Enhanced usage of telephone in noisy surroundings

• US 20070140471A1
• Filed: 01/17/2005
• Published: 06/21/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Gutta, Srinivas
• Application Number:
  US10/586,178
• Publication Number:
  US 20070140471A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/392.10
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0364 for improving intelligibility
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6016 in the receiver circuit
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 19/044 according to the level of ambient noise
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion

Abstract

A method for enhancing a usage of a telephone (100) is provided. The method including: receiving an incoming call; detecting an ambient noise level; and enhancing the incoming call to make it more understandable by a recipient of the incoming call where the detected ambient noise level is greater than a predetermined threshold noise level. The enhancing can include automatically amplifying a loudness of the incoming call to the recipient of the incoming call and/or converting the incoming call to text and displaying the text to the recipient of the incoming call.

Claims

1. A method for enhancing a usage of a telephone (100), the method comprising:

receiving an incoming call;

detecting an ambient noise level; and

enhancing the incoming call to make it more understandable by a recipient of the incoming call where the detected ambient noise level is greater than a predetermined threshold noise level.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the enhancing comprises automatically amplifying a loudness of the incoming call to the recipient of the incoming call.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the enhancing comprises converting the incoming call to text and displaying the text to the recipient of the incoming call.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the enhancing comprises automatically amplifying a loudness of the incoming call to the recipient of the incoming call and converting the incoming call to text and displaying the text to the recipient of the incoming call.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the telephone is a cellular telephone (100).

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising detecting whether a headphones (118) is operatively connected to the telephone (100), wherein the amplifying is only carried out when the headphones are detected as being operatively connected.

7. A telephone (100) comprising:

a receiver (102) for receiving an incoming call;

a noise sensor (120) for detecting an ambient noise level; and

a processor (104) for enhancing the incoming call to make it more understandable by a recipient of the incoming call where the detected ambient noise level is greater than a predetermined threshold noise level.

8. The telephone of claim 7, further comprising a speaker (106) for reproducing the incoming call, wherein the processor (104) automatically amplifies a loudness of the incoming call on the speaker where the detected ambient noise level is greater than the predetermined threshold noise level.

9. The telephone of claim 7, further comprising a display screen (110) for displaying alphanumeric text to the recipient of the incoming call, wherein the processor (104) converts the incoming call to text and displays the text to the recipient of the incoming call where the detected ambient noise level is greater than the predetermined threshold noise level.

10. The telephone of claim 7, further comprising a speaker (106) for reproducing the incoming call and a display screen (110) for displaying alphanumeric text to the recipient of the incoming call, wherein the processor (104) automatically amplifies a loudness of the incoming call on the speaker, converts the incoming call to text, and displays the text to the recipient of the incoming call where the detected ambient noise level is greater than the predetermined threshold noise level.

11. The telephone of claim 7, wherein the telephone is a cellular telephone (100).

12. The telephone of claim 8, wherein the processor (104) further detects whether a headphones (118) is operatively connected to the telephone (100), wherein the processor (104) only amplifies the incoming call on the speaker (106) where the headphones are detected as being operatively connected.

13. A computer program product embodied in a computer-readable medium for enhancing a usage of a telephone (100), the computer program product comprising:

computer readable program code means for receiving an incoming call;

computer readable program code means for detecting an ambient noise level; and

computer readable program code means for enhancing the incoming call to make it more understandable by a recipient of the incoming call where the detected ambient noise level is greater than a predetermined threshold noise level.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer readable program code means for enhancing comprises computer readable program code means for automatically amplifying a loudness of the incoming call to the recipient of the incoming call.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer readable program code means for enhancing comprises computer readable program code means for converting the incoming call to text and displaying the text to the recipient of the incoming call.

16. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for enhancing a usage of a telephone (100), the method comprising:

receiving an incoming call;

detecting an ambient noise level; and

enhancing the incoming call to make it more understandable by a recipient of the incoming call where the detected ambient noise level is greater than a predetermined threshold noise level.

17. The program storage device of claim 16, wherein the enhancing comprises automatically amplifying a loudness of the incoming call to the recipient of the incoming call.

18. The program storage device of claim 16, wherein the enhancing comprises converting the incoming call to text and displaying the text to the recipient of the incoming call.