Data processing: structural design – modeling – simulation – and em – Simulating electronic device or electrical system – Software program
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-30
2001-01-23
Teska, Kevin J. (Department: 2763)
Data processing: structural design, modeling, simulation, and em
Simulating electronic device or electrical system
Software program
C702S122000, C434S118000, C434S322000, C434S362000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06178395
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to systems and methods for calibrating sensory stimuli. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods that calibrate sensory stimuli to ensure that the beginning and the duration of a range of response time is substantially consistent across computer platforms.
Diagnostic/training computer software typically present sensory stimuli, such as sound and/or tone, visual stimuli, touch stimuli, or the like across a user interface with the intention of eliciting a response from the user. The diagnostic and training software, for example, may be implemented in an educational program that is designed to build language skills in children. Development of language skills is especially important in those children who lack the necessary skills to make reliable distinctions among speech sounds and therefore suffer from poor language comprehension and/or speech production problems.
In order to make the diagnostic and/or training process a positive experience for the user, the diagnostic/training software is often presented to the user in the form of a computer game. In the computer game, the user may be rewarded or penalized points depending on the user's response and reaction time to sound and/or tone stimuli. By way of example, one such computer diagnostic/training software is Old McDonald's Flying Farm (OMDFF), commercially available from Scientific Learning Corporation of Berkeley, Calif. Although the disclosure herein focuses on sound and/or tonal stimuli to simplify the discussion, it should be borne in mind that the issues presented herein and the techniques proposed by the present invention are also applicable when other forms of sensory stimuli are employed.
By way of example, the sound and/or tone stimuli may include a string of tones and may be stored in a memory storage device, e.g., a CD ROM or a magnetic media. Such stimuli are commonly referred to in the art as “STIMs”.
FIG. 1
shows a representative STIM
10
and a timeline associated with STIM
10
. STIM
10
includes several dummy tones
20
followed by a target tone
26
. In response to STIM
10
, a user attempts to discern between dummy tones
20
and target tone
26
to identify a speech pattern associated with STIM
10
. By way of example, dummy tones
20
may denote a “BA” sound and target tone
26
may denote a “DA” sound, and the user attempts to distinguish between the “BA” sound and the “DA” sound by activating a user input device (e.g., clicking on a mouse) when the user believes that the “DA” sound has been played. The user's response to the STIM presented and the user's reaction time to target tone
26
provides insight into the user's ability to recognize language and speech patterns.
For simplicity's sake, the remainder of the disclosure will focus on the mouse as the user input device employed by the user to signal his response. It should be noted, however, that the techniques disclosed herein are also applicable when other types of user input devices are employed, e.g., keyboards, microphones, virtual reality input devices, or other transducers.
Before the timeline of STIM
10
begins at time T equals zero, there exists a seek time
12
, during which the computer or a processor employed to produce the stimuli seeks the sound file containing STIM
10
that is stored on the memory storage device. Once the sound file is found, the timeline of STIM
10
begins at time T equals zero, as shown in FIG.
1
. As the time progresses after time T equals zero, a dead time
14
, which may last about 100 ms, precedes the actual playback of STIM
10
. During dead time
14
, no sound is typically played by the computer or processor.
The first dummy tone
20
is heard after a period of time
18
known as inter stimulus interval (ISI) elapses. Each of dummy tones
20
lasts for a period of time
16
and is separated from one another by an ISI
18
. In other words, the length of an ISI spans from the end of a previous dummy tone to the beginning of a subsequent dummy tone. According to
FIG. 1
, a string of dummy tones
20
and ISIs
18
are presented to the user. After the last dummy tone
20
is played and the last ISI
18
elapses, however, target tone
26
is presented.
A lock out time
22
typically follows the last ISI
18
. During this period of time, the user is typically locked out from registering a response. The lock out time accounts for a period of time required by an average human being to register a viable cognitive input, i.e. hear, recognize and then respond to the target tone. After the lock out time has expired, the software is ready to receive the user's response to the target tone for a period of time that is referred to as the “hit window.”
It is important to note that in order to respond to STIM
10
correctly, the user should respond within the duration of hit window
24
. If the user responds before hit window
24
or after hit window
24
then the user's response is deemed an incorrect response. The time period of hit window
24
begins at a starting time of the hit window and concludes at an ending time of the hit window, and the time period spanning between the starting and ending of the hit window typically equals a dummy letter. The dummy letter is defined as the sum of duration of a dummy tone (shown by reference number
16
in
FIG. 1
) and an ISI
18
.
Measuring from the point when time equals zero, the starting time of the hit window is defined as the sum of the dead time
14
, the lockout time
22
plus the product of the number of dummy tones
20
in the STIM and the duration of a dummy letter. The ending time of the hit window may be calculated as the sum of dead time
14
, lockout time
22
, the product of the number of dummy tones
20
in the STIM and the duration of a dummy letter, plus the duration of hit window
24
.
Ideally, the duration of the hit window as well as its beginning and/or ending should stay constant relative to the stimuli irrespective of the computer employed to administer the computer-implemented diagnostic/training regime. Unfortunately, when the computer that is employed to administer the computer-implemented diagnostic/training regime is implemented differently from the computer that is employed to author the diagnostic/training software, the duration of the hit window changes and/or the hit window undesirably shifts or drifts from its relative preset position in the sound file. This can happen if the administering computer supports a different platform, has a different hardware configuration (e.g., different processor, bus, memory capacity, I/O subsystem, or the like), or is simply implemented with a different operating system/browser than that associated with the authoring computer. As an example, although the target tone may be presented to the user at substantially the same time when different computers are employed to run the software, the lock out time that follows the target tone may have different durations.
By way of example, when the software-authoring computer is an Apple MacIntosh® BY Apple Computer Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., and the software is subsequently executed on an Intel-based computer (also known as an IBM-compatible computer), it has been observed that typically the lock out time on the IBM-compatible computer increases relative to the lockout time initially set on the Apple MacIntosh®. Thus, the hit window is presented to the user later in time when using an IBM-compatible computer than if an Apple computer is used.
Because of the shift or change in duration in the hit window, it is difficult to analyze users' responses in a meaningful way when different administering computers are employed. This is because a response which is timely and correct on one computer may be deemed untimely and incorrect in another computer, although neither the underlying diagnostic/training software nor the user's response has changed.
What is therefore needed is a process and a system that can quickly and accurately determine the
Beyer Weaver & Thomas LLP
Scientific Learning Corporation
Sergent Douglas W
Teska Kevin J.
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