Telephone device and translation telephone device

• US 20020181669A1
• Filed: 06/04/2002
• Published: 12/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: YOZAN, Inc.
• Original Assignee: YOZAN, Inc.
• Inventors: Kiyomatsu, Hisanori, Takatori, Sunao
• Application Number:
  US10/149,175
• Publication Number:
  US 20020181669A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/88.06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/58 Use of machine translation, e.g. for multi-lingual retrieval, for server-side translation for client devices or for real-time translation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/58 including a multilanguage function
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/60 logging of communication history, e.g. outgoing or incoming calls, missed calls, messages or URLs
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 with call distribution or queueing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/527 Centralised call answering arrangements not requiring operator intervention

Abstract

User operations when utilizing translation telephone service (translation) are simplified. By making possible voice recognition for limited speakers, voice recognition performance and translation accuracy are improved. When a translation key 73 for use of a translation telephone service is operated, a connection procedure execution unit 31 reads a connection procedure registered in advance in a connection procedure storage unit 83 to connect to a translation telephone device and to set the language to use. The automatic translation mode setting unit refers to the used language of the destination, which is set in advance in a telephone number storage unit 84, and to the history of use of the translation telephone service, which is stored in a call history storage unit 85, and automatically to set the use of the translation telephone service. When using the translation telephone service, voice recognition is performed by a voice recognition unit 33 incorporated within the telephone device 1, and a voice recognition result transmission unit 34 provides text information (text data) which is the recognition result to the translation telephone device.

Claims

1. A telephone device which is applied in a translation telephone service system in which voice in one language inputted from the telephone device at the originating call, is translated into another language by means of a translation telephone device and outputted as voice from the telephone device at the destination call, comprising,

indication means for indicating the translation telephone service mode through operation of said translation telephone device,

storage means for storing information relating to the method of connection to the translation telephone device, and

control means for performing connection with the translation telephone device based on the stored information of the storage means, when the translation telephone service mode is set by said indication means.

2. The telephone device according to claim 1, characterized in that said storage means stores information on the language used by the user of the telephone device and information on the language used by the destination of a call, associated with the telephone numbers of destinations, and, when the telephone number of the destination of the current call is stored in said storage means and the language used by the destination of the current call differs from the language used by the user, said indication means indicates to said translation telephone device that a connection should be made in translation telephone service mode between the language of the destination to the current call and the language of the user of the telephone device.

3. The telephone device according to claim 1, characterized in that when the translation telephone service mode is set by said indication means, said control means subjects the inputted voice information in a first language to voice recognition, and provides the result as text information in the first language to the translation telephone device.

4. The telephone device according to claim 3, characterized in that, when voice recognition is performed by said control means, the inputted voice information is subjected to voice recognition as voice information of a specific speaker.

5. A translation telephone device which is applied in a translation telephone service system in which voice in one language inputted from a telephone device at the originating call, is translated into another language by means of the translation telephone device and outputted as voice from the telephone device at the destination call, comprising,

voice recognition means for performing voice recognition on voice information in one language and for outputting the results as text information in the language,

machine translation means for converting text information in one language into text information in another language,

voice synthesis means for synthesizing voice information in the other language based on text information in the other language, and

an input switching unit for providing the voice information to said voice recognition means, when the input from the telephone device at the originating call is voice information, and for providing the text information to said machine translation means, when the input is text information.

6. A translation telephone device which is applied in a translation telephone service system in which voice in one language inputted from a telephone device at the originating call, is translated into another language by means of the translation telephone device and it is outputted as voice from the telephone device at the destination call, comprising,

voice recognition means for performing voice recognition on voice information in one language and for outputting the results as text information in the language,

machine translation means for converting text information in one language into text information in another language,

a voice synthesis device for synthesizing voice information in the other language based on text information in the other language, and

user voice data storage means for storing individual identification information to identify users in association with voice-related data unique to the users, wherein said voice recognition means performs voice recognition using corresponding voice-related data stored in said user voice data storage means, based on individual identification information provided from a telephone device on conversation.