The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 27, 2001
Filed:
Jan. 29, 1999
John Martin Mullaly, Austin, TX (US);
Winslow Scott Burleson, Palo Alto, CA (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides a method for allowing a user's reading to dictate the speed and position at which content is converted to audio in an audio reader. The method includes determining a position of a user's eye gaze, identifying a content displayed at the position of the user's eye gaze, determining an audio corresponding to the content, and outputting the audio. The method of the present invention allows the user's reading to drive the text to speech conversion, resulting in the computer reading what the user is currently reading. The user may then read text at a variable rate and at different positions, with the text to speech conversion following the user. The method of the present invention may be used to help raise users' literacy levels, to help users learn to read faster, to help boost reading comprehension, to help users scan documents, and to provide feedback for positioning and control. The present invention is thus flexible and has a range of utilities.