Abstract:
A touch screen overlay includes a flexible, substantially planar portion having length and width dimensions corresponding to a touch screen of an electronics appliance, one or more features for aligning the substantially planar portion with the touch screen, and a pattern of raised features and/or openings, providing facility for a person to interact with individual features or openings by touch rather than be sight.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention is in the field of electronic input devices for computing appliances and pertains particularly to methods and apparatus for inputting information through the use of a touch screen. 
     2. Discussion of the State of the Art 
     In the field of electronic input devices for computing appliances, touch screens have evolved to become a primary input device for some computing and communications appliances. A touch screen uses capacitive or resistive methods to enable a user to touch a graphic or link displayed on the screen to interact with that graphic or link according to one or more interaction rules. 
     Touch screens are becoming a common primary input device for third and fourth generation cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), music players, such as iPods, and in some cases Laptop computers. In applications where the touch screen is the primary input device, the touch capability of the device is always on. In applications where the touch screen is not the primary input device such as with devices having a keyboard and mouse, for example, the touch technology may be toggled on or off. 
     While touch screen technology has been beneficial in many applications, more innovation is required in order to extend touch screen capabilities to those users that have visual impairments or disabilities. Persons that are blind or severely visually impaired require special input devices to enable them to interact with a variety of electronic communications and computing appliances such as those described above. A touch screen displays graphics and text entries as interactive links that may be touched or tapped to invoke those links. A problem in the current art is that current means for interacting with touch screens have no provisions for visually impaired individuals other than magnification schemes for those who are not totally blind. Those without sufficient vision capability must use some other structured form of data input like speech to text, Braille keyboard, etc. 
     Therefore, what is clearly needed is a system and methods for enabling visually impaired persons to interact with touch screens as viable input devices associated with myriad electronics communications and computing appliances. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The problem stated above is that input capability for the visually impaired is desirable for an electronics communications or computing device, but many of the conventional means for accessing features on such devices or appliances for the visually impaired such as magnifiers or voice command interfaces also create complexity. The inventors therefore considered functional components of input devices, looking for elements that exhibit interoperability that could potentially be harnessed to provide a means for input but in a manner that would not create complexity or extra work. 
     Every electronics communications device or computing appliance depends on user generated input for general operation and invocation of specific features. One by-product of that is an abundance of input mechanisms such as computer mice, touch screens, click screens, and voice command interfaces. Many communications and computing devices employ touch or click screen interfaces to enable input, navigation, and display at the same interface. 
     The present inventor realized in an inventive moment that if, at the point of interaction, a method of data input could be invoked on a touch screen by a visually impaired person, less complexity and work might result. The inventor therefore developed a unique overlay system including Software (SW) for touch screens that allows visually impaired users to enter commands and general input into a communications appliance or computing appliance. A significant reduction in work results, with no impediment to user friendliness created. 
     Accordingly, in one embodiment of the invention, a touch screen overlay is provided, comprising a flexible, substantially planar portion having length and width dimensions corresponding to a touch screen of an electronics appliance, one or more features for aligning the substantially planar portion with the touch screen, and a pattern of raised features and/or openings, providing facility for a person to interact with individual features or openings by touch rather than be sight. In one embodiment the pattern comprises one of a six-point or an 8-point Braille pattern. Also in one embodiment the pattern comprises separate features or openings for long and short input for Morse code. In another embodiment the pattern comprises separate features or openings for a marine semaphore system of input. 
     In another aspect of the invention a digital touch screen enabled device is provided, comprising a touch screen for accepting touch input, a flexible overlay having a substantially planar portion having length and width dimensions corresponding to a touch screen of an electronics appliance, one or more features for aligning the substantially planar portion with the touch screen, and a pattern of raised features and/or openings, providing facility for a person to interact with individual features or openings by touch rather than be sight, and software executing on the device from a machine-readable physical medium, the software providing touch sensitive areas on the touch screen in the pattern of the raised features and/or openings of the flexible overlay. 
     In one embodiment of the device the pattern comprises one of a six-point or an 8-point Braille pattern. Also in one embodiment the pattern comprises separate features or openings for long and short input for Morse code. In still another embodiment the pattern comprises separate features or openings for a marine semaphore system of input. 
     In another aspect of the invention a method for providing input to a touch screen of a digital device is provided, comprising steps of (a) applying to the digital device an overlay comprising a flexible, substantially planar portion having length and width dimensions corresponding to a touch screen of the digital device, one or more features for aligning the substantially planar portion with the touch screen, and a pattern of raised features and/or openings, providing facility for a person to interact with individual features or openings by touch rather than be sight; and (b) executing software on the device from a machine-readable physical medium, the software providing interactive regions on the touch screen arranged in the pattern of the raised features and/or openings. 
