Arrangement for Creating and Using a Phonetic-Alphabet Representation of a Name of a Party to a Call

• US 20090248421A1
• Filed: 03/31/2008
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arlington Technologies, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Wrobel, Charles, Michaelis, Paul Roller, Mohler, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,484,034 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/276
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/578 associated with a synthesized vocal announcement
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/39 using speech synthesis
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2061 Language aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42042 Notifying the called party of information on the calling party details within substation equipment H04M1/57, signalling details H04Q3/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42

Abstract

A first party creates and edits a phonetic-alphabet representation of its name. The phonetic representation is conveyed to a second party as “caller-identification” information by messages that set up a call between the parties. The phonetic representation of the name is displayed to the second party, converted to speech, and/or converted to an alphabet of a language of the second party and then displayed to the second party.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

(a) receiving information expressed in a non-phonetic alphabet form;

(b) converting by a computer the non-phonetic alphabet form into a phonetic alphabet form;

(c) displaying the information in the phonetic-alphabet form;

(d) converting by the computer the information from the phonetic-alphabet form into speech;

(e) presenting an interface for editing the phonetic-alphabet form of the information;

(f) in response to a user editing the phonetic-alphabet form of the information, displaying the information in the edited phonetic-alphabet form; and

(g) further in response to the user editing the phonetic-alphabet form of the information, converting by the computer the information from the edited phonetic-alphabet form into speech.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

repeating steps (f)-(g); and

storing a last-edited said edited phonetic-alphabet form of the information.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

using the edited phonetic-alphabet form of the information in setting up a call.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the information comprises a name of the user.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the information comprises a name of the user, and

the method of further comprises

repeating steps (f)-(g), and

using an edited said phonetic-alphabet form of the information in setting up a call between the user and another party.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing said edited phonetic-alphabet form of the information;

setting up a call between the user and a second party; and

conveying the stored information to the second party.

17. A computer-readable medium containing instructions which, when executed by the computer, perform the method of one of claims 1-16.

7. A method comprising:

storing information expressed in a phonetic-alphabet form;

setting up a call between a first party and a second party; and

conveying the information expressed in the phonetic-alphabet form from the first party to the second party.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein:

the information comprises a name of the first party.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein:

conveying comprises

presenting the name to the second party.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein:

presenting comprises

displaying the name in the phonetic-alphabet form to the second party.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein:

presenting comprises

converting by computer the name in the phonetic-alphabet form into speech to the second party.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein:

presenting comprises

converting the information from the phonetic-alphabet form into an alphabet of a language of the second party; and

displaying the name in the alphabet of the language of the second party to the second party.

13. The method of claim 7 wherein:

setting up a call comprises

setting up a call via signaling messages of a first communications protocol; and

conveying comprises

conveying the information expressed in the phonetic-alphabet form via a signaling message of the first communications protocol.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein:

the communications protocol comprises a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), and the information expressed in the phonetic-alphabet form is conveyed in at least one of a “

From”

, “

Contact” and

a “

P-Asserted-Identify”

header field of a SIP message.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein:

the communications protocol comprises QSIG, and the information expressed in the phonetic-alphabet form is conveyed in at least one of a “

Name2”

or a manufacturer specification interface (MSI) field of a QSIG message.

16. The method of claim 7 wherein:

the step of storing comprises

(a) receiving information expressed in a non-phonetic alphabet form;

(b) converting by a computer the non-phonetic alphabet form into a phonetic alphabet form;

(c) displaying the information in the phonetic-alphabet form;

(d) converting by the computer the information from the phonetic-alphabet form into speech;

(e) presenting an interface for editing the phonetic-alphabet form of the information;

(f) in response to a user editing the phonetic-alphabet form of the information, displaying the information in the edited phonetic-alphabet form;

(g) further in response to the user editing the phonetic-alphabet form of the information, converting by the computer the information from the edited phonetic-alphabet form into speech; and

(h) storing the information in the edited phonetic-alphabet form.

18. An apparatus comprising:

an interface for receiving information expressed in a non-phonetic alphabet form, and for editing a phonetic-alphabet form of the information;

a display for displaying the phonetic-alphabet form of the information, and responsive to the phonetic-alphabet form being edited, for displaying said phonetic-alphabet form of the information;

a text-to-speech engine for converting the information expressed in the non-phonetic alphabet form into the phonetic-alphabet form, for converting the information from the phonetic-alphabet form into speech, and responsive to the phonetic-alphabet form being edited, for converting the information from the edited phonetic-alphabet form into speech.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 further comprising:

storage for storing the edited phonetic-alphabet form of the information.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein:

the information comprises a name of a party to a call.

21. An apparatus comprising:

means for storaging information expressed in a phonetic-alphabet form;

means for setting up a call between a first party and a second party; and

means for transmitting the stored information expressed in the phonetic-alphabet form to the second party during call set-up.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein:

the information comprises a name of the first party.

23. An apparatus comprising:

means for setting up a call between a first party and a second party;

means for receiving information expressed in a phonetic-alphabet form from the first party; and

means for presenting the information expressed in the phonetic-alphabet form to the second party.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein:

the information comprises a name of the first party.

25. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein:

the means for presenting comprises

a display screen for displaying the phonetic-alphabet form of the information to the second party.

26. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein:

the means for presenting comprises

a text-to-speech conversion engine for converting the information from the phonetic-alphabet form into speech.

27. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein:

the means for presenting comprises

means for converting the information from the phonetic-alphabet form into a non-phonetic alphabet of a language of the second party, and

a display screen for displaying the non-phonetic alphabet form of the information to the second party.