User device having sequential multimodal output user interface

Abstract

In one aspect of the exemplary embodiments of this invention an apparatus includes a user interface that contains a plurality of input modalities and a plurality of output modalities, and a data processor coupled with the user interface and configurable to present a user with a content item that includes a plurality of attributes. In response to user input that data processor is operable to partition at least some of the attributes into a plurality of presentation tokens, where an individual presentation token comprises at least one attribute. The data processor is further configurable to respond to further user input to define one of the plurality of input modalities to generate a trigger condition for individual ones of the presentation tokens, where generation of a trigger condition results in an associated presentation token being made manifest to the user. The plurality of input modalities may include two or more of physical or virtual keys, an input acoustic transducer, a speech recognition unit, and a gesture detection unit, and where the plurality of output modalities may include two or more of an output acoustic transducer, a speech synthesis unit, a vibro-tactile transducer, and a display screen.