JP2013069007A - Electronic book processing device, electronic book processing method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic book processing device in which content of an electronic book allocated in a plurality of pages can be appropriately browsed.SOLUTION: An electronic book processing device comprises: an electronic book information storage part 11 which stores two or more pieces of page information which are information about pages, and electronic book information including a plurality of pieces of content information which are information about content allocated in each page shown by the two or more pieces of page information; a group association information storage part 12 which stores group association information which is information about one or more groups composed of the one or more pieces of content information allocated in each of two or more pages included in an electronic book which is shown by the electronic book information; and a display part 16 which displays the content information for each group shown by the group association information.

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus for processing information of an electronic book.

  As an apparatus for browsing a conventional electronic book, etc., an electronic information memory storing electronic information having a plurality of page information in units of pages of a predetermined size, and electronic information stored in the electronic information memory A touch panel that displays a page as a unit and inputs an operation related to browsing of the page information; a display controller that controls display of the page information stored in the electronic information memory based on the operation content input to the touch panel; And the display controller is temporarily displaying page information determined to be displayed on the touch panel among the electronic information stored in the electronic information memory, and is currently displayed on the touch panel. The page information of the page number following the page number of the current page is preliminarily stored in the cache memory. A continuous page prefetch control unit for storing, and a page turning process control unit for selecting one or a plurality of pages according to an operation on the touch panel and performing a page turning process, and the continuous page prefetch control unit includes the page When a page turning operation of a plurality of pages is detected by the page turning processing control unit, a page having a deletion function at the time of page turning for deleting page data in the plurality of pages from the cache memory has been known (for example, Patent Document 1).

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-288208 (first page, FIG. 1 etc.)

  In the conventional devices for browsing electronic books as described above, information on electronic books is usually displayed in units of pages. For example, when one page of electronic book or two pages of spread information are displayed on one screen and an operation for switching the display content of the screen is received from the user, the display content of the screen is switched on a page-by-page basis. It was. For this reason, there is a problem that it is not possible to browse only a part of the contents arranged on each of the plurality of pages as appropriate, and it is not possible to appropriately browse the contents arranged on the plurality of pages. .

  For example, in an electronic book, each page is assigned content, so that the content can only be displayed in units of pages prepared in advance, and only one or more specific contents are extracted from each page. The extracted content could not be displayed on one screen or the like. For this reason, it has been impossible for the user to browse only specific contents respectively arranged on a plurality of pages.

  In the electronic book processing apparatus of the present invention, electronic book information having two or more page information that is page information and a plurality of content information that is content information arranged on each page indicated by the two or more page information is stored. Group-related information that is information relating to one or more groups configured by one or more pieces of content information arranged in each of two or more pages of the electronic book information storage unit and the electronic book indicated by the electronic book information Is an electronic book processing apparatus including a group-related information storage unit in which is stored, and a display unit that displays content information for each group indicated by the group-related information.

  With this configuration, content information arranged on two or more pages can be displayed for each group including one or more pieces of content information arranged on each page, and arranged on a plurality of pages of the electronic book. Content information can be viewed appropriately.

  In the electronic book processing apparatus of the present invention, in the electronic book processing apparatus, one or more pieces of content information are detected according to a rule specified in advance for each of two or more pages included in the electronic book information, and the detected content information is detected. The electronic book processing apparatus further includes a grouping unit that accumulates group related information related to the group configured in the group related information storage unit.

  With this configuration, even grouped electronic book information can be displayed for each group. Also, it is possible to flexibly change the grouping method according to the rules.

  The electronic book processing apparatus of the present invention is a designation operation accepting unit that accepts an operation for designating one piece of content information of content information included in the electronic book information or an operation for designating a content attribute in the electronic book processing apparatus. The grouping unit has content information having the same attribute as the content information specified by the operation received by the specified operation receiving unit, or has the same attribute as the content attribute specified by the operation received by the specified operation receiving unit An electronic book processing apparatus that detects content information for each of two or more pages of electronic book information and accumulates group related information related to a group composed of the detected two or more content information in a group related information storage unit. .

  With such a configuration, it is possible to selectively display content having the same attribute as the displayed content specified by the user or content having the attribute specified by the user, and display information between each other without displaying unnecessary information. Comparison and quick browsing are possible, and the convenience of browsing can be improved. In particular, when the specification of the content being displayed is accepted, the content information having the attribute that the user wants to selectively display is visually confirmed while being actually displayed on the page. Therefore, it is possible to save the trouble of checking the attribute of the content information to be selectively displayed or designating the attribute.

  In the electronic book processing apparatus of the present invention, in the electronic book processing apparatus, the grouping unit is specified in advance for content information of a predetermined data type and content information for each of two or more pages. This is an electronic book processing apparatus that detects a combination with content information in a positional relationship and accumulates group related information regarding a group composed of the detected content information.

  With this configuration, the content information arranged on the page can be grouped according to the positional relationship between the content information, and grouping according to the intention of the page layout is possible.

  Further, in the electronic book processing apparatus of the present invention, in the electronic book processing apparatus, the operation reception unit further receives an operation for designating a content display mode as one of a group display mode and a page display mode, The display unit is an electronic book processing apparatus that displays content information for each group when a group display mode is designated, and displays content information for each page information when a page display mode is designated.

  With this configuration, the display of each content page and the display of each group can be switched as appropriate according to the user's desires and the like.

  In the electronic book processing apparatus of the present invention, in the electronic book processing apparatus, two or more pieces of page information that is page information and a plurality of pieces of content information that are arranged on each page indicated by the two or more page information. Content detected by detecting one or more pieces of content information according to a rule specified in advance for each of an electronic book information storage unit storing electronic book information having content information and two or more pages of the electronic book information It is an electronic book processing apparatus provided with the grouping part which acquires the group relevant information regarding the group comprised by information, and the output part which outputs the group relevant information which the grouping part acquired.

  With this configuration, one or more pieces of content information respectively arranged on two or more pages can be grouped according to a rule. Thereby, for example, in an apparatus or the like that browses electronic books, it is possible to display content information for each group, and content information can be browsed appropriately.

  The electronic book processing apparatus of the present invention is a designation operation accepting unit that accepts an operation for designating one piece of content information of content information included in the electronic book information or an operation for designating a content attribute in the electronic book processing apparatus. The grouping unit has content information having the same attribute as the content information specified by the operation received by the specified operation receiving unit, or has the same attribute as the content attribute specified by the operation received by the specified operation receiving unit This is an electronic book processing apparatus that detects content information for each of two or more pages of electronic book information and acquires group related information related to a group composed of the detected two or more content information.

  With such a configuration, content information having the same attribute as the designated content information or content information having the designated content attribute is grouped among one or more pieces of content information respectively arranged on two or more pages. Can do. In particular, when the specification of the content being displayed is accepted, the content information having the attribute that the user wants to selectively display is visually confirmed while being actually displayed on the page. Therefore, it is possible to save the trouble of checking the attribute of the content to be selectively displayed or designating the attribute.

  In the electronic book processing apparatus of the present invention, in the electronic book processing apparatus, the grouping unit is specified in advance for content information of a predetermined data type and content information for each of two or more pages. This is an electronic book processing apparatus that detects a set of content information in a positional relationship and acquires group related information regarding a group composed of the detected content information.

  With this configuration, the content information arranged on the page can be grouped according to the positional relationship between the content information, and grouping according to the intention of the page layout is possible.

  The electronic book processing apparatus according to the present invention is an electronic book processing apparatus in which, in the electronic book processing apparatus, the group-related information is information having identification information of one or more pieces of content information belonging to each group for each group. .

  With this configuration, a group of content information can be appropriately managed.

  In the electronic book processing apparatus of the present invention, in the electronic book processing apparatus, the group related information is information having identification information of one or more groups and identification information of content information belonging to each group in association with each other. An electronic book processing apparatus.

  With this configuration, a group of content information can be appropriately managed.

  In the electronic book processing apparatus of the present invention, in the electronic book processing apparatus, the group related information is information on a page in which two or more pieces of content information belonging to each group are arranged for each group, and the display unit includes: The electronic book processing apparatus displays a page in which one or more pieces of content information indicated by page information are arranged for each page in response to a display switching operation.

  With this configuration, a group of content information can be appropriately managed.

  According to the electronic book processing apparatus and the like according to the present invention, it is possible to appropriately browse content information arranged on a plurality of pages of an electronic book.

1 is a block diagram of an electronic book processing apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. Flow chart explaining the operation Conceptual diagram Figure showing the same page information management information The figure which shows the same content information management information Figure showing the same location management information Figure showing the display example The figure which shows the group related information Figure showing the display example Figure showing the display example The block diagram of the electronic book processing apparatus in Embodiment 2 of this invention Flow chart explaining the operation Flow chart explaining the operation The figure which shows the group related information Figure showing the display example Figure showing the display example Figure showing the display example The block diagram of the electronic book processing apparatus in Embodiment 3 of this invention Flow chart explaining the operation The figure which shows an example of the external appearance of the computer system in each embodiment of this invention The figure which shows an example of a structure of the computer system

  Hereinafter, embodiments of an electronic book processing apparatus and the like will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, since the component which attached | subjected the same code | symbol in embodiment performs the same operation | movement, re-explanation may be abbreviate | omitted.

  (Embodiment 1)

  In the present embodiment, an example in which the electronic book processing apparatus 1 is an apparatus for browsing an electronic book will be described.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic book processing apparatus 1 in the present embodiment.

  The electronic book processing apparatus 1 includes an electronic book information storage unit 11, a group related information storage unit 12, a designation operation reception unit 13, a grouping unit 14, an operation reception unit 15, and a display unit 16.

  The electronic book processing apparatus 1 is an apparatus for browsing an electronic book. The electronic book processing apparatus 1 is realized by, for example, a so-called electronic book reader, a mobile phone, a smartphone, a portable information terminal, a computer, or the like.

  The electronic book information storage unit 11 stores electronic book information including two or more pieces of page information and a plurality of pieces of content information that are information of contents arranged on each page indicated by the two or more pieces of page information. An electronic book is a publication that can be read on a monitor screen of an electronic device, for example. The electronic book is, for example, a book using a medium as an electronic medium. An electronic book is also called an electronic book. In this embodiment, the electronic book information stored in the electronic book information storage unit 11 is information on an electronic book having two or more pages. Further, it is assumed that one or more pieces of content information (preferably two or more pieces of content information) are arranged on each page.

  The page information is information on a page of the electronic book. The page information here may be considered as information indicating each page constituting the electronic book or information defining each page. The page information includes, for example, page identification information (hereinafter referred to as page identification information) such as an ID and a page number assigned to the page. The page number may be considered as information indicating the output order of pages. The page information may include information indicating page attributes such as the vertical and horizontal size of the page, the aspect ratio of the page, the background color of the page, and the background image.

  The content information is information of content that is arranged and displayed on each page of the electronic book. The content is characters, images, etc. displayed on each page of the electronic book. The content information may be character string information or image information such as a still image or a moving image, and the data type of the content information does not matter. Further, the content information image may be bitmap data or vector data. Each content information may be considered as an object arranged on each page of the electronic book. Here, content information composed of character strings is referred to as character string content. Also, content information composed of images is called image content. Further, the content information includes, for example, content identification information (hereinafter referred to as content identification information) for identifying the content information. The content identification information may be any information as long as the content information can be identified. For example, the content identification information may be information such as a content name or a character string assigned to the content information. Moreover, the information which shows the storage location etc. of content information may be sufficient. The content identification information may be the content information itself. Further, the content information may include information indicating content information attributes such as a display style of the content information (for example, information such as a font name and a font size). Further, when the content information is provided as information described in a markup language such as XML, a tag attached to the content information may be considered as one of the attributes of the content information.

