Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Applies For Page-Turn Animation Patent
eldavojohn writes "Ever seeking to out innovate their competition, Microsoft has applied for a patent on animating page flips in devices like the Nook or Kindle. The application summary reads, 'One or more pages are displayed on a touch display. A page-turning gesture directed to a displayed page is recognized. Responsive to such recognition, a virtual page turn is displayed on the touch display. The virtual page turn actively follows the page-turning gesture. The virtual page turn curls a lifted portion of the page to progressively reveal a back side of the page while progressively revealing a front side of a subsequent page. A lifted portion of the page is given an increased transparency that allows the back side of the page to be viewed through the front side of the page. A page-flipping gesture quickly flips two or more pages.' Maybe you've seen this before?"
as patenting someone else's work. Microsoft's very existence is living proof of that.
does it turn transparent?
Try reading a Bible, or any other book printed on thin paper.
And does the transparency change as you flip it?
No. Therefore, not the same.
not if the physical gesture is changing the amount of visible light that is behind the page by changing the distance between the page and the rest of the book. The patent is clearly trying to mimic turning a real page.
Yep, but since it's on a 2-dimensional screen which, by definition, cannot have any "visible light that is behind the page by changing the distance between the page and the rest of the book," it seems to be a new patentable system. Instead of just flipping the page, they had to come up with new ways to make transparency dependent on x-y position, which a physical book doesn't have to do. New stuff. Patentable.