Abstract:
The present invention discloses a concept and a use of audio anchors within voice-enabled interfaces. Audio anchors can be user configurable points from which audio playback occurs. In the invention, a user can identify an interface position at which an audio anchor is to be established. The computing device can determine an anchor direction setting, with values that include forward playback and backward playback. Interface items can then be audibly enumerated from the audio anchor in a direction indicated by the anchor direction setting. For example, if a set of interface items are alphabetically ordered items and if an audio anchor is set at a first item beginning with a letter “G” and an anchor direction is set to indicate backward playback, then the interface items beginning with letters “A-F” can be audibly played in reverse alphabetical order. Additionally, a rate of audio playback can be user adjustable.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention relates to the field of computing device interfaces and, more particularly, to user positional anchors for directional, user controlled audio playback from voice-enabled interfaces. 
         [0003]    2. Description of the Related Art 
         [0004]    Voice-enabled interfaces are able to accept and process speech input and/or to produce speech output. Voice-enabled interfaces are particularly advantageous for interacting with mobile and embedded computing devices which often have limited input/output peripherals due to their compact size and/or restrictions of their intended operational environment. Speech based interactions can be highly advantageous in situations where a device user is performing one or more tasks that require focused attention (e.g., driving or walking). For instance, media playing mobile devices and/or mobile telephones can be potentially dangerous when they require a user to look at a LCD screen and to manipulate selection controls with their hands. Despite this potential danger, visual and tactile based controls remain the most commonly implemented and used interactive mechanisms for mobile computing devices. 
         [0005]    One reason that visual/tactile interactions remain predominant is that conventional voice-enabled interface controls are cumbersome to use in many common, re-occurring situations. For example, a device that audibly enumerates long playlists of selectable songs can quickly try a user&#39;s patience. Indexing a large set of songs by artist, album, and/or customizable playlists and then audibly presenting organized subsets of songs mitigates the problem to some extent and in some instances, but fails to resolve underlying systemic flaws. 
         [0006]    For instance, hard drive equipped music playing devices can include hundreds of songs by a user preferred artist so that audibly enumerating available songs by the preferred artist results in too many entries for a user&#39;s comfort. In contrast, a user is able to quickly identify a desired song from a complete list of songs presented upon a scrollable visual display. What is needed is a new mechanism for interacting with computing devices that minimizes an amount of time a user is distracted by interactive controls (i.e., so that a user is not endangered while performing concurrent activities, such as driving), yet which permits a user to quickly target a desired item from a potentially large listing of items. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0007]    There are shown in the drawings, embodiments which are presently preferred, it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown. 
           [0008]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of a device that includes audio anchors for directional audio playback from a user designated position. 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  is a flow diagram showing a use of audio anchors in accordance with an embodiment of the inventive arrangements disclosed herein. 
           [0010]      FIG. 3  is a diagram of an interface for using audio anchors in an interface having vertically arranged and horizontally arranged elements in accordance with an embodiment of the inventive arrangements disclosed herein. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0011]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of a device  100  that includes audio anchors for directional audio playback from a user designated position. An audio anchor can be a configurable position in an interface from which interface content is audibly presented. An audio anchor effectively establishes a user configurable point of focus for audio playback purposes. Playback from an audio anchor can be in a forwards direction (i.e., audibly presenting items of an enumerated list from top to bottom starting at the audio anchor), or in a backwards direction (i.e., audibly presenting items of an enumerated list from bottom to top starting at the audio anchor). When playback is for content having horizontally arranged elements as well as vertically arranged ones (i.e., audible playback of a Web page as opposed to a list of items) the forward direction can indicate presenting content from left-to-right and/or from top-to-bottom from the audio anchor. Similarly, the backward direction can play content from right-to-left and/or from bottom-to-top from the audio anchor. 
         [0012]    In various contemplated configurations, a rate of playback speed can be adjusted by a user. Further, audio samples can be played (e.g., an audio fast forward or audio reverse capability) to allow a user to quickly skip through audibly played content. When audio fast forwarding capabilities exist, a user can configure a sample duration of playback before skipping to another playback position and/or a distance of each audio skip. Additionally, in one embodiment a direction and speed of playback can be adjusted in proportion to a distance between a playback point and a previously established audio anchor. Thus a skip distance for an audio fast forwarding operation can automatically increase as distance from the audio anchor increases. 
