Patent ID: 9613653
Date: 2017-04-04
CPC Classifications: G06F,G09B,G10L,G11B

Claim:
1. A method for controlling the commencement of playback of a soundtrack for an electronic text, the soundtrack comprising multiple audio regions configured for playback during corresponding text regions of the electronic text based on a reading position counter corresponding to the estimated text position indicative of the word in the electronic text that a user is currently reading and which increments at a rate based at least partly on a configurable user reading speed variable representing the user's reading speed, each audio region being defined by audio data comprising: an audio track for playback in the audio region; a start text position indicative of the word in the electronic text corresponding to where the playback of the audio track is to begin; and a stop text position indicative of the word in the electronic text corresponding to where playback of the audio track is to cease, comprising: receiving an arbitrary commencement text position indicative of any arbitrary word within the electronic text at which the soundtrack is to commence playback; processing the audio data of the soundtrack to identify any one or more active audio regions within the soundtrack at that commencement text position by searching the audio data for audio regions in which the commencement text position falls between the start text position and stop text position of the audio regions; calculating respective offset cue times relative to default start times for the audio tracks of any active audio regions based on the respective offset positions of the commencement text position relative to the start text positions of the audio regions and a configurable user reading speed variable indicative of the user's reading speed; and initiating playback of the audio tracks of any active audio regions at their respective calculated offset cue times to commence soundtrack playback.