Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at same station – Radiotelephone equipment detail
Reexamination Certificate
2002-09-19
2004-10-12
Maung, Nay (Department: 2684)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at same station
Radiotelephone equipment detail
C455S066100, C455S563000, C455S564000, C455S569100, C704S231000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06804539
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a user interface. The user interface guides the user through option menus and the selection process.
BACKGROUND
The present invention addresses problems presented by conventional user interfaces, for example in consumer electronic products. It relates to a process and the configuration of apparatus that can accurately and automatically interpret the user's desired selection without the requirement that the user be able to read. One aspect of the interface of the present invention resides in its ease of use, especially for children, for illiterate people and people less technically able. The device can be embedded inside almost any product, for example, without intending to be limiting, telecommunication devices such as cell phones embedded in a product, without affecting the external aesthetics of the product.
Applicant is aware of prior art within the field of user interfaces for consumer electronic products, for example interfaces employing voice recognition, graphic touch panels, and intelligent keypads. Such prior art user interfaces for consumer electronic products consist of a broad range of technology mixes. The current trend is to use a more organic style of interface such as voice recognition or graphical interfaces rather than arrays of mechanical buttons. Some devices attempt to guess a user's most probable decisions, making navigating complex decision trees more tolerable. The present invention is derived out of necessity for an easy-to-use interface that, for example, may be embedded in a plush toy and operate without a keypad or display.
One object of this invention is to provide an alternative method of operating complex electronic equipment for example such as cellular or wireless telephones or other devices, wherein audio prompts guide the user through options, and the user responds with a timely action to accept or reject the specific option presented during a corresponding time window.
SUMMARY
In the present invention, the user of a device is presented with an action, an option or a series of options via audio messages. The user indicates acceptance or rejection of an option with a timely action, for example such as pressing a button disguised within a product such as a plush doll. The timely action must occur during the time window in which the audio message implicitly or explicitly indicates the intention to accept or reject an option. Otherwise, the interface indicates the default selection to the device. For example, a default selection may be to cycle a number of times through a menu, for example three times, and failing getting a response backup one level in a decision tree and again cycle through the menu at that level a number of times, and failing getting a response backup yet a further level, and so on until the interface or device is left in a standby mode. The interface is thus well adapted for use by a child, or for example by a visually impaired person, or even merely for use by people who are driving automobiles and should not be taking their eyes from the road ahead, because the interface does not require an action by the user as no action is treated as a selection choice thus differentiating from prior art for example which presents a three position tree to a handicapped person thus requiring an action from the person.
The invention is thus, in one aspect, a process of navigating menus or selecting actions or options. The process may utilize a sensor system configured to behave as a binary state switch along with an audio presentation and feedback system. These two elements are synchronized to permit correlation analysis of signals, which yields information or signals that indicate the user's selected option or desired action.
The novelty lies, at least in part, in the ability of a device, such as a binary push button, to select one of multiple options by indicating the option as desired or undesired as they are presented through time via speech. Acceptance or rejection is indicated by the presence of one or the other of the two possible binary states during the corresponding time window.
The selection time window can be within the time domain of spoken words or sounds of the prompt, which may include quiet time and may also include, or consist only of, other audible queues or music.
This interface protocol permits functional manipulation of complex devices, such as personal telecommunication devices, without the necessity of the visual feedback via textual or graphic data. Since the sensor functions change with time rather than placement, both visual and tactile demands placed upon the user are dramatically reduced, offering an advantage over the complex array of graphic symbols and the symbolic placement of buttons found on multifunction keypads. In the present invention an action is converted to an electrical impulse, which is correlated to a precisely timed audible audio data stream. The correlated data indicates the desired action or option selected by the user. This allows a device such as a telecommunication device to be embedded in a product without altering the external aesthetics of the product. The product can be, but is not limited to, a plush toy. In some cases, the ability to be hidden within the product will be an essential component of the invention's application.
In a further aspect, the present invention is a communication protocol that defines the parameters of actions, data transfer, acknowledgment and response for the purpose of a user interface, for example in a consumer electronic device. The user/operator listens to a stream of audio messages that indicate available options. The user selects an action, an option or an optional path through a menu tree by either doing nothing, or by biasing, for example such as toggling or otherwise reversing the state of a binary state device, so as to select the alternative choice, action or path available at that moment. When the user makes no selection, it indicates acceptance of a default choice, direction or action such as backing up a level in a decision or menu tree.
In one embodiment, the audio stream may present an ongoing list during which the user intervenes to select the desired option. The default action in this embodiment may then be to merely present the next item in the list.
The present invention may be described as a time domain multiple selection protocol in which for example, and without intending to be limiting, a binary state indicates a selection by inversion of the binary state during the defined time window for the desired selection utilizing mechanical, electromechanical and electronic circuitry. The present invention requires the presence of three key elements, an input mechanism, an audible output system and a method for keeping track of the state of the input device as the messages are being presented. The user interface is a timing based multiple selection protocol consisting of mechanical, electromechanical and electronic circuitry for a novel method of making and selection from a menu or list of items.
Thus, in summary, the present invention consists of a time domain, multiple selection protocol in which a selection of an option is made during the defined time window for the desired action or option. The action or option is presented in an audible audio information stream that is precisely timed or synchronized with the monitoring of sensors to allow electronic signals to indicate and be processed in such a manner as to yield information regarding the user's choice.
The audio stream presents a series of actions or options from which the user may select an option via any input device, such as a push button switch. The device may also operate with a limited binary state voice recognition interface. A preset default option is assumed unless indicated by the user causing an input during the time domain of presentation of information pertaining to the desired option. Presented information is any audio information that could be used to indicate the nature of an option and its selection
Curo Interactive Incorporated
Edwards Anthony C.
Orgad Edan
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