Patent Application
20070027691
The present disclosure relates generally to text communications, and more particularly to the reception of text data by a text communication device, for example, a cellular telephone, and the conversion of the text to audio signals, which may be presented to the user of the text communication device.
Text communication devices enable users to exchange textual messages. Textual messages among two or more users relating to a particular context or topic constitute a thread. Users often participate in textual message exchanges pertaining to multiple threads at the same time. A user participating in multiple threads needs to distinguish between the context of each of the threads. With an increase in the number of simultaneous textual message exchanges, the user has to distinguish between an increasing number of threads, along with their associated contexts. Various known methods attempt to reduce the cognitive load on users participating in multiple simultaneous communication sessions. In one known method, color schemes are used to distinguish between different communication thread, wherein each thread has a distinct color scheme to differentiate it from the other threads.
The various aspects, features and advantages of the disclosure will become more fully apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon careful consideration of the following Detailed Description thereof with the accompanying drawings described below.
Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale.
The present disclosure pertains generally to the exchange of textual messages between two or more participants, for example, over a communication network. Each textual message is generally associated with a source or context. For example, a context may relate to a particular topic on which textual messages are exchanged.
Any user of the communication network can generate and send textual information to another user or group of users in the communication network. The textual information may be in the form of a message, for example, an SMS message, an EMS, or an MMS message. Generally the text information has associated therewith at least one attribute.
In some embodiments, the textual information is received from the RSS feed or several RSS feeds. The RSS feeds enable the sharing of content between different websites. An exemplary RSS feed is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file. The XML file includes a concise description of the updated web content, along with a link to its complete version. Each RSS feed is associated with a specific web address, which uniquely identifies the source of the textual information originating from that web address. In another embodiment, the textual information is received from an email account or a group of email accounts wherein each email account has a distinct identifying address, which is used to uniquely identify the source of the textual information.
In another embodiment, the textual information is received from text files kept on the storage device. In such a case, each text file includes the textual information pertaining to a particular thread, or topic or from a particular source. Examples of the text files include television show transcripts, movie transcripts, chat or instant messaging logs, and the like. The source or topic with which the textual information is associated is uniquely identified by one or more corresponding attributes, as discussed above.
In another embodiment, the textual information is received from multiple sources on a contact list. The contact list is present on the text communication device, for example, device 300 in
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In some embodiments, spatialization of sounds is carried out by locating each sound in corresponding spatially separated locations. Generally, each sound is spatially located based on its one or more attributes. For the case where there is a single sound, the single sound may be located in a particular spatial location. Where there are many sounds associated with corresponding attributes, each sound may be spatially located in corresponding locations about the user.
In one embodiment, the spatial locations are determined, for example, by dividing a spherical space of 360 degrees, surrounding the user between the different sounds. For example, when the user receives the textual information from three sources, the textual information from each of the sources is converted to sounds, and the sounds are assigned spatial locations about the user. The sources are identified by the corresponding source identifying attributes. The sounds may also be spatially located based on a topic attribute or on multiple attributes. In a particular case, each spatial location about the user can be separated from the other spatial locations by 120 degrees. More generally, the angular separation between sounds is not necessarily the same. For example, sounds from different sources or associated with different topics may be spaced irregularly. In another embodiment, sounds associated with a particular topic from different sources are spatially located in one area, and sounds associated with a different topic from different sources are spatially located in a different area.
The embodiments described above have the advantage that they allow the user to effectively distinguish between textual information exchanged with different users in the communication network. Further, the various threads the user is participating in are spatially segregated. This reduces the cognitive load on the user.
It will be appreciated that embodiments of the disclosure described herein may be comprised of one or more conventional processors and unique stored program instructions that control the one or more processors to implement, in conjunction with certain non-processor circuits, some, most, or all of the functions of reception of textual data by a text communication device, and the conversion of the textual data to an audio signal, described herein. The non-processor circuits may include, but are not limited to, a radio receiver, a radio transmitter, signal drivers, clock circuits, power source circuits, and user input devices. As such, these functions may be interpreted as steps of a method to perform reception of the textual data by a text communication device, and the conversion of the textual data to an audio signal. Alternatively, some or all functions could be implemented by a state machine that has no stored program instructions, or in one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), in which each function or some combinations of certain of the functions are implemented as custom logic. Of course, a combination of the two approaches could be used. Thus, methods and means for these functions have been described herein. Further, it is expected that one of ordinary skill, notwithstanding possibly significant effort and many design choices motivated by, for example, available time, current technology, and economic considerations, when guided by the concepts and principles disclosed herein will be readily capable of generating such software instructions and programs and ICs with minimal experimentation.
While the present disclosure and the best modes thereof have been described in a manner establishing possession by the inventors and enabling those of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the same, it will be understood and appreciated that there are many equivalents to the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein and that modifications and variations may be made thereto without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention, which is to be limited not by the exemplary embodiments but by the appended claims.
