Transforming a tactually selected user input into an audio output

A computer system for transforming a user input into an audio output comprising:

• one or more processors internal to the computer system;
• a contextual input device coupled to the one or more processors comprising a plurality of tactually discernable keys disposed in a spatial relationship which proportionally replicates a spatial relationship among a plurality of items associated with a known physical object;
• an audio processing subsystem coupled to the one or more processors;
• an electro-acoustic transducer coupled to the audio processing system;
• a memory coupled to the one or more processors comprising executable instructions which when executed by the processor, causes the one or more processors to;
• receive a digital input signal from a contextual input device;
• determine whether the digital input signal represents a selection of an item from among the plurality of items or an attribute pertaining to an item among the plurality of items;
• transform the digital input signal into an analog audio signal with the audio processing subsystem;
• output the analog audio signal with the electro-acoustic transducer
• wherein the known physical object is a periodic table of the elements, the plurality of items are the elements contained in the periodic table of the elements, and the attribute pertaining to an item among the plurality of items is a property pertaining to an element in the periodic table of elements.

A computer program product embodied in a tangible form for transforming a user input into an audio output comprising executable instructions which when executed by one or more processors internal to a computer system causes the one or more processors to:

• receive a digital input signal from a contextual input device coupled to the one or processors, the contextual input device comprising a plurality of tactually discernable keys disposed in a spatial relationship which proportionally replicates a spatial relationship among a plurality of items associated with a known physical object;
• determine whether the digital input signal represents a selection of an item from among the plurality of items or an attribute pertaining to an item among the plurality of items;
• transform the digital input signal into an analog audio signal with an audio processing subsystem coupled to the one or more processors;
• output the analog audio signal with an electro-acoustic transducer coupled to the audio processing subsystem
• wherein the known physical object is a periodic table of the elements, the plurality of items are the elements contained in the periodic table of the elements, and the attribute pertaining to an item among the plurality of items is a property pertaining to an element in the periodic table of elements.