Telephone messaging and editing system

• US 6,219,638 B1
• Filed: 11/03/1998
• Issued: 04/17/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Roukos, Salim, Nahamoo, David, Padmanabhan, Mukund, Picheny, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Hudspeth, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nolan, Daniel A.
• Application Number:
  US09/185,332
• Time in Patent Office: 896 Days
• Field of Search: 702/270, 702/271, 702/275, 702/277, 702/278, 702/235, 702/251
• US Class Current: 704/235
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/221 Announcement of recognition results
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5307 for recording messages comprising any combination of audio and non-audio components
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53366 Message disposing or creating aspects

Abstract

A messaging system for receiving speech over a telephone and converting the speech to text includes a first server for receiving speech input by a user, a speech recognition system for converting the speech to text, a speech synthesizer for converting the text to speech for playing back the synthesized speech for correction by the user and a correction mechanism for enabling the user to correct the speech such that the corrected speech is provided as text for transmittal over a communication system.

Claims

1. A messaging system for receiving speech and converting the speech to text comprising:

a first server for receiving speech input by a user;

a speech recognition system for converting the speech to text, the speech recognition system adapted to provide diagnostic data to indicate portions of speech input to be corrected;

a speech synthesizer for converting the text to synthesized speech for playing back the synthesized speech for correction by the user; and

a correction mechanism receiving the diagnostic data from the speech recognition system for enabling the user to correct the synthesized speech such that the corrected speech is provided as text for transmittal over a communication system.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the text for transmittal over the communication system includes transmittal to a text reading device.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the correction mechanism prompts the user to select portions of the speech input for correction.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the correction mechanism prompts the user to, re-record portions of the speech input for correction.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, further comprises a language translation server for converting the speech input to text for transmittal over the communication system in a different language.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, further comprises a speaker identification server for identifying the user and for adjusting speech recognition models for speech recognition by the speech recognition server.

21. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the diagnostic data includes confidence information.

7. A method for correcting messages for a universal messaging system comprising the steps of:

recording an audio message;

transcribing the message to text using a speech recognition system including diagnostic data to indicate portions of speech input for correction;

providing speech in accordance with the transcribed text for playing back the message for correction;

identifying portions of the message for correction;

correcting the message by re-recording the identified portion; and

outputting the corrected text over a communication system.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the audio message is recorded by telephone.

9. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the step of identifying portions of the message to be corrected includes the step of listening to the played back message and selecting portions to be corrected.

10. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the step of correcting the message by re-recording identified portions includes the steps of:

re-recording portions of the message;

converting the re-recorded portions to revise the text using the speech recognition server;

playing back speech of the re-recorded portions in accordance with the revised text; and

if acceptable, approving the portions of the message.

11. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprises the step of recording the message in a one of a plurality of languages.

12. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprises the step of outputting the text in a one of a plurality of languages over the communications system.

13. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprises the steps of:

identifying a user associated with speech recognition models; and

applying the models to recognize the audio input of the user.

22. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the diagnostic data includes confidence information.

14. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for providing correction to messages in a universal message system, the method steps comprising:

recording an audio message;

transcribing the message to text using a speech recognition system including diagnostic data to indicate portions of speech input for correction;

providing speech in accordance with the transcribed text for playing back the message for correction;

identifying portions of the message to be corrected;

correcting the message by re-recording the identified portions; and

outputting the corrected text over a communication system.

15. The program storage device as recited in claim 14, wherein the audio message is recorded by telephone.

16. The program storage device as recited in claim 14, wherein the step of identifying portions of the message to be corrected includes the step of listening to the played back message and selecting portions to be corrected.

17. The program storage device as recited in claim 14, wherein the step of correcting the message by re-recorded the identified portions includes the steps of:

re-recording portions of the message;

converting the re-recorded portions to revise the text using the speech recognition server;

playing back speech of the re-recorded portions in accordance with the revised text; and

if acceptable, approving the portions of the message.

18. The method as recited in claim 14, further comprises the step of recording the message in a one of a plurality of languages.

19. The method as recited in claim 14, further comprises the step of outputting the text in a one of a plurality of languages over the communications system.

20. The method as recited in claim 14, further comprises the steps of:

identifying a user associated with speech recognition models; and

applying the models to recognize the audio input of the user.

23. The program storage device recited in claim 14, wherein the diagnostic data includes confidence information.