PORTABLE DIALOGUE ENGINE

• US 20160202951A1
• Filed: 01/08/2016
• Published: 07/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/08/2015
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hand Held Products Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hand Held Products Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Pike, Jeffrey, Zabel, Shawn, Bender, Brian, Doubleday, Dennis, Murawski, Mark
• Application Number:
  US14/990,961
• Publication Number:
  US 20160202951A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0381 Multimodal input, i.e. interface arrangements enabling the user to issue commands by simultaneous use of input devices of different nature, e.g. voice plus gesture on digitizer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue

Abstract

A method includes generating a request for a user interaction, the request being generated by an application implementing business logic on a computer system; receiving the request at a first user interface driver that drives a first user interface and at a second user interface driver that drives a second user interface; receiving a user interaction via the first user interface; pausing the second user interface; and synchronizing the first user interface driver and the second user interface driver.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

generating a request for a user interaction, the request being generated by an application implementing business logic on a computer system;

receiving the request at a first user interface driver that drives a first user interface and at a second user interface driver that drives a second user interface;

receiving a user interaction via the first user interface;

pausing the second user interface; and

synchronizing the first user interface driver and the second user interface driver.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising the first and second user interface drivers generating different user interface modes on multiple user interfaces transparent to the application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second user interface drivers include a dialogue engine driving a voice interface and a graphical user interface driver driving a graphical user interface.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the dialogue engine is paused when the received user interaction is from the graphical user interface.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the voice interface comprises a headset.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the graphical user interface comprises a touchscreen display device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein synchronizing the first and second user interface drivers comprises:

receiving further user interactions via the first user interface;

continuing to pause the second user interface;

receiving a user selection via the first user interface indicating a switch to the second user interface; and

updating the second user interface to provide a next state of the application to the user.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising returning to a state following a state of the second user interface following a prior state of the second user interface before the user provided a request via the first user interface.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second user interface drivers provide a state of the application to an interface synchronizer.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the application generated request conveys an interface independent request for a user interaction, including conveying information to the user and receiving information from the user, wherein driver execution of the request is transparent to the application and the received information from the user is provided to the application by either the first or second interface driver in the same manner.

11. A machine readable storage device having instructions for execution by a processor of the machine to perform a method comprising:

generating a request for a user interaction, the request being generated by an application implementing business logic on a computer system;

receiving the request at a first user interface driver that drives a first user interface and at a second user interface driver that drives a second user interface;

receiving a user interaction via the first user interface;

pausing the second user interface; and

synchronizing the first user interface driver and the second user interface driver.

12. The device of claim 11, comprising the first and second user interface drivers generating different user interface modes on the user interfaces transparent to the application, wherein the two user interface drivers include a dialogue engine driving a voice interface and a graphical user interface driver driving a graphical user interface.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein the dialogue engine is paused when the received user interaction is from the graphical user interface.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the voice interface comprises a headset and the graphical user interface comprises a touchscreen display device.

15. The device of claim 11, wherein synchronizing the user interface drivers comprises:

receiving further user interactions via the first user interface;

continuing to pause the second user interface;

receiving a user selection via the first user interface indicating a switch to the second user interface; and

updating the second user interface to provide a next state of the application to the user.

16. The method of claim 15, comprising returning to a state following a state of the second user interface following a prior state of the second user interface before the user provided a request via the first user interface.

17. A device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory device coupled to the processor and having a program stored thereon for execution by the processor to;

generate a request for a user interaction, the request being generated by an application implementing business logic on a computer system;

receive the request at a first user interface driver that drives a first user interface and at a second user interface driver that drives a second user interface;

receive a user interaction via the first user interface;

pause the second user interface; and

synchronize the first user interface driver and the second user interface driver.

18. The device of claim 17, comprising the first and second interface drivers generating different user interface modes on the user interfaces transparent to the application, wherein the first and second user interface drivers include a dialogue engine driving a voice interface and a graphical user interface driver driving a graphical user interface, and wherein the dialogue engine is paused when the received user interaction is from the graphical user interface.

19. The device of claim 17, wherein the voice interface comprises a headset and the graphical user interface comprises a touchscreen display device.

20. The device of claim 17 wherein synchronizing the first and second user interface drivers comprises:

receiving further user interactions via the first user interface;

continuing to pause the second user interface;

receiving a user selection via the first user interface indicating a switch to the second user interface; and

updating the second user interface to provide a next state of the application to the user.