SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING AUDIO CONTENT
A system and method for generating audio content. Content is automatically retrieved from a website. The content is converted to audio files. The audio files are associated with a hierarchy. The hierarchy is determined from the website. One or more audio files are communicated to an electronic device utilized by a user in response to a request from the user.
This Application is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/098,677, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUDIO CONTENT GENERATION, filed May 2, 2011 which claims priority to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/682,843, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUDIBLE WEB SITE NAVIGATION,” filed Mar. 6, 2007, which claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/778,975, entitled “METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR AUDIBLE WEB SITE NAVIGATION,” filed on Mar. 6, 2006, which is incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONEmbodiments consistent with this invention relate generally to data processing for the purpose of navigating a computer database, and more particularly relate to a method and apparatus for creating audible output for the use on the web, on mobile phone, and mp3 devices, and enabling any user, but especially visually-impaired and disabled users, to access and navigate the output based on audio cues.
BACKGROUNDWebsites and many other computer files are created with the assumption that those who are using the files can see the file content on a computer monitor. Because websites are developed with the assumption that users can see, the sites do not convey much content audibly, nor do the sites convey navigation architecture, such as menus and navigation bars, audibly. The result is that visually-impaired and physically disabled users have difficulty using such websites.
Conventional systems have been developed to help visually-impaired users use websites, but these systems often require software and hardware to be installed at the user's computer. Many of these systems simply use screen reading technology alone or in combination with print magnifying software applications. The systems have shown to be costly, unwieldy, and inconvenient. Furthermore, because such technology is installed on the user's computer, visually-impaired users cannot effectively use conventional computer files anywhere except at their own computers. As a consequence, websites and other computer files are often inaccessible to visually-impaired user anywhere except at home.
Several conventional systems have been developed to overcome this problem by enabling visually-impaired users to access some computer information using any touchtone telephone. In essence, a caller accesses a special computer by telephone. The computer has access to computer files that contain audio components, which can be played back though the telephone to the user. For example, a text file that has been translated by synthetic speech software into an audio file can be played back to the user over the telephone. Some systems access audio files that have already been translated; some translate text-to-speech on the fly upon the user's command. To control which files are played, the user presses the keys on the touchtone keypad to send a sound that instructs the computer which audio file to play.
Unfortunately, these systems also have drawbacks. Large files or those having multiple nesting layers turn the system into a giant automated voice response system, which is difficult to navigate and often very frustrating. Typically only text is played back to the user. Graphics, music, images and navigation systems like those on a website are not. Furthermore, the metallic voice of the computer-generated speech does not convey meaning with inflection like a human does, and is tedious to listen to, especially for significant volumes of information.
SUMMARYOne embodiment provides a system and method for generating audio content. Content may be automatically retrieved from a website. The content may be converted to audio files. The audio files may be associated with a hierarchy. The hierarchy may be determined from the website. One or more audio files may be communicated to an electronic device utilized by a user in response to a request from the user.
Another embodiment provides a server for generating audio content. The server may include a network interface operable communicate with one or more electronic devices through a network. The network interface may receive selections of a website from the one or more electronic devices. The server may also include logic include a scraping engine for retrieving content from the website. The scraping engine retrieve the content utilizing a hierarchy from the website and according to a predetermined schedule. The logic may also include a conversion engine for converting the content to an audible website including one or more audio files. The one or more audio files may be organized within the audible website utilizing the hierarchy. The logic may also include a database for storing the audible website for access by the one or more users through the one or more electronic devices.
