Uniform user interface for software applications

• US 20060085748A1
• Filed: 10/14/2004
• Published: 04/20/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Luther, Paul S., Mahaffey, Robert Bruce
• Granted Patent: US 8,826,146 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/700
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

The present invention is a user interface for varying accessibility parameters to match comprehension needs. The present invention consists of a uniform, easy to use, interface to applications. Rather than dealing directly with the user interface parameters of a particular application, the user interacts with this uniform interface, or UI aggregator. The UI aggregator can then transform the information presented by the particular application or combination of applications as desired by the user. The UI aggregator can be accessed through a variety of modes—keyboard, speech, touch, and gestures. Through interaction with the UI aggregator, the user can create and select user profiles that control multiple software applications.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

a processor;

a user interface aggregator (UI aggregator);

one or more input devices; and

one or more output devices;

wherein a user interacts with the UI aggregator through the one or more input devices and the one or more output devices; and

wherein the computer system is configured for the interaction to control the presentation of the output from one or more software applications installed on the computer system.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the computer system is further configured for the interaction to modify accessibility parameters to match the comprehension needs of the user.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein one of the one or more input devices recognizes gestures.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein one of the one or more input devices recognizes touch.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein one of the one or more input devices consists of speech recognition.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein one of the one or more input devices consists of a pervasive computing device.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein one of the one or more output devices consists of speech.

8. A method to control the interface between the user and one or more software applications, comprising the steps of:

interacting between a user and a UI aggregator to specify the interface for the one or more software applications; and

interacting between the UI aggregator and the one or more software applications to implement the desired interface for the user.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the presentation of the output from the one or more software applications is controlled.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the user interacts with the UI aggregator using one or two word spoken phrases to control the font size and font type.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the user interacts with the UI aggregator to control the styling of information output by the one or more software applications.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein accessibility parameters are varied to match the comprehension needs of the user.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein one or more user interface profiles are created.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein at least one of the one or more user interface profiles contains desired settings for different computing environments.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein one or more user interface profiles are modified.

16. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

translating a file from the format of one of the one or more software applications to the format of the UI aggregator.

17. A computer program product for controlling the interface between the user and one or more software applications, the computer program product having a medium with a computer program embodied thereon, the computer program comprising:

computer code for interacting between a user and a UI aggregator to specify the interface for the one or more software applications; and

computer code for interacting between the UI aggregator and the one or more software applications to implement the desired interface for the user.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the presentation of the output from the one or more software applications is controlled.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the user interacts with the UI aggregator using one or two word spoken phrases to control the font size and font type.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the user interacts with the UI aggregator to control the styling of information output by the one or more software applications.

21. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein accessibility parameters are varied to match the comprehension needs of the user.

22. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein one or more user interface profiles are created.

23. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein at least one of the one or more user interface profiles contains desired settings for different computing environments.

24. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein one or more user interface profiles are modified.

25. The computer program product of claim 17, further comprising:

computer code for translating a file from the format of one of the one or more software applications to the format of the UI aggregator.