Captioning system
First Claim
1. A captioning system for providing captions for a presentation to a user, the presentation including a wireless acoustic signal, the captioning system comprising:
- a caption store operable to store one or more sets of captions each set being associated with one or more presentations and each set comprising a plurality of captions for playout at different timings during the associated presentation; and
a cellular telephone having;
i) a first receiver configured to receive, from said caption store, at least one set of captions for storage in the cellular telephone or to receive a sequence of captions for a presentation to be made to a user associated with the cellular telephone;
ii) a microphone configured to receive the wireless acoustic signal of the presentation and to generate a corresponding electrical signal;
iii) a synchronizer configured to process the electrical signal obtained from the microphone corresponding to said acoustic signal of said presentation, to determine synchronization information for use in defining the timing during the presentation at which each caption is to be output to the user associated with the cellular telephone;
iv) a caption output operable to output each received caption to the user associated with the cellular telephone; and
v) a timing controller configured to determine the timing during the presentation at which each caption should be output based on the synchronization information determined by said synchronizer and configured to control said caption output so that each caption is output to said user at the determined timing.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A captioning system is provided for providing captions for audio and/or video presentations. The captioning system can be used to provide text captions or audio descriptions of a video presentation. A user device is provided for the captioning system having a receiver operable to receive the captions together with synchronization information and a caption output circuit which is operable to output the captions at the appropriate timings defined by the synchronization information. The user device is preferably a portable hand-held device such as a mobile telephone, PDA or the like.
135 Citations
46 Claims
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1. A captioning system for providing captions for a presentation to a user, the presentation including a wireless acoustic signal, the captioning system comprising:
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a caption store operable to store one or more sets of captions each set being associated with one or more presentations and each set comprising a plurality of captions for playout at different timings during the associated presentation; and a cellular telephone having; i) a first receiver configured to receive, from said caption store, at least one set of captions for storage in the cellular telephone or to receive a sequence of captions for a presentation to be made to a user associated with the cellular telephone; ii) a microphone configured to receive the wireless acoustic signal of the presentation and to generate a corresponding electrical signal; iii) a synchronizer configured to process the electrical signal obtained from the microphone corresponding to said acoustic signal of said presentation, to determine synchronization information for use in defining the timing during the presentation at which each caption is to be output to the user associated with the cellular telephone; iv) a caption output operable to output each received caption to the user associated with the cellular telephone; and v) a timing controller configured to determine the timing during the presentation at which each caption should be output based on the synchronization information determined by said synchronizer and configured to control said caption output so that each caption is output to said user at the determined timing. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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24. A portable cellular telephone for use in a captioning system, the portable cellular telephone comprising:
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i) a first receiver configured to receive, from a caption store, at least one set of captions for storage in the cellular telephone or to receive a sequence of captions for a presentation to be made to a user associated with the cellular telephone; ii) a microphone configured to receive a wireless acoustic signal that forms part of the presentation and to generate a corresponding electrical signal; iii) a synchronizer configured to process the electrical signal obtained from the microphone corresponding to said acoustic signal of said presentation, to determine synchronization information for use in defining the timing during the presentation at which each caption is to be output to the user associated with the cellular telephone; iv) a caption output operable to output each received caption to the user associated with the cellular telephone; and v) a timing controller configured to determine the timing during the presentation at which each caption should be output based on the synchronization information determined by said synchronizer and configured to control said caption output so that each caption is output to said user at the determined timing. - View Dependent Claims (25, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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26. A captioning system for providing captions for a presentation to a user, the presentation including a wireless acoustic signal, the captioning system comprising:
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means for storing one or more sets of captions each set being associated with one or more presentations and each set comprising a plurality of captions for play out at different timings during the associated presentation; and a portable cellular telephone having; i) means for receiving at least one set of captions for storage in the cellular telephone or for receiving a sequence of captions for a presentation to be made to a user associated with the cellular telephone; ii) means for receiving the wireless acoustic signal of the presentation and to generate a corresponding electrical signal; iii) a synchronizer configured to process the electrical signal obtained from the microphone corresponding to said acoustic signal of said presentation, to determine synchronization information for use in defining the timing during the presentation at which each caption is to be output to the user associated with the cellular telephone; iv) means for outputting each received caption to the user associated with the cellular telephone; and v) means for determining the timing during the presentation at which each caption should be output based on the synchronization information determined by said synchronizer and for controlling said output means so that each caption is output to said user at the determined timing.
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46. A method of providing captions for a presentation to a user, the presentation including a wireless acoustic signal and the method comprising:
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storing, at a caption store, one or more sets of captions each being associated with one or more presentations and each comprising a plurality of captions for playout at different timings during the associated presentation; and at a portable cellular telephone; using a first receiver to receive, from said caption store, at least one set of captions for storage in the cellular telephone or to receive a sequence of captions for a presentation to be made to an associated user; using a microphone to receive the wireless acoustic signal of the presentation and to generate a corresponding electrical signal; processing the electrical signal obtained from the microphone corresponding to said acoustic signal of said presentation, to determine synchronization information for use in defining the timing during the presentation at which each caption is to be output to the user; outputting the captions to the associated user; and determining the timing during the presentation at which each caption should be output based on the determined synchronization information and controlling the outputting step so that each caption is output to the user at the determined timing.
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Specification