Interactive multimedia book

• US 7,136,819 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2003
• Issued: 11/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Whitham Holdings LLC
• Original Assignee: Charles Lamont Whitham
• Inventors: Whitham, Charles Lamont
• Primary Examiner(s): CHAWAN, VIJAY B
• Application Number:
  US10/724,228
• Publication Number:
  US 20040111270A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,079 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML

Abstract

An interactive multimedia book provides hands-on multimedia instruction to the user in response to voiced commands. The book is implemented on a computer system and includes both text and audio/video clips. The interactive multimedia book is accessed by voiced commands and natural language queries as the primary user input. The displayed text is written in a markup language and contains hyperlinks which link the current topic with other related topics. The user may command the book to read the text and, as the text is read by the voice synthesizer, a word which is also a hyperlink will change its attributes upon being spoken. The user will be able to observe or hear this and simply utter the word which is the hyperlink to navigate to the linked topic.

Claims

1. A method of presenting an interactive multimedia book on a computer system comprising the steps of:

recognizing a voiced word spoken by the user of the book as an active hyperlink;

responding to a voiced word which is an active hyperlink by first storing a current page number in a last in, first out register before moving to a second page of the book which contains an anchor for the hyperlink, the current page being an origin page, and then moving to said second page of the book which contains the anchor for the hyperlink;

recognizing a voiced command spoken by the user of the book to return to the origin page;

responding to the voiced command to return to the origin page by moving back to the origin page; and

deleting the origin page from the last in, first out register after moving back to the origin page.

2. The method of presenting an interactive multimedia book on a computer system recited in claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

recognizing a natural language query spoken by the user of the book;

analyzing the natural language query; and

responding to the natural language query.

3. A method of presenting an interactive multimedia book on a computer system comprising the steps of:

generating a multimedia book as a digital file containing text, images, graphics and video clips;

displaying a simulated page of the multimedia book to a user of the book, a simulated page containing at least one of said text, images, graphics and video clips and selected pages containing one or more active hyperlinks pointing to a corresponding anchor located on a different simulated page;

recognizing a voiced word spoken by the user of the book as an active hyperlink;

responding to a voiced word spoken by the user of the book as an active hyperlink of a currently displayed simulated page by first storing the current page number in a last in, first out register before moving to a second page of the book which contains the anchor for the hyperlink, the current page being an origin page, and then moving to said second page of the book which contains the anchor for the hyperlink;

recognizing a voiced command spoken by the user of the book to return to the origin page; and

responding to the voiced command to return to the origin page by accessing the last in, first out register to determine the origin page and moving back to the origin page.

4. The method of presenting an interactive multimedia book on a computer system as recited in claim 3, further comprising the step of deleting the origin page in the last in, first out register after moving back to the origin page.

5. The method of presenting an interactive multimedia book on a computer system recited in claim 3, wherein while the second page is displayed further comprising the steps of:

recognizing a voiced word spoken by the user of the book as an active hyperlink on said second page;

responding to a voiced word which is an active hyperlink on said second page by first storing the second page number in said last in, first register before moving to a third page of the book which contains an anchor for the hyperlink on said second page, then moving to said third page of the book which contains the anchor for the hyperlink on said second page;

recognizing a voiced command spoken by the user of the book to return to the second page; and

responding to the voiced command to return to the second page by moving back to the second page.

6. The method of presenting an interactive multimedia book on a computer system as recited in claim 5, comprising the step of deleting the second page in the last in, first out register after moving back to the second page.

7. The method of presenting an interactive multimedia book on a computer system as recited in claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

recognizing a voiced command spoken by the user of the book to return to the origin page;

responding to the voiced command to return to the second page by moving back to the second page; and

deleting the origin page in the last in, first out register after moving back to the origin page.

8. The method of presenting an interactive multimedia book on a computer system recited in claim 3, wherein while the second page is displayed further comprising the steps of:

recognizing a voiced word spoken by the user of the book;

determining if the voiced word spoken by the user is a command; and

if the voiced word spoken by the user is a command, executing the command.

9. The method of presenting an interactive multimedia book on a computer system recited in claim 8, wherein the second page contains a video clip and the voiced command is “

PLAY”

, further comprising the step of playing the video clip.

10. The method of presenting an interactive multimedia book on a computer system recited in claim 9, wherein while the video clip is playing further comprising the steps of:

recognizing a voiced word spoken by the user of the book;

determining if the voiced word is one of the commands “

PAUSE”

or “

STOP”

; and

if the voiced word is the command “

PAUSE”

, pausing the playing of the video clip;

but

if the voiced word is the command “

STOP”

, stopping the playing of the video clip.

11. The method of presenting an interactive multimedia book on a computer system recited in claim 10, wherein while the video clip is paused further comprising the steps of:

recognizing a voiced word spoken by the user of the book;

determining if the voiced word is the command “

RESUME”

; and

if the voiced word is the command “

RESUME”

, resuming playing of the video clip from a point where the video clip was paused.