  Further, the electronic book information may have position information indicating a position where each piece of content information is arranged in the page indicated by the page information in association with each piece of content information and page information. The position information is, for example, one or more coordinates of the four corners of the content in the page, the coordinates of the center of the content, and the coordinates of the center of gravity. Further, the position information may be information indicating the relative positional relationship of the content within the page.

  The page information may be considered as information for separating content information arranged (or displayed) on one page. For example, when content information included in an electronic book is provided as information on each element of data in XML format, the page information is a predefined tag that includes one or more pieces of content information arranged on one page. There may be. In this case, the page information reading order may be, for example, the data arrangement order.

  The process in which electronic book information is stored in the electronic book information storage unit 11 does not matter. The storage here is a concept including temporary storage. The electronic book information storage unit 11 is preferably a non-volatile recording medium, but can also be realized by a volatile recording medium.

  The group-related information storage unit 12 stores group-related information that is information about one or more groups configured by one or more pieces of content information arranged on each of two or more pages of the electronic book indicated by the electronic book information. Is done. Here, the two or more pages included in the electronic book may be a part of two or more pages included in the electronic book, or may be all pages. The two or more pages may be two or more pages designated by the user. Further, the two or more pages may be pages to which the grouped content information belongs as a result of the grouping process described later. A group is a group of content or content information. For example, an electronic book indicated by one piece of electronic book information may have one or more groups. The group related information is, for example, information that specifies content information constituting one or more groups. The information specifying the content information may be considered as information specifying the content information. As a result, the information specifying the content information may be any information as long as the content information belonging to one group can be specified. The group related information may be considered as information for managing content information constituting one or more groups.

  The group related information is information having content identification information of one or more pieces of content information belonging to each group, for example, for each of one or more groups. The content information itself may be considered as content identification information. The group related information is information having content identification information about content information belonging to one group, for example.

  Further, the group related information may be information having one or more group identification information (hereinafter referred to as group identification information) and content identification information of content information belonging to each group in association with each other. The group identification information may be information that can specify whether a plurality of pieces of content information arranged on one page belong to the same group or not, and the group identification information is information that can specify one group. It doesn't matter whether or not. For example, when content information included in an electronic book is provided as information on each element of data in XML format, the group identification information may be a predefined tag for enclosing the content information for each group. The group related information is usually stored in association with the electronic book information.

  Further, the group related information may be information on a page in which two or more pieces of content information belonging to one or more groups are arranged for each group. For example, it is possible to specify that two or more pieces of content information arranged on one page are a group of one piece of content information. Here, the arrangement may be an arrangement of the content information itself on the page, or may be that a link to the content information is arranged on the page. Here, the arrangement of the content information on the page may be considered to be the same as the arrangement of the content information on the page in the electronic book information.

  The process in which the group related information is stored in the group related information storage unit 12 does not matter. For example, the electronic book processing apparatus 1 acquires electronic book information and group-related information prepared in advance for the electronic book information from a medium such as a communication line or a storage medium, and the acquired electronic book information is the electronic book information. The group related information accumulated and acquired in the storage unit 11 may be accumulated in the group related information storage unit 12. In the following, in particular, a case in which the group related information acquired by the grouping unit 14 described later for the electronic book information stored in the electronic book information storage unit 11 is stored in the group related information storage unit 12 is taken as an example. I will give you a description. The storage here is a concept including temporary storage. The group-related information storage unit 12 is preferably a non-volatile recording medium, but can also be realized by a volatile recording medium.

  The designation operation accepting unit 13 accepts a designation operation. The designation operation is an operation for designating one piece of content information of the content information included in the electronic book information. Alternatively, the designation operation is an operation for designating one or more content attributes. The content attribute is an attribute of content information. The designation operation is, for example, an operation for designating one piece of content information of content information displayed on the display unit 16 described later.

  For example, the designation operation accepting unit 13 preliminarily deals with one piece of content information of content information displayed on a monitor or the like by a display unit 16 or the like described later via an input device such as a touch panel or a mouse or a cursor (not shown). When a designated operation is performed, a designation operation for designating the content information is accepted. This predesignated operation is determined, for example, by clicking on the content indicated by the content information displayed on the monitor or the like, pressing operation such as tapping operation, or selecting one content information. This is an operation to press a button for the. For example, when a page of an electronic book in which image content and character string content are arranged is displayed on one screen of the monitor by the display unit 16, when the user clicks or taps one character string content, The designation operation accepting unit 13 accepts an operation for designating the character string content.

  In addition, the designation operation accepting unit performs a predesignated operation such as a case where a user inputs a character string designating a content attribute or an operation of pressing a menu button or the like designating a content attribute prepared in advance. If so, a designation operation for designating content attributes is accepted.

  The content attribute described here may be a data type of content such as character string content or image content, or may be a file format of content information. Further, the display size of data and the data amount may be used. Further, a specific character string included in the character string content, a font name, a font size, and the like may be considered as attributes. Further, the topic or theme indicated by the content information may be considered as the content attribute. The attribute of the content information may be a tag attached to the content information. Further, it may be a specific character string included in content identification information (file name, unique character string assigned to the content, etc.). Further, when the content information is grouped using group identification information or the like as in the above embodiments, the content attribute may be considered as an attribute of a group to which the content information belongs. The content attribute received by the designated operation receiving unit may be considered as a grouping condition.

  The reception described here is, for example, reception from an input unit. The designation operation accepting unit 13 can be realized by a device driver for input means such as a numeric keypad or a keyboard, control software for a menu screen, and the like.

  The grouping unit 14 detects one or more pieces of content information according to a rule specified in advance for each of two or more pages included in the electronic book information. Then, the grouping unit 14 accumulates group related information related to the group composed of the detected content information in the group related information storage unit 12. Here, the two or more pages included in the electronic book may be a part of two or more pages included in the electronic book, or may be all pages. Detecting content information for each of two or more pages may be considered to mean that at least two or more pages are detected as a result. Since the grouping unit 14 detects one or more pieces of content information from each of two or more pages, as a result, at least two or more pieces of content information are detected from two or more pages. The group related information accumulated by the grouping unit 14 is group related information similar to the group related information stored in the group related information storage unit 12. For example, the grouping unit 14 acquires the content identification information of the detected one or more pieces of content information, and stores this content identification information or a combination of the content information and the group identification information as group related information. Accumulate in unit 12. In addition, the grouping unit 14 uses the information on the page in which the detected content information is arranged in a template (not shown) prepared in advance as the content related information for one group, and the group related information storage unit 12. To accumulate. The template may be stored in advance in a storage medium (not shown).

  The rule designated in advance is, for example, a rule for detecting content information to be grouped. For example, the rule designated in advance is a rule for detecting content information that satisfies (or does not satisfy) a condition designated in advance. The rule designated in advance may be any rule.

  The rule designated in advance is, for example, a rule of detecting content information having the same attribute as the content information designated by the operation accepted by the designation operation accepting unit 13. For example, the grouping unit 14 detects content information having the same attribute as the content information specified by the operation received by the specified operation receiving unit 13 for each of two or more pages of the electronic book information. The attribute here is, for example, the same attribute as the content attribute described above, and is one or more attributes specified in advance. The same attribute here is an attribute whose attribute values match or are in an inclusive relationship. The same applies to the following. For example, the grouping unit 14 detects content information whose data type, which is an attribute specified in advance, matches content information specified by the operation received by the specifying operation receiving unit 13.

  For example, if the data type value of the content information designated by the operation accepted by the designation operation accepting unit 13 is “text data”, the grouping unit 14 indicates that the attribute value “data type” is “text data”. Certain content information is detected from two or more pages. And the grouping part 14 accumulate | stores the group relevant information regarding the group comprised by the detected 2 or more content information in a group relevant information storage part. Note that the content information specified by the operation received by the specified operation receiving unit 13 is also one piece of content information detected by the grouping unit 14 and having the same attribute as the content information specified by the operation received by the specified operation receiving unit 13. You can think about it.

  Further, the rule designated in advance may be, for example, a rule for detecting content information having the same attribute as the content attribute designated by the operation accepted by the designation operation accepting unit 13. For example, the grouping unit 14 detects content information having the same attribute as the content attribute designated by the operation accepted by the designation operation accepting unit 13 for each of two or more pages of the electronic book information. Group related information related to the group composed of content information is accumulated in the group related information storage unit.

  For example, if the content attribute designated by the operation accepted by the designation operation accepting unit 13 designates content whose attribute value “topic” is “golf”, the grouping unit 14 selects the electronic book information. It is determined whether or not the character string content arranged on each page is content information whose “topic” is “golf”. For example, the topic of the character string content of each page is extracted, and it is determined whether or not the extracted topic is “golf”. Then, it is determined that the content information determined to be “golf” is content information having the same attribute as the content attribute specified by the operation received by the specifying operation receiving unit 13. Then, group related information related to a group composed of two or more pieces of content information determined to have the same attribute is accumulated in the group related information storage unit. Note that processing for extracting a topic from character string content is known in data mining technology and the like. For example, refer to the following non-patent literature. (Non-patent literature: Megumi Ishii, 2 others, "Proposal of topic extraction method using noun phrases and word momentum", [online], March 5, 2004, Information Processing Society of Japan, [2011 Search September 14], Internet <URL: http://ci.nii.ac.jp/els/110002911697.pdf?id=ART0003258384&type=pdf&lang=en&host=cinii&order_no=&ppv_type=0&lang_sw=&no=1315977633&cp=). Instead of the above processing, content information in which a character string “golf” appears in a predetermined number or more may be determined as content having an attribute “topic” of “golf”.

  In the following description of the present embodiment, in particular, the content information having the same attribute as the content information specified by the operation received by the specified operation receiving unit 13 as described above is specified in advance. Description will be made by taking as an example the case of a rule of detecting or a rule of detecting content information having the same attribute as the content attribute designated by the operation accepted by the designated operation accepting unit 13. However, the rule used for detection by the grouping unit 14 may be another rule.

  The grouping unit 14 can be usually realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the grouping unit 14 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The operation accepting unit 15 accepts an operation for designating a group of content information to be displayed on the display unit 16, for example. The operation of specifying a group may be an operation of specifying group related information regarding one group to be displayed. For example, an operation for designating group identification information included in the group related information may be used. Further, it may be an operation of designating a group including the content information as a display target by designating one or more pieces of content information belonging to one group.

  The operation receiving unit 15 also specifies, for example, an operation for specifying electronic book information to be displayed on the display unit 16, an operation for displaying the page of the electronic book information, and a page to be displayed for the electronic book information. An operation or the like may be accepted.

  Further, the operation accepting unit 15 may accept an operation (hereinafter referred to as a mode designating operation) for designating the content display mode as either the group display mode or the page display mode. The mode specifying operation may be combined with the specifying operation received by the specifying operation receiving unit 13 described above, for example. The display mode will be described later.

