Patent Application
20070117080
The present invention relates to an auxiliary operation system, and more particularly to an auxiliary operation system for facilitating a user to operate a handheld electronic device by hearing the audio cue.
Generally, when a handheld electronic device such as a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA) or a digital Walkman is used, the user needs look at the screen for realizing or controlling the operation of the handheld electronic device. In other words, following the instructions shown on the screen, the user can navigate functions of the handheld electronic device with the help of vision. As known, the sense of sight for the user may be hindered in some circumstances. For example, in the case of driving while using the mobile phone, the user fails to fix his eyes on the screen because of the likelihood of the traffic accident. In addition, if the handheld electronic device is used in a dark environment or a small-size screen is employed, the information shown on the screen is not clearly visible. Meanwhile, other sensory organs of the user need function well to facilitate the user to operate the handheld electronic device. Therefore, efforts are exerted on making use of the sensory organs other than the sense of sight to facilitate the user to operate the handheld electronic device.
For a purpose of increasing convenience, the mobile phone has some other extended uses such as a voice dialing function. By means of the voice dialing function, the mobile phone may dial the number of the receiver when the user speaks toward the mobile phone without the need of fixing his eyes on the screen and pushing the phone number. Such a voice dialing function is not satisfactory due to some drawbacks. For example, a voice recognition program is necessary to recognize the voice command issued by the user. In other words, even when a simple dialing action is executed, a series of complicated voice recognition tasks are inevitable. Therefore, there is a need of developing a suitable auxiliary operation system for facilitating a user to operate the handheld electronic device.
Typically, following the instructions shown on the screen, the user can navigate functions of the handheld electronic device by moving the cursor to the desired operation item on a step-by-step basis. For example, by pressing the up/down buttons, the selective item shown on the function menu is moved to the next one. For a purpose of moving to the desired selective item, the up/down buttons should be repeatedly pressed down. This operation system is not user-friendly and thus the user needs look at the screen for realizing or controlling the operation of the handheld electronic device.
In views of the above-described disadvantages of the prior art, the applicant keeps on carving unflaggingly to develop an auxiliary operation system for facilitating a user to operate a handheld electronic device according to the present invention through wholehearted experience and research.
As previously described, since the conventional handheld electronic device lacks a simple and effective auxiliary operation system, the user fails to successfully execute the desired function because the sense of sight for the user may be hindered in some circumstances.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an auxiliary operation system for facilitating a user to operate a handheld electronic device so as to avoid repeatedly inputting instructions.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a handheld electronic device having an auxiliary operation system for generating an audio cue to help the user well understand what he can do.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a menu-browsing method for use in a handheld electronic device. The menu includes a plurality of selective items. Firstly, a menu-browsing instruction is received. In response to the menu-browsing instruction, audio files corresponding to the selective items of the menu are read. Afterwards, the audio files are successively and orderly outputted one by one.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an auxiliary operation system of a handheld electronic device for facilitating a user to browse plural selective items of a menu. The handheld electronic device includes an audio output unit and an instruction input unit. The auxiliary operation system of the handheld electronic device comprises an audio database and an audio reproducing program. The audio database including audio files corresponding to the plural selective items of the menu. In response to a menu-browsing instruction issued from the instruction input unit, the audio reproducing program controls the audio output unit to successively and orderly output the audio files one by one.
The above objects and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art after reviewing the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, in which:
FIGS. 2A˜2K are schematic diagrams illustrating a mobile phone using the auxiliary operation system for guiding the user to control the mobile phone to execute certain functions.
Referring to
The instruction input unit 15 of the handheld electronic device 1 is built as an internal or external part of the handheld electronic device 1. An exemplary instruction input unit 15 includes an analog-to-digital element such as a button, a rotary wheel (or a rotary disc), a touch screen or a microphone. In response to a user's actions, an electronic signal is issued from the instruction input unit 15 to the analog-to-digital converter 13 to be converted into a digital signal. The digital signal is processed by the processor 11 to perform associate data computation and control operations. In an embodiment, the user's action includes for example a pressing action, a stirring action, a touching action or the generation of sound.
Please refer to
As previously described, under control of the audio reproducing program 172, the audio files are successively and orderly outputted one by one via audio output unit 14. It is preferred that the next audio file will be outputted after the current audio file is outputted for a preset time interval such as several seconds. Accordingly, the preset time interval may help the user understand what procedure is proceeding and then make desired selection. Moreover, the audio files that are playing in a certain sequence may be automatically or manually stopped. For example, according to a programmed schedule, the handheld electronic device 1 stops playing the audio files that are playing after two or three cycles of playing the audio files, thereby automatically pausing operation of the auxiliary operation system 17. Alternatively, in response to an escape or pause instruction inputted by the user, the operation of the auxiliary operation system 17 of the handheld electronic device 1 is interrupted.
