Back to results
US 2004/0162719 A1Published application
Interactive electronic publishing
OwnerTimothy Patrick Bowyerinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
OwnerTimothy Patrick Bowyerinventor
Estimating the term…
A method of interactive electronic publishing permitting instantaneous conversion of all kinds of text to speech, and of musical score to music, and the creation of the instantaneous effect of animation, all by the operations of a mouse or other interactive device. No autonomous plug-in applications are required. The sounds and images concerned are pre-recorded and edited to minimize file sizes, and pre-loaded before being played in response to mouse actions. In the case of images, the animation effect is achieved by using existing swap-image techniques but using pre-filmed and edited images created for animation purposes. In the case of sounds, existing mouse-over techniques are used but with sounds which make audible the text or animation concerned. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, sounds and images are incorporated into a button and published as a movie with sounds in mp3 format.
1 A method of electronic publishing which provides instantaneous text-to-speech conversion, in quantities ranging from single phonemes to extended text, where “text” means all kinds of text including scientific and mathematical notation, by means of a mouse or other device that allows interaction between the audience and the material, whereby pre-recorded and edited human speech is used to represent the published text, which is itself specially treated as described in the Description in order to produce the said instantaneous conversion.
2 A method of electronic publishing which provides instantaneous musical score-to-music conversion, in quantities ranging from a single note to extended pieces of music, by means of a mouse or other device that allows interaction between the audience and the material, whereby pre-recorded and edited sounds are used, to represent the published score, which is itself specially treated as described in the Description in order to produce the said instantaneous conversion.
3 A method of electronic publishing which provides a movie projector effect, giving an effect of animation which is triggered by the audience itself through the medium of a mouse or other device that allows interaction between the audience and the material, whereby pre-edited images are swapped in rapid succession in response to the operation of the mouse, having been specially treated as described in the Description in order to produce the said effect.
4 The method of claim 1, wherein text is converted to one or more images.
5 The method of claim 1, wherein text is incorporated in one or more “buttons” (in the sense of “buttons” that is used by Macromedia).
6 The method of claim 1, wherein sound is converted to mp3 format.
7 The method of claim 2, wherein the musical notation is converted into one or more images.
8 The method of claim 2, wherein the musical notation is incorporated in one or more “buttons” (in the sense of “buttons” that is used by Macromedia).
9 The method of claim 2, wherein sound is converted to mp3 format.
10 The method of claim 3, wherein the images are incorporated within one or more “buttons” (in the sense of “buttons” that is used by Macromedia).
11 The method of claim 3, wherein sound is also triggered by the operation of the mouse to give the effect of a talking movie controlled by the mouse.