers in FlG.7, which comprises 13 e- papers, numbered (1,1) to (4,4). As the e-papers are assembled to form lines and columns, a p o sitio n (i,j) d e no te s the e-paperwhich is located inline iand column j. AH e-papers are supposed to be placed adjacent to each other, ie. with two neighboring devices in contact through one side of the e-paper. As explained before, sensors are used to detect the c ontact of neighboring devices.

E-paper (2,2) is assumed to be the original device (i.e. first device) that comprises the content (herein an image) to share and display. In a preliminary act 600, the user may construct the e-papermatrix of FlG.7 by attaching 12 more e-papers as depicted. One may note, as an illustration purpose, that e-papers are missing in positions (2,1); (2,4) and (4,2). The attaching may be achieved by just placing the devices in physical contact with each o the is, or using for instance attachments such as clips, fingers, ... and the like, as long as the contact sensors are activated to detect neighboring e -papers. The type of attachments between two neighboring devic es isbeyond the scope ofthe present applic ation.

The user may further initiate the joint display mode by pressing a button such as e.g. a "MOVE' or "SHARE' button on the first device (2,2) as explained before in relation to the disjoint mode. Alternatively, the joint mode may be triggered automatically through the detection of other devic es by the first one. The acts described below are executed b y this first d e vie e (2,2) unless mentioned otherwise. All e -papers may be seen as communicating nodes (nodes in short) in the display matrix. h a further and optional act 610, the fist device (2,2) will c he c k whe the r the document to share is a private one, and will prompt the user for authentication (e.g. password) orwillgo directly to act 650 to skip the sharing of this private document.

In a further act 620, the first device will check for neighboring devices. This act may be seen as a neighbor discovery act. The original device can easily determine that it has neighbors by checking its contact sensors on its four edges. Fan e-paperis attached to any of its four edges, the original device knows thatit has that corresponding neighbor. In turn, those neighbors (e.g. (3,2), (1,2) and (2,3) in the illustration of FTG.7) can find out their neighbors, in the same way the original e -paper proceeded, being discovered triggering an neighbor discovery act from nodes (3,2), (1,2) and (2,3). This disc o very would continue in an iterative way until edges of matrix are reached. AH the discovered e-papers will then propagate backto the originale -paper (2,2) meta data describing:

- its p o sitio n re sp e c tive to the first e -paper (2,2), and,

- its display interfa c e area.

The p o sitio n may be d e te rmine d b y inc re me nting a p o inte r (i,j) each time a new neighboring e-paperis disc ove red. For instance, when e -paper (i,j) discovers a new e-paper on its left or right lateral sides (same line i), the pointer value for this newly discovered e-papermaybe set to (i+l,j) or (i-l,j) depending on the side it is on. In a similar way, when e-paper(ij) discovers a new e-paper on its upper or lower lateral sides (same column j), the pointervalue for this newly discovered e- papermaybe set to (i,j+l) or(i,j-l) depending on the side it is on.

The neighbor disc overy may be implemented through search queries sent by the original e -paper to its detected neighbors, which in turn furtherpropagate the search queries to all their own neighbors. Thus neighbor search queries will spread from the original e -paper (2,2) to the edges (for instanc e e-papers (4,1); (4,3) and (4,4) in the illustration of FTG.7), each time tracking the source of the search query, and responses (including data representative of the position and the display interface area) will flow back in the opposite direction to the origin of the search queries.

Whe nane-paperdoesnotgeta respo nse fro m one o f its ne ig hb o rs with in a pre-specified time limit, it will assume that this neighboring e-paper is "dead", ie. that it can no longerbe used in the e-paper matrix.

Given the structure of these matrices, two nodes could report the same node as their neighbor. For example, in the e-paper matrix illustrated in Figure 7, two nodes (3,4) and (4,3) would report (4,4) as their neighbor to the node (3,3). However, since the node (4,4) has a unique device address (similar to a MAC address), the node (3,3) can ignore one of the responses. Tb improve communication efficiency, in an additional embodiment of the present method, the duplicate elimination is done at every stage instead of waiting forthe original e-paperto make that decision.

