New idea for internet documents reading

[Luca]

Hello Everybody,

I'm a 26 years old Italian "Florentine" Computer technician

I'm writing you about an idea that I've got of a function that could
be introduced in new web browsers (or even in other computer
applications).

I think nobody already had this idea but I'm not sure because I didn't
look deep for it. I don't ask any copywrite for using it but please
report my name if you like the idea I had.

The function basically is something that makes reading web pages (or
other sort of documents) easier and anybody who wants can try to
create it.

It could be a bit tricky for a computer programmer to write down this
function (procedure?), but I think it could be quite useful,
expecially for young people who can suffer epilepsy caused from vivid
colours.


The suggestion is the following:

------------------------------

Using any web browser (and some other similar applications like word
documents) I noticed that scrolling the web pages on the right with
the scrolling bar the text of the web page can be read while I'm
moving the page but it hurts the eyes and it gives a strange painful
feeling after using it for long time.

That's because moving the content of the web page or passing from a

program to another (or a web page to another) it's not "graphically"
soft.

A sort of "blur effect", a sort of deconstruction and reconstruction
of the
text and images while it is scrolling (moving) could be added.

Something similar to the new Start button in Windows XP which opens
"softly" the list of "programs" (sorry, I don't remember the technic
name of it) but applied to the content of the browser window.

It could be less grievous for the eyes and I think that it could be
something useful and closer
to the user needs.

It could be something that the user can activate or disactivate in
relation to his preference so
that he can choose if he wants it or not. A sort of personalization.

My idea is to add a sort of "blurring" on the hypertext that is active
when the button of the scroll bar is pressed and moved by the user in
a window.

The function works this way: when the up/down arrows on the top and at
the end of the scrolling bar are used with single clicking nothing
happens but when the user manually moves the button on the scrolling
bar on the right of the active window the text and the images of the
hypertext or document move up or down as they normally do but at the
same time they gradually and partially fade (dissolve) (but not
completely so that the user can see where he is located in the
document).

When the button (of the scrolling bar) is stopped and released the
content (text and images) come back from partially faded to normal so
that it can be read normally.

It works quite similar to the blur filter of the well-known graphic
program Photoshop by Adobe.

Something similar to the function explained you above could still be
applied inside the web browser in another situation; when a new page
replaces the previous (on the same window) a sort of cross-fading
between the two pages could be used.

Looking with a positive view this function makes me think that it
could make reading documents on
computers much easier, less stressful and less hypnotic.

------------------------------

It could be a bit complicated to write down the application but I
think it could be useful.

I hope all this was useful.


Best regards,
Luca Betti <[email protected]>

 

[jake]

It is not exactly the same as what you are talking about. But scrolling
on an Apple is very smooth. It is not a strain at all to scroll through
documents.

 

[CBFalconer]

It is not exactly the same as what you are talking about. But
scrolling on an Apple is very smooth. It is not a strain at all
to scroll through documents.

What is 'it'? Who is 'you'? Where does 'you' talk, and about
what?

 

[Thad Smith]

Using any web browser (and some other similar applications like word
documents) I noticed that scrolling the web pages on the right with
the scrolling bar the text of the web page can be read while I'm
moving the page but it hurts the eyes and it gives a strange painful
feeling after using it for long time.
...
A sort of "blur effect", a sort of deconstruction and reconstruction
of the
text and images while it is scrolling (moving) could be added.

Intel and Microsoft will love it. Something new to entice me to throw
out this year's computer and OS and get next year's! This will
require more processor horsepower, of course, which is why Intel and
AMD should like it. Add in the guys who do the high-end video cards.

As the processors and video cards get faster, they should be able
update the scrolling display more often, giving a smoother effect,
which may reduce your objection.

Actually, I think it would be interesting. I relate it to the
differences while watching action on film. Traditional filming
technique has a pleasing blur effect due to slow shutter speed, while
some new styles use a higher effective speed, resulting in a more
jerky presentation of motion. Saving Private Ryan, a film, used a lot
of jolting high shutter speed sequences during the landing that I
found distracting.

Thad

 

[jcoffin]

Luca wrote:

[ ... ]

That's because moving the content of the web page or passing from a
program to another (or a web page to another) it's not "graphically"
soft.

A sort of "blur effect", a sort of deconstruction and reconstruction
of the text and images while it is scrolling (moving) could be added.

There's really a much easier way. The major problem right now is that
when you're scrolling, the text "jumps" a considerable distance at a
time.

Scrolling in smaller increments reduces (usually removes) the eye
strain.

Fortunately, this is pretty easy to do -- in fact, all the way back in
the VGA (EGA?) days, the hardware had direct support for doing it. It's
also quite easy to do in Windows (for example) -- when you scroll a
window, scroll it by only one pixel at a time.

The problem with this is that it produces relatively slow scrolling --
and speeding up the obvious things (faster processor, faster video
card) won't normally do any good at all.

The problem is that most systems create a message saying "the mouse
button is pressed" only as often as interrupts are received from the
mouse hardware. In a typical case, this is 30 times a second. This
means scrolling through one screen of information takes Yres/30
seconds. Yres at the present time is typically going to be something
like 768 or 1024. That translates to around 30 seconds to scroll
through one screen of information.

Now, with some extra work, it's entirely possible to do things a bit
differently: when the user presses the mouse button, you arrange to
receive all the messages from the mouse. You then scroll one pixel at a
time, but instead of waiting for another mouse interrupt to scroll
again, you just conitinue scrolling as fast as you can until the mouse
button is released.

Something similar to the new Start button in Windows XP which opens
"softly" the list of "programs" (sorry, I don't remember the technic
name of it) but applied to the content of the browser window.

XP supports a couple of different options -- one is that that menu
"slides" open (basically on the same general order as I've outlined
above) and another is that it "fades" in, starting out transparent and
becoming progressively more opaque. Transparency is normally known as
"alpha" and mixing together the values for the pixels to produce the
semi-transparent effect is known as alpha blending. I suppose you could
call this something like progressive alpha blending -- though I'm the
first to admit that's pretty clumsy sounding.

I don't think alpha blending would work very well for scrolling. To be
effective, it has to be stretched over a relatively extended period of
time. We'd get the same problem with slow scrolling as outlined above,
except much worse -- if we did a full fade in or fade out in only
1/30th of a second, you'd never notice it at all.

In fact, if we decided to fade something in using 16 steps (I think
that's around what Windows uses for the start menu) we'd be limited
almost entirely by the refresh rate of the monitor -- if we try to
update the display more often than the monitor is refreshed, some of
the updates simply won't ever be visible.

A typical monitor refreshes at around 80 times a second (at best). With
a 16-step fade, that works out to scrolling 80/16 or 5 times a second.
At this rate, we have to scroll a LONG ways at a time, or the scrolling
will seem glacial.