Progress indication for a digital work

This application is a continuation of and claims the benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/693,685, filed on Mar. 29, 2007, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Electronic distribution of information has gained importance with the proliferation of personal computers and wide area networks such as the Internet. With the widespread use of the Internet, it has become possible to store and distribute large, coherent units of information, such as books, using electronic technologies. Books and other media in electronic format are commonly referred to as electronic books (“eBooks”) or digital works.

Typically, digital works are structured as virtual frames presented on a computing device, and a user may turn or change from one virtual frame or “page” of electronic content to another. The term “page” as used herein refers to a collection of content presented at one time on a display. Thus, “pages” as described herein are not fixed permanently, and may be redefined or repaginated based on variances in display conditions, such as screen size, font type or size, margins, line spacing, resolution, or the like. Due in part to the variable nature of such “pages,” users may find it difficult to gauge their progress through the digital work. This problem is compounded by the fact that digital works may be displayed and read on a variety of different computing devices (e.g., computer monitors, portable digital assistants (PDAs), pocket computers, specialized eBook reader devices, etc.), under a variety of different display conditions (e.g., screen size and resolution, font type and size, margins, line spacing, etc.).

Accordingly, there remains a need to improve a reader's ability to navigate within a digital work and to better identify his or her location within the content of the digital work.

The detailed description is set forth with reference to the accompanying figures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. The use of the same reference numbers in different figures indicates similar or identical items.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an eBook reader device displaying a digital work along with one illustrative progress gauge, in the form of a progress bar, visually indicating a user's progress through the digital work.

FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram showing the progress gauge of FIG. 1 in more detail.

FIG. 2B is a detail view showing the portion of the progress gauge shown in region B of FIG. 1 .

FIG. 2C is a schematic diagram showing another illustrative progress gauge in the form of a progress bar.

FIG. 2D is a schematic diagram showing yet another illustrative implementation having multiple progress bars.

FIG. 2E is a schematic diagram showing yet another illustrative progress gauge, in the form of a semicircular progress gauge.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an eBook reader device displaying an illustrative collection of digital works available for access to a user of the eBook reader device, along with a progress bar showing a user's progress through each digital work in the collection.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing another illustrative collection of digital works available to a user of an eBook reader device, along with a semicircular progress gauge showing a user's progress through each digital work in the collection.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing various components of an illustrative eBook reader device.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an illustrative method of presenting a digital work and a progress gauge.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an illustrative method of presenting a collection of digital works along with progress gauges showing a user's progress through each digital work in the collection of digital works.

Overview

In some computing devices, a progress bar is used to visually show the user's location in the digital work. However, simply knowing a location in the digital work may be of limited value to a user, unless the user also knows how long the digital work is relative to some frame of reference. In addition, such progress bars typically do not provide any information about the structure or layout of the digital work. Thus, a user has no way of knowing, for example, how much of the digital work is the primary content and how much is front matter (e.g., title page, copyright page, table of contents, etc.) or back matter (e.g., appendices, indexes, glossary, etc.). Nor is the user able to see where chapters, acts, sections, or other parts of the digital work begin and end.

As mentioned above, users may find it difficult, using existing display technology, to gauge their progress through digital works. While some existing devices employ a progress bar to visually show the user's location in the digital work, this information has limited value unless the user also knows the length of the digital work relative to some frame of reference. In addition, users may desire additional information about the structure or layout of the digital work which is not apparent from the existing progress bars. This disclosure describes techniques for displaying a progress gauge indicating the user's progress through the digital work, along with additional information about the structure, content, and/or layout of the digital work. In one example, content dividers are used to divide the progress gauge into segments corresponding to sections of the digital work. Each segment of the progress gauge is sized to visually represent an amount of content in the corresponding section of the digital work, relative to other sections of the digital work.

Also described are techniques of displaying a collection of digital works available for access by a user on a device, and a progress gauge for one or more digital works in the collection of available digital works. The progress gauges enable the user to see the relative lengths of the digital works in the collection and/or the user's progress through the associated digital works.

In illustrative implementations described herein, progress gauges are described in the context of displaying electronic books (“eBook”) or digital works. The terms “eBook” and “digital work” are used synonymously and, as used herein, may include any type of content which can be stored and distributed in digital form. By way of illustration, without limitation, digital works and eBooks can include all forms of textual information such as books, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, periodicals, journals, reference materials, telephone books, textbooks, anthologies, proceedings of meetings, forms, directories, maps, manuals, guides, references, photographs, articles, reports, documents, etc., and all forms of audio and audiovisual works such as music, multimedia presentations, audio books, movies, etc.

