Interactive educational system and method

Abstract

A method of presenting an interactive story including displaying an illustration on a display without a corresponding narrative; receiving a user's input; determining whether the user's input corresponds to at least one word in a hidden narrative associated with the illustration; and displaying the word in the hidden narrative on the display in response to determining that the user's input corresponds to the word.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of associating a multi-word narrative with an illustration, the method comprising:
 displaying an illustration without a corresponding narrative on a display communicatively coupled to a memory;   associating, by a processor, a plurality of words in a hidden narrative with the illustration;   receiving, by a microphone, an analog audio signal from a user representing a word spoken by the user;   using a speech recognition module to convert the analog audio signal to digital data representative of the word spoken by the user;   determining, by the processor, whether the digital data representative of the word spoken by the user corresponds to one of the plurality of words in the hidden narrative associated with the illustration, the hidden narrative including the plurality of words stored in the memory before receiving the audio analog signal; and   displaying on the display the word in the hidden narrative in response to determining that the digital data representative of the word spoken by the user corresponds to the word in the hidden narrative, while not displaying any of the plurality of words in the hidden narrative that do not correspond to the word spoken by the user or a word previously spoken by the user.   
     
     
         2 . (canceled) 
     
     
         3 . The method in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein:
 the hidden narrative describes only viewable features of the illustration.   
     
     
         4 . The method in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein:
 the illustration is formed as a single still image.   
     
     
         5 . The method in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein:
 the illustration is formed as a sequence of still images.   
     
     
         6 . The method in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein:
 the illustration is formed as a video.   
     
     
         7 . The method in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein:
 displaying the illustration further comprises displaying the illustration on a display for a predetermined time period.   
     
     
         8 . A method of learning, the method comprising:
 presenting an illustration on a display without a corresponding narrative, the display communicatively coupled to a memory;   receiving, by a microphone, an analog signal from a user, the analog signal representing a word spoken by the user;   using a speech recognition module to convert the analog audio signal to digital data representative of the word spoken by the user;   determining, by the processor, a hidden narrative having a plurality of words associated with the illustration by associating at least one word from the hidden narrative with the digital data such that the at least one word becomes viewable on the display in response to receiving the digital data associated with the at least one word, while any of the plurality of words in the hidden narrative that do not correspond to the digital data does not become viewable; and   wherein the hidden narrative is stored in the memory before the receiving of the digital data.   
     
     
         9 . (canceled) 
     
     
         10 . The method in accordance with  claim 8 , wherein:
 the hidden narrative describes only viewable features of the illustration.   
     
     
         11 . The method in accordance with  claim 8 , wherein:
 the illustration is formed as a single still image.   
     
     
         12 . The method in accordance with  claim 8 , wherein:
 the illustration is formed as a sequence of still images.   
     
     
         13 . The method in accordance with  claim 8 , wherein:
 the illustration is formed as a video.   
     
     
         14 . A method of storytelling, the method comprising:
 providing, using a display of an electronic device, an illustration configured to be viewable by a user without a corresponding narrative;   creating, by a processor of the electronic device, a hidden narrative having a plurality of words describing only viewable features of the illustration, where each of a plurality of words in the hidden narrative is configured to become viewable in response to a of user speaking said word, while any of the plurality of words in the hidden narrative that do not correspond to at least one word spoken by the user does not become viewable;   wherein the hidden narrative is stored in a memory before the user's input of said word;   receiving, by a microphone of the electronic device, an audio signal representing a word spoken by the user;   using a speech recognition module of the electronic device to convert the analog signal to digital data representative of the word spoken by the user;   causing, by the processor, a word in the hidden narrative corresponding to the digital data to become viewable; and   maintaining the remaining words of the hidden narrative in a hidden state.   
     
     
         15 . (canceled) 
     
     
         16 . The method in accordance with  claim 14 , wherein:
 the illustration is formed as a single still image.   
     
     
         17 . The method in accordance with  claim 14 , wherein:
 the illustration is formed as a sequence of still images.   
     
     
         18 . The method in accordance with  claim 14 , wherein:
 the illustration is formed as a video.   
     
     
         19 . A system for presenting an interactive story, the system comprising:
 a display communicatively coupled to a memory;   a microphone configured to receive an audio signal representative of at least a portion of an utterance;   a speech recognition module configured to receive the audio signal, convert the audio signal to digital data, analyze the digital data, and identify a word corresponding to the digital data;   a processing device communicatively coupled to the display and the speech recognition module, the processing device configured to execute computer instructions, the computer instructions including instructions for:   displaying an illustration on the display without a corresponding narrative; and   displaying on the display at least one word of a hidden narrative having a plurality of words associated with the illustration in response to the speech recognition module identifying the word as corresponding to the digital data, while any of the plurality of words in the hidden narrative that do not correspond to the digital data is not displayed; and   wherein the hidden narrative is stored in the memory before receiving the audio signal.   
     
     
         20 . The system in accordance with  claim 19 , wherein:
 the hidden narrative describes only viewable features of the illustration.   
     
     
         21 . The system in accordance with  claim 19 , wherein:
 the processing device is configured to cause the illustration to be displayed for only a predetermined amount of time.   
     
     
         22 . The system in accordance with  claim 19 , wherein:
 the hidden narrative includes a punctuation mark, and wherein the processing device is configured to automatically display the punctuation mark when a word preceding or following the punctuation mark in the hidden narrative is displayed.   
     
     
         23 . The system in accordance with  claim 19 , wherein:
 the processing device is configured to present a plurality of difficulty levels associated with the hidden narrative to the user, wherein the processing device causes the hidden narrative to be displayed for a first predetermined amount of time when a first difficult level is selected and causes the hidden narrative to be displayed for a second predetermined amount of time when a second difficulty level is selected.