CONTENT PRESENTATION

Abstract

The invention relates to the field of content presentation.

A system and a computer-readable medium are described, comprising program instructions, which provide for display of the visual content parts by a display device synchronously with reproduction of the audio content parts by a reproducing device based on the content synchronization information; display of at least one visual content part not synchronized with an audio content part currently being reproduced without interrupting reproduction of the audio content part in response to at least one corresponding action by the user during his interaction with the input device interface; and a subsequent return to display of the visual content parts synchronously with reproduction of the audio content parts in response to at least one corresponding action by the user during his interaction with the input device interface or automatically upon the occurrence of a predetermined event.

Claims

1. A non-transient system for content presentation comprising: an input device; an audio content reproducing device; a visual content display device; at least one non-transient computer-readable medium; at least one processor connected to the input device, to the reproducing device, to the display device, and to the non-transient computer-readable medium; wherein at least one non-transient computer-readable medium comprises: audio content that contains audio content parts, visual content that contains visual content parts related in meaning to the audio content, content synchronization information linking the visual content parts to the corresponding audio content parts; and program instructions, which, when executed by the processor, provide for display of the visual content parts by the display device synchronously with reproduction of the audio content parts by the reproducing device based on the content synchronization information, characterized in that at least one non-transient computer-readable medium comprises program instructions, which, when executed by the processor, provide for: display of at least one visual content part not synchronized with an audio content part currently being reproduced without interrupting reproduction of the audio content part in response to at least one corresponding action by the user during his interaction with the input device interface, and a subsequent return to display of the visual content parts synchronously with reproduction of the audio content parts in response to at least one corresponding action by the user during his interaction with the input device interface or automatically upon the occurrence of a predetermined event.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the visual content is video content and/or text content and/or images.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the audio content part is at least one of a word, a phrase, a sentence, a paragraph, and the visual content part is at least one of a word, a phrase, a sentence, a paragraph, a single image, a single video content part.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the action by the user is selection of an appropriate option on the input device interface.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined event is expiry of a predetermined period of time after display of a visual content part not synchronized with the audio content part currently being reproduced.

6. A non-transient computer-readable medium comprising: program instructions, which, when executed by the processor, provide for display of the visual content parts by the visual content display device synchronously with reproduction of the audio content parts by the audio content reproducing device based on the content synchronization information linking the visual content parts to the corresponding audio content parts, characterized in that it comprises program instructions, which, when executed by the processor, provide for display of at least one visual content part not synchronized with an audio content part currently being reproduced without interrupting reproduction of the audio content part in response to at least one corresponding action by the user during his interaction with the input device interface, and a subsequent return to display of the visual content parts synchronously with reproduction of the audio content parts in response to at least one corresponding action by the user during his interaction with the input device interface or automatically upon the occurrence of a predetermined event.

7. A non-transient computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the visual content is video content and/or text content and/or images.

8. A non-transient computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the audio content part is at least one of a word, a phrase, a sentence, a paragraph, and the visual content part is at least one of a word, a phrase, a sentence, a paragraph, a single image, a single video content part.

9. A non-transient computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the action by the user is selection of an appropriate option on the input device interface.

10. A non-transient computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the predetermined event is expiry of a predetermined period of time after display of a visual content part not synchronized with the audio content part currently being reproduced.

Description

[0021] The claimed invention will now be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, showing a general schematic view of two preferred embodiments of a system for content presentation.

[0022] FIG. 1 shows a system for content presentation in the form of a device 1 for reading and listening to electronic books, comprising an input device and a visual content display device in the form of a touchscreen 2, an audio content reproducing device in the form of a headphone jack 3, a processor 4 and a machine-readable medium 5. Said computer-readable medium 5 stores audio content 6, visual content 7, content synchronization information 8, as well as program instructions 9, including program instructions, which, when executed by the processor 4, provide for display of the visual content 7 parts by the visual content display device (the touchscreen 2) synchronously with reproduction of the audio content 6 parts by the audio content reproducing device (the jack 3) based on the content synchronization information 8, as well as including program instructions, which, when executed by the processor 4, provide for display of at least one visual content 7 part not synchronized with the audio content 6 part currently being reproduced without interrupting reproduction of the audio content 6 part in response to at least one corresponding action by the user during his interaction with the input device interface, i.e. the touchscreen 2, and a subsequent return to display of the visual content 7 parts synchronously with reproduction of the audio content 6 parts in response to at least one corresponding action by the user during his interaction with the touchscreen 2 interface.

