Education and demonstration – Language – Spelling – phonics – word recognition – or sentence formation
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-12
2001-08-14
O'Neill, Michael (Department: 3713)
Education and demonstration
Language
Spelling, phonics, word recognition, or sentence formation
C434S167000, C434S168000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06273726
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Prior audio-visual presentations have included placement of subtitles (U.S. Pat. No. 3,199,115 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,349) or balloon-type legends (U.S. Pat. No. 1,240,774 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,524,276), all to assist in language interpretation of oral portions of the presentation.
While prior subtitles have from time to time coincided with the speaking of a single word in a different language, such occurrences have been haphazard, infrequent, and without a controlled pattern to accomplish specific association of a series sounds with a series of writings. Further, location of subtitle words have been remote from the pictorial action.
Prior art flash cards, each displaying a word, have attempted to teach reading through repetitive enforced and unnatural exercise. Although having some effect ultimately, the use of such cards requires longer periods of learning and the in-person presence of a literate tutor whether a mother or school teacher. Also such cards do not provide the strength of association that the present invention delivers by providing referents within a narrative audio-visual medium that has appeal to the student outside its literacy-teaching component.
U. S. Pat. No. 5,241,671 discloses presenting on a computer screen the text of any article with some words underlined and some not underlined. When the user selects a word from the text its definition appears in a window on the screen and an audio pronunciation of the word occurs. An audio sound icon may also be displayed.
Closed-captioned works provide separate areas or adjacent boxes where groupings of words are displayed. Closed-caption systems display groups of words along the bottom of the screen or at other remote locations away from the speakers or actors. Closed-caption words appear alongside, below or above the visual pictorial scene with a different background which background is usually white. The display of sign language symbols with audio-visuals to aid the deaf are also shown in separate adjacent boxes. These box display techniques may be intrusive to viewers.
Tutorial audio-visuals have been broadcast which include instructors facing the camera and speaking words with the corresponding written words being displayed in front of the speaker as spoken. Viewer-listeners tire of such tutorial formats and particularly, younger viewer-listeners lose interest in the subject matter being presented.
RELATED APPLICATION
This application is a divisional application of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/310,458 filed Sep. 22, 1994 entitled “An Audio-Visual Work With A Series Of Visual Word Symbols Coordinated With Oral Word Utterances”.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Briefly, the present invention comprises an audio-visual work and its method of creation which utilizes the natural setting of commonly-viewed works with their usual and common series of pictorial frames or segments presented along with speech and other oral utterances which works have, in addition, a series of writings thereon which are associated with or correspond to the series of utterances as sequentially heard by the viewer-listener. We refer to this as “euthetic” (well-placed) captioning. The spoken word and the written word within this context correspond if they are the same word. A spoken word in one language with a written word having the same meaning in another language are associated words in this context.
According to some embodiments of the present invention, it is a feature that each writing appears near, on or in association with the head of the utterer such that the written word, the spoken word and the accompanying facial, labial and head motion expressions may be simultaneously observed by the viewer/listener and such that an impression is created by the proximity to and alignment with the mouth that the word has emerged from the mouth. According to other embodiments, each writing appears near, on or in association with a hand or hands of a person using sign language. According to other embodiments of the invention, writing in Braille is “displayed” on a separate device in association with the spoken words of an utterer.
The present invention is used with non-tutorial audio-visuals normally created for entertainment, informational, or other purposes which audio-visuals are not literacy purposed. It may be used with such materials whether as an element of new production or as a retrofit to previously produced audio-visuals. The present invention may also be used for newly produced materials that are literacy-teaching purposed and which are designed for the application of the present invention; such newly produced, literacy-purposed materials embodying the present invention will be enabled by the invention to be less boring and less intimidating to the student than present literacy-purposed audio-visual materials.
It is a feature that the audio-visual work of the invention may be linearly presented or integrated through programming and use of a multimedia computer platform to create a work that is interactively operable by the viewer/listener to provide additional instruction.
It is a further feature of the present method that it has utility in a societal effort in which sufficient works are literated, the placement of words on audio-visuals as herein disclosed, using basic words in a language and repetitively broadcasting or otherwise exhibiting such works to a population to teach a segment of the population to recognize such words when reading.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5741136 (1998-04-01), Kirksey et al.
patent: 5938447 (1999-08-01), Kirksey et al.
patent: 6062863 (2000-05-01), Kirksey et al.
Kirksey William E.
Morris Kyle S.
Clayton Sheila
O'Neill Michael
Readspeak, Inc.
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