HAND-HELD COMMUNICATION AID FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH AUDITORY, SPEECH AND VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS

• US 20130079061A1
• Filed: 05/18/2011
• Published: 03/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TATA Consultancy Services Limited (Tata Sons Pvt Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: TATA Consultancy Services Limited (Tata Sons Pvt Ltd.)
• Inventors: Jadhav, Charudatta Vitthal, Jagyasi, Bhusan
• Granted Patent: US 9,111,545 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/563
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/04 Devices for conversing with the deaf-blind
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/06 Transformation of speech into a non-audible representation, e.g. speech visualisation or speech processing for tactile aids G10L15/26 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72475 specially adapted for disabled users
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion

Abstract

The present invention relates to a hand-held communication aid and method that assists the deaf-dumb and visually impaired individuals to communicate with each other and with normal individuals. The method enables deaf-dumb and visually impaired individuals to communicate with each other and with normal individuals on remote communication means without any hardware improvisation. The method enables face to face communication and remote communication aid for deaf-dumb and visually impaired individuals. This method requires no modifications in hand-held communication device used by normal individual.

Claims

1. A hand-held communication aid for facilitating communication of individuals with auditory, speech and visual impairments with normal individuals and individual with auditory, speech and visual impairments, the communication aid comprising:

a communication means facilitating real-time remote communication with other communication devices;

an input means adapted to input a at least one type of message inputs to the said communication means;

a user input fed into the said communication means by first user with at least one impairment including visual, auditory and/or speech impairments, the said first user communicating over a communication link with at least one second user with none or at least one impairment including visual, auditory and/or speech impairments;

a data handler adapted to integrate and disintegrate plurality of data elements during message transmission and reception at the sender and receiver communication means;

a data format converting means adapted to convert at least one data format into at least one another data format during sending and receiving messages through the said communication means;

an artificial intelligence means adapted to generate at least one complete output in at least one data format consistent with at least one input element to data format converting means;

a user personalization means adapted to identify and create at least one individual caller profile on the said communication means; and

an user interface for interactively receiving the messages and acting as a display means.

2. A hand-held communication aid as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said hand-held device is used for assisting/facilitating communication between deaf-dumb individuals, deaf-dumb individuals and normal individuals, deaf-dumb individuals and visually impaired individuals, visually impaired individuals and normal individuals and between two normal individuals.

3. A hand-held communication aid as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said remote hand-held communication means comprises of mobile phone, personal digital assistant, palm-top, mobile digital assistant, and digital wrist watch.

4. A hand-held communication aid as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said input means in the communication means comprises of keypad, stylus, touch screen, camera, Braille keyboard, wherein the input means may be built-in or attached to the communication means.

5. A hand-held communication aid as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said means for converting data format into another data format comprises of a speech synthesis engine, natural language processing engine, artificial intelligence means, an image processing engine, a handwriting recognition engine, and a Braille to text conversion engine.

6. A hand-held communication aid as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said data format converting means converts the inputted speech to text output by means of an Automatic Speech Recognition engine, inputted text to at least one image output by means of an image processing engine associated with a data handler means and inputted text to Braille output by means of a text to Braille converting engine.

7. A hand-held communication aid as claimed in claim 1, wherein personalization means creating at least one user profile on the said communication means, the said profile containing data related to caller'"'"'s speech encoding details.

8. A hand-held communication aid as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said display means comprises of a remote communication means display and Braille display.

9. A hand-held communication aid as claimed in claim 1, the Automated Speech Recognition engine for a caller is trained over a communication link on at least one called remote communication device by means of a reference training document containing plurality of words, the personalization means creating the said caller'"'"'s speech encoding in the caller profile and each caller profile cooperating with thus trained Automatic Speech Recognition engine adapted to recognize the speech of the caller at the user handheld device.

10. A method for facilitating communication of individuals with auditory, speech and visual impairments with normal individuals and individual with auditory, speech and visual impairments, the method comprising the steps of:

feeding a user input into a sender communication means by first user with at least one impairment including visual, auditory and/or speech impairments, the said first user communicating over a communication link with at least one second user with none or at least one impairment including visual, auditory and/or speech impairments having receiver communication means;

training a receiver communication means to create at least one user profile adapted to recognize the user speech encoding;

a sender with one or more impairments selecting at least one input means from the group of keypad, stylus, touch screen, camera and Braille keyboard on a sender communication means;

formalizing selectively an input data format into at least one formalized data format in accordance with the receiving user status, including the user status from the group of one or more impairments of the said user by means of a data formatting option selection means associated with the said sender communication means;

transmitting said formalized data from the sender communication means to at least one remote receiver communication means;

receiving the transmitted data at a receiver communication means;

extracting at least one feature of the received data by means of a data handler adapted to integrate and disintegrate plurality of data elements at the receiver communication means;

invoking at least one user profile trained and stored in a receiver communication means in accordance with the received data format by a personalization means;

formalizing selectively the received data format in accordance with the receiver selection by means of a data formatting option selection means associated with the said receiver communication means; and

generating at least one sensible data output in sequential manner by means of data conversion means and intuitively by means of an associated artificial intelligence module in accordance with the data format selection by the receiver.

11. A system and method substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.