Translating emotion to braille, emoticons and other special symbols

• US 7,607,097 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2003
• Issued: 10/20/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ullmannn, Cristi Nesbitt, Janakiraman, Janani
• Primary Examiner(s): Theriault; Steven B
• Application Number:
  US10/671,081
• Publication Number:
  US 20050069852A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,217 Days
• Field of Search: 434/236, 709/250, 709/238, 715/753, 715/763, 715/758, 715/759, 704/277
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/003 using tactile presentation of the information, e.g. Braille displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2474 Telephone terminals specially adapted for disabled people user interfaces for cordless or mobile telephones specially adapted for disabled users H04M1/72475; network based special services or facilities for hearing-impaired persons H04M3/42391; devices for conversing with the deaf-blind G09B21/04

Abstract

A method for incorporating emotional information in a communication stream by receiving an emotional state indicator indicating an emotional state of a presenter in a communication session, retrieving a cultural profile for the presenter, retrieving a plurality of cultural profiles corresponding to each of several recipients in the communication session, for each recipient, translating the emotional state indicator into a corresponding emoticon according to a difference between the cultural profile of the presenter and the cultural profile of each recipient, merging the translated emoticon into a copy of the communication session, and presenting communication session and merged translated emoticon to each recipient.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising the steps of:

receiving an emotional state indicator output from automatic emotional content analysis of a communication session, said emotional state indicator indicating an emotional state of a presenter of said communication session;

retrieving a cultural profile for said presenter;

retrieving a plurality of cultural profiles corresponding to each of a plurality of recipients to which said communication session is directed;

for each recipient to which said communication session is directed;

translating said emotional state indicator into a corresponding emoticon according to a difference between said cultural profile of said presenter and said cultural profile of said recipient;

merging said translated emoticon into a copy of said communication session; and

presenting said communication session and merged translated emoticon to said recipient.

2. The computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said receiving output of emotional content analysis comprises receiving the results of a process selected from group consisting of a hand gesture recognizer, a body movement recognizer, a voice pitch analyzer, and a facial expression recognizer.

3. The computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said translating comprises generating an electronic symbol selected from the a group consisting of a text-based emoticon, a graphical emoticon, a text highlight method, a text size change, a text underlining method, a text bolding method, one or more signals for a Telephone Terminal for the Deaf system, and a Braille code.