One possible way to determine that the search query has reached the edges is when a node reports that it does not detect any more undiscovered neighbors. Fat least one other device is found, the first e-paper (2,2) will in a further and optional act 630 check if the found devices can share the electronic document. This may be achieved by the first device by exchanging messages with the detected devices this information may be added to the data propagated back to the first devic e in the neighbor disc overy act 620. ha further act 640, the first portable device will associate a portion of the electronic document to share to each detected (found) portable device. This maybe achieved taking into account the received metadata accounting forthe positions and the display interface areas of the detected devic es. Thanks to these metadata, the first device may derive the number of lines and columns of the e- paper matrix, and its outer dimensions. One may note that the metadata describing the display interface area may be the dimensions of the display interface. In order to associate a portion of the electronic document, the first devic e (2,2) will first calculate the total display area of the e -paper matrix (ie. the area o the aggregated display interface) in a further act 643, using the metadata received from all detected neighbors. In an additional embodiment of the present method, a virtual square matrix (number of rows equals number of columns) is assumed so as to facilitate the scaling of the image. The numberof ro ws (or c olumns) may be chosen as the larger of the two. For example, in the illustration of FlG.5B, the dimensions of the corresponding square matrix will be 3x3.

In a further act 647, once the width and height of the aggregated display interface is known, the orjginale -paper (2,2) willcompute the width and height of scaled image. For example, for the illustration of FlG.5B, the width and height of the image willbe increased by three times so as to respect the initial pro portion of the displayed image.

Otherscaling methods are readily available to the person skilled in the art to scale the initial image to the size of the aggregated display interface. The actual outer size for instance may be used, taking into account the actual number of rows and number of columns (without taking into account the missing e-papers). The scaling may then results in this case in the loss of the image initial p ro p o rtio ns.

When the e-papers have all the same dimensions, it may be interesting, so as to keep the initial proportions of the displayed electronic document, to scale the size of the displayed electronic document by n when the virtual square matrix is a nxn matrix, n corresponding to the largest number of rows and columns in the e -paper matrix. As seen from the example of FlG.5B, even if e-papers are missing to complete a square matrix, this approach willensure a scaling proportional to image initial size. One e the scaled image has calculated in act 647, the originale -paper can divide the scaled image into a numb e r o f d istinc t p o rtio ns, one per e-paper- including one distinct portion for the original e-paper. In an additional embodiment of the present method, the numberof distinct portions is determined multiplying the number of rows by the number of columns of the aggregated display interface. In a further embodiment of the present method, when the aggregated display area is supposed to correspond to the nxn virtual square matrix mentioned before, the number of distinct portions c orresponds to n². For example, for the exemplary illustration presented in FlG.5B, the image will be divided into nine distinct portions (3 rows x 3 c o lumns fo r the virtualsquare matrix) and those distinct portions will be transferred and propagated to the appropriate nodes. For example, the top left c omerpiece willgo to the device in the first row and first column and so on. The other e-papers will display the scaled content when they receive the data. More generally, once the number of distinct portions is determined, each distinct portion is associated to a corresponding e-paperbased on the location of this e-paperin the e-paper matrix (act 640). Indeed a matching may be done between the scaled image and the e-paper matrix so as to associate each distinct portion to an e-paperbased on its loc ation. ha further act 650, these distinct portions are sent by the original e-paper to their associated e-paper. This may be achieved through messages sent to the original e-paper neighboring devices, with display data representative of the distinct portion associated to the message recipient e-paper. These messages will then be propagated until they reach their recipient, ie. the e-paper associated to the distinct portion for sub sequent display.

In the embodiment corresponding to the nxn virtual square matrix, the distinct portions may be determined only for real e-papers of the virtualsquare matrix, and only these portions are transferred to these real nodes. Indeed the matching between the scaled image and the virtualsquare matrix may still be done, the distinct portions associated to a missing e-paper will then not be transferred. In other woids, If gaps are present in the e-paper matrix as illustrated in the examples of FIGs. 5B and 7, the enlarged image presented on the aggregated display interface will also have holes corresponding to the missing e- papers. For example, in Fig.7, the distinct portions of the enlarged image at nodes (2,1), (2,4) and (4,2) would be missing.

One may note that the present method does not require the e-paper matrix to be static . This present method would actually work even if the useradds or removes some or all of the additional e-papers. When an e-paperis added or removed, its pre-existing neighbors would convey the change to original e-paper. The original e -paper will then recalculate the scaled imaged according to the new configuration and propagate the c o nte nts e ithe r to all e-papers or only to the new disc overed nodes. ffforinstance the original e -paper were removed from the e -paper matrix, it would send a RESETmessage to its neighbors (they would forward that message to their neighbors and so on) so they can reset their displays.

One may note that the present method does not require all the e-papers to be of the same physical dimensions. The first e -paper will compute the smallest bounding rectangle that can include all the displays. It will use that bounding rectangle to determine the totalsize, and use the size and position of individual e- papers to determine the portion of image that must be displayed on each of those e-papers.

The scaling mode will end in a further act 660.

In the scaling mode, the selected portions subsequently displayed on the discovered e-papersare actually comprised on the initial display of the electronic document.

b -panning mode

The panning mode maybe used to view additional content that c ould not be displayed on the originale-paperdue to its size constraints.

For example, as illustrated in FIG.8A, a use r is vie wing an image 810 of the western states of the US in an e-paper800 with a display interface 805. Only a part to this US map is shown in FIG.8A and the panning mode enables the user to see additional parts of the US. For instance, by adding one e-paper801 to the right side of e-paper 800, this user may be able to visualize on the added display interface 806 an image 811 corresponding to the central part of the American continent as illustrated in Fig.8B. By adding one more e-paper 802 as seen in FIG. 8C to the bottom of Epapers 800 and 801, an image 812 c orresponding to parts of Central America canalso be seenon the added display interface 807. The panning mode is similar to scaling mode described above. FIG.9 shows an embodiment of the present panning mode. The acts 900 to 960 may be carried out each time a new e-paperisadded to the e-paper matrix. Acts 900 to 930 may be carried out in a similar way as act 600 to 630 described above.

In a further act 940 of the present method, a distinct (i.e. additional) portion from the electronic document is associated to the newly discovered e-paper. However, instead of enlarging the content as in the image scaling act 647, a match may be done between the actual size of the image, and the e-paper matrix's new configuration with the added e-paper. Based on this added e-paper area, position and orientation (identified through the contact sensors), the first device willbe able to identify the additional portion of the image (portions 811 and 812 in FTG.8B and 8C respectively) yet to be displayed on the added e- paper.

The original e-paper will then send in a further act 950 would send display data representative of the additionalportion to be displayed. The panning mode will end in a further act 960. In the panning mode , one may note that the portions subsequently displayed on the discovered e-papers are d iffe re nt fro m the electronic paper initially displayed on the first e-paper.

When the panning is done for the first time with the initial electronic document stored on a first device, and a plurality of devic es laid out around this first d e vie e , the present acts 900 to 950 may be carried out for all neighboring devices one afterthe other, or alternatively, the discovery phase and associate portions acts (acts 920 and 940 respectively) may be carried out for all neighboring devices, the matching of act 940 being done using the image actual size and the actualsize ofthe discovered e-papermatrix. One may note tha t this p a nning mode does not require the e-papermatrix to be static . This mode would work even if the user adds or re moves some or all of the additional e-papers. When an e-paper is added, its pre-existing neighbors would convey the change to the original e-paper. The original e-paper will recalculate the added portion to be displayed according to the new c onfiguration of the e-paper matrix. Unlike in the sc aling mode, it is may not be necessary to report removal of an e-paper back to the original e-paper as this has no impact on the scaling ofthe image.

