Information transmission system and information transmission method

• US 20050267761A1
• Filed: 06/01/2005
• Published: 12/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo Innovations Ltd Hong Kong (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Ueno, Kimio
• Granted Patent: US 7,739,118 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/277
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/271 controlled by voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72439 for image or video messaging
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/70 methods for entering alphabetical characters, e.g. multi-tap or dictionary disambiguation

Abstract

In this information transmission system, a first user terminal gains access to a business server through a communication network, to transmit a body text of an electronic mail in voice information there. The business server converts the voice information into text information, discriminates the information to be converted into a pictogram, from this information, and further converts it into a pictogram. A user of the first user terminal recognizes a destination from the mail body text and transmits an electronic mail including the pictogram/text mixed body text to, for example, a second user terminal. Also in a TV phone, the voice information is similarly converted into text information and pictogram and combined with an image, and displayed.

Claims

1. An information transmission system comprising:

a voice input unit which receives the contents of communication with voice;

an information converting unit which converts the voice information received by said voice input unit into text information;

a pictogram corresponding information extracting unit which extracts pictogram corresponding information indicating a pictogram from the text information obtained through the conversion by said information converting unit; and

a pictogram converting unit which converts the pictogram corresponding information extracted by said pictogram corresponding information extracting unit into each corresponding pictogram.

2. The information transmission system as set forth in claim 1, wherein

said contents of communication correspond to a body text of an electronic mail.

3. The information transmission system as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

an address table in which each pair of destination reading information including name of destination or reading of the name (designation) and address information corresponding to said destination is registered;

an address table searching unit which searches said address table for proper one of said destination reading information, that corresponds to the information at a specified position of the text information received by said voice input unit and obtained through the conversion by said information converting unit; and

a destination setting unit which sets the corresponding address information as the destination of said text information when the proper one of said destination reading information is found by said address table searching unit.

4. The information transmission system as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

a type judging unit which judges whether each of the pictogram corresponding information to be converted by said pictogram converting unit is of a first type pictogram to put an accent on a usual sentence or a second type to replace itself with a specific word or sentence; and

a pictogram conversion inhibiting unit which inhibits the conversion into a pictogram by said pictogram converting unit as for a destination of information where the above conversion is inhibited, deletes the text information corresponding to said first type pictogram, and leaves the text information corresponding to said second type pictogram as it is.

5. The information transmission system as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

a language specifying unit which specifies a language corresponding to a destination; and

a translating unit which translates the text information converted by said pictogram converting unit into the language specified by said language specifying unit.

6. An information transmission system comprising:

a voice input unit which receives the contents of communication with voice;

an image input unit which receives image information that is the contents to be transmitted associated with the voice information received by said voice input unit;

an information converting unit which converts the voice information received by said voice input unit into text information;

a pictogram corresponding information extracting unit which extracts pictogram corresponding information indicating a pictogram from the text information obtained through the conversion by said information converting unit;

a pictogram converting unit which converts the pictogram corresponding information extracted by said pictogram corresponding information extracting unit into each corresponding pictogram; and

an information transmitting unit which combines the mixed information of pictogram and text obtained through the conversion by said pictogram converting unit with the image information received by said image input unit and transmits the above information.

7. The information transmission system as set forth in claim 6, further comprising:

an address table in which each pair of destination reading information including name of destination or reading of the name (designation) and address information corresponding to said destination is registered;

an address table searching unit which searches said address table for the proper one of said destination reading information that corresponds to the information at a specified position of the text information received by said voice input unit and obtained through the conversion by said information converting unit; and

a destination setting unit which sets the corresponding address information as the destination of said text information when the proper one of said destination reading information is found by said address table searching unit.

8. The information transmission system as set forth in claim 6, further comprising:

a type judging unit which judges whether each of the pictogram corresponding information to be converted by said pictogram converting unit is of a first type pictogram to put an accent on a usual sentence or a second type to replace itself with a specific word or sentence; and

a pictogram conversion inhibiting unit which inhibits the conversion into a pictogram by said pictogram converting unit as for a destination of information where the above conversion is inhibited, deletes the text information corresponding to said first type pictogram, and leaves the text information corresponding to said second type pictogram as it is.

9. The information transmission system as set forth in claim 6, further comprising:

a language specifying unit which specifies a language corresponding to a destination; and

a translating unit which translates the text information converted by said pictogram converting unit into the language specified by said language specifying unit.

10. The information transmission system as set forth in claim 6, wherein

said information transmitting unit, each provided correspondingly in a plurality of said voice input units, realizes a TV phone by exchanging images and the pictogram/text mixed information between users for every unit of said voice input units.

11. An information transmission method comprising the steps of:

a voice input step for receiving the contents of communication with voice;

an information converting step for converting the voice information received through said voice input step into text information;

a pictogram corresponding information extracting step for extracting pictogram corresponding information indicating a pictogram from the text information obtained through the conversion in said information converting step; and

a pictogram converting step for converting the pictogram corresponding information extracted through said pictogram corresponding information extracting step into each corresponding pictogram.

12. The information transmission method as set forth in claim 11, further including

an address table searching step for searching an address table, with each destination reading information including name of destination or reading of the name (designation) and each address information corresponding to a destination registered in pair, for the proper destination reading information that corresponds to the information at a specified position of the text information received through said voice input step and obtained through the conversion in said information converting step, and

a destination setting step for setting the corresponding address information as the destination of said text information when the proper one of said destination reading information is found through said address table searching step.

13. The information transmission method as set forth in claim 11, further including

a type judging step for judging whether each of the pictogram corresponding information to be converted through said pictogram converting step is of a first type pictogram to put an accent on a usual sentence or a second type to replace itself with a specific word or sentence, and

a pictogram conversion inhibiting step for inhibiting the pictogram conversion of said pictogram converting step as for a destination of information where the above conversion is inhibited, deleting the text information corresponding to said first type pictogram, and leaving the text information corresponding to said second type pictogram as it is.

14. The information transmission method as set forth in claim 11, further including

a language specifying step for specifying a language corresponding to a destination, and

a translating step for translating the text information converted through said pictogram converting step into the language specified through said language specifying step.