  The operation accepting unit 15 accepts a display switching operation that is an operation for switching content to be displayed. The content displayed here means, for example, content of electronic book information displayed on a monitor or the like by the display unit 16 described later. Specifically, the display switching operation is an operation for switching and displaying one or more contents displayed on the screen of a display device such as a monitor by the display unit 16 described later. In addition, an operation for scrolling and displaying content that cannot be displayed on one screen in the vertical and horizontal directions may be considered as a display switching operation. Switching the content displayed on one screen may be considered to replace the content displayed on one screen, for example. The display switching operation accepted by the operation accepting unit 15 is, for example, a display switching operation for displaying one or more contents whose display order is the next for one or more currently displayed contents, or one or more currently displayed. This is a display switching operation for displaying one or more contents whose display order is the previous with respect to the contents. In addition, a display switching operation for displaying content belonging to a group different from the currently displayed content may be received. In addition, when the display unit 16 described later displays content for each page on one screen, the display switching operation is an operation for switching content displayed in units of pages. This operation may be considered as an operation of switching a page to be displayed (for example, an operation of turning a page).

  Further, the operation receiving unit 15 may receive an operation for instructing display of a page or the like of electronic book information.

  The reception is a concept including reception of information input from an input device such as a keyboard, a mouse, or a touch panel. For example, in the case of the electronic book processing apparatus 1 operated with a touch panel, the user performs an operation (so-called swipe operation) for tracing the screen of the electronic book displayed on the monitor in the up, down, left, and right directions. 15 can accept a display switching operation in which the order of display units to be displayed next is different.

  The input means for operations such as display switching operation may be anything such as a numeric keypad, a keyboard, a mouse, a menu screen, or a touch panel. The operation receiving unit 15 can be realized by a device driver for input means such as a numeric keypad or a keyboard, control software for a menu screen, and the like.

  The display unit 16 displays content information for each group indicated by the group related information stored in the group related information storage unit 12. The display of content information for each group here means that, for example, the display unit 16 displays the content information displayed on one screen at a time as the content information belonging to one group indicated by the group related information. That is. That is, the display unit 16 displays only the content information of one group on one screen. Note that one screen here may be considered as one window. For example, the display unit 16 reads one or more pieces of content information belonging to a group specified by the operation received by the operation receiving unit 15 from the electronic book information storage unit 11 or the like and displays the information on the screen. In addition, the display unit 16 displays, from the electronic book information storage unit 11 or the like, for example, one or more pieces of content information belonging to a group designated at random or a group selected based on a pre-designated reading order or reading rule. You may make it read and display on a screen. For example, when the group related information of one electronic book information includes only information indicating content information belonging to one group, one or more pieces of content information are read out from the content information and displayed on the screen. You may do it. For example, the display unit 16 displays one or more pieces of content information included in one group indicated by the group related information on a screen different from a screen that displays a page included in the electronic book information. In particular, the display unit 16 may replace and display a screen showing one or more pieces of content information included in one group with a screen that displays a page of electronic book information.

  Further, the display unit 16 displays the content information for each group indicated by the group related information in accordance with the display switching operation received by the operation receiving unit 15. The display for each group indicated by the group related information is, for example, changing the content information to be displayed in the group indicated by the group related information and displaying among the groups indicated by two or more group related information. This is to switch the display target group for display. That is, the display is different from the display of content information in units of pages indicated by the page information.

  For example, the display unit 16 displays one or more other group information belonging to the same group as the one or more currently displayed content information according to the display switching operation received by the operation receiving unit 15 as the display of the content information for each group. Display content information. The display switching operation in this case is an operation for displaying different content information belonging to the same group, for example.

  Further, for example, the display unit 16 belongs to a group different from the group to which one or more currently displayed content information belongs according to the display switching operation received by the operation receiving unit 15 as the display of the content information for each group. One or more pieces of content information are displayed. The display switching operation in this case is an operation for displaying content information belonging to different groups.

  In addition, for example, when the display unit 16 receives a display switching operation for scrolling the screen to display content information belonging to one group that is not displayed because the current screen cannot be displayed, the display unit 16 displays the current information. Of the content information belonging to the same group as the existing content information, the content information that does not fit on the screen may be sequentially scrolled and displayed on the screen. The display in this case may be considered as a display of content information for each group.

  It does not matter how the display unit 16 displays content information belonging to one group on the screen. For example, the display unit 16 may arrange and display the content information according to a rule specified in advance. For example, the images may be displayed side by side in a predetermined direction such as a vertical direction or a horizontal direction. Alternatively, content information having a pre-designated attribute may be arranged in order in a pre-designated direction. Alternatively, the content information may be arranged in a predetermined direction in the grouped order. Further, the display unit 16 may arrange and display the content information on a template (not shown) or the like prepared in advance on a storage medium (not shown). The display unit 16 may display the content by appropriately reducing or enlarging so that all content information belonging to one group fits on one screen or fits on the screen. When the content related information is information on a page on which content information belonging to one group is arranged, the page indicated by the information on this page may be displayed. In this case, a portion that cannot be displayed on one screen may be displayed according to scrolling or the like as described above.

  Moreover, it does not ask | require in what order the display part 16 displays the 2 or more content information which belongs to one group according to display switching operation. For example, the content information may be displayed in order according to a rule specified in advance. For example, the data items may be displayed in order from the largest. Or you may display the content information of each group in the grouped order. Or you may display in the arrangement order (for example, page number order) of the page to which each content information belongs. Further, for example, when the display order of the content information constituting the group is specified in the group related information, the display unit 16 may display the content information for each group according to this order. For example, the display switching operation is an operation of switching and displaying a screen having the next content information or a screen having the previous content information among the content information in the same group as the currently displayed content information. If there is, the content information in the order of the previous or later content information belonging to the same group as the group to which the currently displayed content information belongs may be acquired and displayed.

  The display unit 16 may further perform processing similar to that of a device for browsing a normal electronic book, such as displaying a page indicated by page information included in the electronic book information. Since the process of displaying the page of the electronic book information is a known technique, a detailed description thereof is omitted here.

  Further, the display unit 16 may perform display by switching the display mode by the mode specifying operation received by the operation receiving unit 15. The display mode is, for example, how content is displayed by the display unit 16. If the display mode is different, for example, how to select content information to be displayed, a style for displaying content information, and a display switching operation. The behavior due to will be different. Here, for example, when the group display mode is designated, the display unit 16 displays the content information for each group, and when the page display mode is designated, the display unit 16 displays the content information for each page information.

  The group display mode is, for example, a mode in which content is displayed for each group indicated by the group related information as described above. For example, in the group display mode, content belonging to one group is switched according to the display switching operation, or content information of a group different from the group to which the currently displayed content information belongs is displayed according to the display switching operation. This is the display mode.

  The page display mode is a mode for displaying one or more pages indicated by the page information of the electronic book information. The page display mode may be considered as, for example, a mode in which processing similar to that performed by an apparatus for browsing a normal electronic book or a display mode in which content is displayed in units of pages. For example, the page display mode is a mode in which the display unit 16 displays a page different from the currently displayed page in response to a display switching operation for switching pages. In addition, the page display mode is changed by the display unit 16 changing the display area of the page in response to a display switching operation that is received by the operation receiving unit 15 and instructing scrolling for one page on which the content information is arranged. In this mode, the displayed display area is displayed. When displaying content information arranged on a page arranged on one page, for example, a page on which content information is arranged by arranging content information at a position indicated by position information of content information included in electronic book information The image of is displayed. The processing for displaying the page indicated by the page information of the electronic book information is the same as the processing of the conventional electronic book browsing apparatus, and thus detailed description thereof is omitted here.

  By switching the display mode in this way, even when the same display switching operation is performed, different displays can be performed according to the display mode.

  The display unit 16 may be considered as including or not including a display device. The display unit 16 may be realized by display device driver software, or display device driver software and a display device.

  Next, the operation of the electronic book processing apparatus 1 will be described using the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S201) The operation reception unit 15 determines whether an operation for displaying an electronic book indicated by one electronic book information stored in the electronic book information storage unit 11 has been received. If accepted, the process proceeds to step S202. If not accepted, the process returns to step S201.

  (Step S202) The display unit 16 reads one page information specified in advance in the electronic book information specified by the operation received in step S201, and displays the page indicated by the page information. One page information specified in advance is, for example, the page information of the first page of the electronic book information. Note that the default display mode is the page display mode.

  (Step S203) The designation operation accepting unit 13 determines whether or not an operation for designating one content (content information) arranged on the page displayed by the display unit 16 has been accepted. If accepted, the process proceeds to step S208. If not accepted, the process proceeds to step S204. Here, as an example, when an operation for specifying one content is received, the operation receiving unit 15 further receives a mode specifying operation for switching the display mode to the group display mode.

  (Step S204) The designation operation accepting unit 13 determines whether or not an operation for designating a content attribute has been accepted. For example, it is determined whether or not content attribute input by a keyboard or menu operation is accepted. If accepted, the process proceeds to step S209. If not accepted, the process proceeds to step S205. Here, as an example, when an operation for specifying a content attribute is received, the operation receiving unit 15 further receives a mode specifying operation for switching the display mode to the group display mode.

  (Step S205) The operation reception unit 15 determines whether a display switching operation for switching a page to be displayed has been received. The display switching operation for switching pages is, for example, an operation for turning pages. If accepted, the process proceeds to step S206. If not accepted, the process proceeds to step S207.

  (Step S206) The display unit 16 acquires page information corresponding to the display switching operation received in step S205 from the electronic book information stored in the electronic book information storage unit 11, and displays the page indicated by the page information. . For example, when the display switching operation is an operation of turning the next page, page identification information associated with the next page number of the page displayed immediately before is read and displayed. Then, the process returns to step S203.

  (Step S207) The operation receiving unit 15 determines whether an operation for ending the display of the electronic book displaying the current page has been received. If accepted, the process returns to step S201. If not accepted, the process returns to step S203.

  (Step S208) The grouping unit 14 acquires the content attribute of the content information specified in Step S203. For example, an attribute value designated in advance is acquired as a content attribute. For example, the content attribute is a value (for example, text, image, etc.) of the data type of the content information.

  (Step S209) The grouping unit 14 substitutes 1 for the counter m.

  (Step S210) The grouping unit 14 determines whether there is m-th page information in the electronic book information currently displayed. For example, it is determined whether there is page information whose page number is m. If there is, the process proceeds to step S211, and if not, the process proceeds to step S214.

  (Step S211) The grouping unit 14 is associated with the same content attribute as the content attribute received in Step S204 or the content attribute acquired in Step S208 in one or more pieces of content information arranged on the mth page. Content information detected. And the content identification information of the detected content information is acquired. If content information associated with the same content attribute is not detected, the process may proceed to step S213.

  (Step S212) The grouping unit 14 accumulates the content identification information acquired in Step S211 in the group related information storage unit 12 as group related information. If the content identification information acquired for the page before the mth page is already stored as group related information, the content identification information acquired in step S211 is added to the group related information.

  (Step S213) The grouping unit 14 increments the value of the counter m by 1. Then, the process returns to step S210.

  (Step S214) The display unit 16 displays the content in the group display mode. Specifically, one or more pieces of content information belonging to the group indicated by the group related information accumulated in the group related information storage unit 12 in step S212 are read and displayed.

