Audio user interface for computing devices
First Claim
1. A method for providing an audible user interface for a user of a computing device, the method comprising:
- receiving a selection of a user interface control on the computing device;
selecting an audio file associated with the selected user interface control; and
playing the selected audio file at the computing device such that an audio prompt is audiblized for the user, the audio prompt describing the selected user interface control or a displayed user interface item corresponding to the selected user interface control.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An audio user interface that generates audio prompts that help a user interact with a user interface of a device is disclosed. One aspect of the present invention pertains to techniques for providing the audio user interface by efficiently leveraging the computing resources of a host computer system. The relatively powerful computing resources of the host computer can convert text strings into audio files that are then transferred to the computing device. The host system performs the process intensive text-to-speech conversion so that a computing device, such as a hand-held device, only needs to perform the less intensive task of playing the audio file. The computing device can be, for example, a media player such as an MP3 player, a mobile phone, or a personal digital assistant.
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Citations
43 Claims
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1. A method for providing an audible user interface for a user of a computing device, the method comprising:
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receiving a selection of a user interface control on the computing device;
selecting an audio file associated with the selected user interface control; and
playing the selected audio file at the computing device such that an audio prompt is audiblized for the user, the audio prompt describing the selected user interface control or a displayed user interface item corresponding to the selected user interface control. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 25)
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15. A method for creating an audio file at a host computer system, the method comprising:
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receiving a text string at a text to speech conversion engine;
creating an audio file based upon the text string; and
associating the audio file to a media file. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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26. A method for providing an audio user interface, the method comprising:
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creating, at a host computer system, an audio file based upon a text string;
downloading the audio file from the host system to a computing device;
selecting a user interface element on the computing device pertaining to the text string; and
playing the audio file such that an audio prompt is made audible to a user proximate in time to the selecting of the user interface element, the audio prompt describing the selected user interface element. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. A computing device comprising:
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a user interface having a plurality of user interface controls and at least one menu that contains one or more menu items;
a communications port for receiving audio files created by a host computer system, the audio files describing at least one of the user interface controls or one of the menu items;
a memory that stores the audio files; and
a user interface control module that plays one of the audio files in response to a user selection of one of the user interface controls. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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Specification