MVC (Model-View-Controller) based multi-modal authoring tool and development environment

• US 20050273759A1
• Filed: 07/27/2005
• Published: 12/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: John M. Lucassen, Stephane H. Maes
• Original Assignee: John M. Lucassen, Stephane H. Maes
• Inventors: Lucassen, John M., Maes, Stephane H.
• Granted Patent: US 7,900,186 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces

Abstract

Application development tools and method for building multi-channel, multi-device and multi-modal applications, and in particular, to systems and methods for developing applications whereby a user can interact in parallel with the same information via a multiplicity of channels and user interfaces, while a unified, synchronized views of the information are presented across the various channels or devices deployed by the user to interact with the information. In a preferred embodiment, application frameworks and development tools are preferably based on a MVC (Model-View-Controller) design paradigm that is adapted to provide synchronized multi-modal interactions. Multi-channel authoring can be developed using a similar methodology.

Claims

1-15. -15. (canceled)

16. A method for authoring an application, comprising the steps of:

editing a first modality-specific view of the application;

updating an application model in response to the editing of the first modality specific view; and

adapting a second modality-specific view of the application based on the updated application model.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of rendering a modality-specific view using an associated browser.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the application model comprises an interaction logic and customization meta-data page.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of automatically generating a corresponding modality-specific representation for each modality supported by the application through a transformation of the application model.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of automatically generating the application model from a modality-specific representation generated during the editing step.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of accessing and editing the application model.

22. The method of claim 21, comprising the step of displaying the application model in a window in one of a DOM (document object model), text, and symbolic representation.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of highlighting a portion of the displayed application model that were built non-deterministically.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein the application comprises a multi-channel application, wherein a given page comprises snippets associated with the first and second modality-specific views.

25. The method of claim 16, wherein the method steps are performed by an application authoring tool.

26. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for authoring an application, the method steps comprising:

editing a first modality-specific view of the application;

updating an application model in response to the editing of the first modality specific view; and

adapting a second modality-specific view of the application based on the updated application model.

27. A method for authoring an application, comprising the steps of:

separately editing a plurality of modality-specific views;

automatically generating a modality-specific model for each view; and

merging blocks of the modality-specific models to generate a single representation of an application model.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising adding synchronization information to merged blocks.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the application models comprises a pseudo DOM (document object model) representation of the application, wherein interaction components comprise blocks in each modality that are synchronized with each other.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the method steps are performed using an application development tool.