  (Step S215) The operation receiving unit 15 determines whether a display switching operation corresponding to the group display mode has been received. If accepted, the process proceeds to step S216. If not accepted, the process proceeds to step S217.

  (Step S216) The display unit 16 displays content belonging to the same group in accordance with the display switching operation received in step S215. For example, when the display switching operation is an operation to display the content in the next order (for example, the acquisition order is the next order) belonging to the same group as the currently displayed content, the content is accumulated in the group related information storage unit 12 Other content information (for example, content information in the next acquisition order) is read out from the content information indicated to belong to the same group as the content information displayed in step S214 by the group related information and displayed. .

  (Step S217) The operation receiving unit 15 determines whether or not a mode specifying operation for switching the display mode to the page display mode has been received. If accepted, the display mode is changed to page display mode, and the process proceeds to step S218. If not accepted, the process proceeds to step S219.

  (Step S218) The display unit 16 displays the same page as the page of the electronic book information displayed in the immediately preceding step S202. Then, the process returns to step S203. Instead of displaying the previous page, the display unit 16 may display the page indicated by the page information to which one of the content information displayed immediately before in the group display mode belongs.

  (Step S219)) The operation receiving unit 15 determines whether an operation for ending the display of the electronic book displaying the current page has been received. If accepted, the process returns to step S201. If not accepted, the process returns to step S215.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 2, the process is terminated by powering off or a process termination interrupt.

  In this flowchart, when the designation operation accepting unit 13 accepts the designation operation, the operation accepting unit 15 accepts the mode designation operation for designating the display mode as the group display mode, and the grouping unit 14 The case where the display unit 16 displays the content information for each group using the group related information when information is accumulated has been described. In the present invention, the designation operation accepting unit 13 accepts the designation operation. In this case, the grouping unit 14 accumulates group related information in the same manner as described above, and the operation receiving unit 15 separately designates a mode designation operation for designating the display mode as the group display mode, and the group indicated by the group related information accumulated above. When the display unit 16 receives an operation for instructing display of content information belonging to It may be displayed content information belonging to the group specified by group Te. The mode designation operation in this case may be the same as the operation for instructing display of content information belonging to the group indicated by the group related information.

  Hereinafter, a specific operation of the electronic book processing apparatus 1 in the present embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of the electronic book processing apparatus 1. The electronic book processing apparatus 1 includes a monitor 100. Here, a case where the electronic book processing apparatus 1 is a multi-function mobile phone called a so-called smartphone will be described as an example. The electronic book processing apparatus 1 is provided with a so-called touch panel on the surface of the monitor 100, and an operation can be input through the touch panel. However, the electronic book processing apparatus 1 may be another apparatus.

  First, it is assumed that the user operates the electronic book processing apparatus 1 to download one piece of electronic book information via the Internet or the like. The downloaded electronic book information is received by a receiving unit (not shown) of the electronic book processing apparatus 1 and stored in the electronic book information storage unit 11.

  FIG. 4 is page information management information for managing page information of electronic book information stored in the electronic book information storage unit 11. In the page information management information, “electronic book ID” is identification information of the electronic book, and here, it is assumed that it is the file name of the electronic book. Here, it is assumed that an electronic book with the file name “bk001” has been downloaded. “Page ID” is a page ID, and here also serves as the page number of the page. “Page attribute” is information indicating page attributes such as page width and height, background color, and the like.

  FIG. 5 is content information management information for managing content information of electronic book information stored in the electronic book information storage unit 11. The content information management information has items of “electronic book ID”, “content ID”, “content”, and “type”. The “electronic book ID” corresponds to the “electronic book ID” in FIG. “Content ID” is the content ID described above, and “content” indicates content information. “Type” indicates the data type of the content information, “Character string” indicates that the data type is character string content, and “Image” indicates that the data type is image data. Indicates content. Here, information indicating the data type of the content information is associated with the content information in advance, and the information of the data type of the content information is acquired as the content attribute using the information of the item “type”. Although an example of the case will be described, data type information may be acquired from the content information itself. Note that data structured in XML format or the like may be used instead of the content information management information of FIG.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing position management information for managing position information of content in the electronic book information stored in the electronic book information storage unit 11. The position management information has items of “electronic book ID”, “page ID”, “content ID”, “position”, and “size”. The “electronic book ID”, “page ID”, and “content ID” correspond to the “electronic book ID”, “page ID”, and “content ID”, respectively. “Position” indicates coordinates (x, y) of the upper left corner of the content information arranged in the page. “Size” indicates the size (height, width) of the content arranged on the page. The “size” may be considered as the size of the content arrangement area. Here, it is assumed that x1 to x12, y1 to y12, h1 to h12, and w1 to w12 are values specified in advance. Here, it is assumed that the coordinates are (0, 0) in the upper left corner, the right direction is the positive direction of the x axis, and the lower direction is the positive direction of the y axis.

  For example, when the content information shown in FIG. 5 is arranged on the first page of the electronic book information whose electronic book ID is “bk001” shown in FIG. 4 as indicated by the location management information shown in FIG. It is assumed that the eye image is displayed on the monitor 100 as shown in FIG.

  Here, the user displays the first page of the electronic book whose electronic book ID stored in the electronic book information storage unit 11 is “bk001” on the touch panel (not shown) of the electronic book processing apparatus 1. Then, the operation accepting unit 15 accepts an operation for displaying the first page of the electronic book whose electronic book ID is “bk001”.

  The display unit 16 reads the “page attribute” information of the record whose “electronic book ID” is “bk001” and “page ID” is “1” from the page information management information shown in FIG. In addition, the display unit 16 acquires information on “content ID” of each record in which “electronic book ID” of the location management information illustrated in FIG. 6 is “bk001” and “page ID” is “1”. The information of “content” corresponding to this “content ID” is acquired from the content information shown in FIG. Further, the “position” information associated with the “content ID” corresponding to each “content” and the “size” information are acquired from the position management information shown in FIG. Then, the acquired information of each “content” is set to the coordinates indicated by the “position” information acquired corresponding to each “content” of the page having the attribute indicated by the “page attribute” acquired above. An image of the page is generated by arranging in the size indicated by the “size” information acquired corresponding to “content”. Then, the display unit 16 displays the generated image on the monitor 100 of the electronic book processing apparatus 1. A display example of the first page of the electronic book is the same as that in FIG. This display is a display in the page display mode.

  Here, if the user performs an operation (so-called swipe operation) in which the user touches the touch panel with a finger from right to left (so-called swipe operation), the operation reception unit 15 receives a display switching operation corresponding to this operation. Here, since the page in which the content information is arranged for each page information is being displayed, that is, in the page display mode, the display unit 16 displays the display switching operation received by the operation receiving unit 15 at present. It is determined that the operation is an instruction to switch the display on the next page of the current page. Then, the display unit 16 displays the page having the “page ID” of “2” replaced with the currently displayed page by the same processing as described above. However, here, it is assumed that this operation has not been performed.

  Here, it is assumed that the user performs an operation of designating one image content displayed on the monitor 100 on the display screen as shown in FIG. For example, here, it is assumed that an operation (tapping operation) for tapping a region 1301 on one image content on the content information with a finger is performed.

  The designation operation reception unit 13 acquires the coordinates of the tapped position. Then, it is determined that the acquired coordinates are coordinates where the content information with the content ID “0005” is arranged, and it is determined that the designation operation for the content information with the content ID “0005” has been accepted.

  The grouping unit 14 acquires the content attribute for the content information whose content ID is “0005” because the designation operation accepting unit 13 has accepted the designation operation. Here, it is assumed that the content attribute to be acquired is designated in advance as the attribute value of the data type. From the content information management information shown in FIG. 5, the grouping unit 14 selects “image”, which is the “type” information of the content information whose content ID is “0005”, and the content attribute of the content information that has received the designation operation Is acquired as information indicating. Thereby, for example, the content attribute “data type: image” is acquired. The acquired attribute is temporarily stored in a storage medium (not shown).

  Next, the grouping unit 14 first performs a designation operation from among the content information arranged on the page whose “page ID” is “1” of the electronic book information whose “electronic book ID” is “bk001”. Content information having the same content attribute as the specified content information is detected. Here, the grouping unit 14 acquires “content ID” of each record whose “electronic book ID” is “bk001” and “page ID” is “1” from the location management information shown in FIG. Then, “content” information corresponding to the acquired content ID, and “type” information is content identification information “content” that matches the “image” that is the content attribute acquired above. The “content ID” is acquired from the content information management information shown in FIG. Here, “content IDs” of “0002”, “0005”, and “0008” are acquired. The acquired “content ID” is stored in the group related information storage unit 12 as group related information of one group.

  Further, the grouping unit 14 sequentially processes the content information having the same content attribute for the pages whose “page ID” is “2” or later, and the content identification information (content ID) acquired from each page. ) Is added to the group related information accumulated in the group related information storage unit 12 as described above.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the group related information accumulated in the group related information storage unit 12 as described above. The group related information has items of “management ID” and “content ID”. Here, the “management ID” is a value indicating the order in which the “content ID” is acquired. This group related information is a group of content identification information of content information belonging to one group. The group of content information indicated by the group related information is a group of image contents included in the electronic book information whose “electronic book ID” is “bk001”.

  Next, the display unit 16 displays the group of content information indicated by the group related information shown in FIG. 8 in the group display mode. Here, the display unit 16 arranges and displays the content information indicated by each “content ID” included in the group related information on a template (not shown) prepared in advance. This template is, for example, a template that arranges and displays content information one by one from the left end column to the right column so that there are three rows in order from the smallest “management ID”. Suppose that In addition, here, content information of up to two columns from the size of the display area of the monitor 100 is displayed on one screen. That is, it is assumed that content information of 3 rows and 2 columns is displayed on one screen of the monitor 100. Here, content information corresponding to “content IDs” with “management IDs” “1” to “6” is acquired from the content information management information shown in FIG. , Replaced with the image shown in FIG. The template is stored in advance in a storage medium (not shown).

  FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example in which the display unit 16 displays content information belonging to the group indicated by the group related information. Here, content information corresponding to “content IDs” with “management IDs” “1” to “6” is arranged and displayed in a template of 3 rows and 2 columns. In addition, here, the displayed image is reduced and displayed in accordance with the screen so that all the contents for one screen are displayed. As a result, content information belonging to one group composed of content information arranged on a plurality of pages is displayed on one screen.

  Here, for example, when the user performs an operation (so-called swipe operation) of paying with a finger from right to left on the touch panel, the operation receiving unit 15 receives a display switching operation corresponding to this operation. Here, since the content information is displayed for each group indicated by the group related information, that is, in the group display mode, the display unit 16 currently displays the display switching operation received by the operation receiving unit 15. Of the content information belonging to the same group as the content information, the “management ID” is determined to be an operation for instructing to switch the display with the content information in the next order. Then, in response to the display switching operation, the display unit 16 displays the content information corresponding to the “content ID” in which the “management ID” is “7” to “12” among the content information not currently displayed. The image obtained from the content information management information shown in FIG. 5 and arranged in 3 rows and 2 columns is replaced with the image shown in FIG. 9 and displayed.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of content information displayed by the display unit 16 in response to a display switching operation.

  Then, when the user ends the group display mode and performs a mode specifying operation for switching to the page display mode using an operation menu (not shown), the content information of the group is displayed in FIG. An image of the first page as shown is displayed.

  Assume that the user performs an operation of specifying content attributes instead of specifying one content in a state where one page as shown in FIG. 7 is displayed. For example, it is assumed that content attributes are input by operating a touch panel or the like. In this case, as described above, instead of acquiring the content attribute from the designated content, processing for acquiring the group related information is performed using the content attribute input here.

  For example, if the input content attribute is “character string having the keyword“ touch panel ””, the character string content having the keyword “touch panel” is detected from the content information arranged on each page and detected. The group related information having the content identification information of the obtained content information is accumulated in the group related information storage unit 12. Other processes are the same as described above.

  Note that the input content attribute may be a search expression in which a plurality of attribute values are connected by a logical operation symbol or the like. In this case, content information having a content attribute that matches this search expression may be detected from each page.

  In the above specific example, the content identification information of the content information with the matching content attribute is stored as the group related information. However, the content information with the matching content attribute is acquired and stored as the group related information. You may make it do.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, a group of content information is configured by one or more pieces of content information respectively arranged on two or more pages, and content information is displayed for each group. For example, content information belonging to one group among content information arranged on a plurality of pages of an electronic book can be selectively displayed, and content information arranged on a plurality of pages of the electronic book can be displayed. It becomes possible to browse appropriately. In this way, the content information of the electronic book information can be displayed not only on a page for which a layout or the like is designated in advance, but also in various modes, and the degree of freedom and convenience of browsing the content information Can increase the sex.

  In addition, since the content information is grouped in the electronic book processing apparatus, even in the electronic book information in which the content information in the page is not grouped in advance, it is possible to display in group units. High nature.

  (Embodiment 2)

  The electronic book processing apparatus 2 according to the present embodiment includes a grouping unit 24 that groups content information according to different rules from the grouping unit 14 in the electronic book processing apparatus 1 shown in the first embodiment. It is what I did.

  FIG. 11 is a block diagram of the electronic book processing apparatus 2 in the present embodiment.

  The electronic book processing apparatus 2 includes an electronic book information storage unit 11, a group related information storage unit 12, a grouping unit 24, an operation reception unit 15, and a display unit 16.

  Since the electronic book information storage unit 11, the group related information storage unit 12, the operation reception unit 15, and the display unit 16 are the same as those in the first embodiment, detailed description thereof is omitted here.

  The grouping unit 24 is the same as the grouping unit 14 described in the first embodiment, and detects one or more pieces of content information according to a rule different from the rule described with an example in the first embodiment. Then, group related information related to the group constituted by the detected content information is accumulated in the group related information storage unit 12. The grouping unit 24 is the same as the grouping unit 14 except that the rules are different.

  The grouping unit 24 has, for example, content information having a pre-designated attribute on each page indicated by two or more page information included in the electronic book information, and one or more in a positional relationship designated in advance with respect to the content information Are grouped into one group. The attribute may be, for example, an attribute relating to the data type of the content information as described above or the contents of the character string included in the content information, or an attribute indicated by information indicating the attribute of the content information included in the content information ( For example, the font size may be used. The predesignated attribute here may be an attribute designated by the user or an attribute designated by default. Further, for example, it may be the content information attribute indicated by the designation operation received by the designation operation accepting unit 13 shown in the first embodiment, the content attribute indicated by the designation operation, or the like.

  The pre-designated positional relationship is, for example, a relative positional relationship with respect to content information having the pre-designated attribute (for example, of a pre-designated data type). For example, it is a positional relationship with respect to the content information that is positioned in a predesignated direction such as up and down, left and right, diagonally upward, and diagonally downward. For example, the grouping unit 24 normally groups content information that is close to a direction designated in advance with respect to content information having a pre-designated attribute. The grouping unit 24 may use the position information of each content information included in the electronic book information as described above when determining the positional relationship of the content information. Further, for example, information indicating a position where content information determined when the display unit 16 or the like to be described later arranges content information on a page may be acquired and used for determination of the positional relationship.

  Note that the grouping unit 24 may group the content information arranged on the pages indicated by the two or more page information included in the electronic book information according to the arrangement order of the content information for each predetermined number. good. For example, a plurality of pieces of content information arranged on a plurality of pages may be grouped for every n pieces of content information (n is an integer of 2 or more) in order from the top of the page. In this case, for example, when the remaining content information of one page is less than n, grouping is performed by sequentially adding content information of the next page from the top of the page. The grouping unit 24 may group the content information by attribute. For example, only image contents arranged on one page may be grouped and only character string contents may be grouped. Alternatively, information having two or more content information attributes and acquisition order is prepared in advance, and the attribute content information along the acquisition order indicated by this information is stored in advance in the order of the distance. You may group from the designated position. The distance here may be a distance from the first content information or may be a distance from the content information grouped immediately before. Alternatively, when the content information is provided as data described in a markup language such as XML, the order of arrangement of the content information in the data may be used as the position information. Note that information specifying such a grouping rule may be stored in advance in, for example, a storage medium (not shown).

  The grouping unit 24 performs grouping according to other rules for the remaining content information that has not been grouped under one rule among the content information arranged on two or more pages. Also good. For example, as described above, content information that remains ungrouped after being grouped according to a rule that groups content information according to the positional relationship between content information having a predetermined attribute and the content information. If there is, the remaining content information may be grouped according to different rules. For example, the different rules include, for example, a rule that groups each remaining content information of two or more pages into one group, and a group that groups all the remaining content information of one page into one group. It is a rule to do. Moreover, the rule which groups the adjacent contents information of the remaining contents of one page into the same group may be used. In this way, by combining different groupings, it is possible to classify all groups of content information arranged on two or more pages. This also applies to the grouping unit 14 of the first embodiment.

  Next, the operation of the electronic book processing apparatus 2 will be described using the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S1201) The electronic book processing apparatus 2 determines whether new electronic book information is accumulated in the electronic book information storage unit 11. If accumulated, the process proceeds to step S1202, and if not accumulated, the process proceeds to step S1203. Note that the electronic book processing device 2, for example, instead of making this determination, the group related information stored in the group related information storage unit 12 in the electronic book information stored in the electronic book information storage unit 11. It is determined whether there is electronic book information that is not associated with each other. If there is any electronic book information that is not associated with each other, the process proceeds to step S1202, and if not, the process proceeds to step S1203.

  (Step S1202) The grouping unit 14 performs a process of grouping content information on the new electronic book information received in step S1201. Details of this processing will be described later. Then, the process returns to step S1201.

  (Step S1203) The operation reception unit 15 determines whether an operation for displaying an electronic book is received for one piece of electronic book information stored in the electronic book information storage unit 11. If accepted, the process proceeds to step S1204. If not accepted, the process proceeds to step S1220.

  (Step S1204) The display unit 16 determines whether or not the display mode is the group display mode. If it is the group display mode, the process proceeds to step S1205. If it is not the group display mode (that is, if it is the page display mode), the process proceeds to step S1214. For example, if the default is the page display mode, the process proceeds to step S1214.

  (Step S1205) The display unit 16 reads out and displays one or more pieces of content information belonging to the group indicated by the group related information from the electronic book information subjected to the display operation stored in the electronic book information storage unit 11. . The one group acquired here may be, for example, a group in an order (for example, first) in which the acquisition order of group related information is designated in advance. In addition, a menu for selecting a group may be displayed to allow the user to select a group. The one or more pieces of content information displayed here may be selected in order from the page number of the page on which each piece of content information is arranged, or may be selected at random. It may be selected by a method (for example, file size order, alphabetical order) used for normal data sorting.

  (Step S1206) The operation reception unit 15 determines whether a display switching operation for switching the display of content has been received. If accepted, the process proceeds to step S1207. If not accepted, the process proceeds to step S1211.

  (Step S1207) The display unit 16 performs an operation in which the display switching operation received by the operation receiving unit 15 in Step S1206 switches one or more currently displayed content information to one or more other content information in the same group. It is determined whether or not. If it is an operation to switch content information, the process proceeds to step S1208. If it is not an operation to switch content information, the process proceeds to step S1209.

  (Step S1208) The display unit 16 displays one or more other pieces of content information in the same group instead of the one or more pieces of currently displayed content information in accordance with the display switching operation received by the operation receiving unit 15. To do. Then, the process returns to step S1206.

  (Step S1209) The display unit 16 displays one or more pieces of content information belonging to a group different from the group to which the one or more pieces of content information currently displayed belong to the display switching operation received by the operation receiving unit 15 in Step S1206. It is determined whether or not the operation is to switch to one or more currently displayed contents. If it is an operation to switch the display with content information of a different group, the process proceeds to step S1210. If it is not an operation to switch, the process returns to step S1206.

  (Step S1210) In response to the display switching operation received by the operation receiving unit 15, the display unit 16 displays other one or more pieces of content information belonging to other groups instead of the one or more pieces of currently displayed content information. indicate. Then, the process returns to step S1206.

  (Step S1211) The operation receiving unit 15 determines whether an operation for ending display of the electronic book has been received. If accepted, display is terminated and the process returns to step S1201. If not accepted, the process proceeds to step S1212.

  (Step S1212) The operation receiving unit 15 determines whether or not a mode specifying operation for switching the display mode to the page display mode has been received. If accepted, the display mode is changed to the page display mode, and the process proceeds to step S1213. If not accepted, the process returns to step S1206.

  (Step S1213) The display unit 16 reads page information of a page including one or more pieces of content information currently being displayed from the electronic book information storage unit 11, and displays the page indicated by the page information. Note that the process proceeds to step S1214. When there are a plurality of pieces of content information currently displayed, for example, one piece of content information such as content information displayed at a predesignated position is specified, and a page on which the content information is arranged is displayed. You can do it. Then, the process proceeds to step S1214.

  (Step S1214) The display unit 16 selects the page information of one page, the content information arranged on this page, from the electronic book information that is the target of the display operation stored in the electronic book information storage unit 11. To get. The page information, etc. acquired here may be, for example, page information of pages in the order in which the display order is specified in advance (for example, the first page), or the page information of the page displayed at the end of the previous time. Etc.

  (Step S1215) The operation reception unit 15 determines whether a display switching operation for switching display of content has been received. The display switching operation here is, for example, an operation for changing the page to be displayed. For example, an operation of turning a page. If accepted, the process proceeds to step S1216; otherwise, the process proceeds to step S1217.

  (Step S1216) The display unit 16 displays a page corresponding to the display switching operation received in step S1215. For example, when the display switching operation is an operation of turning the page displayed immediately before to display the next page, the display unit 16 is associated with the next page number of the currently displayed page. Page information is acquired, and the image of the currently displayed page is updated with the image of this page. Then, the process returns to step S1215.

  (Step S1217) The operation receiving unit 15 determines whether an operation for ending the display of the electronic book has been received. If accepted, display is terminated and the process returns to step S1201. If not accepted, the process proceeds to step S1218.

  (Step S1218) The operation receiving unit 15 determines whether or not a mode specifying operation for switching the display mode to the group display mode has been received. If accepted, the display mode is changed to the group display mode, and the process proceeds to step S1219. If not accepted, the process returns to step S1215.

  (Step S1219) The display unit 16 uses the group related information stored in the group related information storage unit 12, and uses one or more belonging to the same group as the one or more pieces of content information arranged on the currently displayed page. Display content information. When a plurality of pieces of content information arranged on the currently displayed page belong to different groups, the content information belonging to any group may be displayed. For example, one or more pieces of content information belonging to the same group as the content information arranged on the uppermost side of the page may be displayed. Then, the process proceeds to step S1206.

  (Step S1221) The operation receiving unit 15 determines whether or not a mode specifying operation for switching the display mode has been received. If accepted, the process proceeds to step S1221, and if not accepted, the process returns to step S1201.

  (Step S1221) The operation reception unit 15 changes the display mode to a display mode different from the currently set display mode. Then, the process returns to step 201.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 12, the process is terminated by powering off or a process termination interrupt.

  In the above flowchart, for example, when the operation receiving unit 15 receives a mode specifying operation for specifying the display mode as the group display mode in step S1218 or the like, the grouping unit 24 sets two or more pieces of electronic book information. About the content information arrange | positioned at page information, grouping similar to said step S1202 is performed, group related information is accumulate | stored, and the display part 16 displays the content information which belongs to the group which this group related information shows for every group. You may make it do.

  FIG. 13 is a flowchart for explaining the detailed operation of the grouping process of the electronic book processing apparatus 2 of the present invention. This process corresponds to the process described in step S1202 of FIG. Hereinafter, the operation will be described with reference to FIG.

  (Step S1301) The grouping unit 24 substitutes 1 for a counter n.

  (Step S1302) The grouping unit 24 determines whether there is n-th page information in one electronic book information to be grouped. If there is, the process proceeds to step S1303. If not, the process returns to the upper process.

  (Step S1303) The grouping unit 24 substitutes 1 for the counter m.

  (Step S1304) The grouping unit 24 determines whether or not the content information arranged on the nth page includes the mth content information having the specified attribute. For example, the grouping unit 24 uses the position information indicating the arrangement of the content indicated by the content information, and sequentially scans in the horizontal direction from the top to the bottom of the nth page. The m-th content information having an attribute is detected. The position information of the content information is, for example, the center of the content information, the center of gravity, or one or more coordinates of the four corners. The content information having a predesignated attribute is, for example, content information of a predesignated data type. If there is m-th content information (when it can be detected), the process proceeds to step S1305, and if not, the process proceeds to step S1307.

  (Step S1305) The grouping unit 24 performs processing for detecting one or more pieces of content information having a predetermined positional relationship with respect to the detected m-th content information, and content having the specified positional relationship. Determine if there is information. The positional relationship designated in advance is, for example, the nearest side of the m-th content information or the top and bottom sides of the m-th content information. Whether or not the positional relationship is designated in advance is determined from the positional information indicating the arrangement of the content information. For example, when the y-coordinate value of the center coordinate of certain content information is within the range of the y-coordinate values above and below the m-th content information, this content information is content information next to the m-th content information. It is judged. In addition, when the value of the x coordinate of the center coordinate of a certain piece of content information is within the range of the left and right x coordinates of the mth content information, the content information is content information above or below the mth content information. It is judged that. In this way, the content information satisfying the predetermined positional relationship is detected depending on whether there is content information satisfying the rule indicating the positional relationship specified in advance. If the content information is detected, the process proceeds to step S1306. If the content information is not detected, the process proceeds to step S1307. Note that content information already grouped with other content information may be excluded from grouping targets.

  (Step S1306) The grouping unit 24 associates the m-th content information with the content information detected in step S1305, and accumulates them in the group related information storage unit 12 as group related information for one group. If the group related information acquired for the page information before the nth page or the group related information acquired for the content information before the mth page of the nth page information is already stored, this group related information is stored. Information in which the m-th content information is associated with the content information detected in step S1305 is added to the information. Note that the value of the counter n and the value of m are acquired by using the content information belonging to one group as information indicating the reading order, and is associated with the m-th content information and the content information detected in step S1305. May be accumulated.

  (Step S1307) The grouping unit 24 substitutes 1 for the counter m. Then, the process returns to step S1304.

  (Step S1308) The grouping unit 24 substitutes 1 for a counter n. Then, the process returns to step S1302.

  In the above flowchart, the grouping unit 24 groups content information having one attribute specified in advance and content information having a positional relationship specified in advance with respect to this content information. As described above, when the grouping unit 24 performs grouping in the same manner as described above for k attributes (k is an integer of 2 or more) to be specified in advance, the processing of the above flowchart is performed as follows. You may make it repeat for every attribute (namely, changing an attribute and repeating k times).

  Hereinafter, a specific operation of the electronic book processing apparatus 2 in the present embodiment will be described. The conceptual diagram of the electronic book processing apparatus 2 is the same as FIG.

  First, it is assumed that the user operates the electronic book processing apparatus 1 to download one piece of electronic book information via the Internet or the like. The downloaded electronic book information is received by a receiving unit (not shown) of the electronic book processing apparatus 1 and stored in the electronic book information storage unit 11.

  The electronic book information stored in the electronic book information storage unit 11 is, for example, electronic data managed by the page information management information, content information management information, and position management information described in FIGS. It is assumed that it is the same as the book information. However, in the content information management information of FIG. 5, the item “type” may be omitted.

  Since the electronic book information whose electronic book ID is “bk001” is accumulated in the electronic book information storage unit 11, the grouping unit 24 starts grouping of content information arranged in the electronic book information.

  Here, the rule for grouping is “the content information of an image having an extension of jpg, png, or gif, and the content information arranged at the top of the content information arranged next to the content information. It is assumed that the rule is “categorize content information into groups”.

  First, the grouping unit 24 performs horizontal scanning sequentially from left to right while moving from the top to the bottom of the page whose “page ID” of the electronic book information is “1”, that is, the first page. Thus, the content information arranged on the first page is sequentially detected. Specifically, since the coordinates indicating the position of each piece of content information are stored in the record whose “page ID” is “1” in the position management information shown in FIG. Then, a coordinate that matches the coordinate of the scanning position that changes sequentially is retrieved. The content information indicated by the content ID of the record having the matching coordinates is the content information detected by scanning. When the content information is detected, it is determined whether or not the content information is content information of an image with an extension of jpg, png, or gif. For example, here, if “content ID” is detected by scanning, content information corresponding to the content ID is detected from the content information management information of FIG. Here, “product name: BS602” is detected as content information whose “content ID” is “0001”. Since this content information does not include the above-mentioned extension, it is determined that the content information is not content information having a predesignated attribute. Further, scanning is continued in the same manner to detect content information, and the content information to which the above extension is added is detected.

  Here, for example, the content information “bs602.jpg” having “0002” as the “content ID” detected by the above scan is the first content information including “jpg” which is one of the above extensions. Suppose that it is detected as being. For this reason, the grouping unit 24 detects the content information arranged beside this content information. Specifically, first, the grouping unit 24 uses the position management information shown in FIG. 7 to determine the y coordinate value “y2” of “coordinate” indicating the coordinates of the upper left corner of the content information “bs602.jpg”. And the value “y2 + h2” obtained by adding the height value of the size of the content information “bs602.jpg” to the value of the y coordinate. Then, one or more records in which the value of the y coordinate of “coordinate” is y2 or more and less than (y2 + h2) are selected from the records whose “page ID” of the position management information shown in FIG. 7 is “1”. To detect. Here, it is assumed that a record having “content ID” “0001” and a record “0003” are detected. Then, among these records, “0001” that is the “content ID” of the record with the larger y-coordinate value is acquired.

  Then, the set of the acquired content ID “0001” and the content ID “0002” detected by the above scanning is “electronic book ID” “bk001” and “page ID”. Information in which “1” is associated with the newly acquired group ID “G001” is accumulated in the group related information storage unit 12 as group related information. As the group ID, for example, an automatically acquired serial number is used. As a result, the set of content information whose content IDs are “0001” and “0002” is added to the group whose group ID is “G001”.

  Similarly to the above, the grouping unit 24 continues scanning the first page of the electronic book information, and is arranged beside the detected content information every time the content information having the extension described above is detected. The content information arranged at the highest position is detected, and the combination of the “content ID” of the detected content information and the “content ID” of the content information having the extension described above, and the same group ID “G001” as described above Is stored in the group related information storage unit 12.

  If the content information having the above-mentioned extension cannot be detected on the first page, the same applies to the remaining pages after the next page of the electronic book information, specifically, each page after the second page. The process is repeated, and a set of “content ID” of the content information having the extension described above and “content ID” of the content information arranged beside this content information, the same group ID “G001” as above, The group related information having the electronic book ID “bk001” and the “page ID” of the page to be detected is accumulated in the group related information storage unit 12.

  Further, when there are different grouping rules, the grouping process is also performed on the content information arranged on all pages of the electronic book device in the same manner as described above. However, here, since there is no other rule, it is assumed that only the above grouping process has been performed.

  FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of group related information stored in the group related information storage unit 12. The group related information has items of “management ID”, “electronic book ID”, “page ID”, “group ID”, and “content ID”. “Management ID” is information for managing records of group related information, and it is assumed that serial numbers in ascending order are assigned in the order in which the information of each row is accumulated in the grouping process. The other items correspond to the items having the same item name. In the group related information, the content information indicated by the “content ID” corresponding to the same “group ID” is content information belonging to the same group. In addition, a plurality of pieces of content information indicated by the value of “content ID” of one record have content information having a pre-designated attribute indicated by the grouping rule and a positional relationship designated in advance with respect to the content information. A pair with certain content information is shown.

  It is assumed that the “group ID” given to the content information detected by the same rule is the same group ID (here, “G001”, for example). For example, when grouping processing is performed according to rules other than those described above, different group IDs are assigned to the obtained group related information.

  Next, a case where the user operates the electronic book processing apparatus 1 to perform an operation for specifying the display mode of the electronic book will be described.

  FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a display example of a menu screen for designating a display mode. The user displays a menu screen as shown in FIG. 15 and designates whether the display mode is the group display mode or the page display mode. For example, here, the page display mode is set as a default, and when the user presses the group display mode button 150, the operation reception unit 15 receives a display designation operation for switching to the group display mode, and the display mode is changed to the group display mode. Switch to. For example, information indicating that the display mode is set to the group display mode is stored in a storage medium (not shown) or the like by the operation reception unit 15.

  Then, it is assumed that the user performs an operation of displaying electronic book information whose file name is “bk001”. Since the information indicating the display mode is information indicating the group display mode, the display unit 16 reads out and displays one or more pieces of content information belonging to one group indicated by the group related information from the electronic book information storage unit 11. .

  Specifically, the display unit 16 displays the “contents” of the record having the smallest value of the “group ID” in the group-related information “electronic book ID” “bk001” shown in FIG. The “ID” value is read in order from the record with the smallest “management ID” value, and the content information indicated by the read “content ID” is acquired from the content information management information shown in FIG. 5 and prepared in advance. Arranged and displayed on a template (not shown). In this template, for example, a set of content information managed in each record is moved up one column from the leftmost column to the right column so that there are two rows in order from the smallest “management ID”. It is assumed that the template is arranged and displayed below. In addition, here, content information of up to two columns from the size of the display area of the monitor 100 is displayed on one screen. That is, it is assumed that content information of 2 rows and 2 columns is displayed on one screen of the monitor 100. Also, in the set of content information indicated by each “content ID” value, it is specified in the template that the content information is arranged vertically in order from the smallest “content ID” value. To do. Here, a set of content information corresponding to the “content ID” of each record having “management ID” “01” to “04” is acquired from the content information management information shown in FIG. Is displayed on the monitor 100.