Also, while the progress gauges are described in various implementations as being displayed on an eBook reader device, the concepts may be implemented in other electronic devices or electronic readers besides eBook reader devices including, for example, personal computers, portable computers (e.g., laptops or pocket PCs), personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable gaming devices, wireless phones, and the like. Similarly, while certain implementations are described in the context of presentation of textual media (e.g., reading rates, reading time, etc.), progress bars and other progress gauges are also applicable to consumption of other types of digital works, such as audio, video, multimedia, or other types of content. In addition, while progress gauges are described as visually representing a user's progress through a digital work, in some instances progress gauges may additionally or alternatively represent a user's progress through a digital work audibly or in a tactile manner.

In view of the above, this disclosure describes ways of representing a user's progress through a digital work. In one aspect, a user's progress through the digital work may be presented using a progress gauge. The progress gauge may be divided into segments using one or more content dividers. Each segment of the progress gauge may correspond to a section of the digital work, and may visually represent an amount of content in the corresponding section of the digital work, relative to other sections of the digital work. Accordingly, a user may at a glance assess his or her progress through the digital work.

In another aspect, a collection of digital works available for access by a user may be displayed. A progress bar may be presented in association with one or more of the digital works in the collection of available digital works. Each progress bar indicates a user's progress through the associated digital work. Thus, the user may readily assess his or her progress through the multiple digital works.

Illustrative Computing Device with Progress Gauge

FIG. 1 illustrates an illustrative implementation of an eBook reader device 100 having a display screen 102 , on which are displayed a header pane 104 , a reading pane 106 , and a navigation pane 108 . In other implementations, one or more of these panes may be combined, modified, or omitted as necessary or desired for a given application. The header pane 104 may be used to display a title, author, date, time, chapter, section, and/or any other pertinent data to a user. The reading pane 106 may be used to display content of an eBook or digital work for consumption by a user. The navigation pane 108 may include any of a variety of interfaces which allow a user to navigate within and among eBooks and other content stored in memory or system storage of the eBook reader device 100 .

In the implementation shown in FIG. 1 , the navigation pane 108 includes a progress gauge 110 configured to visually indicate the user's progress through the digital work. In addition to the user's progress through the digital work, the progress gauge 110 may convey a variety of additional information to a user. For example, the progress gauge 110 and/or navigation pane 108 may in various implementations provide information about the digital work itself (e.g., structure, content, layout of the digital work, etc.), the user's consumption of the digital work (e.g., consumption rate, consumption time, etc.), information associated with the digital work (e.g., bookmarks, annotations, size of underlying data file, etc.), or virtually any other information which might be of interest to the user. The progress gauge 110 and/or navigation pane 108 may also include a variety of controls to the user, such as navigation controls (e.g., page forward/back, manual or auto scroll, search, go to, etc.), formatting controls (e.g., change font size or type, zoom in or out on the progress gauge, etc.), or any other sort of controls which might be useful to the user.

Illustrative In-Work Progress Gauges

FIG. 2A illustrates a display screen 200 including an illustrative progress gauge 202 which may be generated for display on a computing device, such as the eBook reader device 100 . The progress gauge 202 in this implementation comprises a linear progress bar showing a user's progress through a digital work, a page indicator 204 showing current page and total number of pages in the digital work, and a “Go To” field 206 usable to jump to a specific location within the digital work. Of course, in other implementations, such as those described below, a variety of additional or alternative information and controls may be included in or associated with the progress gauge 202 .

In the illustrated implementation, content dividers 208 are used to divide the progress bar 202 into segments corresponding to sections of the digital work. In this example, segments of the progress bar 202 correspond to primary content of the digital work, front matter (e.g., title page, copyright page, table of contents, and any other matter occurring prior to the primary content of the digital work), and back matter (e.g., appendices, indexes, glossary, end notes, and any other matter following the primary content of the digital work). In addition, the primary content, front matter, and back matter may be further divided into multiple parts (e.g., chapters, acts, scenes, sections, appendices, or other divisions), and the progress bar may include segments corresponding to the parts. However, in other implementations, progress bar segments may correspond to other sections of a digital work, such as unfolioed pages, drawings, figures, and the like. In addition, the various sections of the digital work may be shown by different colors, different shades of the same color, shading, or other designation. For example, primary content may be shown in one color, front matter in another color, back matter in another color, and unfolioed pages in still another color.

In the example shown, the progress bar 202 is divided into eight segments corresponding to front matter, six chapters of the primary content, and back matter, respectively. In the illustrated implementation, the content dividers 208 are shown as tick marks positioned along the top of the progress bar 202 . However, in other implementations, any other desired shape and/or size of visual element may be used as a content divider and they content dividers may be placed in any other suitable location relative to the progress bar.

In the illustrated implementation, the segments of the progress bar 202 are sized to visually represent the relative sizes of the sections of the digital work. That is, larger sections of the digital work are generally represented by larger segments of the progress bar. This allows a user to readily see how the digital work is laid out and how large each section is relative to other sections of the digital work. This principle may be applied strictly linearly as shown in FIG. 2A , such that the largest segment of the progress bar corresponds to the largest section of the digital work (in this case Chapter 4), the second largest segment corresponds to the second largest section of the digital work (in this case Chapter 5), on down to the smallest segment, which corresponds to the smallest segment of the digital work (in this case the Front Matter). In other words the segments are sized proportionally to the sizes of the corresponding sections of the digital work.

