Audio output of a document from mobile device

• US 10,152,964 B2
• Filed: 08/10/2015
• Issued: 12/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Shih, Sheng-Yao, Kung, Yun-Chiang, Che, Chiwei, Wang, Chih-Chung
• Primary Examiner(s): McFadden, Susan
• Application Number:
  US14/822,471
• Publication Number:
  US 20150348534A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,219 Days
• Field of Search: 704260
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/02 Methods for producing synthetic speech; Speech synthesisers

Abstract

Non-limiting examples described herein relate to processing for transcoding textual content into audio signals. In some examples, transcoding services are provided over a distributed network, for example, through an interaction between a client device and a server device. For instance, a client device may transmit a selection of a document to a server device. The server device may access a document source for the document and transcode content from the document source into speech. The server device may transmit the transcoded content to the client device, for example, where the client device may output the transcoded content. For instance, the transcoded content may be an audio file that is streamed by the client device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a distributed computing device from a client computing device, a selection of an email document, wherein the email document has an attachment;

accessing a document source for the email document and the attachment;

transcoding the attachment from the document source into speech, wherein the transcoding comprises applying a text-to-speech engine to the document source; and

transmitting the transcoded attachment to the client computing device for speech playback.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transcoding further comprises applying a text-to-speech engine to the document source and generating an audio file that represents the speech, and wherein the transmitting further comprises accessing the audio file and providing the audio file to the client computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting further comprises streaming an output of the transcoded content to the client computing device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating an audio file that comprises the transcoded content, and wherein the transmitting further comprises transferring the audio file to the client computing device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the client computing device, a control command for navigation of the transcoded content, processing the control command and adjusting a transmission of the transcoded content based on a processing of the control command.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein transcoding further comprises transcoding the document content into two or more speech portions.

7. A system of a distributed computing environment, wherein the system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory operatively connected with the at least one processor storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to execute a method that comprises;

receiving, at the system from a client computing device, a selection of an email document, wherein the email document has an attachment,

accessing a document source for the email document and the attachment,

transcoding the attachment from the document source into speech, wherein the transcoding comprises applying a text-to-speech engine to the document source, and

transmitting the transcoded attachment to the client computing device for speech playback.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the transcoding further comprises applying a text-to-speech engine to the document source and generating an audio file that represents the speech, and wherein the transmitting further comprises accessing the audio file and providing the audio file to the client computing device.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the transmitting further comprises streaming an output of the transcoded content to the client computing device.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the method, executed by the at least one processor, further comprises:

generating an audio file that comprises the transcoded content, and wherein the transmitting further comprises transferring the audio file to the client computing device.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the method, executed by the at least one processor, further comprises:

receiving, from the client computing device, a control command for navigation of the transcoded content, processing the control command and adjusting a transmission of the transcoded content based on a processing of the control command.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein transcoding further comprises transcoding the document content into two or more speech portions.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the method, executed by the at least one processor, further comprises:

caching, at the system, the two or more speech portions, and wherein the transmitting transmits, to the client computing device, at least one of the two or more speech portions.

14. A method comprising:

providing, by a client computing device of a distributed computing environment, a selection of an email document to a server device of the distributed computing environment, wherein the email document has an attachment;

receiving, at the client computing device from the server device, an audio file comprising transcoded content from formatting of textual content of the attachment to speech by a text-to-speech engine; and

outputting, through the client computing device, audio corresponding to the audio file.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the client computing device is a mobile device.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the receiving receives the audio file as streaming content from the server device.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving, a control command for management of the audio file, and providing the control command to the server device.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the control command is a voice command.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving, from the server device, an updated audio file based on the control command.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the control command is a request to re-transcode the one or more textual portions from a specified point of the document, and wherein the updated audio file is a result of re-transcoding textual content of the document to speech based on the control command.