Another embodiment provides a server for generating an audible website. The server may include a processor for executing a set of instructions and a memory for storing the set of instructions. The set of instructions may be executed to automatically scrape content from an original website according to a predetermined schedule to generate scraped content, converting the scraped content to one or more audio files, assign a hierarchy to the one or more audio files to provide an audible website that mimics a hierarchy of the scraped content as represented at the original website, store the audible website in a database for retrieval by one or more users, receive a first user input indicative of an attempt to access the original website, indicate the audible website is associated with the original website in response to the user selection, and play portions of the audible website in response to a second user input.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate an implementation of methods and systems consistent with the present invention and, together with the description, serve to explain advantages and principles consistent with the invention. In the drawings,
Methods and systems consistent with the present invention create audio files from files created originally for sighted users. Files created originally for primarily sighted-users are referred to herein as original files. An organized collection of original files is referred to herein as an original website. Thus, a hierarchy and navigation system may be assigned to the audio files based on the original website design, providing for access to and navigation of the audio files.
The audio files may be accessed via a user's computer. An indicator may be included in an original file that will play an audible tone or other sound upon opening the file, thereby indicating to a user that the file is audibly accessible. Upon hearing the sound, the user indicates to the computer to open the associated audio file. The content of the audio file is played though an audio interface, which may be incorporated into the user's computer or a standalone device.
The user may navigate the audio files using keystroke navigation through a navigation portal. Unlike the touchtone telephone systems which require an audio input device, embodiments consistent with the present invention may utilize toneless navigation. In one embodiment consistent with the present invention, the user may use voice commands that are detected by the navigation portal for navigation. In yet another embodiment, the user actuates a touch screen for navigation. The navigation portal may be implemented on a computer system, but may also be implemented in a telephone, television, personal digital assistant, or other comparable device.
Reference will now be made in detail to an implementation consistent with the present invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
One embodiment consistent with the present invention may be applied to original web pages hosted on remote computers of a global computer network, for example, the Internet.
In one embodiment consistent with the present invention, audio files may be created by converting text, images, sound and other rich media content of the original files into audio files through a site analysis process. In this embodiment, a human reads the text of the original file and the speech is recorded. The human also describes non-text file content and file navigation options aloud and this speech is recorded. Non-speech content, such as music or sound effects, is also recorded, and these various audio components are placed into one or more files. Any type of content, such as but not limited to FLASH, HTML, XML, .NET, JAVA, or streaming video, may be described audibly in words, music or other sounds, and can be incorporated into the audio files. A hierarchy is assigned to each audio file based on the original computer file design such that when the audio file is played back through an audio interface, sound is given forth. The user may hear all or part of the content of the file and can navigate within the file by responding to the audible navigation cues.
In this embodiment, an original website is converted to an audible website. Each file, or page, of the original website is converted to a separate audio file, or audio page. The collection of associated audio files may reside on a remote computer or server. For example,
Similarly, a human reads aloud the text content and menu options of other files in the original website and the speech is recorded into audio files. In this example, key 1 is assigned to menu option 32, LOG IN; key 2 is assigned to menu option 33, PRODUCTS; key 3 is assigned to menu option 34, SHOWCASE; key 4 is assigned to menu option 35, WHAT'S NEW; key 5 is assigned to menu option 36, ABOUT US. Other visual components of the original website may also be described in speech, such as images or colors of the website, and recorded into one or more audio files. Non-visual components may also be recorded into the audio files, such as music or sound effects.
In one embodiment consistent with the present invention, text is inputted into a content management system (CMS) and automatically converted to speech. Upon acquisition of the text, a third party text-to-speech engine, such as AT&T Natural Voices or Microsoft Reader, is invoked and an audio file, such as a .wav file, or .mp3 file is created. The audio file may be encoded according to a standard specification, such as a standard sampling rate. Once encoded, the audio file is uploaded to a Content Delivery Network (CDN) and a URL path is established for content access. The URL path of the audio content is associated with a navigation value in a navigation database. During browsing, a user selection having a navigation value is mapped to an audio content URL using the navigation database. The audio content is then acquired and played on the client system.
In another embodiment consistent with the present invention, syndicated web site feeds are read and structured information documents are converted into audio enabled web sites. In one example, the syndicated web site feed is a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and the structure information document is an XML file. An RSS URL is first entered into the CMS. An RSS scraping logic is entered into the content management system and upon predefined schedule, an RSS content creation engine is invoked. The RSS content creation engine extracts the content titles, descriptions, and order from the feed following the RSS structure provided from the feed. The URL path to the story content is deployed into a scraping engine and the text is extracted using the scraping logic. The content is then filtered to remove all formatting and non-contextual text and code.
