VOICE ACTIVATED SYSTEM AND METHOD TO ENABLE A COMPUTER USER WORKING IN A FIRST GRAPHICAL APPLICATION WINDOW TO DISPLAY AND CONTROL ON-SCREEN HELP, INTERNET, AND OTHER INFORMATION CONTENT IN A SECOND GRAPHICAL APPLICATION WINDOW

• US 20080256483A1
• Filed: 04/09/2008
• Published: 10/16/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ronald Mark Katsuranis
• Original Assignee: Ronald Mark Katsuranis
• Inventors: Katsuranis, Ronald Mark
• Granted Patent: US 7,908,565 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/784
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance

Abstract

A system is disclosed for displaying a second window of a second application while a first window of a first application has input focus in a windowed computing environment having a voice recognition engine. The system comprises a retriever for launching the second application, a user command receiver for receiving commands from the voice recognition engine, and an application manager. The application manager responds to a command from the user command receiver by invoking the retriever to launch the second application and display the second window while the first window maintains substantially uninterrupted input focus.

Claims

1. A system for displaying a second window of a second application while a first:

window of a first application has input focus in a windowed computing environment having a voice recognition engine, the system comprising;

a retriever for launching the second application;

a user command receiver for receiving commands from the voice recognition engine; and

an application manager for responding to a command from the user command receiver by invoking the retriever to launch the second application and display the second window while the first window maintains substantially uninterrupted input focus.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the input focus briefly switches to the second window and then back to the first window.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the input focus remains on the first window without switching to the second window.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the first graphical application window and the second window do not overlap.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein a size of the second window is based on the contents of the second window.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the first and second windows are displayed on any combination of display monitors.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the second application is a help application.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the second application is an Internet browser application.

9. A system for navigating the display of content in a windowed computing environment having a voice recognition engine, the system comprising:

a first application comprising a first window;

a second application comprising a second window, the second window comprising a scroller for scrolling through the content of the second window;

a user command receiver for receiving commands from the voice recognition engine; and

an application manager for responding to a command from the user command receiver by invoking the scroller to scroll through content of the second window while the first window maintains substantially uninterrupted input focus.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the input focus briefly switches to the second window and then back to the first window.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the input focus remains on the first window without switching to the second window.

12. A system for navigating hypertext links in a windowed computing environment having a voice recognition engine, the system comprising:

a first application comprising a first window;

a second application comprising a second window, the second window comprising a linker for following hyperlinks in the second window;

a user command receiver for receiving commands from the voice recognition engine; and

an application manager for responding to a command from the user command receiver by invoking the linker to follow hyperlinks in the second window while the first window maintains substantially uninterrupted input focus.