Method and voice communicator to provide a voice communication

• US 20070081639A1
• Filed: 09/28/2005
• Published: 04/12/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jain, Mukul, Kumar, Sanjeev, Patel, Labhesh, Shaffer, Shmuel
• Granted Patent: US 8,077,838 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/88.140
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2535 adapted for voice communication over an Internet Protocol [IP] network Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network equipment and services H04M7/006; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72433 for voice messaging, e.g. dictaphones for answering incoming calls H04M1/64
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72475 specially adapted for disabled users
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/39 using speech synthesis speech synthesis per se G10L13/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/533 Voice mail systems

Abstract

A method and voice communicator to provide a voice communication is described. The method may include identifying text to be communicated and automatically processing the text to generate an audio equivalent of the text. For example, the text may be scraped from a web page. The method may include identifying an intended recipient of the audio equivalent and thereafter communicating the audio equivalent as a telephone communication (e.g., a voice mail message in a voice mailbox). Thus, identifying the intended recipient may include requesting a telephone number of a sender (caller) of the voice communication. In an embodiment, the method comprises monitoring selection by a user of a contact list available on the voice communicator wherein the contact list includes a plurality of recipient names and their associated telephone numbers. The audio equivalent is communicated to the recipient device over, for example, PSTN or VoIP network.

Claims

1. A method of providing a voice communication, the method comprising:

at a voice communicator, identifying text to be communicated;

automatically processing the text to generate an audio equivalent of the text;

identifying an intended recipient of the audio equivalent; and

communicating the audio equivalent as a telephone communication.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the intended recipient comprises requesting a telephone number of the intended recipient from a sender using the voice communicator.

3. The method of claim 2, which comprises:

monitoring selection by a user of a contact list available on the voice communicator, the contact list including a plurality of recipient names and their associated telephone numbers;

monitoring selection of at least one recipient name from the plurality of recipient names;

establishing a telephone connection with a recipient device using a telephone number associated with the selected recipient; and

communicating the audio equivalent to the recipient device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the telephone communication is a voice communication via one of a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) environment and the voice communicator is a telephone.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically processing comprises providing the text to a Text-To-Speech engine executing on the voice communicator.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating the audio equivalent as a telephone communication comprises communicating the audio equivalent to a software telephone application, the software telephone application communicating the audio equivalent using VoIP.

7. The method of claim 6, which includes automatically importing the text into the software telephone application from a text rendering application.

8. The method of claim 1, which comprises communicating identified text between a software telephone application and a text rendering application.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the software telephone application and the text rendering application are integrated within the voice communicator.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the text rendering application is selected from the group consisting of web browser, an email client, and a document editing application.

11. The method of claim 8, which comprises:

identifying at least a portion of text highlighted by a user in the text rendering application; and

allowing a user to drag and drop the highlighted text into the software telephone application thereby to import the text.

12. The method of claim 8, which comprises:

identifying at least a portion of text highlighted by a user in the text rendering application; and

allowing a user to cut and paste the highlighted text into the software telephone application thereby to import the text.

13. The method of claim 1, which comprises:

providing a sender with a message interface to enter a textual message;

converting the textual message to an equivalent audio message; and

communicating the equivalent audio message together with the audio equivalent of the text to the recipient, the equivalent audio message to be communicated to a recipient prior to the audio equivalent of the text.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the audio equivalent of the text is sent to a voice mailbox of the intended recipient.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the voice communicator forms part of a text rendering application.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the text rendering client delivers the audio equivalent directly to a messaging system of the recipient.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the text rendering client delivers the audio equivalent of AMIS or X.400 standards.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein voice communicator comprises an audio driver capable to initiate VoIP or PSTN calls, the audio driver being fully integrated within an Operating System (OS) of a computer device.

19. A machine-readable medium embodying instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform the method of claim 1.

20. A voice communicator comprising:

a communication module for voice communication with at least telephone device;

an application interface to receive text to be communicated; and

a processing module to automatically process the text to generate an audio equivalent of the text, the audio equivalent being for communication as a voice communication to an intended recipient via the communication module.

21. The voice communicator of claim 20, wherein a telephone number of the intended recipient is requested from a sender of the voice communication.

22. The voice communicator of claim 21, wherein the device:

monitors selection by a user of a contact list available on the voice communicator, the contact list including a plurality of recipient names and their associated telephone numbers;

monitors selection of at least one recipient name from the plurality of recipient names;

establishes a telephone connection with the at least one telephone device using a telephone number associated with the selected recipient; and

communicates the audio equivalent to the at least one telephone device.

23. The voice communicator of claim 20, wherein the telephone communication is via one of a Public Switched Telephone Network and a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) environment.

24. The voice communicator of claim 20, wherein voice communicator comprises a software telephone application and the communication module is a VoIP communication module.

25. The voice communicator of claim 24, which comprises automatically communicating the text into the software telephone application from a text rendering application.

26. The voice communicator of claim 25, wherein the software telephone application and text rendering application are integrated within the voice communicator.

27. The voice communicator of claim 24, wherein the processing module:

identifies text highlighted in the text rendering application by a user; and

facilitates a user to drag and drop the highlighted text into the software telephone application thereby to import the text.

28. The voice communicator of claim 24, wherein the processing module:

identifies text highlighted in the text rendering application by a user; and

allows a user to cut and paste the highlighted text into the software telephone application thereby to import the text.

29. The voice communicator of claim 20, which comprises a graphical user interface to provide a sender with a message interface to enter a textual message, the processor being to convert the textual message to an equivalent audio message, and the communication module being to communicate the audio message together with the audio equivalent, the equivalent audio message to be communicated to a recipient prior to the audio equivalent.

30. A voice communicator to provide a voice communication, the voice communicator comprising:

means for identifying text to be communicated;

means for automatically processing the text to generate an audio equivalent of the text;

means for identifying an intended recipient of the audio equivalent; and

means for communicating the audio equivalent as a telephone communication.