     In one embodiment of the method the pattern comprises one of a six-point or an 8-point Braille pattern. Also in one embodiment the pattern comprises separate features or openings for long and short input for Morse code. In another embodiment the pattern comprises separate features or openings for a marine semaphore system of input. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES 
         FIG. 1  is an elevation view of a communications appliance supporting a touch screen interface according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is an elevation view of a touch screen overlay according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a right side view of the touch screen overlay of  FIG. 2 . 
         FIG. 4  is an elevation view of a communications appliance supporting a touch screen interface according to another embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  is an elevation view of the touch screen overlay of  FIG. 4 . 
         FIG. 6  is a right side view of the touch screen overlay of  FIG. 5 . 
         FIG. 7  is a block diagram illustrating a software application supporting the touch screen interface of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The inventor provides unique touch screen overlays and software for enabling a touch screen interface that may be used by a visually impaired person to send a message using one of a variety of alphanumeric techniques. The methods and apparatus of the present invention are described in enabling detail using the following examples, which may illustrate more than one embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG. 1  is an elevation view of a communications appliance  100  supporting a touch screen interface  101  according to an embodiment of the present invention. Communication appliance  100  is a cellular telephone or “smartphone” in this embodiment. Smartphone  100  includes a touch screen  101  that is adapted to display information and to accept user input through use of a stylus or a user&#39;s fingers. In one embodiment touch screen  101  uses capacitive technology to sense a touch. In another embodiment touch screen  101  uses resistive technology to sense pressure from a touch. Smartphone  100  has a speaker  103  and a microphone (not illustrated). 
     Smartphone  100  includes a quick-control interface  104  and a central Web navigation control  105 . Smartphone  100  may instead be a Laptop computing appliance enabled with a touch screen interface similar to interface  101 . In another embodiment of the present invention appliance  100  may be a personal digital assistant (PDA) without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. The present invention is applicable to any electronics appliance that has an existing touch screen and can be used for text messaging and or telephony. 
     Smartphone  100  has a touch screen overlay  102  disposed over touch screen  101 . In this example, touch screen overlay  102  has substantially the same area as touch screen  101 . Touch screen overlay  102  in this embodiment is adapted to fit directly over the touch screen and includes one or more raised patterns or features. Raised patterns and features may work directly for pressure sensitive touch screens, but will not serve for capacitive-sensitive touch screens. In the case of capacitive sensitivity, apertures (openings) in the overlay are used to provide access to the touchscreen surface for acceptance of an input by the screen. Raised features may be provides as guides or locators for the openings in this case. 
     Overlay  102  may be molded from a polymer, a rubber material, or polymer/rubber composite, enabling flexibility and a certain amount of natural adherence afforded between the overlay interfacing surface and the surface of the existing touch screen on smartphone  100 . In some cases the overlay will be a part of a skin that may fit over the device as well as the touch screen. The overlay  102  may be transparent or opaque. 
     Overlay  102  has one or more raised patterns or openings that are provided to emulate specific alphanumeric communications interfaces. A six-point Braille interface  106  is provided on overlay  102 . The six points are shown as a matrix of dots in two columns, but may be openings or raised features, as circumstances may dictate. In some cases there may be a pattern of openings, providing access to sensitive portions of the screen, and there may also be raised features provided adjacent to the openings as guides to the openings. Braille interface  106  generally comprises raised detail and/or openings that may be formed during a molding process used to make overlay  102 . In this example, interface  106  is a six-point Braille interface. Software (not illustrated) installed on smartphone  100  provides touch sensitivity to the areas of the touchscreen in accordance with the pattern of the overlay, which makes possible the reading and use of Braille input made through Braille interface  106  on overlay  102 . 
     A user may serially or simultaneously touch a combination of the openings or raised features to register a letter of the alphabet, a number, or a punctuation mark. In one embodiment a sensitive position  107  is provided in the touchscreen with appropriate access in the overlay, along with Braille interface  106 , and is adapted to enable a user to register a single letter, number, or punctuation mark made by touching one or more positions in the six-point raised pattern. Input  107  may also be used as a stop between Braille characters enabling the software to determine when a character is to be recorded before a next character is input by the user. 
     In one embodiment of the present invention, overlay  102  includes a Morse code interface  108 . Interface  108  comprises two separate regions defined in this example by raised boundaries  109  and  110 . The raised boundaries or ridges of features  109  and  110  are formed in molding the overlay. The boundaries simply define openings at sensitive touch screen regions where touch may be used to signal in Morse coding. A visually impaired person may locate interface  108  and regions  109  and  110  by touch. Region  109  may signal long inputs and region  110  may signal short inputs. Therefore, a user operating interface  108  may apply pressure by touch within both regions to emulate a Morse code interface. The software described above may be adapted to parse and record the Morse coding implemented through interface  108 . 
