Internet browser facility and method for the visually impaired

• US 20020003469A1
• Filed: 05/23/2000
• Published: 01/10/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: HP Inc.
• Inventors: Gupta, Aloke
• Granted Patent: US 6,459,364 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/407.1
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/005 Details of specially-adapted software to access information, e.g. to browse through hyperlinked information
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2476 for a visually impaired user illuminating or arrangements for improving visibility of characters on dials H04M1/22
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72445 for supporting Internet browser applications

Abstract

A method of communicating electronic information via a display device having a matrix of movable tactile elements. The method includes displaying a representation of a file containing hypertext links on a first portion of the matrix, and displaying a list of the hypertext links on a second portion of the matrix. The representation may include graphical elements and text symbols such as Braille.

Claims

1. A method of communicating electronic information by tactile means comprising:

providing a display device having an matrix of movable tactile elements;

displaying a representation of a file containing hypertext links on a first portion of the matrix; and

displaying a list of the hypertext links on a second portion of the matrix.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying a file includes downloading web content and converting it to a tactile-readable format.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein converting to a tactile readable format includes converting text characters to tactile symbols, and includes representing graphical image content by generating a corresponding pattern of raised tactile elements.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying the list of links includes sorting the list.

5. The method of claim 1 including displaying in the first portion of the matrix a representation of a document associated with a selected hypertext link on the list of hypertext links, in response to selection of the link by a user.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein displaying a document occurs in response to sensing an applied force to at least a portion of a set of raised tactile elements corresponding to the selected hypertext link.

7. The method of claim 5 including updating the first portion of the matrix with a list of links from the document associated with the selected hypertext link.

8. A tactile web browsing device comprising:

a display device having an matrix of movable tactile elements;

a first portion of the matrix operable to display a representation of a file containing hypertext links; and

a second portion of the matrix operable to display a list of the hypertext links.

9. The device of claim 8 wherein the tactile elements are evenly spaced apart, such that graphical images are readily displayed.

10. The device of claim 8 including a touch sensor responsive to pressure on the matrix, and operable to identify the location of a pressure applied to the matrix.

11. The device of claim 8 including conversion means for converting a web page to a tactile readable form.

12. The device of claim 8 including link extraction means for identifying links displayed in the first portion of the matrix, and for displaying the links in a list form in the second portion of the matrix.

13. A web browsing method comprising:

downloading a file containing hypertext links;

generating a tactile representation of the file;

extracting a list of hypertext links contained in the file; and

generating a tactile representation of the list.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein generating a tactile representation of the file includes converting a text portion of the file to a tactile character set.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein generating a tactile representation of the file includes converting a graphics image in the file to a tactile pattern corresponding to the image.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein generating a tactile representation of the list includes sorting the list.

17. The method of claim 13 including displaying in a first portion of a tactile display screen a representation of a selected file associated with a selected hypertext link on the list of hypertext links, in response to selection of the link by a user.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein displaying the representation occurs in response to sensing an applied force to a representation of the selected hypertext link.

19. The method of claim 17 including extracting hypertext links from the selected file, and generating a representation of a list of the links extracted from the selected file.

20. The method of claim 13 wherein generating a tactile representation of the file and of the list includes providing a display device having an evenly spaced matrix of movable tactile elements.