TRANSMISSION OF TEXT MESSAGES BY NAVIGATION SYSTEMS

• US 20080133230A1
• Filed: 07/10/2007
• Published: 06/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Herforth, Mirko
• Granted Patent: US 9,476,718 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/235
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails

Abstract

A vehicle navigation system may send and receive communications, such as text messages. Speech recognition may generate a text message without affecting a driver'"'"'s control of the vehicle. A user may audibly control the navigation system and generate a text message through a speech recognition element. A microphone may record a user'"'"'s voice, which is then transformed into a text message for transmission. The message may be recorded sentence-by-sentence, word-by-word, or letter-by-letter. The recorded text message may be visually or audibly presented to the user before transmission.

Claims

1. A vehicle navigation system that generates a text message comprising:

an input configured to receive a speech signal corresponding to the text message;

a speech recognizer in communication with the input and configured to analyze the speech signal and recognize text of the speech signal;

a speech database in communication with the speech recognizer that provides the speech recognizer with samples of recognized digital speech for recognizing the text of the speech signal;

a message generator in communication with the speech recognizer that generates the text message based on the text of the speech signal recognized by the speech recognizer; and

a transmitter in communication with the message generator and configured to transmit the text message over a network.

2. The vehicle navigation system of claim 1 where the input comprises at least one microphone configured to detect the speech signal.

3. The vehicle navigation system of claim 1 where the text message is transmitted as a short messaging service message, an enhanced messaging service message, or a multimedia messaging service message where the network is configured to transmit at least one of the short messaging service message, the enhanced messaging service message, or the multimedia messaging service message.

4. The vehicle navigation system of claim 1 where the text message is transmitted as an email.

5. The vehicle navigation system of claim 1 where the network comprises at least one of a cellular network, a local area network, a radio network, or a wireless network.

6. The vehicle navigation system of claim 1 further comprising an output in communication with the message generator that audibly plays the text message on speakers or present the text message on a display for verification.

7. The vehicle navigation system of claim 6 further comprising a receiver in communication with the network for receiving communications, where the communications are presented by the output.

8. The vehicle navigation system of claim 1 where the speech recognizer further comprises:

a receiver configured to receive the speech signal;

a parser in communication with the receiver and configured to parse the speech signal; and

a comparator in communication with the parser and in communication with the speech database and configured to compare the parsed speech signal with the samples of recognized digital speech for recognizing the text of the speech signal.

9. The vehicle navigation system of claim 8 where the parser parses the speech signal by a letter-by-letter basis, a word-by-word basis, or a sentence-by-sentence basis.

10. The vehicle navigation system of claim 1 where the speech signal comprises a recipient for the text message, further where the text message is transmitted to the recipient over the network.

11. The vehicle navigation system of claim 1 further comprising a multimedia database in communication with the message generator that provides at least one of an image, audio, or video to be included with the text message.

12. The vehicle navigation system of claim 11 where the at least one of an image, audio, or video is attached to the text message or embedded within the text message.

13. A method for transmitting a text message with a navigation system comprising:

activating an input for receiving a speech signal;

detecting the speech signal by the input;

recognizing the speech signal by comparing the speech signal with sample signals stored in a speech database;

generating the text message comprising text from the recognized speech signal;

outputting the text message for verification; and

transmitting the text message upon verification.

14. The method of claim 13 where the recognizing comprises comparing the speech signal on at least one of a letter-by-letter basis, a word-by-word basis, or a sentence-by-sentence basis with the sample signals stored in the speech database.

15. The method of claim 14 where the recognizing further comprises:

evaluating the recognized speech signal by a score; and

repeating the recognizing of the speech signal on another one of the letter-by-letter basis, the word-by-word basis, and the sentence-by-sentence basis when the score falls below a predetermined threshold.

16. The method of claim 13 where the input for receiving the speech signal comprises a microphone.

17. The method of claim 16 where the detecting comprises detecting an audio output from a user with the microphone and digitizing the audio output into the speech signal.

18. The method of claim 13 where outputting the text message for verification further comprises:

displaying at least part of the text message on a display or outputting a synthesized speech signal based on the text message and prompting a user of the navigation system to acknowledge the text message displayed on the display or the output synthesized speech signal; and

where

the text message is transmitted by the navigation system in response to a predetermined input from the user in response to the displayed text message or the output synthesized speech signal.

19. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

providing navigation directions; and

displaying a map including the navigation directions.

20. The method of claim 13 where the text message is transmitted as a short messaging service (SMS) message, an enhanced messaging service (EMS) message, or a multimedia messaging service (MMS) message, where the network is configured to transmit at least one of the SMS, EMS or MMS messages.

21. A method for receiving a text message at a navigation system comprising:

receiving notification of the text message at the navigation system;

notifying the user of the navigation system of the text message;

prompting the user for instructions regarding handling of the text message;

detecting a speech input from the user, where the speech input comprises the instructions regarding the handling and presentation of the text message;

recognizing the speech input from the user to determine how to handle and present the text message; and

outputting the text message to the user corresponding to the instructions for the presentation of the text message.

22. The method of claim 21 where the instructions from the user comprise audibly presenting the text of the text message.

23. The method of claim 22 comprising audibly speaking text of the text message on speakers in the vehicle.

24. The method of claim 21 where the instructions from the user comprise visually presenting the text of the text message.

25. The method of claim 24 comprising displaying the text message on a display of the navigation system.

26. The method of claim 21 further comprising:

receiving a verbal request for replying to the text message;

generating a response text message by recognizing a speech input from the user which is transformed into text of the response text message; and

sending the response text message to the sender of the text message.

27. The method of claim 21 where the text message is transmitted as at least one of a short messaging service (SMS) message, an enhanced messaging service (EMS) message, or a multimedia messaging service (MMS) message where the network is configured to transmit at least one of the SMS, EMS or MMS messages.

28. The method of claim 21 further comprising:

providing navigation directions; and

displaying a map including the navigation directions.