Alternatively, segmentation of the progress bar 202 may be applied more generally in a non-linear manner. In one general segmentation example, sections of the digital work are grouped into classes (e.g., small, medium, and large) based on their size. For example, sections of a digital work smaller than a certain size (e.g., 500 units) could be classified as small, medium size sections of digital work (e.g., 500-10,000 units) could be classified as medium, and sections of the digital work larger than a certain size (e.g., 10,000 units) could be classified as large. The progress bar could then be divided into small, medium, and/or large segments according to the size of the sections of the digital work. In that case, the progress bar would still provide a general picture of the relative size of the segments, but using only segments of three different sizes. Of course, any number and size of classes may be used, depending on the level of detail, granularity, and/or segment size desired. This general segmentation approach may be appropriate where a few sections are substantially larger than the other sections of the digital work. In that case, under strict segmentation, segments corresponding to the substantially larger sections of the digital work would dominate the progress bar and segments corresponding to the smaller sections of the digital work might be difficult to discern on the progress bar due to their small size.

Another alternative would be to apply a strict segmentation approach, subject to predetermined minimum and/or maximum segment sizes. Thus, the segment sizes would be determined according to the strict segmentation approach described above, except that sections of the digital work smaller than a certain size would be represented on the progress bar by a predetermined minimum segment size, and/or sections of the digital work larger than a certain size would be represented on the progress bar by a predetermined maximum segment size. In each of the segmentation approaches described herein, the size of the digital work may be measured in a variety of ways, such as, for example, based on the number of characters, words, horizontal bands of content, bytes, multiples of bytes, or any other suitable unit of measurement.

In addition, in some implementations, the overall size of the progress bar 202 may be based on the size of the digital work relative to other digital works. That is, larger digital works would have longer progress bars than shorter digital works. This principle can again be applied strictly or generally in roughly the same manner described above for sizing the segments of the progress bar.

The progress bar 202 shows the user's progress through the digital work as a total of the user's progress during a current or most recent consumption session 210 (shown in dark stippling) and the user's progress during previous consumption sessions 212 (shown in light stippling). From this a user can easily determine not only his or her total progress through a digital work, but also how much progress he or she has made during the current or most recent consumption session. It should be understood the progress bar is not limited to the stippling shown in the figures and may include any suitable colors, shading, texture, or other visual elements which convey a user's progress through a digital work.

The progress bar 202 may also include a location slider 214 which represents a location of content presently being displayed, for example on the reading pane 106 of the eBook reader device 100 . The location slider 214 generally tracks the user's progress through the digital work, at any given time designating the user's present location in the digital work. However, if the user wishes to reread a portion of the digital work, the location slider will move back to the location presently being reread, while the progress bar 202 will still show the user's overall progress through the digital work. Also, as the name suggests, in some implementations the location slider 214 may be used as a navigation tool to move to a desired section of the digital work. For example, a user desiring to reread chapter four, could move the location slider 214 to the beginning of chapter four on the progress bar (as shown in broken lines in FIG. 2A ), and the corresponding content may be displayed in the reading pane 106 .

The progress bar 202 may also include any number of visual elements designating bookmarks 216 , annotations 218 , or other information which may be of interest to the user. Of course, the visual elements used to represent bookmarks, annotations, or any other information are not limited to those illustrated, and any suitable visual elements (e.g., shapes, colors, symbols, numbers, letter, etc.) may be used. Bookmarks 216 provide a way of designating a location of interest within a digital work (e.g., a virtual tab), while annotations 218 typically provide the additional ability to append additional information to the digital work, such as a comment, citation, pointer to another location (e.g., a hyperlink) in the same or another digital work, or virtually any other information. Annotations 218 may be in a variety of formats, depending on the software and hardware provided eBook reader device 100 or other computing device. By way of example and not limitation, annotations may include textual annotations, graphical annotations (e.g., images, handwritten notes, drawings, etc.), audio annotations, video annotations, links to external references, and/or combinations of these annotation types. The annotations 218 may correspond to the digital work in general or to one or more designated portions of the digital work. Bookmarks 216 and/or annotations 218 may be authored and appended to a digital work by a source of the digital work (e.g., publisher, merchant, etc.), by the user after receipt of the digital work, and/or by one or more third party authors (e.g., other users of the digital work).

Other information which may be shown on or in connection with the progress bar 202 includes a relative density of the digital work. Density refers to the amount of content (e.g., number of characters, words, bytes, etc.) per unit of the digital work (e.g., per frame or page, per line, etc.). Changes in density may be illustrated by different colors, shades of the same color, shading, or the like. Changes in density may be shown by a continuously variable gradient or by discreet stepwise changes in color, shading, or other designation.