F the original e-paper were removed from the e-paper matrix, it would send a RESETmessage to its neighbors (they would forward that message to their neighbors and so on) so they can reset their displays.

F a new e-paper is added and there is no portion of the electronic document to display at that location, that e-paper may be blanked out. For example, reusing the map example of FlG. 8 A-C, if an e-paper were added below the South Pole, that e-paper would not display anything since there is nothing to be displayed at that Io c ation.

One may note that this ana ng erne nt c ould also wo rk in three-dimensional matrix with e-paper are equipped with orientation sensors to determine theirown o rie nta tio n a nd re p o it this info rma tio n b a c k to the first d e vie e .

One may note that the present method does not require all the e-papersto be of the same physical dimensions. The first e-paper will compute the smallest bounding rectangle that can include all the displays. It will use that bounding rectangle to determine the totalsize, and use the size and position of individual e- papers to determine the portion of image that must be displayed on each of those e -papers.

Obviously, readily discernible modifications and variations of the present system are possible in light of the above teachings. I is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims, the present invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein. Fbr example, while described in terms of hard ware /software components interactively cooperating, it is contemplated that the invention described herein may be practiced entirely in software. The software maybe embodied in a carrier such as magnetic or optical disks, ora radio frequency or audio frequency carrier wave. Thus, the foregoing discussion discloses and describes merely exemplary embodiments of the present invention. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. Accordingly, the disclosure of the present invention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting of the scope of the present invention, as well as other claims. The disclosure, including any readily discernible variants of the teachings herein, defines, in part, the scope of the foregoing claim terminology such that no inventive subject matter is dedicated to the p ub lie .

Fbr example, a distinction was made between a portable device and its display interface. With the emphasis today on user interfaces, a display interface tendsto grow larger to the very edge of the portable device. Associated the display interface area with the actual portable device area (facing the user) may be seen as a good approximation, h the illustrations described herebefore, the difference between a display interface and the edges of the devices surrounding said display interface was not made. Provided these edges have some width, the resulting aggregated display interface will of course show the edges, and the p o rtio ns sho wn on the e-paper matrix will be separated by these edges. One way of avoiding this problem would be to take into account the thic kne ss o f the edges in displaying the associated portions.

The section headings included herein are intended to facilitate a review but are not intended to limit the scope of the present system. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative manner and are notintended to limit the scope ofthe appended claims. h interpreting the appended claims, it should be understood that: a)the word "comprising" does not exclude the presence of other elements oractsthan those listed in a given claim; b)the word "a" or "an" preceding an element does not exclude the presence of a plurality of such elements; c ) any reference signsinthe claimsdo no t limit the ir sc o p e ; d) several "means" may be represented by the same item orhardware or software implemented structure or function; e)any ofthe disclosed elements may be comprised of hardware portions (e.g., including discrete and integrated electronic circuitry), software portions (e.g., computerprogramming), and any combination thereof; f) hardware portions may be comprised of one or both of analog and digital portions; g) any of the disclosed devices or portions thereof may be combined togetherorseparated into furthe rpo rtio ns unless specific ally stated otherwise; h) no specific sequence of acts or steps is intended to be required unless specifically indicated; and i) the term "plurality of an element includes two or more ofthe claimed element, and does not imply any particular range of numberof elements; that is, a plurality of elements can be as few as two elements, and can include an immeasurable numberof elements.

Claims

1. A method for sharing one electronic document stored on a first portable device with other portable devices, the method comprising for the first portable devic e the act of:

- detecting at least a second portable devic e,

-associating a portion of the electronic document to each detected portable device, -transferring to each detected portable device display data representative of its associated portion for further display of said associated p o rtio n,

-displaying another portion of the electronic file distinct from all the associated portions.