A text-to-speech conversion is completed for both titles and main story content. The converted titles and content, now in an audio format such as a .wav file, are uploaded to a CDN and a URL path is established for content access. The URL path of the audio content is associated with a navigation value in a navigation database. During browsing, a user selection having a navigation value is mapped to an audio content URL using the navigation database. The audio content is then acquired and played on the client system. Through XML integration, the content is displayed in text within a media player and when selected using keystrokes or click through the file is played over the web.
The structure of a sample RSS feed file is given below:
Note that a feed file may have multiple <item> tags. Each <item> tag has child tags that provide information about the item. The <title> tag is the tag the system reads and uses when it attempts to determine if an item has changed since it was last accessed. A user creating or editing menus may have the option of selecting RSS as one of the content types. The sequence of events that will eventually lead to menu content creation if the user chooses RSS as a content type are as follows: Menu creation; Reading; Scraping; Filtration; Audio generation; and XML generation.
The Menu Name, Feed Location and the Advanced Options fields are available if the RSS Feed option is selected in the Content Type field. Clicking a Browse button in the Menu Name Audio field may launch a dialog box to let the user select an audio file. Clicking a Save button will save the details of the new menu in the system. The new menu will be in queue for generating the audio for the respective items. The system runs a scheduler application that initiates ITS conversion for menus. This scheduler may also initiate the pulling of the feed file. Thereafter, control will move to the Reading Engine. Clicking a Cancel button will exit the page. The scheduler application and reading engine are described below.
In one embodiment consistent with the present invention, a navigation portal may include a keyboard having at least eighteen keys. As illustrated in
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- the keys numbered 1 though 9 select associated menu options 51;
- the key numbered 0 selects help 52;
- the up arrow selects forward navigation 53;
- the down arrow selects backward navigation 54;
- the right arrow key selects the next menu option 55;
- the left arrow key selects the previous menu option 56
- the spacebar repeats the audio track 57;
- the home key selects the main menu 58;
- the right bracket key increases the volume of the audible website 59;
- the left bracket key decreases the volume of the audible website 60.
The keys may be arranged in clusters as shown in
The reading engine 605 is invoked at regular intervals by the scheduler 607 application on the server 603. It pulls the feed file and parses it to assemble a list of items syndicated from the feed URI specified. The first time the feed file is pulled from its URI, the reading engine 605 inspects it and prepare a list of items in the file. These items are created as submenus under the menu for which the feed URI is specified (here onwards, the “base menu”).
If this file has previously been read and parsed, each item (i.e., the <item> tag's content) are compared with the submenu at the respective position under the base menu. If the titles do not match, the system may assume that the item has changed and will mark the new item, as a candidate for scraping and the existing item would be removed. In one embodiment, items are compared like this one at a time. Once the items have been compared, this engine hands over control to the scraping engine 609.
The scraping engine 609 accepts the list of items marked for scraping by the reading engine 605. It reads one at a time, the actual links (URLs) to content pages for these items and performs an actual fetch of the content from those pages. This content may be acquired “as is” from the pages. This content is then handed on to the filtering engine 615. The content handed over by the scraping engine 609 may be raw HTML content. The raw HTML content could contain many unclean HTML elements, scripts, etc. These elements are removed by the filtering engine 615 to arrive at human-understandable text content suitable for storage in the menu system as Menu content text. The filtering engine 615 thus outputs clean content for storage in the system's menus. This content is then updated for the respective menus in the system as content text. The menus that are updated will become inactive (if not already so) and will be in queue for content audio generation.