FIG. 2A shows two triangular visual elements corresponding to bookmarks 216 and a diamond shaped visual element corresponding to an annotation 218 . In this implementation, the text or other appended content of the annotation 218 is hidden and displayed only in response to user selection of (e.g., by pointing a cursor 220 ) the diamond visual indicator corresponding to the annotation 218 . However, in other implantations, the content of annotations may appear at all times, or be presented in any other suitable manner. Additional details of illustrative techniques of annotating digital works and presenting annotations can be found in U.S. application Ser. No. 11/039,645, filed Jan. 19, 2005, and entitled “Method and System for Providing Annotations of a Digital Work,” and U.S. application Ser. No. 11/693,682, filed Mar. 29, 2007, and entitled “Providing Annotations of a Digital Work,” both of which are incorporated herein by reference.

All available information may or may not be displayed on the progress bar 202 at once. For example, some of the information associated with the progress bar 202 may be suppressed to avoid cluttering the progress bar 202 . This suppression may be automatic, at the request of the user, or both. In that case, suppressed details may be viewed by, for example, zooming in on a specific section of the progress bar 202 . Zooming may be performed automatically, for example, upon commencement of a new section of the digital work. In that case, the progress bar 202 may zoom in to show the segment corresponding to the commenced section of the digital work in more detail. Additionally or alternatively, zooming may be performed in response to user selection (e.g., by pointing a cursor 220 ) of a portion of the digital work, such as the portion circled at B in FIG. 2A .

FIG. 2B is an expanded view of the portion B of the progress bar 202 to which the user has zoomed. As shown, the progress bar 202 now shows the progress bar segment corresponding to Chapter 5 of the digital work in more detail. In this case, Chapter 5 is further divided into five sections (Sec1-Sec5), which are also sized according to the relative size of sections of the digital work to which they correspond. The portion of the digital work prior to Chapter 5 is shown by as a single segment <<Ch4, and the portion of the digital work following Chapter 5 is shown by a single segment Ch6>>. The progress bar 202 in this view is adjusted to show the user's progress through Chapter 5. Also, what appeared as a single bookmark 216 when zoomed out (in FIG. 2A ), now appears as three separate bookmarks 216 when zoomed in (in FIG. 2B ). That is, visual indicators in close proximity to one another may be consolidated on the progress bar when zoomed out, to avoid clutter.

Also in FIG. 2B , content 222 of the annotation 218 is displayed in response to user selection of the diamond visual indicator of the annotation 218 with the cursor 220 . Alternatively, the content 222 of the annotation 218 may be displayed in response to the zooming action and/or in response to the progress bar 202 becoming less cluttered and providing sufficient space to display the content 222 . Also, while not shown in this figure, the title pane 104 (see FIG. 1 ) may change, in response to the zooming, to display a chapter or section title in addition to or instead of the title of the digital work (e.g., Romeo and Juliet—Act 3, Scene 1).

FIG. 2C shows a display screen 224 showing another illustrative progress bar 226 . In this implementation, the progress bar 226 includes progress markers 228 indicating the user's progress through the digital work during each consumption session. In the illustrated example, the user has consumed the digital work in seven different sessions ( 230 a - 230 f ), the first six sessions being shown in light stippling, and the last or current session again being shown by the darker stippling.

The display screen 224 in this implementation also includes a time field 232 , a rate field 234 , a search field 236 , and a location field 238 associated with the progress bar 226 . The time field 232 in the illustrated example shows a reading time during the current session. However, the time field may designate a variety of additional or alternative time-based information, such as a total elapsed consumption time to the current point in the digital work, an elapsed time during the current consumption session, an estimated remaining time to complete the digital work or a section thereof, a simple countdown timer, a clock, or the like.

The rate field 234 in the illustrated example shows a reading rate at which the user is progressing through the digital work. However, if the digital work were other than a textual work, the rate field 234 may display another rate of consumption of the digital work. The user's reading rate may change over the course of the digital work. The variation in the reading rate may be indicated on the progress bar 226 by different colors, shading, histograms, or the like. Additionally or alternatively, the rate field may show a “cumulative” reading rate for the digital work or a section thereof, or an “instantaneous” reading rate showing the user's reading rate over a more limited period (e.g., the last ten minutes). In one example, the time field 232 may display an estimated time remaining to complete the current chapter or other section of the digital work, based on the user's cumulative or instantaneous reading rate.

The search field 236 allows the user to enter a search term to search within the digital work. In some implementations, the search field 236 may also allow the user to search contents of local memory of the eBook reader or other computing device, remote data stores, and/or the Internet.