2. A method as in claim 1, the portable devices comprising a display interface characterized by a display interface area, wherein the act of detecting at least a se c o nd p o rtab Ie d e vie e furthe r c o mp rise s the actofrece iving fo reach detected device meta data describing: - its p o sitio n re sp e c tive to said first portable device, and,

- its display interfa c e area.

3. A method as in claim 2, wherein the act of associating a portion is based at least on the received metadata.

4. A method as in claim 1, wherein the display data comprises one of the associated portion and the electronic document.

5. A method as in claim 1, wherein each one of the associated portions is a p o rtio n d istinc t fro m the otherassociated portions.

6. A method as in claim 5, said method comprising a preliminary act of displaying at least a first p o rtio n o f the electronic document on the first portable device, and wherein each portion associated to a detected portable device is d istinc t fro m the first p o rtio n.

7. A method as in claim 5, said method comprising a preliminary act of displaying at least a first p o rtio n o f the electronic document on the first portable device, and wherein each portion associated to a detected portable device is c o mp rise d in the first p o rtio n.

8. A portable device forsharing with other portable devices one electronic document stored on said portable device, the portable device being arranged to:

- detect at least another portable device,

-associate a portion of the electronic document to each detected portable device, -transferto each detected portable device display data representative of its associated portion for further display of said associated portion,

-display another portion of the electronic file distinct from all the associated portions.

9. The portable device as in claim 8, all the portable devices comprising a display interface characterized by a display interface area, said portable device being further adapted to receive from each detected portable device meta data describing:

-the position of the detective portable device respective to the portable device, and,

-the detected device display interface area.

10. The portable device as in claim 9, said portable device being adapted to associate a portion of the electronic document based at least on the received metadata.

11. A portable device as in claim 9, wherein each one of the associated portions is a p o rtio n d istinc t fro m the otherassociated portions.

12. A portable devic e as in claim 11, said electronic display being arranged to display at least a first portion of the electronic document, and wherein each portion associated to a detected portable devic e is distinct from the first portion.

13. A portable devic e as in claim 11, said electronic display being arranged to display at least a first portion of the electronic document, and wherein each portion associated to a detected portable devic e is comprised in the first portion.

14. A system for sharing an electronic document on a plurality of portable devices, the electronic document being stored in a first portable device, the portable device being arranged to:

- detect at least another portable device,

-display another portion of the electronic file distinct from all the associated portions. the detected portable device being further arranged to: - display the rec eived associated portion.

15. The system as in claim 14, all the portable devices comprising a display interface characterized by a display interface area, each detected portable device being further adapted to send to the first portable device meta data d e sc rib ing :

- its p o sitio n re sp e c tive to the first portable device, and,

- its display interfa c e area.

16. An application embodied on a computer re a dab Ie medium and arranged to share one electronic document stored on a first portable device with other portable devices, the applic ation c omprising:

- instruc tio ns to detect at least a second portable device,

- instruc tio ns to associate a portion of the electronic document to each detected portable device, -instructions to transfer to each detected portable device display data representative of its associated portion for further display of said associated p o rtio n,

17. An application as in claim 16, the portable devices comprising a display interface characterized by a display interface area, the application further comprising instructions to receive for each detected device meta data d e sc rib ing :

- its p o sitio n re sp e c tive to said first portable device, and,

- its display interfa c e area.

18. An application as in claim 16, the ap p Hc a tio n further c omp rising instructions to associate a portionofthe electronic document based atleastonthe received metadata.

19. An applic ation as in claim 16, the application comprising furthe r instruc tio ns to associate for each detected device a portion distinct from the other associated portions.

20. An applic ation as in claim 19, the applic ation c omprising:

- instruc tio ns to display at least a first portion of the electronic document,

- instructions to associate a portion to each detected portable device d istinc t fro m the first p o rtio n.

21. An applic ation device as in claim 19, the application c omprising:

- instruc tio ns to display at least a first p o rtio n o f the electronic document, -instructions to associate to each detected portable device a portion comprised in the first p o rtio n.