Audio-form presentation of text messages
First Claim
1. In a communications infrastructure, a message-conversion system for receiving a text-message signal from a sender and converting it into an audio-output signal for delivery to a target recipient;
- the message-conversion system comprising;
a store for holding user-related recordings comprising at least one of recordings of user input, and used-supplied recordings;
a user interface for providing said recordings to the store;
a message parser for identifying in a received text-message signal, any recording indicators included with the message text;
a text-to-speech converter for converting the message text into a speech signal;
a retrieval unit for retrieving from said store user-related recordings indicated by recording indicators, if any, identified by the message parser, any retrieved recording to provide corresponding sound-passage signals; and
a control arrangement for causing the speech signal and any sound-passage signals to be combined to form said audio-output signal with the arrangement of speech and sound-passage signals being determined by the relative dispositions of text and indicators in the text-message signal.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A text message, such as sent using a short message service of a mobile network, is converted into audio form for delivery to a target recipient. The message includes tags that serve to identity user-related recordings that are to be included in the audio form of the message. In converting the message into audio form, the tags in the message are identified and result in the corresponding recordings being combined with the output of a text-to-speech converter to produce the audio form of the message. The message tags preferably map to recordings according to mapping data specified by either the message sender or target recipient.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. In a communications infrastructure, a message-conversion system for receiving a text-message signal from a sender and converting it into an audio-output signal for delivery to a target recipient;
- the message-conversion system comprising;
a store for holding user-related recordings comprising at least one of recordings of user input, and used-supplied recordings;
a user interface for providing said recordings to the store;
a message parser for identifying in a received text-message signal, any recording indicators included with the message text;
a text-to-speech converter for converting the message text into a speech signal;
a retrieval unit for retrieving from said store user-related recordings indicated by recording indicators, if any, identified by the message parser, any retrieved recording to provide corresponding sound-passage signals; and
a control arrangement for causing the speech signal and any sound-passage signals to be combined to form said audio-output signal with the arrangement of speech and sound-passage signals being determined by the relative dispositions of text and indicators in the text-message signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
- the message-conversion system comprising;
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11. A communications method in which a text-form message signal is converted, in a communications infrastructure, into an audio-form message signal for delivery to a target recipient;
- the method involving;
(a) receiving and storing user-related recordings comprising at least one of recordings of user input, and used-supplied recordings;
(b) identifying in the text-form message signal, any recording indicators included with the message text;
(c) converting the message text into an audio-form speech signal;
(d) using any recording indicators identified in step (b) to access corresponding ones of the stored user-related recordings;
(e) converting the accessed recordings to audio-form sound-passage signals; and
(f) combining the audio-form speech signals with the audio-form sound-passage signals to provide said audio-form message signal, the arrangement of the audio-form speech and sound-passage signals being determined by the relative dispositions of text and indicators in the text-form message. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
- the method involving;
Specification