The location field 238 displays a present location within the digital work and the total number of locations within the digital work, both in terms of invariant location reference identifiers. As mentioned above, a problem arises when attempting to identify and communicate a page or position within a digital work, due to the variable screen size, font type or size, margins, line spacing, resolution, and other variable display conditions of the computing devices. Invariant location reference identifiers, as their name suggests, make it possible to identify and communicate a specific location or segment of content in the digital work, regardless of screen size, font type or size, resolution, or other display conditions of the computing device on which the digital work is displayed. Generally, this is accomplished by assigning unique reference identifiers at locations throughout the content of a digital work, or to individual segments of the digital work. These reference identifiers are not dependent on display conditions of a computing device on which the digital work is displayed. In that sense, the reference characters are invariant.

There are numerous ways of providing invariant location reference identifiers in, or in association with, content of a digital work. In addition, there are a variety of ways in which digital works may be partitioned and assigned invariant location reference identifiers. For example, each invariant location reference identifier may be assigned to an individual character or word, a group of words, a sentence, a paragraph, a band of text of predetermined size, a unit of data, or some other division of the digital work. Additional details of invariant location reference identification schemes can be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/693,677, filed Mar. 29, 2007, and entitled “Invariant Referencing in Digital Works,” which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIG. 2D illustrates another display screen 240 including another illustrative progress bar 242 . In this implementation, a number of information bars may also be provided with the progress bar 242 , including a goal bar 244 illustrating a consumption goal for the user and an assignment bar 246 illustrating an assigned consumption level. By way of example, the goal bar 244 may be manually entered by the user or automatically generated based on the user's reading rate, age, or some other criteria. The assignment bar 246 may be manually entered by the user or may be assigned by a third party (e.g., a reading assignment from a professor) over a network.

Also in this implementation, a second progress bar is displayed along with the first progress bar 242 . The second progress bar in this implementation comprises an “Others' Progress” bar 248 , showing the progress of one or more other users. Such an “Others' Progress” bar 248 may be used by a teacher to monitor progress of individual students in a class. Alternatively, students might have an “Others' Progress” bar 248 showing the progress of their peers through a digital work. In FIG. 2D , the “Others' Progress” bar 248 illustrates a class average progress in light stippling, and a class leader progress in darker stippling. These and numerous other types of progress and/or information bars may additionally or alternatively be presented to a user of the eBook reader or other computing device.

FIG. 2E illustrates a display screen 250 showing yet another illustrative progress gauge 252 , namely a semicircular progress gauge. Progress gauges may come in a variety of shapes and sizes, including but not limited to progress bars and semicircular progress gauges. Other suitable progress gauges which may be used to visually represent a user's progress through a digital work may be apparent to those skilled in the art. The progress gauge 252 includes a number of content dividers 254 disposed around the outside of the progress gauge 252 to divide the progress gauge 252 into segments corresponding to sections of the digital work. As in the previous implementations, the segments of the progress gauge 252 are sized to visually represent the relative size of the sections of the digital work. That is, larger sections of the digital work are generally represented by larger segments of the progress gauge 252 . Also, the size of the digital work, relative to other digital works, may be visually represented by the size, or in this case, the angle of the progress gauge. Larger digital works being visually represented by a larger angle θ (closer to a full circle), and smaller digital works being represented by a smaller angle θ. Additionally or alternatively, larger books may be visually represented by multiple progress gauges, or portions thereof.

In this implantation a consumption rate field 256 , a consumption time field 258 , and a location field 260 similar to those described with respect to the implementations above are also displayed in association with the progress gauge 252 . Also in this implementation, a part field 262 is displayed, which designates a part of the digital work currently being displayed (in this case Act 3 of the digital work Romeo and Juliet), as well as an annotation field 264 , which displays annotation content associated with annotation visual indicators 266 along the progress gauge 252 .

While specifics of several illustrative progress gauge implementations have been described, it should be understood that elements of each of the described implementations may be combined, modified, or omitted as desired to arrive at additional progress gauges for eBook reader devices or other computing devices.

Illustrative Collection Progress Gauges

The progress gauges described above are generally displayed in connection with a specific digital work, while the digital work is being consumed (“in-work”). However, many of the same or similar features of the foregoing progress gauges are applicable to a collection of digital works as well. Details of a few such illustrative progress gauges are described below.

FIG. 3 illustrates an eBook reader device 300 , on which is presented an illustrative collection interface 302 of digital works available for access via the eBook reader device 300 . The digital works available via the eBook reader device 300 may include digital works stored locally in memory of the eBook reader device 300 and/or remotely in memory of a remote computing device (e.g., a personal computer, another eBook reader device, a remote storage, or the like). The collection interface 302 may include a heading field 304 to identify the collection. In the illustrated implementation, only one collection is available. However, in some instances, multiple collections may be available for different types of digital works (e.g., texts, music, video, multimedia, etc.), for different genres of digital works (e.g., classics, fiction, biographies, comedies, jazz, rock, country, etc.), and/or for different users of the eBook reader or other computing device (e.g., Mom's digital works, Dad's digital works, Junior's digital works, etc.). In that case, the heading field 304 may identify which of the collections is presently being displayed.