Audio is generated for the updated content in the menus that have been updated by RSS feeds at the closest audio generation sequence executed by the TTS engine 611. Finally XML Data files may be generated/updated with the new menu name, content and audio file name/path. These XML files may be used by a front-end flash application to display the Menu, Content or to play the Audio. An indicator is included in an original website that activates a tone upon a user's visit indicating that the website is audibly accessible. Upon hearing the tone, a user presses a key on his keyboard and enters the audible website. The original website may close or remain open. The user may then navigate the audible website using a keystroke command system. Audible narration is played through an audio interface at the user's computer, describing text and menus and indicating which keystrokes to press to listen to the other audio web files with in the audible website. Users may thus navigate website menus, fast forward and rewind content, and move from website to website without visual clues.
Below the N now playing tab, there may be Surf by Sound Message Center, which provides simple text cues. Also, if the end user has Subtitles turned on, this is where the text being read would be displayed. To the right of the message center may be the navigation choices In a grey area of the nav selection, there may be ‘/more navigation info ([number] of options)’ text. This helps the user follow the path of their navigation. For example if on a homepage with 6 menu options, this are would display ‘(/home (6 options)’. Further if an end-user chose the 5th menu option (e.g. News & Events) which, for perhaps had 12 menu options, the navigation listing would update and the text area would now display ‘News & Events (12 options)’. If there are 12 menu options, the ‘more selections>>’ text would appear more prevalently and the end user would have the option of seeing what those options are by clicking the button (which, again, would make the button highlight orange). Likewise, if there were more than 10 options for any given menu, the navigation listing may automatically advance and display 6-10 in the nav box on the left, 11-15 on the right, etc.).
The search view assumes the end user pressed S from within the default view (see above). Before searching, the audio menu may allow the end user to choose whether they want to search the current site they are on or the a Surf by Sound Portal, which, if selected, would direct the user to the surf by sound portal. Once selected, they would then automatically be cued up to begin typing their search request. If Audio Key Playback is on, a reader may hear their key strokes. Also, a reader may see that the Message Center displays helpful text description of what they are doing (i.e. it coincides with the general text being read). And the ‘/search (2 options)’ text is displayed since they are on the search tab and there are 2 options to choose from. Lastly, pressing ‘E’ (which would trigger the highlighted orange) within either the Search or Preferences Menu would Exit the menu and return to the default view.
The preferences view assumes that the user pressed P from within the default view. First, this tab displays the Bandwidth of the user's machine this is an automatically generated test that was conducted when the first opened the player. From within this view the Message Center is updated with information pertaining the general process being described via audio and the nav options coincide with the options from within this preferences tab. The first option is to turn ‘Subtitles’ On or Off. If on, the media player displays the text being read in the message center display box. The other options within this tab would be turning on or off ‘Screen Reader Mode’, ‘Audio Key-Press’, and Magnify Mode'. Lastly, it may also give the user the option of displaying the default view or the ‘Player Only’. ‘Player Only’ display would get rid of (hide) the message center and navigation options boxes.
An embodiment consistent with the present invention may include a control panel to let the administrator manage third party sites. The user may have access to a Manage 3rd Party Sites link in the administration panel under Site Management menu. The administrator may sort the grid on Site Name, Site Contact and Create Date. Clicking a site name may move control to the menu management section for a particular third party site. Control moves to MANAGE THIRD PARTY MENUS. Clicking a site URL may bring up the home page of the site in a new browser window. This page may display a media player for the third party site. Clicking an icon may move control to CREATE THIRD PARTY SITE. Fields prefixed with “*” are required fields. The Username and E-mail must be unique in the system. Clicking the Create button creates the new account. An e-mail may be sent to the administrator's account. Control then moves to the previous page. Clicking the Cancel button unconditionally exits the page. Clicking the Back button moves control to the previous page.
Turning to
According to one embodiment, processor 1405 executes one or more sequences of one or more instructions contained in main memory 1407. Such instructions may be read into main memory 1407 from another computer-readable medium, such as storage device 1411. Execution of the sequences of instructions in main memory 1407 causes processor 1405 to perform the process steps described herein. One or more processors in a multi-processing arrangement may also be employed to execute the sequences of instructions contained in main memory 1407. In alternative embodiments, hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination with software instructions. Thus, embodiments are not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software.
