System and method for audibly presenting selected text

• US 8,489,400 B2
• Filed: 08/06/2012
• Issued: 07/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Interactions, LLC
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Conkie, Alistair D., Schroeter, Horst
• Primary Examiner(s): Chawan, Vijay B
• Application Number:
  US13/567,550
• Publication Number:
  US 20120299858A1
• Time in Patent Office: 344 Days
• Field of Search: 455/566, 345/479, 345/173, 345/156, 345/158, 345/168, 705/4, 707/999.003, 707/999.004, 715/839, 715/864, 715/863, 715/777, 341/22, 341/23, 178/19.01, 400/489, 400/472, 704/260, 704/258, 704/270, 704/270.1, 704/275
• US Class Current: 704/260
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/027 Concept to speech synthesisers; Generation of natural phrases from machine-based concepts generation of parameters for speech synthesis out of text G10L13/08
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/08 Text analysis or generation of parameters for speech synthesis out of text, e.g. grapheme to phoneme translation, prosody generation or stress or intonation determination
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector digitizers for touch screens G06F3/041

Abstract

Disclosed herein are methods for presenting speech from a selected text that is on a computing device. This method includes presenting text on a touch-sensitive display and having that text size within a threshold level so that the computing device can accurately determine the intent of the user when the user touches the touch screen. Once the user touch has been received, the computing device identifies and interprets the portion of text that is to be selected, and subsequently presents the text audibly to the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

presenting text on a touch-sensitive display of a computing device;

receiving, via the touch-sensitive display, a user touch;

identifying a portion of the text based at least in part on the user touch; and

audibly presenting the portion of the text.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the user touch further comprises receiving non-contiguous separate inputs, wherein the non-contiguous separate inputs indicate a number of paragraphs of the text to be audibly presented as the portion of the text.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user touch comprises a first tap at a first location and a second tap at a second location, and the portion of the text is identified as text displayed between the first location and the second location.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein audibly presenting the portion of the text occurs when a size of the text is below a threshold.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device is a mobile phone.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein audibly presenting comprises pre-recorded phonemes combined together.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the portion of the text further comprises:

identifying an area of the touch-sensitive display indicated by the user touch; and

associating text presented in the area to form the portion of the text.

8. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

presenting text on a touch-sensitive display of a computing device;

receiving, via the touch-sensitive display, a user touch;

identifying a portion of the text based at least in part on the user touch; and

audibly presenting the portion of the text.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein receiving the user touch further comprises receiving non-contiguous separate inputs, wherein the non-contiguous separate inputs indicate a number of paragraphs of the text to be audibly presented as the portion of the text.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the user touch comprises a first tap at a first location and a second tap at a second location, and the portion of the text is identified as text displayed between the first location and the second location.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein audibly presenting the portion of the text occurs when a size of the text is below a threshold.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the computing device is a mobile phone.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein audibly presenting comprises pre-recorded phonemes combined together.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein identifying the portion of the text further comprises:

identifying an area of the touch-sensitive display indicated by the user touch; and

associating text presented in the area to form the portion of the text.

15. A computer-readable storage device having instructions stored which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

presenting text on a touch-sensitive display of a computing device;

receiving, via the touch-sensitive display, a user touch;

identifying a portion of the text based at least in part on the user touch; and

audibly presenting the portion of the text.

16. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein receiving the user touch further comprises receiving non-contiguous separate inputs, wherein the non-contiguous separate inputs indicate a number of paragraphs of the text to be audibly presented as the portion of the text.

17. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the user touch comprises a first tap at a first location and a second tap at a second location, and the portion of the text is identified as text displayed between the first location and the second location.

18. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein audibly presenting the portion of the text occurs when a size of the text is below a threshold.

19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the computing device is a mobile phone.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein audibly presenting comprises pre-recorded phonemes combined together.