The collection interface 302 also may include a collection field 306 including a list of available digital works. Each digital work in the list includes a title 308 or other identifier, and a progress bar 310 indicating the user's progress through the associated digital work. Where more than one digital work is included in the collection, the collection field 306 also may visually indicate the relative size of the digital works (i.e., larger works have larger progress bars than shorter works). This is illustrated in FIG. 3 by the fact that the progress bar 310 associated with the digital work War and Peace is longer than the progress bar associated with the digital work Peter Pan.

The progress bars 310 in the collection interface 302 are generally abbreviated or simplified relative to those described in the foregoing “in-work” implementations. For example, the progress bars 310 shown in FIG. 3 illustrate the user's overall progress and progress during a most recent consumption session, but do not show bookmarks, annotations, or other information which may be available on an “in-work” progress bar. However, the progress bars 310 may, in some instances, include any or all of the aspects described for the progress bars in the preceding implementations.

In some implementations, such as that shown in FIG. 3 , a progress bar 310 is shown directly below each digital work in the collection. However, in other implementations, a progress bar may be presented only next to those digital works which the user has begun to consume. Additionally, the size, shape, location, colors, textures, and other characteristics of the progress bars may vary as necessary or desired for a given application. In still other implementations, progress bars may be normally hidden and only displayed in response to selection of, or pointing to, a corresponding digital work in the collection interface 302 .

From the collection interface 302 the user may select one or more of the digital works listed in the collection field 306 for consumption. Selection may be accomplished in any known manner, such as by moving a selection box 312 using a thumb wheel, pointing device, touch screen, or any other suitable user input. Upon selection of a digital work from the collection interface, the digital work may be opened and displayed along with an in-work progress gauge, as shown in FIG. 1 .

FIG. 4 illustrates another illustrative collection interface 400 usable with the eBook reader 300 or other computing device. The collection interface 400 is similar to that shown in FIG. 3 , except that instead of using progress bars to show a users progress through digital works, a number of circular and/or semicircular progress gauges 402 are used. In this implementation, the relative lengths of the digital works included in the collection are shown by a number of whole and/or partial circles associated with each work. The more circles or parts thereof, the longer the digital work. Each circle may represent a predetermined size (e.g., 25,000 words, 10 kilobytes, etc.), with partial circles representing fractions of a whole. The user's progress through each digital work is also shown on the progress gauges 402 . In the illustrated implementation, the user's progress during a most recent consumption session is shown in dark stippling, while consumption during previous consumption sessions is shown in lighter stippling. Additional details of the collection interface 400 are the same or similar to collection interface 302 and have, therefore, been omitted for brevity.

Illustrative eBook Reader Device

FIG. 5 illustrates one illustrative eBook reader device 500 which may be used to display digital works along with any of the foregoing progress gauges. However, virtually any other type of computing device may be used. In the illustrated implementation, the device 500 is embodied as a handheld eBook reader device. Various features of the device 500 are described briefly below. However, a fuller description of this illustrative computing device may be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/277,893, filed Mar. 29, 2006, and entitled “Handheld Electronic Book Reader Device Having Dual Displays,” which is incorporated herein by reference.

As shown in FIG. 5 , the eBook reader device 500 has a body or housing 502 , a keyboard 504 , and a dual display system comprised of a first display 506 and a second display 508 . The device keyboard 304 includes a plurality of alphabetic, numeric, and/or function keys for entry of user input.

The first display 506 in the dual display system presents content in a human-readable format to the user. The content presented in the first display 506 may include digital works, such as electronic books, newspapers, or other readable or viewable materials. For example, the display 506 provides the text of the electronic books and also depicts any illustrations, tables, or graphic elements which might be contained in the electronic books. In some instances, the first display 506 is implemented using electronic paper display technology. In general, an electronic paper display is one that has a high resolution (150 dpi or better) and is bi-stable, meaning that it is capable of holding text or other rendered images even when very little or no power is supplied to the display. The electronic paper display technology may also exhibit high contrast substantially equal to that of print on paper. Some exemplary electronic paper displays that may be used with the implementations described herein include bi-stable LCDs, MEMS, cholesteric, pigmented electrophoretic, and others. One exemplary electronic paper display that may be used is an E Ink-brand display.

The second display 508 of the dual display system is a narrow screen located adjacent to the content display 506 . The narrow display 508 is illustrated as being positioned to the right of the content display 506 , although it may be located elsewhere in the housing 502 in other implementations. The narrow display screen 508 may be responsive to user input registered via, for example, a finger, a stylus, or other similar pointing device. Additionally, the narrow display screen 508 may enable presentation of graphic elements which correspond to content displayed in the content display 506 .

