FLIPBOARD - 產品與專利

FLIPBOARD - 產品與專利

Flipboard是個不錯的行動內容閱覽器，可以將常看的網頁以RSS讀入，集合在一起閱讀，更在閱覽時可以知道更多相關的網誌、網站，也可跟社群帳號結合得到更多即時社群訊息。最早視為iPad的最佳數位內容閱覽器，特色是閱覽過程與一般讀雜誌的經驗差不多，有招牌的翻頁動作，後來適用在更多平板裝置、手機，還有網頁版，用同一個帳號可以在不同的裝置上同步取得自己所訂閱的內容。

Flipboard, Inc.的專利佈局也不少，只是到現在為止就三件美國核准專利，這裡涉及純軟體專利的寫法，可以拿來學習。

US8,935,629 Systems and methods for flipping through content（翻頁的技術）
閱讀時，「翻頁」是個很重要的動作，Flipboard就依據內容分頁，且提供整頁漸漸翻動的體驗，而不是生硬地轉換到下一頁，或是直接將網頁內容灌入閱讀器而已。

Claim 1：
1. A method, implemented in a device having touch hardware, for enabling a user to flip through a plurality of pages, the method comprising: 

receiving a plurality of gesture inputs via the touch hardware within a predetermined period of time; and 

executing a flip transition animation in response to each received gesture input, 
wherein execution of each transition animation sends a page inflight along a flight path, each page comprising first and second halves separated by an axis, 
wherein a half of an inflight page is mated to a half of the different page, as the inflight page progresses along the flight path, the mated halves of the inflight page and the different page flip about the axis, and a position of the mated halves within the flight path dictates viewable portions of the inflight page and the different page, 
wherein the viewable portions of the inflight page and the different page change as the inflight page progresses along the flight path, and wherein the predetermined period of time is such that at least two pages are simultaneously inflight. 

專利請求項1界定一種在觸控硬體上翻頁的方法，先接收到觸控手勢，比如翻頁手勢，接著執行翻動或點選的動作，翻頁時產生「翻頁動畫」，翻頁進行過程（進行到一半）可以同時看到前一頁與後一頁的內容，且前後兩頁的影像會互相消長。這樣可以形成如一般翻閱紙本書的視覺感受。

請求項1如果要講tied to machine，大約僅有觸控硬體與接收到手勢輸入的隱含訊號處理，整體來看，有點像是蘋果軟體專利的描述方式，強調使用者使用經驗。

US8,872,855 Adjusting orientation of content regions in a page layout（內容自動轉向的技術）
Flipboard閱覽器特色是以陣列型式排列的「內容區域」顯示每個訂閱的內容連結，而轉動裝置時，其中排列會依照長寬比修正，且保有每個內容區域的特色。此專利揭露一種調整內容轉向的方法，每一個內容區域彼此之間有設定好的關係與間隔，顯示時，以一個轉向顯示出來，並有個參考原點。若是顯示裝置轉動，重新訂出顯示畫面（template）以及各個內容區域的位置，以轉動後方向顯示出來。

Claim 1：
1. A method of adjusting the orientation of content regions in a page layout, the method comprising: 

selecting a page template from a plurality of page templates, each page template including one or more slots specifying spatial positioning of content regions relative to each other; 

displaying content in a plurality of the content regions of the page template in a first orientation on a display of a client device; 

identifying a reference point of the display of the client device; 

responsive to a rotation of the display of the client device from the first orientation to a second orientation, determining positions of the content regions of the page template in the second orientation relative to each other so that the plurality of content regions are presented having locations in the second orientation matching positions of the content regions in the first orientation relative to each other based on the reference point; 

counter-rotating the content within the plurality of content regions to offset the rotation of the display and to maintain a constant orientation of the content within each content region with respect to the reference point; 

modifying one or more dimensions of a content region based on the rotation of the display of the client device from the first orientation to the second orientation; 

modifying a layout of the content presented in the content region based on the modified one or more dimensions of the content region; and 

displaying content in the plurality of content regions of the page template in the second orientation based on the determined positions of content regions of the page template in the second orientation relative to each other, the displayed content including the modified content presented in the content region having the modified one or more dimensions. 

從專利請求項1界定的方法來看，其中涉及的硬體就是閱讀器，相關方法就圍繞在此閱讀器轉向而改變，與硬體的連結算是很具體，就是軟體與硬體連結的樣本。


US8,788,925 Authorized syndicated descriptions of linked web content displayed with links in user-generated content（觀看時自動連結原始網頁取得內容的技術）
Flipboard的特色之一就是每個內容區域連結是使用者所訂閱的內容，區域內可顯示出即時最新的內容縮圖，也就是其中藏有「連結與取得」的程式，隨時連結內容來源取得最新的資訊，特別是從取得的資訊中「選擇」出要顯示為圖示的內容。

Claim 1：
1. A method executed by a processor for obtaining a corpus of authorized syndicated descriptions of web content, the method comprising: 

obtaining items from a plurality of feeds from one or more sources, each item comprising a link to a content page and a description of content included in the content page; 

for each of one or more items from one or more of the feeds, accessing the content page associated with a link included in an item; 

analyzing metadata associated with the accessed content page to identify an indication of a source from which the content page was obtained; 

determining whether the analyzed metadata associated with the accessed content page includes a pointer to the source from which a feed including the item was obtained; 

responsive to determining that the accessed content page includes a pointer to the source from which the feed including the item was obtained, recording a description of content from the item for use as an authorized syndicated description of the item; and 

responsive to determining that the analyzed metadata associated with the accessed content page does not include the pointer to the source feed from which a feed including the item was obtained, checking a root of the domain for the content page for the pointer to the source feed from which the feed including the item was obtained; and 

generating a page including a selected item from the obtained items, the page including a pointer to the feed from which the selected item was obtained responsive to the description of content from the selected item being recorded as an authorized syndicated description of the selected item. 

初步看來，此項範圍並沒有硬體連結的特徵，頂多是有內容來源，不過，其中特色似符合轉換為可專利的技術，也就是可以取得連結的內容決定顯示的頁面。

如下圖，顯示flipboard閱覽器中一頁的內容簡述，其中圖式336與一部份內容335都是從原始內容所取得，這就是這件專利的技術。

Ron