Further, the instructions to support the system interfaces and protocols of system 1401 may reside on a computer-readable medium. The term “computer-readable medium” as used herein refers to any medium that participates in providing instructions to processor 1405 for execution. Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, a CD-ROM, magnetic, optical or physical medium, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other medium from which a computer can read, either now or later discovered.
Computer system 1401 also includes a communication interface 1419 coupled to bus 1403. Communication interface 1419 provides a two-way data communication coupling to a network link 1421 that is connected to a local network 1423. Wireless links may also be implemented. In any such implementation, communication interface 1419 sends and receives signals that carry digital data streams representing various types of information.
While there has been illustrated and described embodiments consistent with the present invention, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the true scope of the invention. Therefore, it is intended that this invention not be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed.
Claims
1. A method for generating audio content, comprising:
- automatically retrieving content from a website;
- converting the content to audio files;
- associating the audio files with a hierarchy, wherein the hierarchy is determined from the website; and
- communicating one or more of the audio files to an electronic device utilized by a user in response to a request from the user.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the content is retrieved from a plurality of websites utilizing a predetermined schedule.
3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
- generating an audio website that mimics the website.
4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:
- indicating the audio website is available in response to a user accessing the website.
5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the user navigates the audio website utilizing keystroke navigation.
6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
- storing the audio files in a database for subsequent retrieval by one or more users.
7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more audio files are communicated to an audio interface for audio playback to the user.
8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the audio files describe text content and non-text content within the content.
9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
- filtering the retrieved content to remove source code references prior to performing the converting.
10. A server for generating audio content, the server comprising:
- a network interface operable to communicate with one or more electronic devices utilized by one or more users, wherein the network interface receives selections of a website from the one or more electronic devices; and
- logic including: a scraping engine for retrieving content from the website, wherein the reading engine retrieves the content utilizing a hierarchy from the website and according to a predetermined schedule; a conversion engine for converting the content to an audible website including one or more audio files, wherein the one or more audio files are organized within the audible website utilizing the hierarchy; and a database for storing the audible website for access by the one or more users through the one or more electronic devices.
11. The server according to claim 10, wherein the logic further comprises:
- a filtering engine operable to filter the content including at least removing source code prior to performing the conversion of the content.
12. The server according to claim 10, wherein the conversion engine is a text-to-speech conversion engine.
13. The server according to claim 10, wherein the logic further comprises:
- a scheduler operable to set the predetermined schedule.
14. The server according to claim 10, wherein the content includes text content and non-text content, and wherein the non-text content is described by the conversion engine.
15. The server according to claim 14, wherein the the user navigates the audio website utilizing keystroke navigation.
16. A computing device for generating an audible website, comprising:
- a processor for executing a set of instructions; and
- a memory for storing the set of instructions, wherein the set of instructions are executed to: automatically retrieve content from a website; convert the content to audio files; associate the audio files with a hierarchy, wherein the hierarchy is associated with the website; and communicate one or more of the audio files to an electronic device utilized by a user in response to a request from the user.
17. The computing device according to claim 16, wherein the content is automatically retrieved utilizing scraping of the website, and wherein a plurality of websites are scraped according to a predetermined schedule.
18. The computing device according to claim 16, wherein the set of instructions are further executed to:
- generate an audio website that mimics the website utilizing the audio files; and
- indicate the audio website is available in response to the user accessing the website.
19. The computing device according to claim 16, wherein the user navigates the audio website utilizing keystroke navigation through the electronic device.
20. The computing device according to claim 16, wherein the content includes text content and non-text content, and wherein the audible website is generated prior to the request.
Type: Application
Filed: May 30, 2012
Publication Date: Sep 20, 2012
Inventors: William C. O'Conor (Potomac, MD), Nathan T. Bradley (Tuscon, AZ)
Application Number: 13/483,758
International Classification: G10L 13/08 (20060101); G05B 21/00 (20060101);