The eBook reader device 500 may also include a variety of user inputs 510 to navigate through and among eBooks and digital works. Examples of user inputs that may be present include buttons, scroll wheels, thumb wheels, thumb sticks, sensors which detect and register movement of a user's thumb or finger, tactile sensors, or any other conventional user input mechanism.

The eBook reader device 500 also has various internal components, which are referred to generally as eBook reader subsystems 512 . In one implementation, the subsystems 512 include system storage 514 and a processing unit 516 . The processing unit 516 interacts with the system storage 514 to facilitate operation of the eBook reader device 500 . The system storage 514 may be used to store one or more eBooks 518 , annotations 520 , authentication certificates 522 , and other content, as well as software programs or other executable modules 524 which may be executed by the processing unit 516 . Examples of such programs or modules include a progress gauge module 524 a for generating and/or presenting a progress gauge, an indexing module 524 b for indexing eBooks with invariant location reference identifiers, a reader module 524 c , one or more control modules 524 d (e.g., power management), network connection module 524 e , as well as various other modules which are not shown, such as operating models, display drivers, sensor algorithms, page turn detectors, and the like. If included, the progress gauge module 524 a may generate any of the progress gauges described herein. In some implementations, metadata describing the components of the progress gauge and how they should be displayed may be embedded in the digital work data file itself, attached as a separate interface data file, or otherwise appended to the digital work. In other implementations, the progress gauge module 524 a may include logic to generate the progress gauge on the fly from the format and/or content of the digital work itself. Various other approaches to generating the progress gauges may also be used and will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art.

In addition to the system storage 514 , the eBook reader device 500 may have access to one or more sources of remote storage 526 over a network or on a peer-to-peer basis. The sources of remote storage 526 may be accessible using a network connection module, for example, and may be in communication via a wired or wireless connection. The remote storage 526 may include a personal computer, another eBook reader, or any other suitable remote storage device.

The system storage 514 and remote storage 526 may include volatile memory (such as RAM), nonvolatile memory, removable memory, and/or non-removable memory, implemented in any method or technology for storage of information, such as computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data. Also, the processing unit 516 may include onboard memory in addition to or instead of the system storage 514 . Some examples of storage media which may be included in the system storage 514 and/or processing unit 516 include, but are not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by the eBook reader device 500 . Any such computer storage media may be part of the eBook reader device 500 .

Various instructions, methods and techniques described herein may be considered in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. for performing particular tasks or implementing particular abstract data types. These program modules and the like may be executed as native code or may be downloaded and executed, such as in a virtual machine or other just-in-time compilation execution environment. Typically, the functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various implementations. An implementation of these modules and techniques may be stored on or transmitted across some form of computer-readable media.

The above-described eBook reader device 500 or other computing devices may store software instructions that, when executed, implement aspects and features of the present invention. For example, such software can be stored on a computer-accessible medium (e.g., magnetic or optical disk or other device), or downloaded from a remote source, for loading into memory of the eBook reader 500 or other computing device to be executed by the processing unit 516 .

Illustrative Method of Presenting In-Work Progress Gauges

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an illustrative method 600 of presenting a progress gauge along with content of a digital work. The method 600 may be implemented using an eBook reader device, such as the one shown in FIG. 5 , or any other suitable digital work computing device capable of displaying digital works.

At 602 , content of a digital work is presented to a user. In the illustrated implementation, the content of the digital work (e.g., text, graphics, video, etc.) is displayed in a reading pane 106 on a display screen 102 of an eBook reader device 100 or other computing device. A progress gauge is also presented, at 604 , along with the content in the reading pane 106 . In some implementations, the progress gauge 110 may be presented along a border of the reading pane. However, in other implementations, the progress gauge may be positioned and sized in a variety of other manners. For example, the progress gauge may be overlaid on a portion of the content of the digital work. The progress gauge indicates the user's progress through the digital work. In some implementations, the progress gauge may also indicate the user's progress through the digital work in a most recent or current consumption session. In the described implementation, the progress gauge comprises a progress bar. However, in other implementations, the progress gauge may be semicircular, circular, triangular, square, or any other shape or size which may be used to show a user's progress through a digital work.

At 606 , one or more content dividers may be presented to divide the progress bar into segments corresponding to sections of the digital work. The content dividers may be tick marks, as shown in FIG. 2A , for example, or may take the form of any other suitable visual indicator that illustrates a boundary between one segment and the next. At 608 , the segments defined by the content dividers are sized to visually represent an amount of content in corresponding sections of the digital work. That is, larger segments are used to represent larger sections of the digital work, while smaller segments are used to represent smaller sections of the digital work. In some implementations, the segments are sized proportionally to the sections of the digital work that they represent. In the case where the progress gauge is a progress bar, segment length can be sized based on the size of the corresponding section of the digital work. In some implementations, the segments may be sized according to a linear function to be proportional in size to the corresponding segments of the digital work. In that case, the segments may be sized according to the following equation: S L =(C S /C T )*P L . S L is the segment length, C S is the amount of content in the section of the digital work corresponding to the segment, C T is the total amount of content in the digital work, and P L is the total length of the progress bar. In other implementations, however, the segments may be sized according to a non-linear function, such that the segments are non-proportional as described in more detail above in the section entitled “Illustrative In-Work Progress Gauges.”

