Appeal 2007-0919
Application 10/179,555
FINDINGS OF FACT
Appellant invented a method for providing audible feedback to
enable a visually impaired person to navigate touch screen menu displays
typically associated with multi-function office machines (Specification 1,
ll. 5-8). Particularly, the invention aims at audibly informing the user when
transitioning from the second mode of operation, which has the audible
feedback function enabled, to the first mode of operation, which has the
audible feedback function disabled (Specification 7, ll. 19-22). Appellant’s
invention further uses an ON/OFF switch to transition between the two
modes of operation and includes a feedback sound file that is associated with
the ON/OFF switch, which audibly informs the user the state of the switch,
i.e., whether the audible feedback is enabled or disabled.
Vanderheiden discloses a touch screen system for people with
disabilities. (Abstract). The touch screen system is equipped with a
background sound (74) to indicate that an audio mode has been selected and
is working properly (col. 7, ll 52-58). In particular, Vanderheiden explains
that in the second (audio) mode of operation, the background sound audibly
informs a user that the touch panel is being touched, but not with a virtual
button (Id.). For example, figure 7 illustrates that the background sound is
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Last modified: September 9, 2013