Method and apparatus for using earcons in mobile communication devices
First Claim
1. A method for operating a communication device that includes speech recognition capabilities, the method comprising:
- implementing on the device a user interface that employs a plurality of different user prompts, wherein each user prompt of said plurality of different user prompts is for either soliciting a corresponding spoken input from the user or informing the user about an action or state of the device;
implementing on the device a plurality of different earcons, each earcon of said plurality of different earcons being mapped to a corresponding different one of said plurality of user prompts; and
when any selected one of said plurality of user prompts is issued by the user interface on the device, generating the earcon that is mapped to the selected user prompt.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The apparatus and methods for using earcons as user prompts in mobile communication devices described herein are directed to implementing a mode of communication in these communication devices having speech recognition capabilities wherein spoken prompts are disabled and replaced with short identifiable sound prompts such as the earcons. In general, according to one aspect of the invention, a method for operating a communication device that includes speech recognition capabilities, comprises implementing on the device a user interface that employs a plurality of different user prompts, wherein each user prompt is for soliciting a corresponding spoken input from the user or informing the user about an action or state of the device; implementing on the device a plurality of different earcons, each earcon being mapped to a corresponding different one of the plurality of user prompts; and when any selected one of said plurality of user prompts is issued by the user interface on the device, generating the earcon that is mapped to the selected user prompt. Each prompt of the plurality of user prompts has a corresponding language representation and wherein generating the earcon for the selected user prompts includes generating the corresponding language representation through the user interface.
196 Citations
27 Claims
-
1. A method for operating a communication device that includes speech recognition capabilities, the method comprising:
-
implementing on the device a user interface that employs a plurality of different user prompts, wherein each user prompt of said plurality of different user prompts is for either soliciting a corresponding spoken input from the user or informing the user about an action or state of the device;
implementing on the device a plurality of different earcons, each earcon of said plurality of different earcons being mapped to a corresponding different one of said plurality of user prompts; and
when any selected one of said plurality of user prompts is issued by the user interface on the device, generating the earcon that is mapped to the selected user prompt. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
-
-
12. A mobile voice communication device comprising:
-
a wireless transceiver circuit for transmitting and receiving auditory information and for receiving data;
a processor; and
a memory storing executable instructions which when executed on the processor causes the mobile voice communication device to provide functionality to a user of the mobile voice communication device, said executable instructions including implementing on the device a user interface that employs a plurality of different user prompts, wherein each user prompt of said plurality of different user prompts is for either soliciting a corresponding spoken input from the user or informing the user about an action or state of the device;
implementing on the device a plurality of different earcons, each earcon of said plurality of different earcons being mapped to a corresponding different one of said plurality of user prompts; and
when any selected one of said plurality of user prompts is issued by the user interface on the device, generating the earcon that is mapped to the selected user prompt. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A computer readable medium including stored instructions adapted for execution on a process, comprising:
-
instructions for implementing on the device a user interface that employs a plurality of different user prompts, wherein each user prompt of said plurality of different user prompts is for either soliciting a corresponding spoken input from the user or informing the user about an action or state of the device;
instructions for implementing on the device a plurality of different earcons, each earcon of said plurality of different earcons being mapped to a corresponding different one of said plurality of user prompts; and
instructions for when any selected one of said plurality of user prompts is issued by the user interface on the device, generating the earcon that is mapped to the selected user prompt. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21)
-
-
22. A mobile voice communication device, comprising:
-
a first communication mode selectable by a user, wherein the user interface of the device generates at least two different types of user prompts for either soliciting a corresponding spoken input from the user or informing the user about an action or state of the device, wherein one of the at least two prompts is a plurality of language prompts and one is a plurality of earcon prompts; and
a second communication mode selectable by the user, wherein the user interface of the device generates the plurality of earcon prompts without generating the associated plurality of language prompts. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
-
Specification