Method of performing a communication service

• US 20060104293A1
• Filed: 11/17/2004
• Published: 05/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Alcatel SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Wengrovitz, Michael S., Kopp, Dieter
• Application Number:
  US10/989,284
• Publication Number:
  US 20060104293A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/07 to the speaker
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4061 Push-to services, e.g. push-to-talk or push-to-video
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42068 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42382 Text-based messaging services in telephone networks such as PSTN/ISDN, e.g. User-to-User Signalling or Short Message Service for fixed networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/10 Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-On-Call services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/45 for Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-to-Talk over cellular [PoC] services

Abstract

The present invention relates to a push-to-talk server (6) and a method of performing a push-to-talk based communication service for registered users (21, 25 to 28) of a push-to-talk service. A push-to-talk call request is transmitted from a calling terminal (31) to the push-to-talk server (6), the push-to-talk call request requesting the establishment of a half-duplex communication connection to one or more called users (25 to 28) and/or user groups. The push-to-talk server (6) establishes an IP based streaming communication channel between the calling terminal (31) and a speech-to-text converter (74). A push-to-talk voice input is transmitted by said communication channel (91) from the calling terminal to the speech-to-text converter (74). The speech-to-text converter (74) converts the push-to-talk voice input to a text. Then, the push-to-talk sever (6) creates a message (92 to 94) containing the content of said text and transfers the message (92 to 94) to one or more of the called users (25 to 27) and/or user groups.

Claims

1. A method of performing a push-to-talk based communication service for registered users (21 to 28) of a push-to-talk service, the method comprising the steps of:

transmitting a push-to-talk call request from a calling terminal (31) to a push-to-talk server (4, 6), the push-to-talk call request requesting the establishment of a half-duplex communication connection to one or more called users (22 to 27) and/or user groups;

establishing an IP based streaming communication channel between the calling terminal (31) and a speech to text converter (52 to 54, 72 to 74);

transmitting a push-to-talk voice input via said communication channel from the calling terminal (31) to the speech-to-text converter (52 to 54, 72 to 74) and converting the push-to-talk voice input to a text;

creating a message (92, 93, 94) containing the content of said text; and

transferring the message (92 to 94) to one or more of the called users (22 to 27) and/or user groups.

2. The method of claim 1,

characterized in

that the method comprises the further step of additionally establishing IP based streaming communication channels between the calling terminal and one or more the called users and/or user groups and transferring the push-to-talk voice input in parallel via these communication channels to said one or more of the called users and/or user groups.

3. The method of claim 1,

characterized in

that the method comprises the further steps of:

storing user profiler data (72) which contain speech recognition adaptation date of one or more registered users (21) of the push-to-talk service; and

applying the corresponding speech recognition adaptation date to the speech-to-text conversion, when detecting a push-to-talk call request receipt from one of these users.

4. The method of claim 1,

characterized in

that the method comprises the further steps of:

storing user profile data (63) which define whether a respective user shall receive a push-to-talk voice communication as voice or text; and

establishing an IP based streaming communication channel between a calling terminal and a terminal of a called user or between a calling terminal and the speech-to-text converter (72 to 74) dependent on said user profile data (63).

5. The method of claim 1,

characterized in

that the method comprises the further step of:

transferring an indication to the push-to-talk server (4) which requests the transmission of the corresponding push-to-talk voice input as text message to one or more of the called users (22 to 24) and/or user groups, wherein the indication is caused by the activation of a corresponding push-to-talk button at the terminal (31).

6. The method of claim 1,

characterized in

that the method comprises the further steps of:

registering one or more applications (25 to 28) as users of the push-to-talk service;

creating a service request message (92 to 94) containing the content of said text, if one or more called users and/or user groups of the push-to-talk call request are represented by one or more registered applications (25 to 28); and

invoking an application (25 to 27) which represents a called user by means of said service request message (92 to 94).

7. The method of claim 6,

charactetized in

that the method comprises the further steps of:

storing user profile data (63) which contain application interface information of one or more applications (25 to 28) registered as users of the push-to-talk service; and

applying the application interface information of a called application to the creation of an appropriate service request message (92 to 94) adapted to invoke the respective application (25 to 27).

8. The method of claim 6,

characterized in

that the method comprises the further steps of:

storing user profile data (62) which contain user preference data of one or more registered users (21) of the push-to-talk service; and

creating the service request message (92 to 94) based on the content of the text and the user preference data of the calling user.

9. The method of claim 6,

characterized in

that the method comprises the further step of:

selecting an appropriate speech-to-text converter (72 to 74) out of a set of speech-to-text converters (72 to 74) based on user profile data (63) of an application representing a called user, wherein the set to speech-to-text converters comprises different types of speech-to-text converters (72 to 74).

10. A server (4, 6) for providing a push-to-talk service for registered users of the push-to-talk service within a communication network (1), the server (4, 6) comprising a call control unit (43, 64) for establishing an IP based streaming communication channel between a calling terminal (31) and a speech-to-text converter (52 to 54;

72 to 74) based on a push-to-talk call request from the calling terminal (31), the push-to-talk call request requesting the establishment of a half-duplex communication connection to one or more called users (22 to 27) and/or user groups, for controlling the conversion of a push-to-talk voice input transmitted via said communication channel to a text, for creating a message (92 to 94) containing the content of the text, and for transferring the message (92 to 94) to one or more of the called users (22 to 27) or user groups.