Patent · US Active

Audio output of a document from mobile device

US8121842B2 · kind B2 · utility

19Cited by
11References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 12, 2008
Grant dateFeb 21, 2012
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 6, 2030

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG10L13/00
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Architecture for playing a document converted into an audio format to a user of an audio-output capable device. The user can interact with the device to control play of the audio document such as pause, rewind, forward, etc. In more robust implementation, the audio-output capable device is a mobile device (e.g., cell phone) having a microphone for processing voice input. Voice commands can then be input to control play (“reading”) of the document audio file to pause, rewind, read paragraph, read next chapter, fast forward, etc. A communications server (e.g., email, attachments to email, etc.) transcodes text-based document content into an audio format by leveraging a text-to-speech (TTS) engine. The transcoded audio files are then transferred to mobile devices through viable transmission channels. Users can then play the audio-formatted document while freeing hand and eye usage for other tasks.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.