Text-to-Speech Navigation via Visual Indicators
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current speech synthesis technologies are cumbersome for users, requiring manual text selection and lacking intuitive navigation tools, making it difficult to easily navigate and orient through large documents, especially on devices like smartphones and tablets.
Innovation Solution
The system provides portrayed text indicators, such as a magnifying glass, to show the current text being read, and allows users to interact with these indicators using touch or voice commands to control playback, set new reading points, and navigate through text, ensuring synchronization at word or sentence boundaries, and displaying scroll and page indicators for seamless reading.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If manual text selection and traditional navigation methods are used, then speech synthesis can be implemented, but user interface complexity increases and ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically tracks and highlights the current text being read without requiring manual user intervention. The TTS engine and visual indicator work together to self-manage the reading position, eliminating the need for users to manually select or track text position.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical navigation controls (buttons, sliders, manual text selection) with a visual indicator system that automatically follows the speech playback position. This substitution of mechanical interaction with automated visual feedback simplifies the user interface.
2Loss of information
If traditional text-to-speech playback is used, then speech output is achieved, but user orientation and navigation through large documents becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses visual changes in the text display, specifically highlighting or coloring the current text being read with a distinct visual indicator. This visual differentiation helps users immediately identify their current position in the text without requiring manual tracking or complex navigation.
3Productivity
If audio books navigation is implemented with traditional controls, then playback control is possible, but navigation becomes cumbersome and reading large amounts of content is difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides continuous visual feedback by displaying a moving indicator that shows the current reading position in real-time. This feedback loop allows users to immediately see where they are in the text, enabling better orientation and more efficient navigation through large documents.
Data Source
AI summary
TTS is a well known technology for decades used for various applications from Artificial Call centers attendants to PC software that allows people with visual impairments or reading disabilities to listen to written works on a home computer. However to date TTS is not widely adopted for PC and Mobile users for daily reading tasks such as reading emails, reading pdf and word documents, reading through website content, and for reading books. The present invention offers new user experience for operating TTS for day to day usage. More specifically this invention describes a synchronization technique for following text being read by TTS engines and specific interfaces for touch pads, touch and multi touch screens. Nevertheless this invention also describes usage of other input methods such as touchpad, mouse, and keyboard.