In the handheld electronic device 1 of the present invention, the audio files corresponding to certain selective items of the function menu are directly built in the audio database 171. In addition, by means of the instruction input unit 15 and a ring tone editor program 121 stored in the memory 12, the user may edit the ring tones corresponding to the selective items of the function menu, and the edited ring tones are saved as audio files in the audio database 171. Alternatively, by means of the instruction input unit 15 and a sound recording program 122 stored in the memory 12, the sound received by the microphone and emitted by the user may be saved as audio files corresponding to certain selective items of the function menu, and the audio files are then stored in the audio database 171.
The auxiliary operation system 17 may help the user understand what procedure is proceeding and then make desired selection. The audio files corresponding to certain selective items of the function menu are distinguished by the uniqueness in pitch, amplitude, timbre or duration, so that the user may recognize what selective item is located and what procedure is proceeding. Moreover, the audio files to be recorded by the user include the name list in the address book, the browse folder dialog or other plentiful of complicated items. That is to say, in addition to the general items of the function menu, the items in this embodiment include the name lists in the address book, the text contents of the short messages, the selective items for function settings or the folder names.
Hereinafter, an embodiment of an auxiliary operation system and the operation of the auxiliary operation system for facilitating a user to operate the handheld electronic device according to the present invention will be illustrated with reference to FIGS. 2A˜2K. The handheld electronic device of this embodiment is a mobile phone 2.
There are a plurality of selective items, e.g. address book, short message service (SMS), recent calls, alarm clock and setup, included in the function menu of the mobile phone 2. The user may have been previously edited five monosyllables distinguishable in pitches, for example Do, Re, Mi, Fa and So, as audio files to be stored in the audio database 171. Subsequently, these selective items, i.e. addresses, short message service (SMS), recent calls, alarm clock and setup, are set to correlate with the five monosyllables Do, Re, Mi, Fa and So, respectively. As shown in
After the selective item is entered, the audio files corresponding to the sub-items or second layer items of this selective item are successively, orderly and cyclically outputted one by one via the audio output unit 22. Similarly, these audio files corresponding to certain sub-items or second layer items of this selective item are distinguished by the uniqueness in pitch, amplitude, timbre or duration. Moreover, the audio files corresponding to certain sub-items or second layer items of this selective item may be directly outputted via the audio output unit 22. As shown in FIGS. 2G˜2J, if the selective item “Addresses” is selected, the name lists in the address book of the mobile phone 2, i.e. the sub-items or second layer items of this selective item, will be successively, orderly and cyclically outputted one by one via the audio output unit 22. Under this circumstances, the user may realize what name list is browsed upon the corresponding audio file is outputted or has been terminated for a certain time period. Meanwhile, when a desired name is located, the user may input a dialing instruction via the instruction input unit, for example presses down the access key 21 (F key) again, thereby dialing to the selected name of the receiver, as is seen in
It is noted that, however, those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the instruction input unit may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. For example, in replace of the access key 21, the instruction input unit can be a button, a rotary wheel, a rotary disc, a touch screen or a microphone. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be limited only by the bounds of the following claims.
The handheld electronic device of present invention is illustrated by referring to a mobile phone with an auxiliary operation system. Nevertheless, the handheld electronic device of present invention can have a built-in digital Walkman such as an MP3 player or the digital Walkman per se. In a case that a plurality of songbooks or folders have been stored the digital Walkman, the user may browse the songbooks after the menu-browsing instruction is inputted via the instruction input unit 15 as shown in
The process for browsing the function menu of the handheld electronic device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes the steps of receiving a menu-browsing instruction; reading the audio files corresponding to the selective items of the function menu from the audio database of the memory; and successively and orderly outputting the audio files one by one. The instruction input unit of the present invention is built as an internal or external part of the handheld electronic device, so that the user may input the menu-browsing instruction there via. In response to the menu-browsing instruction, the audio reproducing program stored in the memory of the handheld electronic device will read the audio files corresponding to selective items from the audio database of the memory, and then the audio files are successively and orderly outputted one by one via the audio output unit.
From the above embodiments, in response to the menu-browsing instruction, the auxiliary operation system of the present invention may automatically output the audio files corresponding to the selective items until the operation of the auxiliary operation system is terminated or the user escapes from the auxiliary operation system. In addition, via the auxiliary operation system, the user can set different audio cues depending on the uniqueness in pitch, amplitude, timbre or duration, so that the user may recognize what selective item is located and what procedure is proceeding. Moreover, the audio files recorded by the user may help the user clearly understand what procedure is proceeding and how to make selection.
The auxiliary operation system of the handheld electronic device provided by the present invention may facilitate the user to browse all selective items in the function menu when the corresponding audio files are outputted. In addition, the auxiliary operation system may facilitate the user to browse some selective items according to the user's requirement so as to increase the browsing speed. For example, in the case of driving while using the mobile phone to dial an urgent call, only the audio files corresponding to the name lists of some important persons (e.g. the family or the fellow workers) in the address book are successively and orderly outputted one by one. Under this circumstance, the user may rapidly browse the name lists in the address book and then make selection to dial a desired phone number.
While the invention has been described in terms of what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention needs not be limited to the disclosed embodiment. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims which are to be accorded with the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structures.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 094140681 | Nov 2005 | TW | national |
