Fonts with feelings

• US 20070226641A1
• Filed: 03/27/2006
• Published: 09/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Pahud, Michel, Schuller, Heinz W., Johnson, Margaret K., Phillips, Howard W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,095,366 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/767
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191

Abstract

Various technologies and techniques are disclosed that improve the instructional nature of fonts and/or the ability to create instructional fonts. Font characters are modified based on user interaction to enhance the user'"'"'s understanding and/or fluency of the word. The font characters can have sound, motion, and altered appearance. When altering the appearance of the characters, the system operates on a set of control points associated with characters, changes the position of the characters, and changes the influence of the portion of characters on a set of respective spline curves. A designer or other user can customize the fonts and user experience by creating an episode package that specifies words to include in the user interface, and details about actions to take when certain events fire. The episode package can include media effects to play when a particular event associated with the media effect occurs.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform steps comprising:

providing an application having a plurality of characters in at least one font;

in response to an input from an input device operated by a user, giving at least a portion of the characters an effect that is selected from the group consisting of motion, sound, and altered appearance; and

wherein the input is selected from the group consisting of a hover over a particular section of the portion of characters, a selection of the particular section of the portion of characters, and a spoken command associated with the portion of characters.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the altered appearance make the portion of characters appear to be in motion.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the effect is designed to aid a word understanding of the user.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the sound is a spoken pronunciation of a word associated with the portion of characters.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the sound is a phoneme pronunciation of the word.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the sound is a normal pronunciation of the word.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the sound is a pronunciation of the word in a native language of the user.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the sound is a pronunciation of the word in a foreign language of the user.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the effect is designed to aid a language fluency of the user.

20. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the steps recited in claim 1.

10. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform steps comprising:

providing an application having at least one word in at least one font;

upon an interaction with the word by a user, providing an output selected from the group consisting of;

a phoneme pronunciation of the word, a normal pronunciation of the word, a pictogram of the word, a multimedia representation of the word, and a designed effect for the word; and

wherein a set of data related to the interaction with the word by the user is stored in a data store.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the selection is a hover over the word with an input device.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the interaction is a selection of the word with an input device.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the designed effect is custom designed by a designer.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

repeating the providing the output stages for a plurality of interactions.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, further comprising the steps of:

receiving an indication that the user does not fully understand the word;

during a first interaction of the plurality of interactions, providing the phoneme pronunciation of the word;

during a second interaction of the plurality of interactions, providing the normal pronunciation of the word;

during a third interaction of the plurality of interactions, providing the pictogram of the word;

during a fourth interaction of the plurality of interactions, providing the multimedia representation of the word; and

during a fifth interaction of the plurality of interactions, providing the designed effect for the word.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, further comprising the steps of:

recognizing that the user understands the word; and

during each interaction of the plurality of interactions, randomly providing the output selected from the group consisting of;

the phoneme pronunciation of the word, the normal pronunciation of the word, the pictogram of the word, the multimedia representation of the word, and the designed effect for the word.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

ensuring that a same output is not repeated two interactions in a row.

18. A method for aiding a word understanding comprising:

providing an application having a plurality of characters in at least one font;

in response to an input from an input device operated by a user, altering at least a portion of the characters, the altering step comprising;

operating on a set of control points associated with the portion of characters;

changing a position of the portion of characters; and

changing an influence of the portion of characters on a set of respective spline curves; and

wherein the input is selected from the group consisting of a hover over a particular section of the portion of characters, a selection of the particular section of the portion of characters, and a spoken command associated with the portion of characters.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the altering step alters the portion of characters to a format the user can trace.