At 610 , start, end, and location markers are presented to designate the beginning of the digital work, end of the digital work, and a present location of the user in the digital work, respectively. The location marker may, in some implementations, comprise a location slider, which is movable by a user to navigate to a desired location within the digital work. When not being used for navigation, the location marker typically follows the progress bar to designate the user's present location within the digital work.

Depending on the size of the digital work, the amount of information associated with the progress bar, user preference, and the like, it may be desirable to show less than all of the available information on the progress bar at a given time. For example, in some instances it may be desirable to display a progress bar of the whole digital work, showing only coarse divisions (e.g., volumes, chapters, acts, etc.) as a default. Also, multiple proximate visual indicators (e.g., bookmarks, annotations, etc.) may be consolidated in this coarse view, to avoid clutter. If desired, a portion of the progress bar corresponding to one or more sections may then be expanded, at 612 , to display additional information, such as finer divisions (e.g., sections, scenes, etc.), bookmarks, annotations, and the like. This expansion may be performed automatically, for example, at the commencement of a new chapter, section, or other part of the digital work, or on the happening of some other event where expansion would be desirable. Additionally or alternatively, the expansion may be performed in response to a user request to zoom in on the expanded section of the progress bar.

Additional information may also be shown with the progress gauge in a number of other ways. For example, at 614 , information on the progress bar may be toggled to display additional or alternative information. In the illustrated implementation, toggling is performed in response to user selection of the progress bar by, for example, pointing to or clicking on or near the progress bar. Toggling may also be performed automatically in response to certain circumstances (e.g., consumption of a certain type of digital work) or periodically (e.g., every thirty seconds). At 616 , one such piece of additional information, a user's rate of progress through the digital work, is displayed. At 618 , other additional information is displayed, in the form of one or more bookmarks and/or annotations. The bookmarks and/or annotations may be associated with, and point to, specified content in the digital work. Bookmarks and annotations may originate from a publisher, author, distributor, or other “source” of the digital work or a consumer or other “user” of the digital work subsequent to distribution or sale of the digital work.

It should be understood that certain acts in method 600 need not be performed in the order described, may be modified and/or may be omitted entirely, depending on the circumstances. For example, sizing the segments according to the equation in act 608 only applies if the progress gauge comprises a progress bar. Also, the acts of expanding 612 , toggling 614 , displaying progress rate 616 , and displaying bookmarks and/or annotations 618 , all may be omitted in various implementations.

Illustrative Method of Presenting Collection Progress Gauges

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an illustrative method 700 of presenting a collection interface. The method 700 may be implemented on an eBook reader device, such as that shown in FIG. 5 , or any other suitable digital work computing device capable of displaying digital works.

At 702 , a collection of digital works available on the computing device is presented to the user. The collection of available digital works may include works stored in local memory of the computing device and/or remote storage, such as in memory of a personal computer, another eBook reader device, or other remote data store. A progress gauge is presented, at 704 , associated with one or more of the digital works in the collection. In some implementations the progress gauge comprises a progress bar. Also in some implementations, a progress bar is associated with each digital work in the collection. However, in other implementations, only those digital works which the user has begun consuming will have a progress gauge associated with them. Each progress gauge may be presented above, below, beside, or in any other suitable location in association with the corresponding digital work.

In addition to the user's total progress through a digital work, at 706 , a user's progress through the digital work during a most recent or current session is indicated on the progress gauge.

From the collection interface a user can select any of the listed digital works for consumption. At 708 , a request is received by the eBook reader device to open a digital work listed in the collection and, in response, at 710 , the eBook reader device opens the digital work. From here, the method proceeds at A to presentation of the digital work along with an “in-work” progress gauge, at block A in FIG. 6 .

It should be understood that certain acts in method 700 need not be performed in the order described, may be modified and/or may be omitted entirely, depending on the circumstances. For example, in some instances, the act 706 of indicating a user's progress during a most recent consumption session may be omitted.

Moreover, any of the acts of any of the methods described herein may be implemented at least partially by a processor or other computing device based on instructions stored on one or more computer-readable media. Computer-readable media can be any available media which can be accessed by a preprocessing system, computing device, and/or digital work, as appropriate. By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can accessed by the preprocessing system, computing device, and/or digital work. Combinations of the any of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described. Rather, the specific features and acts are disclosed as illustrative forms of implementing the claims. For example, the methodological acts need not be performed in the order or combinations described herein, and may be performed in any combination of one or more acts.