Audio renderings for expressing non-audio nuances
First Claim
1. A method of enhancing audio renderings of non-audio data sources, comprising steps of:
- detecting a nuance of a non-audio data source;
locating an audio cue corresponding to the detected nuance; and
associating the located audio cue with the detected nuance for playback to a listener.
8 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods, systems, computer program products, and methods of doing business by adapting audio renderings of non-audio messages (for example, e-mail messages that are processed by a text-to-speech translator) to reflect various nuances of the non-audio information. Audio cues are provided for this purpose, which are sounds that are “mixed” in with the audio rendering as a separate (background) audio stream. Audio cues may reflect information such as the topical structure of a text file, or changes in paragraphs. Or, audio cues may be used to signal nuances such as changes in the color or font of the source text. Audio cues may also be advantageously used to reflect information about the translation process with which the audio rendering of a text file was created, such as using varying background tones to convey the degree of certainty in the accuracy of translating text to audio using a text-to-speech translation system, or of translating audio to text using a voice recognition system, or of translating between languages, and so forth. Stylesheets, such as those encoded in the Extensible Stylesheet Language (“XSL”), may optionally be used to customize the audio cues. For example, a user-specific stylesheet customization may be performed to override system-wide default audio cues for a particular user, enabling her to hear a different background sound for messages on a particular topic than other users will hear.
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Citations
92 Claims
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1. A method of enhancing audio renderings of non-audio data sources, comprising steps of:
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detecting a nuance of a non-audio data source;
locating an audio cue corresponding to the detected nuance; and
associating the located audio cue with the detected nuance for playback to a listener. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A method of enhancing audio renderings of data sources, comprising steps of:
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transforming a first data source in a first format to a second data source in an audio format;
associating one or more degrees of certainty with the second data source to reflect an accuracy of the transforming step;
locating an audio cue that is correlated to each of the associated degrees of certainty; and
associating the located audio cues with the second data source to convey the accuracy of the transforming step to a listener who will hear the audio format. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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34. A method of enhancing audio renderings of non-audio data sources, comprising steps of:
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providing a stylesheet comprising rules and actions, wherein selected ones of the rules and actions pertain to audio cues to be used in an audio rendering;
comparing the rules of the stylesheet to content of a non-audio data source; and
upon detecting a match during the comparing step, applying the action associated with the matching rule, wherein for each action pertaining to audio cues, an audio cue is thereby associated with the non-audio data source for playing the audio rendering to a listener.
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41. A method of merchandising pre-recorded audio cues, further comprising steps of:
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receiving requests for selected ones of the pre-recorded audio cues for use as background sounds to be mixed with audibly rendered messages in order to provide enhanced contextual information to a listener of the audibly rendered messages; and
providing the selected ones, in response to the step of receiving requests. - View Dependent Claims (42)
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43. A system for enhancing audio renderings of non-audio data sources, comprising:
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means for detecting one or more nuances of a non-audio data source;
means for locating an audio cue corresponding to each of the detected nuances, and means for associating the located audio cues with their respective detected nuances for playback to a listener. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60)
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61. A system for enhancing audio renderings of data sources, comprising:
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means for transforming a first data source in a first format to a second data source in an audio format;
means for associating one or more degrees of certainty with the second data source to reflect an accuracy of the means for transforming;
means for locating an audio cue that is correlated to each of the associated degrees of certainty; and
means for associating the located audio cues with the second data source to convey the accuracy of the means for transforming to a listener who will hear the audio format. - View Dependent Claims (62, 64)
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63. A system for enhancing audio renderings of non-audio data sources, comprising:
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means for providing a stylesheet comprising rules and actions, wherein selected ones of the rules and actions pertain to audio cues to be used in an audio rendering;
means for comparing the rules of the stylesheet to content of a non-audio data source; and
means for applying the action associated with the matching rule, upon detecting a match during the comparing, wherein for each action pertaining to audio cues, an audio cue is thereby associated with the non-audio data source for playing the audio rendering to a listener. - View Dependent Claims (65, 66, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85)
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67. A computer program product for enhancing audio renderings of non-audio data sources, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable media and comprising:
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computer-readable program code means for detecting one or more nuances of a non-audio data source;
computer-readable program code means for locating an audio cue corresponding to each of the detected nuances; and
computer-readable program code means for associating the located audio cues with their respective detected nuances for playback to a listener.
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86. A computer program product for enhancing audio renderings of data sources, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable media and comprising:
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computer-readable program code means for transforming a first data source in a first format to a second data source in an audio format;
computer-readable program code means for associating one or more degrees of certainty with the second data source to reflect an accuracy of the computer-readable program code means for transforming;
computer-readable program code means for locating an audio cue that is correlated to each of the associated degrees of certainty; and
computer-readable program code means for associating the located audio cues with the second data source to convey the accuracy of the computer-readable program code means for transforming to a listener who will hear the audio format. - View Dependent Claims (87)
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88. A computer program product for enhancing audio renderings of non-audio data sources, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable media and comprising:
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computer-readable program code means for comparing the rules of a stylesheet to content of a non-audio data source, wherein the stylesheet comprises rules and actions and wherein selected ones of the rules and actions pertain to audio cues to be used in an audio rendering; and
computer-readable program code means for applying the action associated with the matching rule, upon detecting a match during operation of the computer-readable program code means for comparing, wherein for each action pertaining to audio cues, an audio cue is thereby associated with the non-audio data source for playing the audio rendering to a listener. - View Dependent Claims (89, 90, 91, 92)
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Specification