Telecommunications relay service method and apparatus
First Claim
1. A method for use in a system for processing communication sessions over a telephone network between sound impaired and unimpaired persons, during which at least one live attendant transcribes and transmits to the sound impaired person that which is spoken by the unimpaired person and an automated text-to-speech system converts into speech to be heard by the unimpaired person that which is input by the sound impaired person, said at least one live attendant being free to perform other tasks during said text-to-speech conversion, said method characterized by buffering that which is spoken by the unimpaired person from at least the time of completion of a text-to-speech conversion by said text-to-speech system until an assignment, at some time thereafter, of said at least one live attendant for transcribing and transmitting to said sound impaired person that which is spoken by said unimpaired person.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In a telecommunications relay system employing automated text-to-speech for conversion of a text message entered by a sound impaired person, the delay between the completion of the automated text-to-speech conversion and the assignment of a live shared attendant for transcribing and transmitting that which the unimpaired person says is eliminated by completing the text-to-speech conversion for each text message and its associated end-of-message code word without the introduction of any delay and, immediately thereafter, accepting and storing the unimpaired person'"'"'s speech into a voice buffer at least until a live attendant is assigned to the relay session. When an attendant is eventually assigned to the call, the attendant retrieves the speech stored in the buffer. Should the assigned live attendant transcribe all of the speech that was stored in the buffer, which may include speech after the attendant'"'"'s assignment to the call, the live attendant may be linked to the unimpaired party to continue the speech to text transcription such that the buffer introduces essentially no delay in the transmission of the speech to the live attendant.
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Citations
21 Claims
- 1. A method for use in a system for processing communication sessions over a telephone network between sound impaired and unimpaired persons, during which at least one live attendant transcribes and transmits to the sound impaired person that which is spoken by the unimpaired person and an automated text-to-speech system converts into speech to be heard by the unimpaired person that which is input by the sound impaired person, said at least one live attendant being free to perform other tasks during said text-to-speech conversion, said method characterized by buffering that which is spoken by the unimpaired person from at least the time of completion of a text-to-speech conversion by said text-to-speech system until an assignment, at some time thereafter, of said at least one live attendant for transcribing and transmitting to said sound impaired person that which is spoken by said unimpaired person.
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4. Apparatus for use in a system for providing telecommunications relay service in which an automated text-to-speech system converts into speech to be heard by a sound unimpaired person that which is input by a sound impaired person, said apparatus including:
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means for detecting when said sound impaired person is finished inputting; and means for buffering, from the time that the sound impaired person finished inputting until at least the time at which a live attendant is next assigned to a call for transcribing and transmitting to said sound impaired person, speech that is spoken by said unimpaired person. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for use in a system of the type in which a sound impaired and an unimpaired person can engage in a communication session over a telephone network by alternating seriatim between first and second phases, wherein a) in said first phase, said sound impaired person inputs via a terminal that which he wishes to communicate to said unimpaired person and an automated text-to-speech system causes an audible representation of said input to be supplied to said unimpaired person, said unimpaired person thereafter waits until a live attendant is assigned to said communication session so that said second phase can begin and, b) in said second phase, said unimpaired person speaks to said live attendant that which he wishes to communicate to said sound impaired person and said live attendant transcribes and transmits to said terminal that which was spoken by said unimpaired person so that said sound impaired person can perceive that which was transmitted, the method comprising:
storing in a buffer, representations of any speech received from said unimpaired person immediately after completion of said first phase at least until the time that said live attendant is assigned to said session so that said second phase substantially immediately follows said first phase without any waiting for said live attendant to be assigned to said communication session. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method for use in a telecommunications relay system comprising the steps of:
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a. receiving text transmitted from a data-type terminal; b. automatically converting said text into speech; c. detecting in said text an end of message indicator; d. storing a representation of speech received from a telephone station set in a buffer, said storing beginning in response to said detection of said end of message indicator; e. supplying the contents of said buffer as an output to be heard as speech by an attendant; and f. transmitting, to said data-type terminal, text transcribed by said attendant, said transcription being based on the output of said buffer as heard by said attendant. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification