KR20010061340A - Method for using portable electronic book and the portable electronic book - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A portable e-book and its operation method are provided to control scroll speed according to the size of the contents to be displayed in an LCD, and the reading speed of the user so that it can offer a proper scroll speed to the user without the page up/down switching button. CONSTITUTION: The method comprises steps of loading an n-th page among pages stored in a memory of the e-book(S110), decoding the loaded data into characters or graphics to allow the user to recognize the page(S120), displaying the decoded data in the LCD(S130), a controller comparing a display time with a delay time set in advance(S200), continuing to display the loaded data in the case that the display time is less than the delay time, and loading an n+1-th page among the pages stored in the memory(S300). The delay time can be changed automatically according to the reading speed and the display size or can be set by the user.

Description

Method for using portable electronic book and the portable electronic book}

The present invention relates to a portable e-book, and more particularly to a method of operating a portable e-book.

A portable e-book is a device that allows a user to read a file that can be used in a computer without printing a printer, and includes a flat panel display device such as a liquid crystal display device and an operation switch. 1 and 2 are perspective views schematically showing a conventional portable e-book.

The portable e-book may be classified into two types, such as a memory built-in type shown in FIG. 1 and a memory replaceable type shown in FIG. 2, according to a structure.

The memory-embedded e-book has a memory device (not shown) for storing an e-book file therein, and the e-book file stored in the memory device through a separate communication means on the flat panel display device 10. Display and provide the content of the book to the user. The memory built-in e-book preferably includes a transmission means 40 such as a parallel port or a serial port. The reason is that the e-book cannot provide various kinds of documents to the user unless the transmission means 40 capable of communicating with the outside is included in the memory-ready e-book.

The memory replaceable e-book does not have a built-in memory element, and a separate memory pack (not shown) in which the contents of the book are stored can be inserted into an interface device 50 such as a slot. It is configured to be. Such a memory pack stores one or more computer files and can be easily separated from an e-book. Therefore, the memory replaceable e-book can provide many kinds of documents to the user by swapping the memory pack.

Each e-book is provided with several operation switches 30 including page up / down keys so that a user can easily read the contents of the book. In addition to the page-up switch and page down switch that display the contents of a book one screen on the flat-panel display, these operation switches control font size. ), A power switch that controls the on / off of the power supply.

In general, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the operation switch 30 of the e-book is located in front of the case 20 in which the flat panel display device 10 is formed. And, most of these operation switches are composed of a TACT switch device.

The tact switch is configured to connect two terminals by a push operation or a corresponding operation, and is controlled by generating a predetermined pulse in a single click operation or a continuous on state. Generate a signal.

The portable e-book needs at least three functions for smooth use by the user, and should be configured to include an operation switch for performing such a function.

First, a power switch for performing on / off of the power supply. The portable e-book may be configured to include a separate power adapter (adapter) for receiving an external power supply, but if the user is to carry and use when going out, the battery (battery) must be built in. In addition, a power switch for controlling the supply of power is required in the portable e-book in order to reduce the consumption of the power charged in the battery.

Second is a scroll switch for page up / down. Portable e-books display the contents of a book on a flat panel display, so that if you want to provide content to users one screen at a time, a page-up switch is provided to allow the user to read the contents of the book back and forth one screen. It must be configured with a page-down switch. The page up / down scroll switch may be composed of two types, a page up switch and a page down switch, or a single three terminal switch.

Third is a bookmark switch that marks the location of the book the user is currently reading. Conventional books use clips such as clips in the pages of the current book to make them easier to read. However, e-books can be conveniently marked by the user by software to mark the position of the book they are currently reading. Provide. In order for an e-book to provide the user with the above convenience without having such a bookmark switch, the user must continuously mark the position of the book currently displayed on the flat panel display whenever the user presses the page up / down switch. Must have

However, in the conventional method of driving an e-book, the page up / down scrolling is performed only when the user presses the page up switch or the page down switch. Thus, in order to read the e-book, the user may need to page up switch or page down whenever necessary. There was a problem to press the switch.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, and an object thereof is to enable a user to read an e-book without pressing a page up switch or page down switch.

1 is a perspective view schematically showing a conventional memory embedded portable e-book.

Figure 2 is a perspective view schematically showing a conventional memory replaceable portable e-book.

3 to 6 is a flow chart schematically showing a method of operating the e-book of the present invention.

Figure 7 is a block diagram schematically showing a portable e-book of the present invention.

8 and 9 are perspective views schematically showing a portable e-book of the present invention.

Symbol description for main parts of drawing

100: scroll switch unit 200: memory unit

300: control unit 400: display unit

500: scroll control switch

According to the present invention, a page is automatically scrolled periodically according to a cycle time set by a user.

The portable e-book operating method of the present invention comprises the steps of loading and displaying data of n pages (S100), and comparing the display time that has elapsed from the time when the data of n pages is displayed to a predetermined delay time ( S200), and loading and displaying data corresponding to n + 1 pages when the display time exceeds the delay time (S300). 3 is a flowchart schematically illustrating a method for operating an e-book of the present invention.

Hereinafter, the e-book operating method of the present invention is carried out as follows.

First, n pages of data stored in the memory of the e-book are loaded (S110). At this time, the amount of data of each page is preferably about one page or more which can be displayed on the display area of the flat panel display, but the amount of letters or pictures may be different for each page.

Data loaded from the memory is displayed on the display area of the flat panel display (S130). At this time, the data loaded from the memory is decoded into a shape that can be recognized by a person such as a character or a picture (S120), and the decoded data is implemented in a flat panel display device and provided to a user (S130). .

Then, the controller of the e-book in which the operation method of the present invention is executed compares the time elapsed since the n-page data is displayed on the flat panel display device (hereinafter referred to as display time) to a predetermined delay time (S200). . In this case, the delay time may be varied according to the reading speed of the user or the area of the area where n page data is implemented in the flat panel display (hereinafter, referred to as the area of the data area) (S400).

4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation method of displaying data by varying a delay time according to the amount of data displayed on a current page.

First, the amount of decoded data is compared with the amount of predetermined reference data (S410), and if the amount of decoded data is larger than the amount of reference data, the delay time is set longer than the predetermined reference time (S440). If the amount of decoded data is less than the amount of reference data, the delay time is set to be shorter than the predetermined reference time (S430). If the amount of decoded data is equal to the amount of reference data, the delay time is set to the reference time. The same setting is made (S420). At this time, the reference time is preferably set to the average speed that the general public reads the screen on which the reference data is displayed, a slight error may be allowed.

The reading speed of the general public shows a large deviation from user to user. However, most people's reading speed (reading aloud) is approximately 200 to 300 characters per minute, and the reading speed of reading is about 2000 characters or more per minute.

Therefore, if the reference time applied to the e-book of the present invention should be set based on the reading speed having the highest distribution. The delay time set with reference to the reference time should be able to be changed to an appropriate value by the user's operation, and should be automatically changed by the controller according to the area of the data area. That is, the delay time is preferably set such that the decoded shape of the entire area of the display area of the flat panel display device can vary according to the ratio of the area implemented in the display area.

In addition, the delay time set in the operation method of the present invention is preferably added or subtracted to a suitable length by the control signal generated by the user's operation (S500). This control signal is generated by the user operating the control switch of the e-book. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation method in which a delay time is added or decreased by a user's operation.

First, the control unit of the portable e-book adopting the operation method of the present invention determines whether the control signal is generated by the user (S510). If the scroll speed decrease signal is generated by the user, the preset delay time is further increased to set the time for which the data of each page stays displayed longer than before (S540), and the scroll speed decrease signal is generated by the user. When is generated, the predetermined delay time is further reduced to set the time for staying in the state where the data of each page is displayed to be shorter than before (S530). In addition, if the control signal is not generated by the user, the delay time is not changed (S520).

If the display time elapsed after the decoded data is displayed on the flat panel display reaches the delay time, the controller of the present invention retrieves data corresponding to the next page of n pages (hereinafter referred to as n + 1 page) from the memory. Load (S300). In this case, data of n pages and data of n + 1 pages may have the same size or may not have the same size. That is, the area of the area where the data of n pages is displayed and the area of the area where the data of n + 1 page is displayed may or may not be the same.

Data of n + 1 pages loaded from the memory is displayed on the flat panel display through the same process as n pages are displayed.

The portable e-book in which the operation method of the present invention is implemented as described above includes a memory unit 200 in which the e-book data is stored, a display device unit 400 which implements the e-book data as a human-recognized image, A control unit 300 for decoding the e-book data and inputting it to the display device unit and controlling the scroll speed of the display device unit, and a scroll switch unit 100 for inputting a control signal for controlling the scroll speed of the display device unit to the control unit. It is composed. 7 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a portable e-book of the present invention.

The memory unit 200 stores e-book data provided by the portable e-book. The memory unit 200 may be fixedly embedded in the main body of the e-book, or may exist separately to be used in combination with the main body.

The display device 400 receives the e-book data stored in the memory 200 and implements an image that can be recognized by a person. The display device 400 is preferably composed of a flat panel display such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), but electronic paper that implements letters or drawings using recently developed electronic ink. It may be used as a next generation e-book display unit.

The control unit 300 decodes the e-book data stored in the memory unit 200 and inputs it to the display device unit 400, and under the control of the scroll switch unit 100, the scroll speed of the display device unit 400 is increased or decreased. . That is, when the speed control signal is generated in the scroll switch unit 100, the controller 300 receives the speed control signal and displays one page of e-book data stored in the memory unit 200 on the display device unit 400. Decreases or decreases the displayed time.

The scroll switch unit 100 generates a speed control signal for adjusting the scroll speed of the display device 400 by a user's manipulation. The speed control signal includes a speed up signal for increasing the delay time and a speed down signal for decreasing the delay time.

The scroll switch unit 100 may be configured as a dial switch capable of generating both a speed up signal and a speed down signal as shown in FIG. 5, and generate a speed up signal as shown in FIG. 6. And a second scroll switch SW2 for generating a speed down signal. The dial switch operates on the same principle as a volume switch for adjusting a volume of a TV or audio.

At this time, the portable e-book of the present invention further includes a scroll control switch 500 for varying the operation of the scroll switch unit 100, as shown in FIG. The scroll switch unit 100 may be configured to serve as a page up / down switch.

If the scroll control switch 500 is turned on, the scroll operation of the display device 400 is automatically performed according to the operating method of the present invention, and the scroll switch 100 is automatically scrolled. Carry out the operation of increasing or decreasing the speed.

When the scroll control switch 500 is turned off, the scroll operation that is automatically performed according to the operation method of the present invention is stopped, and the scroll switch unit 100 manually scrolls the display device 400. Reset to page up / down switch to implement. Therefore, the scroll switch unit 100 of the present invention may be configured to serve as a page up / down switch by the scroll control switch 500.

Hereinafter, the operation principle of the present invention will be described with reference to a block diagram and a perspective view of the e-book shown in FIGS. 7 to 9 and the flowchart of FIG. 6 in order to improve the understanding of the e-book of the present invention and the e-book operating method of the present invention. Do it.

(Operation principle of the present invention)

The e-book of the present invention operates in the same manner as the conventional e-book while the scroll control switch 500 is off. That is, the contents of the e-book displayed on the display device 400 by the page up switch SW1 and the page down switch SW2 are scrolled.

However, when the scroll control switch 500 is turned on, even if the user operates the page up switch and the page down switch, the contents of the e-book displayed on the display device 400 are not immediately scrolled.

When the scroll control switch 500 is turned on, the e-book of the present invention scrolls the contents of the e-book displayed on the display device 400 at predetermined intervals so that the user can change the page up switch or the page down switch. It automatically provides the user with the contents of the e-book stored in memory without pressing. That is, when the scroll control switch 500 is turned on, the contents of the e-book displayed on the display device 400 are periodically scrolled according to a preset delay time (S100, S200, and S300).

