SYNTHESIZED AUDIO MESSAGE OVER COMMUNICATION LINKS

• US 20110111805A1
• Filed: 11/06/2009
• Published: 05/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Lindahl, Aram M., Paquier, Baptiste P., Tamchina, Phillip G.
• Application Number:
  US12/613,636
• Publication Number:
  US 20110111805A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/563
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02087 the noise being separate speech, e.g. cocktail party
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0216 characterised by the method used for estimating noise
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4536 Voicemail combined with text-based messaging
• 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

Abstract

A communication device establishes an audio connection with a far-end user via a communication network. The communication device receives text input from a near-end user, and converts the text input into speech signals. The speech signals are transmitted to the far-end user using the established audio connection while muting audio input to its microphone. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method of a communication device, the method comprising:

establishing an audio connection between a near-end user of the communication device and a far-end user via a communication network;

receiving text input from the near-end user and converting the text input into speech signals; and

transmitting the speech signals to the far-end user using the audio connection while muting audio input to the communication device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a noise level in the audio input to the communication device; and

in response to the noise level exceeding a threshold, causing one of activation of and a recommendation to activate text-to-speech conversion.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said detecting a noise level comprises:

detecting the noise level based on a combination of signal to noise ratio, noise volume and combined signal and noise volume.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

detecting the noise level as below the threshold after the text-to-speech conversion is activated; and

in response to the noise level below the threshold, deactivating the text-to-speech conversion.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a noise level in the audio input to the communication device; and

in response to the noise level exceeding a threshold, causing one of activation of and a recommendation to activate speech-to-text conversion to convert voice of the far-end user into text.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

activating speech-to-text conversion after establishment of the audio connection between the near-end user and the far-end user;

converting voice of the far-end user transmitted over the audio connection into text; and

displaying the text on a display of the communication device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication device is a mobile phone.

8. A communication device, comprising:

a microphone;

a processor coupled to the microphone to detect a noise level and to determine whether the noise level exceeds a threshold; and

a communication network interface to transmit an audio signal to a far-end user using an audio connection that has been established between a near-end user and the far-end user via a communication network, wherein the processor is to cause audio input from the microphone to be muted when the noise level is above the threshold and while the audio signal conveys a message of the near-end user that is generated internally by the communication device.

9. The communication device of claim 8, further comprising:

a text-to-speech converter to convert text input of the near-end user into the message that is conveyed by the audio signal.

10. The communication device of claim 8, further comprising:

a speech-to-text converter to convert voice of the far-end user transmitted over the audio connection into text; and

a display screen to show the text to the near-end user.

11. The communication device of claim 8, further comprising:

a user interface to enable the near-end user of the communication device to activate text-to-speech conversion of a text message one of selected and written by the near-end user for conveyance to the far-end user over the audio connection.

12. The communication device of claim 8, further comprising:

a user interface to enable the near-end user of the communication device to playback a pre-recorded message stored in memory for conveyance to the far-end user over the audio connection.

13. The communication device of claim 8, wherein the display screen is enabled to show a noise meter that indicates to the near-end user the noise level in the environment.

14. The communication device of claim 8, wherein communication device is portable.

15. The communication device of claim 8, wherein communication device is a mobile phone.

16. An article of manufacture comprising:

machine-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions that when executed cause a communication device to;

establish an audio connection between a near-end user of the communication device and a far-end user via a communication network,

indicate audio noise level of an environment surrounding the communication device,

in response to a detected noise level, generate an audio signal that conveys a message of the near-end user, and

transmit the audio signal to the far-end user using the audio connection while muting audio input to the communication device.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the instructions further cause the communication device to:

automatically activate text-to-speech conversion when the detected noise level exceeds a threshold; and

prompt the near-end user to enter text input.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the instructions further program the communication device to:

enable the near-end user to activate text-to-speech conversion independently of the detected noise level.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the instructions further program the communication device to:

activate speech-to-text conversion to convert voice of the far-end user into text for display on the communication device.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the instructions further program the communication device to:

playback a pre-recorded message for conveyance to the far-end user over the audio connection.