         [0013]    As illustrated, the device  100  can include an audio transducer  110 , a voice user interface  116 , an anchor processor  120  as well as an optional set of tactile controls  114  and an optional display  112 . In various embodiments, the device  110  can be a media player, an entertainment system, a mobile phone, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a navigation system, an embedded computing device, a standalone consumer electronic device, a kiosk, and other such devices. 
         [0014]    The audio transducer  110  of device  100  can include a speaker and/or microphone which plays audio output and/or accepts audio input. Audio interactions between a user and the device  100  can occur via the voice user interface (VUI)  116 . The VUI  116  can be a voice-only interface or can be a voice interfacing component of a multimodal interface. The display  112  and/or tactile controls  114  can be selectively included in embodiments that visually present content and/or that accept tactile input. The device  100  can also include one or more speech processing components (not shown) or be communicatively linked via a transceiver (not shown) to a speech processing system. The optional speech processing components can include a speech recognition engine for processing received audio input and/or a speech synthesizer for generating speech output from text. Speech output from device  100  need not be output converted from text, but can instead result from a playing of stored audio files that contain encoded speech. Audio anchors can be established and manipulated by the tactile controls  114 , by voice commands, and/or by GUI based controls. 
         [0015]    The anchor processor  120  can handle operations related to audio anchors, such as establishing audio anchors, removing audio anchors, setting audio anchor parameters, modifying device  110  behavior in accordance with established audio anchor parameters, playing content from an audio anchor, and the like. The anchor processor  120  can utilize one or more configuration parameters  124 - 127 , which can be stored in memory space  122 . The configuration parameters can include an anchor position  124 , an anchor direction  125 , an anchor magnitude  126 , an anchor mode  127 , and the like. 
         [0016]    The anchor position  124  can specify a user established point within content that is to be audibly presented. The anchor direction  125  can indicate whether playback from the anchor point is to be forward, backward, from top-to-bottom, from bottom-to-top, from right-to-left, from left-to-right, and the like. The anchor magnitude  126  can include a rate of playback. The anchor magnitude  126  can also indicate a skipping distance and/or sampling duration for audio fast forwarding operations. The anchor mode  127  can be a configurable mode used to interpret a meaning intended for overloaded operators. For example, if the anchor mode  127  is in an audio fast forwarding configuration, pressing an overloaded tactile control (e.g., a minus sign or a less than arrow) can indicate that a skipping distance is to be decreased. When the anchor mode  127  is in a playback rate configuration, pressing the same control as before (e.g., a minus sign or a less than arrow) can decrease an audio playback rate. 
         [0017]      FIG. 2  is a flow diagram showing a use of audio anchors in accordance with an embodiment of the inventive arrangements disclosed herein. The processes shown in  FIG. 2  can be performed by a computing device, such as computing device  100 , which has been configured to use audio anchors. Throughout the diagram, a set of tactile input controls  215  and a display  230  are used to illustrate concepts of the audio anchor. Controls  215  and display  230  are optional components of a device that uses audio anchors, which only requires a voice user interface that audibly plays back content relative to a user configurable audio anchor. That is, the voice user interface can be an interface of a device having a voice-only modality or the voice user interface can be an interface of a multi-modal device. 
         [0018]    In one arrangement, speech processing technologies can use a set of voice commands to establish and utilize audio anchors (as opposed to utilizing controls  215 ). Any of a variety of different voice commands (e.g., “anchor” for establishing an audio anchor, “faster” for increasing a speaking rate, “slower” for decreasing a speaking rate, “reverse” for changing an enumeration direction, and the like) can be used. 
         [0019]    The tactile controls  215  can include any of a variety of controls, such as a main selector  220 , a mode control  222 , a magnitude control  224 , a backward direction control  226 , and a forward direction control  228 . Each of the controls  215  can be overloaded. The display  230  can include a list of interface items  232 . One of the interface items  232  can have focus  234  that can be visually indicated in display  230 . The controls  215  and display  230  are to illustrate concepts only and the illustrated arrangement is not to be construed as a limitation of the scope of the device. 
