Mobile telephone user interface

Abstract

An improved user interface that can be used with mobile telecommunications devices, such as mobile phones, to make them more accessible to visually impaired users. The user interface uses a set of distinguishable non-visual (NV) cues that are selectively generated when the user selects a feature to activate by navigating a menu system. NV cues can take many forms, but are usually vibrational pulses or audible sounds, or a combination of the two. As the user navigates through the menu system by sequentially selecting the available options, NV prompts are generated so that the user can feel a place within the menu system. The different NV prompts may be associated with the availability of certain selected options or their selection, or may be organized in a manner similar to the organization of the options themselves.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates generally to the field of telephony user interfaces, and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for increasing the accessibility of telephony features through the use of non-visual cues. Background technique [0002] Many people are now using the once rare mobile phones, and mobile phones are becoming more and more popular. At first, mobile phones were often too expensive to be purchased for casual use or convenience, so they were used only by users who either had a clear need for mobile communications or were wealthy enough to afford such a luxury. And the capacity of the telecommunications systems required to support mobile phones has limited their widespread use in the past. [0003] Basically, a mobile phone is a portable wireless device with a transmitter and receiver. Wireless communication uses electromagnetic radio waves to send information from one station to another. For voice communications, a microphone...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0014] However, for visually impaired users, lengthy menu choices become more of a burden than a benefit

Users who cannot read the display may have difficulty navigating through a user interface that presents a large number of options visually in order to properly place a phone call

And, although the menu and softkey system make it possible to accommodate many menu options, the large number of options available makes it difficult for blind users to find the features they need

Of course, it is possible to memorize the key sequence so that there is no need to refer to the visual display, but the large number of features available tends to make the above sequence very long

Naturally, there is no difficulty in reducing the large number of options to a few that can be more easily accessed, but this process also removes some of the advantages that come with multi-featured phones

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