System and method for the delivery of electronic books

Abstract

An electronic book on a computer readable medium, e.g., a CD or the like, has “real-life” pre-recorded audio (preferably, in MP3 format) and visual text (preferably, in RTF format) seamlessly linked together via a linking file (preferably, in XML format) such that a reader can switch back and forth “at will” between visually reading on a computer display screen and/or listening to the book being read aloud by an actual narrator. The computer readable medium includes a reader program installed thereon and an automatic installation program. A novel process for creating the electronic book includes a creator program that may have a similar graphical user interface to the reader program. The electronic book may combine advantages of physical hard-cover books with new e-reading functionality developed by the present inventor.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A computer-readable-medium-electronic-book assembly, comprising: 
 a) a pre-recorded audio narration file of substantially an entire book stored on a single computer readable medium;    b) an electronic text file of substantially the entire book stored on said computer readable medium;    c) a synchronization file linking time signatures of the pre-recorded audio narration with locations in the electronic text stored on said computer readable medium;    d) a reader program adapted to cause a computer to display text of the book, to play the pre-recorded audio narration of the book, and to allow a user to link there-between as desired using the linking file stored on said computer readable medium;    e) an automatic installation program to automatically install the reader software upon placement of the computer readable medium within a computer stored on said computer readable medium;    f) a container housing said computer readable medium, said container having a picture that is visible from a front surface thereof that is substantially the same as that on a hard-cover copy of the book, and having a spine from which is visible a title of the book and/or the author's name.    
     
     
         2 . The assembly of  claim 1 , wherein said computer readable medium is a single CD.  
     
     
         3 . The assembly of  claim 2 , wherein said audio is contained within an MP3 compression format.  
     
     
         4 . The assembly of  claim 3 , wherein said text is in an RTF format.  
     
     
         5 . The assembly of  claim 4 , wherein said linking file is an XML file.  
     
     
         6 . The assembly of  claim 1 , wherein said reader program is adapted to create a personal XML file that contains personal information related to a user.  
     
     
         7 . The assembly of  claim 6 , wherein said personal XML file includes information related to bookmarks.  
     
     
         8 . The assembly of  claim 6 , wherein said personal XML file includes information related to annotations.  
     
     
         9 . The assembly of  claim 6 , wherein said personal XML file includes information related to highlighting.  
     
     
         10 . The assembly of  claim 6 , wherein said reader software is adapted to save the personal XML file to a digital data storage device.  
     
     
         11 . The assembly of  claim 6 , wherein said reader software is adapted to save the personal XML file upon the computer readable medium.  
     
     
         12 . The assembly of  claim 1 , wherein said computer readable medium includes only read-only memory.  
     
     
         13 . The assembly of  claim 1 , wherein at least said audio and text portions of said computer readable medium are contained within read-only memory.  
     
     
         14 . The assembly of  claim 1 , wherein said computer readable medium includes portions that are write-able.  
     
     
         15 . The assembly of  claim 14 , wherein the reader software is adapted to create a personal file and to save the same in said write-able portion of said computer readable medium, wherein said personal file includes bookmarks and/or annotations.  
     
     
         16 . The assembly of  claim 1 , wherein said audio and text portions are adapted such as to prevent copying thereof.  
     
     
         17 . The assembly of  claim 1 , wherein said container is dimensioned such that a height and front-width are substantially the same as that of a standard paper-back book.  
     
     
         18 . The assembly of  claim 1 , wherein said container is dimensioned such that it has a height of between about 6 and 9 includes and a front-width of between about 4 and 6 inches.  
     
     
         19 . The assembly of  claim 1 , wherein said reader software is adapted to create a library, wherein said library includes electronic books stored on a particular computer and electronic books that are not stored on the computer but that may be accessible to a user.  
     
     
         20 . A method of creating the assembly of  claim 1 , comprising: 
 a) obtaining a raw audio recording file of a human narration of a book;    b) audio editing the audio file;    c) segmenting the audio file;    d) converting the segmented files into a compressed format;    e) obtaining an electronic format text version of said book;    f) separating the text version of the book into multiple documents;    g) using a creator program at an editor's station: 
 playing the audio obtained in step e);  
 concurrently viewing text obtained in step g);  
 creating a synchronization file linking the audio and text files;  
   h) publishing the audio files from step d) for said pre-recorded audio narration file, the electronic text documents of step f) for said electronic text file, the synchronization file of step g) for said synchronization file, said reader program and said automatic installation program to said computer readable medium so as to create a computer-readable-medium-electronic-book.    
     
     
         21 . A computer-readable-medium-electronic-book created by a process comprising: 
 a) obtaining a raw audio recording file of a human narration of a book;    b) audio editing the audio file;    c) segmenting the audio file;    d) converting the segmented files into a compressed format;    e) obtaining an electronic format text version of said book;    f) separating the text version of the book into multiple documents;    g) using a creator program at an editor's station: 
 playing the audio obtained in step e);  
 concurrently viewing text obtained in step g);  
 creating a synchronization file linking the audio and text files;  
   h) publishing the audio files from step d), the electronic text documents of step f), the synchronization file of step g), along with a reader program and an automatic installation program to a computer readable medium so as to create a computer-readable-medium-electronic-book.