System and method for audibly presenting selected text

• US 9,558,737 B2
• Filed: 07/21/2015
• Issued: 01/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Interactions, LLC
• Original Assignee: Interactions, LLC
• Inventors: Conkie, Alistair D., Schroeter, Horst
• Primary Examiner(s): Chawan, Vijay B
• Application Number:
  US14/805,328
• Publication Number:
  US 20150324169A1
• Time in Patent Office: 560 Days
• Field of Search: 704/260, 704/275, 704/235, 704/270, 704/238, 704/276, 704/277, 704/9, 704/258, 704/269, 704/270.1, 345/173, 345/168, 345/179, 345/184, 379/88.14, 379/88.04, 379/88.11, 379/88.13, 379/88.22, 455/414.4, 455/566, 455/413, 709/222, 707/999.003, 707/999.004, 707/201
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 computer-implemented method comprising:

displaying, via a processor, text via a touch-sensitive display;

receiving, from the touch-sensitive display, a plurality of user taps;

identifying a portion of the text based on one of the user taps;

identifying a set of paragraphs to audibly present based on a count of the user taps, the set of paragraphs including the portion; and

audibly presenting the set of paragraphs.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of user taps are substantially simultaneous, the method further comprising:

determining a number of fingers used for the plurality of substantially simultaneous user taps; and

identifying the set of paragraphs to audibly present based on the determined number of fingers.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein audibly presenting the set of paragraphs occurs via a speaker associated with the touch-sensitive display.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein audibly presenting the set of paragraphs comprises communicating pre-recorded phonemes combined together.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the touch-sensitive display is part of a mobile phone.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user taps identify an area of the touch-sensitive display.

7. A computing device comprising:

a processor;

a touch-sensitive display; and

a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored which, when executed by the processor, result in the processor performing operations comprising;

displaying, via the processor, text via the touch-sensitive display;

receiving, from the touch-sensitive display, a plurality of user taps;

identifying a portion of the text based on one of the user taps;

identifying a set of paragraphs to audibly present based on a count of the user taps, the set of paragraphs including the portion; and

audibly presenting the set of paragraphs.

8. The computing device of claim 7, wherein the plurality of user taps are substantially simultaneous, the operations further comprising:

determining a number of fingers used for the plurality of substantially simultaneous user taps; and

identifying the set of paragraphs to audibly present based on the determined number of fingers.

9. The computing device of claim 7, wherein audibly presenting the set of paragraphs occurs via a speaker associated with the touch-sensitive display.

10. The computing device of claim 7, wherein audibly presenting the set of paragraphs comprises communicating pre-recorded phonemes combined together.

11. The computing device of claim 7, wherein the computing device is a mobile phone.

12. The computing device of claim 7, wherein the user taps identify an area of the touch-sensitive display.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a processor perform operations comprising:

displaying, via the processor, text via a touch-sensitive display;

receiving, from the touch-sensitive display, a plurality of user taps;

identifying a portion of the text based on one of the user taps;

identifying a set of paragraphs to audibly present based on a count of the user taps, the set of paragraphs including the portion; and

audibly presenting the set of paragraphs.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the plurality of user taps are substantially simultaneous, the operations further comprising:

determining a number of fingers used for the plurality of substantially simultaneous user taps; and

identifying the set of paragraphs to audibly present based on the determined number of fingers.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein audibly presenting the set of paragraphs occurs via a speaker associated with the touch-sensitive display.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein audibly presenting the set of paragraphs comprises communicating pre-recorded phonemes combined together.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the computing device is a mobile phone.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the user taps identify an area of the touch-sensitive display.