     In one embodiment overlay  102  only includes Braille interface  106 . In one embodiment all of the characters used in basic Braille are provided on overlay  102  causing the overlay to function as a Braille keyboard. A Morse code interface is not required to practice the invention. In this example, overlay  102  also includes a Marine semaphore interface  111  representing an alphanumeric system of flag positions. There are ten flag positions in this example that represent the possible flag positions of two flags. The flag positions of interface  111  are represented by raised boundaries similar to boundaries  109  and  110  except much smaller. 
     To represent a specific character a user operating interface  111  on overlay  102  may select a first and then a second flag position by applying touch within the area bounded by the raised boundaries. A confirmation button  112  may be provided as a raised button used to signal the end of a specific character. A user may simultaneously or serially select two flag positions indicative of a character by depressing the area within the flag boundary. In one embodiment Marine semaphore flag positions indicating a letter, number, or punctuation mark are provided as individual selectable flag pairs the flags assuming their relative positions in the display for each character. The chart may take up most if not all of the area of touch screen overlay  102 . 
     In this embodiment all three interfaces, Braille, Morse code, and Marine semaphore are provided on overlay  102  so that the user may choose which interface to use to communicate, but this is simply an example. In most cases only one communication interface will be provided with a single overlay, and overlays may also vary in certain characteristics according to characteristics of the communication devices having touch screens with which they are designed to integrate. For example, an overlay may be provided for a Motorola™ cell phone, which will be different than an overlay provided for an iPhone™. 
     Software described further above is also responsible for converting the input into machine readable and then perhaps human readable text. A user may communicate a message using one of interfaces  106 ,  108 , or  111 . The user may provide all of the characters that make up the message and when finished may invoke a hardware key such as an enter key or send key. The name of the intended recipient may be identified in the message as well. 
     The SW of the present invention provides touch sensitivity mapping on a device which is mirrored in the overlay. The SW also interprets input by the user through the selected or available interface and automatically generates a text message such as a Short Message Service (SMS) or Media Message Service (MMS) message or an email message. In one embodiment the SW is enabled with a text to speech component that records a voice message from the converted text. The appliance then automatically sends the text or voice message to an intended recipient identified through the interface. The SW of the invention is described in detail later in this specification. 
       FIG. 2  is an elevation view of the touch screen overlay of  FIG. 1  according to an embodiment of the present invention.  FIG. 3  is a right side view of the touch screen overlay of  FIG. 2 . Referring now to  FIG. 2 , overlay  102  is provided with a footprint that is substantially the same as the touch screen it is laid over. One or more divots or pips (not illustrated) might be provided on the surface of overlay  102 , perhaps near the corners to help a visually impaired person to correctly orientate and place the overlay over the touch screen of the appliance. In another embodiment the overlay may be one surface of a slip-on cover that may be stretched and then placed over the device, so the overlay correctly aligns with the touch screen. The overlay may also be a part of a glove-like skin that may fit over the device, accomplishing the same purpose. A variety of overlay sizes might be provided for application to different sizes of touch screens on a variety of supported appliances 
     Referring now to  FIG. 3 , overlay  102  has an overall thickness A, which incorporates the basic material thickness B. Raised patterns and features will be raised just enough to enable a user to feel the patterns and or features. Applying pressure to a raised feature, used in the case of a pressure-sensitive touch screen, enables the touch screen below to interpret the actions in relevancy to the Braille interface as long as the underlying software of the invention is running. In some cases a raised feature on the screen side of the overlay may be used to concentrate input at a particular location on the touch screen. In other cases, the Braille interface features may be openings, as described above, more useful with capacitance-type touch screens. 
       FIG. 4  is an elevation view of a communications appliance  400  supporting a touch screen interface  401  according to another embodiment of the present invention. Appliance  400  is a smart phone similar or analogous to smart phone  100  introduced and described further above. Appliance  400  supports a touch screen overlay  402  that is similar to but somewhat different from touch screen overlay  102  previously described. 
     Overlay  402  includes an 8-point Braille interface instead of the 6-point interface previously described. A character confirmation button  407  is analogous to button  107  described previously in  FIG. 1 . Overlay  402  includes a raised boundary feature  408  emulating a Morse code interface that is very different than interface  108  previously described. Instead of two separate regions, interface  408  is a single elongate region within which a user may slide a finger in one direction or the other direction as indicated by the arrows. Sliding the finger to the left may indicate a short input and sliding the finger to the right may indicate a long input for Morse code. 
