SYNCHRONIZED AUDIO FEEDBACK FOR NON-VISUAL TOUCH INTERFACE SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20140092032A1
• Filed: 10/02/2012
• Published: 04/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Incorporated (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Moore, Douglas A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,411,507 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback

Abstract

The disclosed systems and methods are directed to interfaces, and more particularly, to an audio feedback system for touch interface. This touch interface allows a user to interact with a touchscreen without a priori knowledge of where items are located on the touchscreen or even the relative orientation of that touchscreen. For instance, this interface may operate responsive to relative offset between touches.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented user interface method for managing user inputs, the method comprising:

receiving a reference input via a touchscreen coupled to a computing device;

receiving a subsequent input via the touchscreen;

identifying a relative offset between the reference input and the subsequent input;

identifying a direction of the relative offset between the reference input and the subsequent input;

associating the relative offset and direction of the received inputs with a gesture;

associating the gesture with a command to the computing device; and

providing a unique audio feedback response associated with each command based on the gesture.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising measuring a time duration subsequent to an input to the touchscreen.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second subsequent input via the touchscreen;

identifying a second relative offset between the subsequent input and the second subsequent input; and

identifying a second direction of the relative offset between the subsequent input and second subsequent input.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising measuring the time duration between the reference input to the touchscreen and a final input of the gesture.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising delivering a unique haptic feedback response associated with each command.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the unique audio feedback provided correspond to music notes.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein an input may be at least one of a touch or a drag.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference input is not associated with an image displayed on the touchscreen.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference input location is arbitrary.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning commands based on the relative offset of the subsequent input from the reference input in both the x axis and the y axis.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the touchscreen is an interface of at least one of a vehicle, robot, home appliance, tool and/or toy.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the touchscreen may be toggled between a selectable icon touchscreen interface and a relative offset measuring interface, wherein the relative offset measuring interface is not associated with icons displayed on the touchscreen.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein a location of a received reference input may be collocated with a displayed selectable icon on the touchscreen without impacting selection of the displayed selectable icon.

14. A computer-implemented user interface comprising:

a touchscreen configured to receive a reference input and a subsequent input;

a computer-readable medium having stored thereon sequences of instructions, the sequences of instructions including instructions which when executed by a computer system causes the computer system to;

calculate a relative offset between the reference input and the subsequent input, and

calculate a direction of the relative offset between the reference input and the subsequent input, wherein the relative direction and the relative offset of a series of inputs is associated with a gesture, and wherein each gesture of a plurality of gestures is associated with a command to a computer based system coupled to the user interface; and

an audio feedback system configured to provide a unique audio feedback response for each command.

15. The user interface of claim 14, further comprising a haptic feedback system configured to deliver a haptic response associated with each command based on a received gesture.

16. The user interface of claim 14, wherein the unique audio feedback provided correspond to music notes.

17. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon sequences of instructions, the sequences of instructions including instructions which in response to execution by a computer system causes the computer system to perform:

determining a relative offset between a reference input and a subsequent input;

determining a direction of the relative offset between the reference input and the subsequent input;

associating both the relative direction and the relative offset of a series of inputs with a gesture;

associating the gesture with a command to the computed based system; and

providing a unique audio feedback response associated with each command.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising delivering a unique haptic response associated with each command.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the unique audio feedback response corresponds to music notes.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising:

determining a second relative offset between the subsequent input and a second subsequent input; and

determining a second direction of the subsequent input originating at the location of the second subsequent input.