Methods and systems for managing telecommunications and for translating voice messages to text messages

• US 8,688,092 B1
• Filed: 05/20/2013
• Issued: 04/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: CallWave Communications, LLC
• Original Assignee: CallWave Communications, LLC
• Inventors: Bladon, Anthony, Giannini, David, Hofstatter, David Frank, Kelley, Colin, McClintock, David C., Smith, Robert F., Trandal, David S., Kirchhoff, Leland W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gonzalez, Amancio
• Application Number:
  US13/898,001
• Time in Patent Office: 316 Days
• Field of Search: 455/414.4, 370/300, 379/71, 379/80, 379/85, 379/88, 379/88.22, 379/88.25, 379/88.26, 704/200, 704/201, 704/251
• US Class Current: 455/414.4
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/088 Word spotting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/063 Content adaptation, e.g. replacement of unsuitable content
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72433 for voice messaging, e.g. dictaphones for answering incoming calls H04M1/64
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4536 Voicemail combined with text-based messaging
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/554 Data synchronization
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/12 intelligent networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/203 composed of PSTN and data network, e.g. the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42382 Text-based messaging services in telephone networks such as PSTN/ISDN, e.g. User-to-User Signalling or Short Message Service for fixed networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/533 Voice mail systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53341 Message reply
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5335 Message type or catagory, e.g. priority, indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0012 Details of application programming interfaces [API] for telephone networks; Arrangements which combine a telephonic communication equipment and a computer, i.e. computer telephony integration [CPI] arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Systems and methods that can be utilized to convert a voice communication received over a telecommunication network to text are described. In an illustrative embodiment, a call processing system coupled to a telecommunications network receives a call from a caller intended for a first party, wherein the call is associated with call signaling information. At least a portion of the call signaling information is stored in a computer readable medium. A greeting is played the caller, and a voice communication from the caller is recorded. At least a portion of the voice communication is converted to text, which is analyzed to identify portions that are inferred to be relatively more important to communicate to the first party. A text communication is generated including at least some of the identified portions and including fewer words than the recorded voice communication. At least a portion of the text communication is made available to the first party over a data network.

Claims

1. A method of processing a voice communication and enabling a first user to share information with other users, comprising:

receiving, at an application software program installed on a mobile device associated with the first user, a voice communication including a plurality of spoken words from the first user;

converting some or all of the voice communication received at the application program installed on the mobile device associated with the first user to text using at least in part a speech-to-text recognizer;

identifying and selecting a voice communication gist from the translated text so as to be sufficiently concise to be transmittable via a single Short Message Service (SMS) message based at least in part on;

an identification of one or more words in the translated text that correspond to respective one or more words in a vocabulary of uncommon words that are uncommon in voice communications, and

a permitted length of the single SMS message; and

automatically posting, by a processing system, the voice communication gist on a social networking web page,

wherein the social networking web page is configured to share first user information posted on the social networking web page with others.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the single SMS message is 140 characters or less.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, the method further comprising:

detecting that the first user is speaking in such a manner as to interfere with an acceptable conversion of the voice communication to text; and

playing a message to the first user, the message requesting the first user change the first user'"'"'s speaking manner.

4. The method as defined in claim 1, the method further comprising:

detecting at least a word or segment of the voice communication which the speech-to-text recognizer is unable to convert to text with a sufficient accuracy to satisfy a first criterion;

playing the detected word or voice segment back to the first user; and

requesting the first user repeat the word, voice segment, or the entire voice communication.

5. The method as defined in claim 1, the method further comprising:

converting the voice communication gist to speech;

playing the speech to the first user; and

requesting the first user indicate if the speech has one or more errors.

6. The method as defined in claim 1, the method further comprising identifying one or more of the following:

a pause in the voice communication;

a clause initial conjunction;

or

a hesitation word.

7. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

identifying text matches by comparing the text to a vocabulary of words and/or phrases that are indicative of relatively more important information; and

including at least a portion of the matched text in the voice communication gist.

8. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the voice communication gist is sized to be transmittable via a single SMS message at least in part by:

converting a word and/or phrase into an abbreviation;

converting a word and/or phrase using non-standard spelling;

converting a cardinal and/or ordinal numbers to a digit representation;

or

converting a spoken address into a representation suitable for being used as an email address.

9. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the voice communication is translated to text at least in part by using a context and/or location of a word or phrase to resolve translation ambiguities.

10. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising providing a user interface configured to receive an indication from the first user regarding the quality of the conversion of the voice communication to text.

11. A method of processing a voice communication and enabling a first user to share information with other users, comprising:

receiving, at an application software program installed on a mobile device associated with a first user, a voice communication including a plurality of spoken words from the first user;

converting some or all of the voice communication received at the application program installed on the mobile device associated with the first user to text using at least in part a speech-to-text recognizer;

identifying a voice communication gist from the translated text wherein the identification is based at least in part on;

an identification of one or more words in the translated text that correspond to respective one or more words in a vocabulary of uncommon words that are uncommon in voice communications;

providing the voice communication gist for transmission via a Short Messaging Service (SMS); and

automatically posting, by a processing system, the voice communication gist on a social networking web page,

wherein the social networking web page is configured to share first user information posted on the social networking web page with others.

12. The method as defined in claim 11, the method further comprising:

detecting that the first user is speaking in such a manner as to interfere with an acceptable conversion of the voice communication to text; and

playing a message to the first user, the message requesting the first user change the first user'"'"'s speaking manner.

13. The method as defined in claim 11, the method further comprising:

detecting at least a word or segment of the voice communication which the speech-to-text recognizer is unable to convert to text with a sufficient accuracy to satisfy a first criterion;

playing the detected word or voice segment back to the first user; and

requesting the first user repeat the word, voice segment, or the entire voice communication.

14. The method as defined in claim 11, the method further comprising:

converting the voice communication gist to speech;

playing the speech to the first user; and

requesting the first user indicate if the speech has one or more errors.

15. The method as defined in claim 11, the method further comprising identifying one or more of the following:

a pause in the voice communication;

a clause initial conjunction;

or

a hesitation word.

16. The method as defined in claim 11, further comprising:

identifying text matches by comparing the text to a vocabulary of words and/or phrases that are indicative of relatively more important information; and

including at least a portion of the matched text in the gist.

17. The method as defined in claim 11, wherein the voice communication gist provided for transmission includes at least one of the following conversions:

converting a word and/or phrase into an abbreviation;

converting a word and/or phrase using non-standard spelling;

converting a cardinal and/or ordinal numbers to a digit representation;

or

converting a spoken address into a representation suitable for being used as an email address.

18. The method as defined in claim 11, wherein voice communication is translated to text at least in part by using a context and/or location of a word or phrase to resolve translation ambiguities.

19. The method as defined in claim 11, further comprising providing a user interface configured to receive an indication from the first user regarding the quality of the conversion of the voice communication to text.

20. A system comprising:

at least one computer processor;

a non-transitory memory embodied with a computer program comprising instructions which when executed by the at least one computer processor performs operations comprising;

receiving, at an application software program installed on a mobile device associated with the first user, a voice communication including a plurality of spoken words from the first user;

converting some or all of the voice communication received at the application program installed on the mobile device associated with the first user to text using at least in part a speech-to-text recognizer;

identifying and selecting a voice communication gist from the translated text so as to be sufficiently concise to be transmittable via a single Short Message Service (SMS) message based at least in part on;

an identification of one or more words in the translated text that correspond to respective one or more words in a vocabulary of uncommon words that are uncommon in voice communications, and

a permitted length of the single SMS message; and

automatically posting the voice communication gist on a social networking web page,

wherein the social networking web page is configured to share first user information posted on the social networking web page with others.