  Specifically, first, the display unit 16 reads “0001” and “0002” that are values of “content ID” included in a record whose “management ID” is “01”. Then, the content information “product name: BS602” and the image content information “bs602.jpg” corresponding to the content IDs “0001” and “0002” are acquired from the content information management information shown in FIG. These are arranged vertically and arranged at the upper left of the display screen. Further, the display unit 16 reads “0004” and “0005” that are values of “content ID” included in the record whose “management ID” is “02”. Then, the content information “product name: AW801” and the content information “aw801.jpg” of the character strings respectively corresponding to the content IDs “0004” and “0005” are acquired, and these are arranged vertically to be displayed. Place at the bottom left of the screen. Similarly, the display unit 16 displays content information “product” of character strings corresponding to “0007” and “0008” which are values of “content ID” included in the record whose “management ID” is “03”. Name: RW008 ”and image content information“ rw008.jpg ”are acquired, and these are arranged vertically and arranged at the upper right of the display screen. Similarly, the display unit 16 displays the content information “product” of character strings corresponding to “0010” and “0011” which are values of “content ID” included in the record whose “management ID” is “04”. Name: UH0005 "and image content information" uh0005.jpg "are acquired, arranged vertically, and arranged at the lower right of the display screen. Then, a display screen on which the content information is arranged is displayed on the monitor 100. The content information is appropriately reduced (or enlarged) so as to have a size that fits within one screen of the electronic book processing apparatus 1.

  FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a display example of content on the display unit 16.

  Next, in order to switch (replace) the displayed content information to the content information displayed in the next order, the user performs an operation of tracing the screen of the electronic book processing apparatus 1 with a finger from right to left (so-called so-called). If the swipe operation is performed, the operation reception unit 15 receives a display switching operation corresponding to the user's operation from right to left.

  When the operation accepting unit 15 accepts a display switching operation traced from right to left, the display unit 16 displays different content information belonging to the same group as the currently displayed content information because the current display mode is the group display mode. Process to display. Specifically, the content information in the next order is sequentially transmitted from the electronic book information storage unit 11 to the currently displayed content information among the content information belonging to the same group as the currently displayed content information. read out. The content information in the next order is the “electronic book ID” of “bk001” and the “group ID” of the group related information shown in FIG. 14 corresponds to the currently displayed content information. Of the records having the same “Group ID” as “G001”, the “Management ID” value is the next smaller record than “04” which is the “Management ID” corresponding to the currently displayed content information. Content information indicated by “content ID”. Here, the display unit 16 sequentially reads out the content information managed in each record in which the “management ID” of the group related information shown in FIG. 14 is “5” to “8”. The screen obtained by arranging in 2 rows and 2 columns is displayed by switching to the above screen.

  FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating an example of content information displayed by the display unit 16 in response to a display switching operation.

  Here, it is further assumed that the user performs an operation of tracing the screen of the electronic book processing apparatus 2 from left to right in order to display the content information displayed immediately before. The display unit 16 displays again a screen on which the four content information items displayed before the four currently displayed content information items are arranged. This display example is the same as in FIG.

  When the screen shown in FIG. 16 is displayed, it is assumed that the user again displays the menu screen for designating the display mode as shown in FIG. 15 and switches the display mode to the page display mode. The display unit 16 acquires “0001” that is the “content ID” corresponding to the content information displayed at the upper left of the currently displayed content information. Then, in the location management information shown in FIG. 6, a record having “0001” as the “content ID” is searched, and “1” which is the value of “page ID” of the detected record is acquired. Then, the display unit 16 performs a process of displaying a page whose “page ID” is “1”. For example, the display unit 16 acquires the value of “page attribute” of the record whose “electronic book ID” is “bk001” and “page ID” is “1” in the page information management information shown in FIG. . Then, an image of the first page indicating the acquired attribute is generated. In addition, the display unit 16 displays the value of “content ID” from the records whose “electronic book ID” is “bk001” and “page ID” is “1” in the location management information shown in FIG. , “Coordinate” value and “Size” value are acquired. And the content information which is the value of the “content” corresponding to the “content ID” acquired here is acquired from the content information management information shown in FIG. Then, the acquired content information is arranged on the image of the first page acquired above to generate an image. Specifically, the content information is arranged at the position indicated by the corresponding “coordinate” in the size indicated by the corresponding “size” to generate an image of the page. Then, the generated image is displayed. The displayed image is the same as the image shown in FIG.

  Next, if the user performs an operation of tracing the screen of the electronic book processing apparatus 1 with a finger from right to left in order to display the content information of the next page in order, the operation reception unit 15 A display switching operation corresponding to the operation of tracing from right to left is accepted.

  When the operation accepting unit 15 accepts a display switching operation that traces from right to left, the display unit 16 is the page next to the currently displayed first page (that is, the current page is the page display mode). The second page is displayed. Specifically, the display unit 16 reads out the page information of the next page of the first displayed page and the content information arranged on this page from the electronic book information storage unit 11. Specifically, the value of the “page attribute” corresponding to the page ID “2” is acquired from the page information management information shown in FIG. 5 and, similarly to the above, the content information arranged on this page The “coordinate” value and the “size” are respectively acquired, and an image arranged on the page indicated by the acquired page attribute is generated and displayed. As a result, the second page is displayed.

  In addition, if the user performs an operation of tracing the screen of the electronic book processing apparatus 1 with a finger from left to right in order to display the content information of the page in the previous order, the display unit 16 displays the current display. Since the mode is the page display mode, a process for displaying the page before the second page that is currently displayed (that is, the first page) is performed. As a result, the first page is displayed as described above.

  Thus, even if the operation for switching the display of content information performed on the electronic book processing apparatus 2 is the same operation, for example, in the group display mode, the display of the content information is switched in units of groups, and the page In the display mode, the display of content information is switched on a page-by-page basis. In the group display mode, only the content information belonging to one group in the page can be displayed, and only the content information that conforms to the grouping rules is narrowed down. Information can be displayed. On the other hand, in the page display mode, the entire page is displayed on one screen, so that the overall positional relationship of the content information arranged on the page can be grasped and the provider of the electronic book information It is possible to display the content in the intended layout. Further, by switching the display mode in this way, it is possible to appropriately select a display that suits the user's application and preferences.

  When there are a plurality of content information groups, for example, when a predetermined operation is performed on the screen shown in FIG. May be switched to a group different from the group of the content information currently displayed.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, content information arranged on two or more pages of electronic book information can be displayed in units of groups. Thereby, for example, only a part of the content information arranged on each page can be grouped, and only the grouped content information can be extracted and displayed, and a part of information in the electronic book information ( For example, only the information required by the user can be appropriately displayed.

  In addition, since the content information is grouped in the electronic book processing apparatus, even in the electronic book information in which the content information in the page is not grouped in advance, it is possible to display in group units. High nature.

  Instead of grouping according to the rules as described above, the grouping unit 24 preliminarily stores the content information arranged on the pages indicated by the two or more page information included in the electronic book information according to the arrangement order of the content information. You may make it group according to the rule of grouping for every designated number. For example, the grouping unit 24 may group a plurality of pieces of content information arranged on a plurality of pages for every n pieces of content information (n is an integer of 2 or more) in order from the top of the page. In this case, for example, when the remaining content information of one page is less than n, grouping is performed by sequentially adding content information of the next page from the top of the page. The grouping unit 24 may group the content information by attribute. For example, only image contents arranged on one page may be grouped and only character string contents may be grouped. Alternatively, information having two or more content information attributes and acquisition order is prepared in advance, and the attribute content information along the acquisition order indicated by this information is stored in advance in the order of the distance. You may group from the designated position. The distance here may be the distance from the first content information or the distance from the content grouped immediately before. Alternatively, when the content information is provided as data described in a markup language such as XML, the order of arrangement of the content information in the data may be used as the position information. Note that information specifying such a grouping rule may be stored in advance in, for example, a storage medium (not shown).

  The grouping unit 24 performs grouping according to other rules for the remaining content information that has not been grouped under one rule among the content information arranged on two or more pages. Also good. For example, as described above, after grouping according to a rule for grouping content information according to the positional relationship between content information having a pre-designated attribute and this content information, it remains ungrouped When there is content information, the remaining content information may be grouped according to different rules. For example, the different rules include, for example, a rule that groups each remaining content information of two or more pages into one group, and a group that groups all the remaining content information of one page into one group. It is a rule to do. Moreover, the rule which groups the adjacent contents information of the remaining contents of one page into the same group may be used. In this way, by combining different groupings, it is possible to classify all groups of content information arranged on two or more pages. This also applies to the grouping unit 14 of the first embodiment.

  (Embodiment 3)

  The electronic book processing apparatus 2 according to the present embodiment uses the electronic book information as the group related information stored in the electronic book processing apparatus 1 or the group related information storage unit 12 of the electronic book processing apparatus 2 described in the above embodiment. It is a device that generates from.

  FIG. 18 is a block diagram of the electronic book processing apparatus 3 in the present embodiment.

  The electronic book processing apparatus 3 includes an electronic book information storage unit 11, a group related information storage unit 12, a grouping unit 24, and an output unit 37.

  Since the electronic book information storage unit 11, the group related information storage unit 12, and the grouping unit 24 are the same as those in the first embodiment, detailed description thereof is omitted here. Note that the difference between the grouping unit 14 and the grouping unit 24 is a difference in rules for grouping, and therefore the electronic book processing apparatus 3 uses the grouping unit 14 instead of the grouping unit 24. You may do it. However, when the grouping unit 14 is used, it is preferable to further provide the designation operation receiving unit 13.

  The output unit 37 outputs the group related information acquired by the grouping unit 24. For example, the output unit 37 outputs the group related information acquired by the grouping unit 24 and accumulated in the group related information storage unit 12. The output unit 37 may output this group-related information together with the electronic book information to be processed. The output described here includes transmission to an external device, accumulation in a recording medium, and other processing. It is a concept that includes delivery of processing results to a device or another program. The output unit 37 may be considered as including or not including an output device such as a communication unit. The output unit 37 can be realized by driver software for an output device or driver software for an output device and an output device.

  Next, the operation of the electronic book processing apparatus 3 will be described using the flowchart of FIG. In FIG. 19, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 13 denote the same or corresponding processing steps.

  (Step S1901) The grouping unit 24 determines whether an instruction to group the electronic book information stored in the electronic book information storage unit 11 is accepted. If accepted, the process proceeds to step S1902, and if not accepted, the process returns to step S1901.

  (Step S1902) The output unit 37 outputs the group related information accumulated in the group related information storage unit 12. When the group related information is not associated with the electronic book information, the group related information may be output in association with the identification information of the electronic book information.

  When a plurality of grouping rules are prepared, the above-described processing from step S1301 to step S1308 is repeated for each rule, and different identification information or the like is obtained with respect to the group-related information acquired in each processing. You may make it provide. Then, the output unit 37 may output the acquired group related information.

  Further, in this flowchart, the case where the grouping process described in FIG. 13 in the second embodiment is performed is described. However, the electronic book processing apparatus 3 performs another grouping process, for example, the electronic book processing apparatus 1 You may make it perform the grouping process etc. which are performed.

  Hereinafter, a specific operation of the electronic book processing apparatus 3 in the present embodiment will be described.