[0023] FIG. 2 shows a system for content presentation, comprising a smartphone 10, which, in its turn, comprises an input device and a content display device in the form of a touchscreen 11, a content reproducing device in the form of a speaker 12, a processor 13 and a machine-readable medium 14. Said computer-readable medium 14 stores program instructions 15 similar to those described above with respect to the system shown in FIG. 1. The system also comprises a remote server 16 with a computer-readable medium 17, which, in its turn, stores audio content 18, visual content 19, as well as content synchronization information 20. The smartphone 10 and the remote server 16 are connected to each other via a network such as the Internet by means of network interfaces 21 and 22, respectively.

[0024] The claimed system according to FIGS. 1 and 2 operates as follows.

[0025] The content is synchronized automatically, semi-automatically, or manually, for example, using a web interface or a separate application. The content is synchronized by mapping (correlation), wherein content synchronization information to be stored in a computer-readable medium is obtained. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the content synchronization information 8 is stored in the computer-readable medium 5 of the device 1 for reading and listening to electronic books; in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the content synchronization information 20 is stored in the computer-readable medium 17 of the remote server 16.

[0026] By way of example, synchronization of audio content and text content may be performed as follows, as described in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,260,011. The spoken words in audio content are recognized and translated into text format; the time stamps of each spoken word are determined; the resulting text is divided into phrases, taking into account pauses, but not exceeding a certain number of words in a phrase; the recognized words in phrases are compared with the words in the phrases of the available original text; if possible, the keywords of the beginning and end of each phrase are defined; an assumption is made that the number of recognized words matches the number of words in the original text; the discrepancy between the number of recognized words and the number of words in the original text is eliminated in an algorithmic way: the recognized words in the phrase are compared with the words in the original text. If there is a complete match, the phrase is considered suitable; if there is a mismatch, the outermost words in the adjacent phrases are compared. When there is a word shift in the phrases, word hyphenation is performed. Also, when a discrepancy is detected between the recognized text from the audio content and the original text, the user is provided with an opportunity of manual synchronization by means of the web interface or a separate application, for example, by highlighting the phrases not synchronized or by indicating them in any other way.

[0027] Initially, the user is provided with a default, i.e. set by the manufacturer, content presentation mode that best matches the content presented. In particular, such a default mode may be display of the text content 7 or 19 part on the touchscreen 2 or 11 synchronously with reproduction of the audio content 6 or 18 parts using the headphone jack 3 or the speaker 12 of the device 1 or a smartphone 10 based on the content synchronization information 8 or 20, respectively. Simultaneously, the user is provided with an opportunity of manually switching this mode. In particular, in response to the corresponding one or more actions by the user during his interaction with the input device interface (in particular, with the touchscreen 2 or 11), the text content parts not synchronized with the audio content part currently being reproduced are displayed in full-screen format without interrupting reproduction of the current audio content part. Thus, the user can optionally view the entire text content (both the one already displayed and the one that has not yet been viewed) without stopping audio content reproduction. In this case, the user is provided with an opportunity to change at any time the content presentation mode to a synchronous one, i.e. in response to the corresponding one or more actions by the user during his interaction with the input device interface, to return the synchronization of display of the text content parts and reproduction of the audio content parts.

[0028] Thus, a system for content presentation and a computer-readable medium comprising program instructions for said purposes have been developed, which ensure the achievement of the technical result consisting in the possibility of unsynchronization of the presented visual and audio content without interrupting the reproduction of the latter and a subsequent return to synchronous reproduction of the whole content, thus, ensuring time saving for effective interaction with the content.