         [0020]    For example, in one contemplated embodiment (not shown), the controls  215  can include a Force Sensing Resistor (FSR) region, such as a region of a click wheel control used for many popular media playing devices (e.g., the IPOD). A rate of movement of a finger along the FSR region can determine a speed of a fast-forward or operation and/or a magnitude of a change made to a playback rate. In other embodiments, controls  215  can include a scroll wheel, a rotating dial, a twistable handle, an accelerometer, and the like that can each be used to increase/decrease a playback rate, an enumeration direction, and/or a fast-forward/fast-rewind rate. 
         [0021]      FIG. 2  shows that a forward selection  240  can result in the items  232  displayed to be scrolled forward. One of these items (i.e., “Song TC”) can have focus  242 . An anchor selection  250  can be made, which establishes Song TC as an audio anchor  252 . Once the anchor  252  is established, interface items can be audibly enumerated from that anchor position. For example, assuming that a forward direction is established for the audio anchor, Song TC  262  can be played, followed by song TD  264 , followed by song TE  266 , and so forth. Another selection of the main selector  260  as the Song TE  266  is being audibly enumerated (shown by song selection  268 ) can result in a programmatic action executing, where song TE  266  is a required input parameter of the programmatic action. For example, the selection can result  270  in the playing of an audio file corresponding to Song TE. 
         [0022]    It should be emphasized that one advantage of the arrangement shown in  FIG. 2  is that a user can quickly glance at display  230  and manipulate controls  215  to get “close” to a desired region. When “close”, an audio anchor  252  can be established and a user can listen to audibly enumerated interface items. Thus, an amount of time that a user&#39;s attention is focused on a display  230  is considerably less than an amount of time needed to perform a fine grained selection of an exact item. In various scenarios, even the brief time needed to focus on a display  230  to place the audio anchor  252  may be disadvantageous in which case the audio anchor  252  can be positioned based on an exclusive use of speech output. Similarly, speech input can be used instead of input from tactile controls  215  in scenarios where complete hands free operations is advantageous. 
         [0023]      FIG. 3  is a diagram of an interface  310  for using audio anchors in an interface having vertically arranged and horizontally arranged elements in accordance with an embodiment of the inventive arrangements disclosed herein. The interface  310  can be one contemplated interface for device, such as computing device  100 , which has been configured to use audio anchors. Elements included in interface  310  are for illustrative purposes only and the invention is not to be construed as limited to details expressed in interface  310 . 
         [0024]    The interface  310  can include interface items for contacts, relation, phone, an item list, and user comments. An audio anchor  330  can be established near the relation element. An anchor direction  332  of forward and an anchor magnitude  334  of four can be established. The magnitude  334  can indicate a rate of speech playback, which can be adjusted. A forward anchor direction can include that items are to be enumerated from left-to-right and from top-to-bottom starting at the audio anchor  330 . Thus, a voice user interface  340  can audibly enumerate “Select relation . . . Family” followed by “Item List . . . Item A; Item B, Item C; Item D” followed by “Phone . . . 555-1234” as shown. If the audio direction  332  were set to backwards, then voice user interface  340  could audibly enumerate “Select Contact . . . Jim Smith.” 
         [0025]    The present invention may be realized in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. The present invention may be realized in a centralized fashion in one computer system, or in a distributed fashion where different elements are spread across several interconnected computer systems. Any kind of computer system or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methods described herein is suited. A typical combination of hardware and software may be a general purpose computer system with a computer program that, when being loaded and executed, controls the computer system such that it carries out the methods described herein. 
         [0026]    The present invention also may be embedded in a computer program product, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation of the methods described herein, and which when loaded in a computer system is able to carry out these methods. Computer program in the present context means any expression, in any language, code or notation, of a set of instructions intended to cause a system having an information processing capability to perform a particular function either directly or after either or both of the following: a) conversion to another language, code or notation; b) reproduction in a different material form. 
         [0027]    This invention may be embodied in other forms without departing from the spirit or essential attributes thereof. Accordingly, reference should be made to the following claims, rather than to the foregoing specification, as indicating the scope of the invention.