  Here, for example, the electronic book information storage unit 11 has page information management information, content information management information, and position management information as shown in FIGS. 4 to 6 as in the specific example of the first embodiment. Assume that electronic book information is stored. For example, it is assumed that the electronic book processing apparatus 2 receives an instruction to group content information arranged on each page of the electronic book information whose file name is “bk001” from a reception unit (not shown).

  The grouping unit 24 groups electronic book information according to this instruction. This grouping is performed, for example, by the same process as the process performed by the grouping unit 24 in the specific example of the second embodiment.

  By this processing, the grouping unit 24 obtains group related information similar to that in FIG.

  Then, the output unit 37 outputs the group related information acquired in this way. For example, here, it is stored in a storage medium (not shown). At this time, for example, group-related information is stored in a storage medium or the like together with electronic book information to be grouped.

  The electronic book information and the group related information stored in the storage medium are stored in, for example, the electronic book information storage unit 11 and the group related information storage unit 12 of the electronic book processing apparatus 2 shown in FIG. The book processing apparatus 2 can browse the content information arranged on each page of the electronic book information for each group without grouping by the grouping unit 24 as described above.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, group information can be generated by grouping content information arranged on two or more pages of electronic book information. Thereby, in the electronic book processing apparatus capable of displaying the electronic book information in the group display mode, the electronic book can be browsed in the group display mode.

  Further, since the processing for grouping the content information arranged on each page of the electronic book becomes unnecessary on the electronic book processing device side for browsing the electronic book information, the function of the electronic book processing device for browsing the electronic book information The configuration can be simplified. For example, an electronic book processing apparatus used for browsing electronic book information processed by the electronic book processing apparatus 3 is a group for acquiring group related information from the electronic book processing apparatus 1 or the electronic book processing apparatus 2 described above. It is possible to omit the conversion unit. In other words, the electronic book processing device 3 can group content information of electronic book information, thereby providing an electronic book processing device capable of displaying content in the group display mode with a simplified configuration and at a low cost. It becomes possible to do.

  In each of the above embodiments, each process (each function) may be realized by centralized processing by a single device (system), or by distributed processing by a plurality of devices. May be.

  Further, although cases have been described with the above embodiments where the electronic book processing apparatus is a stand-alone, the electronic book processing apparatus may be a stand-alone apparatus or a server apparatus in a server / client system. . In the latter case, the output unit or the reception unit receives an input or outputs a screen via a communication line.

  In each of the above embodiments, each component may be configured by dedicated hardware, or a component that can be realized by software may be realized by executing a program. For example, each component can be realized by a program execution unit such as a CPU reading and executing a software program recorded on a recording medium such as a hard disk or a semiconductor memory.

  The software that realizes the electronic book processing apparatus in each of the above embodiments is a program as described below. That is, this program stores electronic book information having two or more page information that is page information and a plurality of content information that is content information arranged on each page indicated by the two or more page information. Group related information, which is information related to one or more groups composed of one or more pieces of content information arranged in each of two or more pages of the electronic book indicated by the electronic book information and the electronic book indicated by the electronic book information, is stored. This is a program for causing a computer that can access the group-related information storage unit to function as a display unit that displays content information for each group indicated by the group-related information.

  Also, this program stores electronic book information having two or more page information that is page information and a plurality of content information that is content information arranged on each page indicated by the two or more page information. A computer that can access the electronic book information storage unit, detects one or more pieces of content information in accordance with a rule specified in advance for each of two or more pages of the electronic book information, and relates to a group composed of the detected pieces of content information It is a program for functioning as a grouping unit that acquires group-related information and an output unit that outputs group-related information acquired by the grouping unit.

  In the program, the functions realized by the program do not include functions that can be realized only by hardware. For example, a function that can be realized only by hardware such as a modem or an interface card in an acquisition unit that acquires information or an output unit that outputs information is not included in the function realized by the program.

  Further, the computer that executes this program may be singular or plural. That is, centralized processing may be performed, or distributed processing may be performed.

  FIG. 20 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an external appearance of a computer that executes the program and realizes the electronic book processing apparatus according to the embodiment. The above-described embodiment can be realized by computer hardware and a computer program executed on the computer hardware.

  20, a computer system 900 includes a computer 901 including a CD-ROM (Compact Disk Read Only Memory) drive 905 and an FD (Floppy (registered trademark) Disk) drive 906, a keyboard 902, a mouse 903, a monitor 904, and the like. Is provided.

  FIG. 21 is a diagram showing an internal configuration of the computer system 900. In FIG. 21, in addition to the CD-ROM drive 905 and the FD drive 906, a computer 901 is connected to an MPU (Micro Processing Unit) 911, a ROM 912 for storing a program such as a bootup program, and the MPU 911. A RAM (Random Access Memory) 913 that temporarily stores program instructions and provides a temporary storage space, a hard disk 914 that stores application programs, system programs, and data, and an MPU 911 and a ROM 912 are interconnected. And a bus 915. The computer 901 may include a network card (not shown) that provides connection to the LAN.

  A program that causes the computer system 900 to execute the functions of the electronic book processing apparatus and the like according to the above-described embodiment is stored in the CD-ROM 921 or the FD 922, inserted into the CD-ROM drive 905 or the FD drive 906, and the hard disk 914. May be forwarded to. Instead, the program may be transmitted to the computer 901 via a network (not shown) and stored in the hard disk 914. The program is loaded into the RAM 913 when executed. The program may be loaded directly from the CD-ROM 921, the FD 922, or the network.

  The program does not necessarily include an operating system (OS) or a third-party program that causes the computer 901 to execute the functions of the electronic book processing apparatus according to the above-described embodiment. The program may include only a part of an instruction that calls an appropriate function (module) in a controlled manner and obtains a desired result. How the computer system 900 operates is well known and will not be described in detail.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications are possible, and it goes without saying that these are also included in the scope of the present invention.

  As described above, the electronic book processing apparatus and the like according to the present invention are suitable as an apparatus for processing electronic book information, and in particular, an electronic book processing apparatus that displays electronic book information in a mode different from display in page units. Useful as such.

1, 2, 3 Electronic book processing apparatus 11 Electronic book information storage unit 12 Group related information storage unit 13 Designated operation receiving unit 14, 24 Grouping unit 15 Operation receiving unit 16 Display unit 37 Output unit 100 Monitor 150 Button 900 Computer system 901 Computer 902 Keyboard 903 Mouse 906 FD drive 914 Hard disk 915 Bus 1301 Area

Claims (15)

An electronic book information storage unit that stores electronic book information having two or more page information that is page information and a plurality of pieces of content information that is content information arranged on each page indicated by the two or more page information When,
A group related information storage unit for storing group related information, which is information related to one or more groups composed of one or more pieces of content information arranged on each of two or more pages of the electronic book indicated by the electronic book information; ,
The electronic book processing apparatus provided with the display part which displays the said content information for every group which the said group relevant information shows. For each of two or more pages included in the electronic book information, one or more pieces of content information are detected according to a rule specified in advance, and group related information related to a group constituted by the detected content information is stored in the group related information. The electronic book processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a grouping unit that accumulates in the unit. A designation operation accepting unit that accepts an operation for designating one piece of content information of content information included in the electronic book information or an operation for designating a content attribute;
The grouping unit is content information having the same attribute as the content information specified by the operation received by the specified operation receiving unit, or content having the same attribute as the content attribute specified by the operation received by the specified operation receiving unit The information is detected for each of two or more pages of the electronic book information, and group related information related to a group composed of the detected two or more pieces of content information is accumulated in the group related information storage unit. Electronic book processing device. The grouping unit detects and detects a combination of content information of a data type specified in advance and content information in a positional relationship specified in advance with respect to the content information for each of two or more pages. The electronic book processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein group related information relating to a group composed of content information is accumulated. The operation accepting unit further accepts an operation for designating a display mode of the content as one of a group display mode and a page display mode,
The display unit
When the group display mode is designated, the content information is displayed for each group,
5. The electronic book processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the page display mode is designated, the content information is displayed for each page information. An electronic book information storage unit that stores electronic book information having two or more page information that is page information and a plurality of pieces of content information that is content information arranged on each page indicated by the two or more page information When,
A grouping unit that detects one or more pieces of content information according to a rule specified in advance for each of two or more pages included in the electronic book information, and acquires group related information related to the group composed of the detected pieces of content information; ,
The electronic book processing apparatus provided with the output part which outputs the group relevant information which the said grouping part acquired. A designation operation accepting unit that accepts an operation for designating one piece of content information of content information included in the electronic book information or an operation for designating a content attribute;
The grouping unit is content information having the same attribute as the content information specified by the operation received by the specified operation receiving unit, or content having the same attribute as the content attribute specified by the operation received by the specified operation receiving unit The electronic book processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein information is detected for each of two or more pages of the electronic book information, and group related information relating to a group composed of the detected two or more pieces of content information is acquired. The grouping unit detects and detects a combination of content information of a data type specified in advance and content information in a positional relationship specified in advance with respect to the content information for each of two or more pages. The electronic book processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein group-related information relating to a group composed of content information is acquired. 9. The electronic book processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the group related information is information having identification information of one or more pieces of content information belonging to each group for each group. 9. The electronic book processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the group related information is information having identification information of one or more groups and identification information of content information belonging to each group in association with each other. The group related information is information on a page in which two or more pieces of content information belonging to each group are arranged for each group,
The electronic book processing according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the display unit displays, for each page, a page in which one or more pieces of content information indicated by the information of the page are arranged according to the display switching operation. apparatus. An electronic book information storage unit that stores electronic book information having two or more page information that is page information and a plurality of pieces of content information that is content information arranged on each page indicated by the two or more page information And group related information storage in which group related information, which is information related to one or more groups composed of one or more pieces of content information arranged on each of two or more pages of the electronic book indicated by the electronic book information, is stored. Electronic book processing method performed using a display unit and a display unit,
The electronic book processing method provided with the display step in which the said display part displays the said content information for every group which the said group relevant information shows. An electronic book information storage unit that stores electronic book information having two or more page information that is page information and a plurality of pieces of content information that is content information arranged on each page indicated by the two or more page information And an electronic book processing method performed using a grouping unit and an output unit,
The grouping unit detects one or more pieces of content information according to a rule specified in advance for each of two or more pages included in the electronic book information, and displays group related information related to the group composed of the detected pieces of content information. Grouping steps to retrieve,
An electronic book processing method, comprising: an output step in which the output unit outputs group-related information acquired in the grouping step. An electronic book information storage unit that stores electronic book information having two or more page information that is page information and a plurality of pieces of content information that is content information arranged on each page indicated by the two or more page information And group related information storage in which group related information, which is information related to one or more groups composed of one or more pieces of content information arranged on each of two or more pages of the electronic book indicated by the electronic book information, is stored. A computer that is accessible to
The program for functioning as a display part which displays the said content information for every group which the said group relevant information shows. An electronic book information storage unit that stores electronic book information having two or more page information that is page information and a plurality of pieces of content information that is content information arranged on each page indicated by the two or more page information A computer with access to
A grouping unit that detects one or more pieces of content information according to a rule specified in advance for each of two or more pages included in the electronic book information, and acquires group related information related to the group composed of the detected pieces of content information; ,
The program for functioning as an output part which outputs the group relevant information which the said grouping part acquired.

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