Hybrid Print Medium Synchronization Circuitry
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users face difficulties in synchronizing reading locations between physical and electronic versions of content, such as books, across multiple devices, leading to inconsistent reading experiences.
Innovation Solution
A hybrid print medium with integrated circuitry and sensors that determines the current page being read and communicates this information to a synchronization service or directly to electronic devices, ensuring seamless synchronization across different platforms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional print media is used without integration, then manufacturing simplicity is maintained, but synchronization capability with electronic devices is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges traditional print media with electronic components by integrating circuits, sensors, and communication modules directly into the book pages. This combining of physical and electronic elements enables synchronization capability while maintaining the familiar form factor of traditional books, resolving the contradiction between adaptability and device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The hybrid print medium serves multiple functions: it provides traditional reading experience, tracks reading progress automatically, communicates with electronic devices, and enables cross-device synchronization. This multi-functionality approach allows a single medium to fulfill both traditional printing purposes and modern digital synchronization requirements.
2Ease of operation
If manual synchronization methods are used, then device complexity is minimized, but reading experience consistency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The book automatically tracks reading progress through integrated sensors that detect page turns and reading position without user intervention. The system self-updates synchronization information to electronic devices, eliminating the need for manual synchronization operations while ensuring consistent reading experience across devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The hybrid print medium continuously monitors reading progress and automatically transmits this information to connected electronic devices. This feedback mechanism ensures that all devices remain synchronized with the current reading position, providing consistent reading experience without requiring manual user actions.
3Measurement precision
If hybrid print system with circuits is integrated, then synchronization precision is improved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The book is divided into modular pages, each containing independent circuit segments and sensors. This segmentation allows for standardized manufacturing of individual page units that can be assembled into complete books, reducing overall manufacturing complexity while maintaining precise reading location detection capabilities through the distributed sensor network.
Data Source
AI summary
A user may often be reading the same content on multiple different electronic devices, and this user may also wish to read the same content on printed pages of a physical book. In this case, described is a hybrid print medium that includes both printed pages and a computer system allowing a user to synchronize a current reading location in the hybrid print medium with the same content being read on one or more electronic devices. In different cases, this synchronization may include a synchronization service or the synchronization may occur directly between a hybrid print medium and an electronic device storing an electronic version of the content within the hybrid print medium.