Apparatus and method of viewing electronic documents

1. A method of generating an e-book document, comprising the steps of:

representing some or all of a page of an electronic document as a sequence of two or more graphic textures derived from the page of the electronic document, wherein the sequence comprises successively smaller graphic textures;

arranging the graphic textures so generated to form a first mip-map suitable for use by 3D graphics hardware;

generating, by a processor, a further mip-map of graphic textures corresponding to a layer of text, the graphic textures of the further mip-map being suitable for superposition over the graphic textures of the first mip-map during display by an e-book reader; and

outputting, by the processor, an e-book document comprising said mip-maps.

2. A method according to claim 1 , in which the smallest of the sequence of graphic textures from the page of the electronic document is determined by a readability or aesthetic criterion.

3. A method according to claim 1 , in which the dimensions of the graphic textures in the first mip-map are responsive to the dimensions of the page of the electronic document.

4. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing an e-book document generated according to the method of claim 1 .

5. A method of managing an e-book document in which some or all of a page of the document is represented by a first mip-map, the method comprising the steps of:

accessing at least a portion of the mip-map comprising a sequence of graphic textures, wherein the sequence comprises successively smaller textures;

accessing at least a portion of a further mip-map comprising a sequence of graphic textures corresponding to a layer of text, wherein the sequence comprises successively smaller textures;

constructing, by a processor, a surface in a 3D virtual space comprising one or more polygons;

applying, by the processor to the polygon surface, a graphic texture derived from the accessed part of the first mip-map that is responsive to scaling of the polygon surface with respect to a graphical display of an e-book reader;

applying to the polygon surface a graphic texture derived from the accessed part of the further mip-map that is responsive to the scaling of the polygon surface with respect to a graphical display of an e-book reader; and

displaying the textured polygon surface on the graphical display of the e-book reader, thereby displaying some or all of the page of the document.

6. A method according to claim 5 , in which the graphic texture applied to the polygon surface is derived from the mip-map using tri-linear filtering.

7. A method according to claim 5 , in which the scaling of the polygon surface with respect to the graphical display of the e-book is responsive to an effective distance within the virtual space of the polygon surface from the graphical display of the e-book reader.

8. A method according to claim 5 , comprising the steps of:

accessing a first portion of the first mip-map to enable the construction and display of a first view of an e-book document by an e-book reader; and

accessing a second portion of the first mip-map to enable the future construction and display of a second view of the e-book document by the e-book reader, in which the selection of the second portion is responsive to one or more selected from the list consisting of:

i. a pre-set viewing sequence;

ii. heuristics predicting a user's viewing sequence; and

iii. empirical probability measurements predicting a user's viewing sequence.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium on which computer readable instructions of a program are stored, the instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method of managing an e-book document, the method comprising:

representing some or all of a page of an electronic document as a sequence of two or more graphic textures derived from the page of the electronic document, wherein the sequence comprises successively smaller graphic textures;

arranging the graphic textures so generated to form a first mip-map suitable for use by 3D graphics hardware;

generating, by a processor, a further mip-map of graphic textures corresponding to a layer of text, the graphic textures of the further mip-map being suitable for superposition over the graphic textures of the first mip-map during display by an e-book reader; and

outputting an e-book document comprising said mip-maps.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium on which computer readable instructions of a program are stored, the instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method of managing an e-book document in which some or all of a page of the document is represented by a mip-map, the method comprising:

accessing at least a portion of the mip-map comprising a sequence of graphic textures, wherein the sequence comprises successively smaller textures;

accessing at least a portion of a further mip-map comprising a sequence of graphic textures corresponding to a layer of text, wherein the sequence comprises successively smaller textures;

constructing a surface in a 3D virtual space comprising one or more polygons;

applying to the polygon surface a graphic texture derived from the accessed part of the first mip-map that is responsive to scaling of the polygon surface with respect to a graphical display of an e-book reader;

applying to the polygon surface a graphic texture derived from the accessed part of the further mip-map that is responsive to the scaling of the polygon surface with respect to a graphical display of an e-book reader; and

displaying the textured polygon surface on the graphical display of the e-book reader, thereby displaying some or all of the page of the document.

11. An e-book reader for reading an e-book document in which some or all of a page of the document is represented by a mip-map, the e-book reader comprising:

data access logic arranged in operation to access at least a portion of a first mip-map comprising a sequence of graphic textures, wherein the sequence comprises successively smaller textures, and to access at least a portion of a further mip-map comprising a sequence of graphic textures corresponding to a layer of text, wherein the sequence comprises successively smaller textures;

a graphics processor configured to construct a surface in a 3D virtual space comprising one or more polygons and apply to that surface a graphic texture derived from the accessed part of the first mip-map that is responsive to scaling of the surface with respect to a graphical display of the e-book reader, and to apply to that surface a graphic texture derived from the accessed part of the further mip-map that is responsive to the scaling of the surface with respect to a graphical display of the e-book reader; and

a graphical display for displaying the textured polygon surface, thereby displaying some or all of the page of the document.

12. An e-book reader according to claim 11 in which the graphics processor derives the graphic texture applied to the surface from the first mip-map using tri-linear filtering.

13. An e-book reader according to claim 11 , in which the scaling of the surface with respect to the graphical display of the e-book is responsive to the effective distance within the 3D virtual space of the polygon surface from the graphical display of the e-book reader.