PORTABLE COMPUTER DEVICE FOR AUDIBLE PROCESSING OF ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS

摘要

RO9-90-053 PORTABLE COMPUTER DEVICE FOR AUDIBLE PROCESSING OF ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS A battery powered hand-held portable computer device for audible processing of electronic documents. A number of electronic documents in digital data format are coupled to and stored within random access memory within the portable computer device via an interface from a host computer, as strings of characters which may comprise encoded words, syllables or phonetic codes. The portable computer device preferably utilizes a limited number of tape recorder-like switches. In response to a single operation of a "play" switch, these electronic documents are then sequentially coupled to a text-to-speech conversion application and converted to audible speech through a speaker or headphone. In one embodiment of the present invention the portable computer device includes a microphone and analog-to-digital conversion circuitry which permit a spoken input to be digitized, stored, and replayed in conjunction with a selected electronic document. In a scanning mode of operation, each electronic document may be sequentially accessed and the author, subject matter and length of that document announced audibly to the user. Further, all electronic documents may be sequentially searched to locate each instance of a selected textual entry by a simple manipulation of switch devices.