Method of interacting with a consumer electronics system

• US 6,778,191 B2
• Filed: 03/07/2001
• Issued: 08/17/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Diederiks, Elmo Marcus Attila, Van De Sluis, Bartel Marinus
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Ba
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEE, TING ZHOU
• Application Number:
  US09/801,066
• Publication Number:
  US 20010056364A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,259 Days
• Field of Search: 345/440, 345/706, 345/709, 345/619, 345/621, 345/473, 345/700, 345/716, 345/727, 345/728, 345/866, 700/245, 700/250, 700/283, 700/264
• US Class Current: 715/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L

Abstract

The behavior of a consumer electronics system is modeled by a plurality of dynamically changing system elements, such as, system states or variables. Preferably, the system is voice controlled. Instead of representing all system elements, like times-span and whether or not a command has been recognized, individually to the user, one appearance is chosen which represents actual values of a plurality of the system elements. The appearance is chosen from a plurality of different visual and/or auditive appearances of one object. Preferably, the object is an anthropomorphic character. The chosen appearance is presented to the user.

Claims

1. A method of enabling a user to interact with a consumer electronics system, the behavior of the system being modeled by a plurality of dynamically changing system elements including system states denoting, at least, recognition of commands of the user, comprehension of commands of the user, non-comprehension of commands of the user, non-recognition of commands of the user, incremental passage of time, and inaction, the method comprising the steps:

choosing one appearance from a plurality of different appearances of one object in dependence on actual values of the plurality of dynamically change system elements; and

presenting the chosen appearance to the user, wherein a plurality of the independent system elements exclusively correspond to a respective plurality of aspects of the object, the step of choosing an appearance comprises choosing, in response to a predetermined change of any one of said plurality of independent system elements, an appearance of the object that only differs in the respective one of the plurality of aspects from a currently chosen appearance of the object.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein one of the respective plurality of aspects of the object comprises a visual characteristic, including size, shape, brightness, color, opacity, and expression, of a visual sub-element of the object.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein one of the respective plurality of aspects of the object is an audible characteristic, including volume and prosody, of an auditive element of the object.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method includes animating the chosen appearance of the object.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein at least one system element is a dynamically changing variable element, the method including synchronizing the animation to the changing of the variable element.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the system includes a speech recognizer, and at least one of the system states is a state of the recognizer.

7. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the system includes a voice control unit, and at least one of the system states is a state of the voice control unit.

8. A consumer electronics system in which a behavior of the system is modeled by a plurality of dynamically changing system elements including system states denoting, at least, recognition of commands of the user, comprehension of commands of the user, non-comprehension of commands of the user, non-recognition of commands of the user, incremental passage of time, and inaction, the system comprising:

means for choosing one appearance from a plurality of different appearances of one object in dependence on actual values of the plurality of dynamically change system elements; and

means for conveying the plurality of system elements to the user by presenting the chosen appearance to the user, wherein a plurality of the independent system elements exclusively correspond to a respective plurality of aspects of the object, and the means for choosing one appearance comprises choosing, in response to a predetermined change of any one of said plurality of independent system elements, an appearance of the object that only differs in the respective one of the plurality of aspects from a currently chosen appearance of the object.

9. The consumer electronics system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the system includes a storage for storing a set of different appearances of the object, and wherein the means for choosing the appearance comprises means for selecting one of the appearances in the set, and means for retrieving the selected appearance from the storage.

10. A consumer electronics system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the system includes a storage for storing a basic appearance of the object, and wherein the means for choosing the appearance includes means retrieving the basic appearance of the object from the storage;

and means for modifying the basic appearance to conform to a desired appearance.