     Overlay  402  includes a Marine semaphore interface  411  that is analogous to the interface  111  described in  FIG. 1  of this specification. A character confirmation button  412  is provided and is analogous to button  112  also of  FIG. 1 . It is to be understood as well that raised features and/or openings may be implemented as required by circumstance and character of various touch screens, as described further above regarding  FIGS. 1-3 . 
       FIG. 5  is an elevation view of touch screen overlay  402  of  FIG. 4 . Overlay  402  is designed, in this case, to fit over the entire top portion of the smart phone, covering it from the top down to the bottom edge of the touch screen. Overlay  402  may be molded of the same or similar materials described further above with respect to overlay  102 . Overlay  402 , unlike overlay  102  described previously has a sidewall  501  of minimal thickness extending completely around the overlay from the bottom edge of the overlay. Sidewall  501  is used to orientate overlay  402  over the supporting smart phone. It is noted herein that different sizes and styles of overlay may be provided to fit specific model appliances. 
       FIG. 6  is a right side view of touch screen overlay  402  of  FIG. 5 . Overlay  402  exhibits dimensions A and B analogous to the dimensions of  FIG. 3 . Sidewall  501  has a dimension C that is just large enough to enable alignment of the overlay about the top edge and sides of the smartphone. In this embodiment overlay  402  is removable and replaceable. 
       FIG. 7  is a block diagram illustrating a software application  700  supporting the touch screen interface of the present invention. SW  700  is adapted as an executable program that can be downloaded to a communications or computing appliance like a smartphone for example. SW  700  includes a region specific touch interpreter  701 . Interpreter  701  recognizes the interface or interfaces on the overlay including individual positions of the raised dot pattern of the Braille interface and the raised boundary of the Morse code interface and of the flags of the Marine semaphore interface. Whenever touch pressure is applied to any one of the specified regions, the SW detects it and records it. 
     SW  700  includes a character reader  702  that may be adapted to read Braille, Morse code and Marine semaphore characters. The reader parses in real time as a user is operating through the overlay and inputting characters through any one of the included or supported interfaces. It is noted that only one interface of the types discussed need be provided to practice the present invention. 
     SW  700  includes an application program interface (API) to a text messaging interface loaded on the communications or computing appliance, in this case, a smartphone. The text messaging interface may be an instant message interface, a SMS or MMS interface, or an email interface. In one embodiment API  703  is compatible with a variety of messaging programs and services and may be operated in conjunction with more than one optional messaging interface. A default messaging interface may be assigned so that when in operation, character input may be applied to a message template generated by the associated messaging service. In practice, characters input through the overlay are converted to human readable language and inserted into the body of a text message that may then be sent to an intended recipient over a communications network. 
     In one embodiment SW  700  includes an API to a voice messaging interface. In this case characters input through the overlay are interpreted by the SW and converted to standard language text before being parsed by a text to voice recognition module  705  and synthesized as a voice message that may be sent to a voice mail inbox, a voice enabled end device like a cellular telephone, or an end computing appliance having voice messaging capabilities. 
     Braille_Morse_Semaphore reader  702  uses a character library  706  that includes all of the relevant characters depending on the type or types of interfaces provided on overlay  402 . The library is used to recognize Braille characters, for example, before they are rendered as normal text for inserting into a message for send. Voice mail would require an additional step of voice synthesis of the text into a compact voice message. Library  706  may be installed on an internal or external memory device that is accessible to the host appliance. 
     In one embodiment of the present invention, the instructions for messaging including adding one or more contacts to the recipient list of the message are input from the same interface as the message. SW  700  has access to all of the listed contacts through the API and may, in one embodiment, be adapted to prompt a visually impaired user to enter characters for specific messaging fields such as recipient, subject line, Carbon Copy (CC), Blind Carbon Copy (BCC), etc. The present invention may be used to input text for messaging or for inserting into documents, etc. 
     It is to be understood that touch screen interfaces and associated overlay may be provided  9  in many other forms and patterns than those described in various embodiments herein. For example, in many instances inputs other than the 6-point or 8-point standard Braille inputs may be needed, to provide for correction, such as Undo, Repeat, and other functionality as may be deemed needed in the touch screen and the overlay to best serve the needs of the visually impaired, or otherwise impaired person. The inventive aspect is the matching of the overlay, and character of the overlay, to digital devices and in particular touch screens, and in the mapping of features between the touch screens and the overlays. 
     It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that the touch screen overlay system of the invention may be provided using some or all of the mentioned features and components without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It will also be apparent to the skilled artisan that the embodiments described above are specific examples of a single broader invention which may have greater scope than any of the singular descriptions taught. There may be many alterations made in the descriptions without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.