At this time, if the amount of the content of the e-book displayed on the display device 400 is larger than the predetermined reference amount, the delay time is slightly longer (S440), and if the amount of the content of the e-book content is smaller than the predetermined reference amount, The delay time is a little shorter (S430). For example, when the reference amount is 100 characters and the delay time according to the reference amount is 20 seconds, if the contents of the e-book currently displayed on the display unit 400 are all 120 characters, the delay time is about 24 seconds. If the e-book contents displayed on the display unit 400 are longer than the reference amount, and the contents of the electronic book are all 80 characters, the delay time is shorter than that of the reference amount.

Therefore, the user can read the e-book contents for a longer time if the amount of the e-book contents currently displayed on the display device 400 is high, and if the amount of the e-book contents is small, the user reads the e-book contents for a short time. You will be able to read the contents of the next page.

When the scroll control switch 500 is turned on, the page up / down switch that has been performing the page up scroll operation is reset to perform the operation of increasing or decreasing the delay time. Therefore, when the page up switch or the page down switch is pressed while the scroll control switch 500 is turned on (S510), the predetermined delay time is increased and decreased, and the contents of the e-book displayed on the display device 400 are displayed. This scrolling period is varied (S530, S540). That is, the contents of the e-book of the display device 400 scrolled by one page every 10 seconds may be scrolled by one page every seven seconds as the page up switch is pressed, or one every 12 seconds when the page down switch is pressed. It may be scrolled page by page.

Therefore, the user who reads the book faster than the general person can read the book faster than the general person by adjusting the frequency of scrolling the contents of the e-book shortly, and the user who enjoys the content and reads the book slowly scrolls the content of the e-book. The longer the period, the slower than the average person can read the book in more detail.

Since the electronic book operating method and the portable e-book of the present invention can automatically scroll pages, the user can read the contents of the book more conveniently than the conventional portable e-book and its operation method. In addition, the e-book operating method and the portable e-book according to the present invention adjust the scroll speed according to the amount of content to be displayed on the current display device, and the scroll speed is adjusted to suit the reading speed of the user, so that the page down switch or Even without pressing the page up switch, it is possible to provide a reading method that is most suitable for the user.

Claims (11)

Loading n pages of data from a memory to display the n pages of data in a display area of the flat panel display device; Comparing the display time elapsed from the time point at which the n page data is displayed with a preset delay time; And loading the data of n + 1 pages corresponding to the next page of n pages from the memory if the display time exceeds the delay time and displaying the data of the n + 1 page in the display area. A portable electronic book operating method characterized in that. The method of claim 1, wherein the size of data of n pages and the size of data of n + 1 pages is the same. The method of claim 1, wherein the size of data of n pages and the size of data of n + 1 pages is not the same. The method of claim 1, wherein the delay time is varied according to a ratio of an area where the data of n pages is displayed in the display area. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the n pages of data Loading n pages of data from the memory, Decoding the loaded data into a shape that can be recognized by a person such as a character or an image, And implementing the decoded shape in a display area of the flat panel display device. 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the delay time is varied according to a ratio of the area of the decoded shape to the area of the display area. The method of claim 1, wherein the delay time is changed by a control signal generated by a user who uses the portable e-book. The method of claim 7, wherein the control signal is generated by the user operating a control switch of the portable e-book. A memory unit storing e-book data, A display device unit for implementing the e-book data into a human-recognized image; A controller which decodes the e-book data stored in the memory unit and inputs it to the display unit, receives a control signal from the outside, and controls a scroll speed of the display unit; And a scroll switch unit configured to input a speed control signal to the controller to increase or decrease the scroll speed of the display apparatus by a user's operation. 10. The portable e-book of claim 9, further comprising a scroll control switch for changing the scroll switch unit to one of a speed control signal and a page up / down signal. The method of claim 9, wherein the scroll switch unit A first scroll switch for increasing a scroll speed of the display device; And a second scroll switch for reducing the scroll speed of the display device.