Navigation and orientation tools for speech synthesis

Abstract

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.

1 . A method for outputting a text, comprising
 a. indicating read text on a touch screen by portraying a text indicator on the read text;   b. Synchronizing the read text and audio playback of the indicated text.   
     
     
         2 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the synchronization is at word boundary. 
     
     
         3 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the synchronization is at sentence boundary. 
     
     
         4 . The method according  claim 1 , further comprising providing a scroll indicator for scrolling the text by a user dragging the scroll indicator. 
     
     
         5 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising providing a page flipping indicator for flipping page by means of a user swipe gesture on the flipping indicator. 
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising displaying the text in a screen layout that portrays a text book. 
     
     
         7 . The method according to  claim 6 , further comprising removing text controls when portraying flipping of a page in the text book. 
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 1  configured to operate on any of the following devices: IPAD™ IPAD™ IPOD™ IPHONE™ Android™ Kindle™ Nook™ 
     
     
         9 . A method for outputting a text, comprising
 a. Indicating read text on a touch screen by portraying a text indicator on the read text;   b. Applying a swipe gesture by a user touch on the text indicator to start or stop reading the text   c. Synchronizing the read text and audio playback of the indicated text.   
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 9 , wherein the direction of the swipe gesture prescribes the start or stop playback, respectively. 
     
     
         11 . A method for outputting a text, comprising
 a. Indicating read text on a touch screen by portraying a text indicator on the read text;   b. Dragging the text indicator by a user touch to a different position of the text;   c. Synchronizing the read text starting from the new position and audio playback of the indicated text.   
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 11 , further comprising changing the position of a time indicator to reflect the text that already been processed up to the new position, wherein the time indicator indicating on the proportion of the text that has already been processed compared to the entire text passage for reading. 
     
     
         13 . A method according to  claim 11 , comprising:
 a. Indicating read text on a touch screen by portraying a text indicator on the read text;   b. Calculating the entire reading time of a text by being proportionally to multiplying the average time required to read a character by the total characters in the text;   c. Portraying a time indicator to reflect the text that already been processed up to the new position, wherein the time indicator indicating on the proportion of the text that has already been processed compared to said calculated entire reading time.   
     
     
         14 . The method according to  claim 13 , wherein said average time required to read a character is configurable according to the desired text playback rate.