Display accessory for a record playback system
First Claim
1. An accessory for a sound recording and playback system comprising:
- a visible display;
speech recording means coupled to said system for sequentially recording spoken messages to be audibly reproduced by said system, each recording produced by said recording means having a discrete starting point;
means interfacing between said system, said recording means, and said display for generating a chart of playback time on said display, said chart indicating time elapsed relative to said starting point during audible reproduction of a recording stored by said recording means;
speaker-independent speech recognition means coupled to said system for detecting occurrences of predetermined audible expressions during audible reproduction of a recording stored by said recording means;
said predetermined expressions constituting components of a limited vocabulary of N different expressions;
where N is a number greater than 2 but substantially less than the number of different expressions recordable by said recording means; and
means interfacing between said speech recognition means and said display for superimposing symbols on said time chart, said symbols representing respective said predetermined expressions detected by said speech recognition means and indicating times of occurrences of respective said expressions by their positions on said chart relative to an indication of the said starting point of a respective recording.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A record playback system includes a display showing elapsed time of a record playback operation together with symbols indicating occurrences of certain sequences of sound during the playback operation, the symbols positioned to indicate times at which respective sequences of sounds occur. In a preferred application, the records reproduced in the system are audible voice-mail messages, the specific sequences of sounds are numbers or sets of numbers spoken consecutively during the message, and the symbols representing such numbers are printed characters corresponding to respective numbers. In the preferred application, the messages are centrally recorded at a server of a computer network and distributed to individual client computers via the network. The tasks performed at the server include monitoring of elapsed recording time, detection of numbers spoken during each message as the recording is made, and recording of "displayable" symbols representing detected numbers in association with elapsed time at instants of their detection. The detection of spoken numbers is performed by software-based speaker-independent speech recognition. Thus, the messages retrieved at the client computers contain all the information needed to form the display of elapsed time and symbols indicating numbers spoken in each message.
49 Citations
16 Claims
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1. An accessory for a sound recording and playback system comprising:
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a visible display; speech recording means coupled to said system for sequentially recording spoken messages to be audibly reproduced by said system, each recording produced by said recording means having a discrete starting point; means interfacing between said system, said recording means, and said display for generating a chart of playback time on said display, said chart indicating time elapsed relative to said starting point during audible reproduction of a recording stored by said recording means; speaker-independent speech recognition means coupled to said system for detecting occurrences of predetermined audible expressions during audible reproduction of a recording stored by said recording means;
said predetermined expressions constituting components of a limited vocabulary of N different expressions;
where N is a number greater than 2 but substantially less than the number of different expressions recordable by said recording means; andmeans interfacing between said speech recognition means and said display for superimposing symbols on said time chart, said symbols representing respective said predetermined expressions detected by said speech recognition means and indicating times of occurrences of respective said expressions by their positions on said chart relative to an indication of the said starting point of a respective recording. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A computer program product on a computer readable medium for voice mail applications, said program product being transportable to and installable on computers and comprising:
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instruction means for enabling a computer on which said program product is installed to receive and audibly replay a voice-mail message; and instruction means, executable in timed coordination with replay of said message, for causing said computer on which said product is installed to visibly display a chart, said chart representing the elapsed playout time of the message, and indicating times of occurrence of predetermined audible expressions during said playout time. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8)
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9. A voice-mail system for a computer network having a server processing center for receiving and recording audible voice-mail messages, and client computers linked to said server processing center, said client computers having facilities for receiving and audibly replaying selected ones of the messages recorded at said server processing center;
- said voice-mail system comprising;
time monitoring means at said server processing center operative to continually monitor time elapsed during recording of each voice-mail message received at said server processing center; speech-recognition means at said server processing center, operative in time coordination with said means to monitor elapsed time, for recognizing when words in a predetermined vocabulary of words are spoken during the recording of each said message;
the number of words contained in said predetermined vocabulary of words being small in relation to the number of words comprising the language in which said messages are spoken;data recording means at said server processing center for recording data representing printable symbols corresponding to words detected by said speech-recognition means, along with time information associating said symbols with times at which respective words are spoken during recording of messages containing said words; means at each said client computer for receiving a selected message recorded at said server processing center, together with the printable symbol data and time associating information recorded with the selected message; means at each said client computer for audibly reproducing said selected message; and display means at each said client computer responsive to said printable symbol data and time associating information for producing a composite visible display containing time indications overlaid with printable symbols;
said composite display comprising a varying chart of time elapsed as said selected message is audibly reproduced and printed symbols corresponding to words in said selected message that were detected by said server speech-recognition means;
said printed symbols being positioned in relation to said chart of elapsed time to enable a user of the respective client computer to easily locate and audibly reproduce a portion of said selected message containing spoken words corresponding to the respective symbols. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12)
- said voice-mail system comprising;
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13. A voice-mail device comprising:
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means for storing a voice-mail message; means for audibly replaying a voice-mail message stored by said storing means; display means; means coupled to display means and said replaying means for causing said display means to display a chart progressively indicating time elapsed during audible replay of a message stored by said storing means; speech recognition means responsive to a voice-mail message applied to said storing means for detecting when said message contains certain predetermined words; means coupled to said speech recognition means for storing data representing words detected by said speech recognition means; and means responsive to said stored data representing said detected words for causing said display means to display indications of respective data in time coordination with audible replay of parts of a said message consisting of words represented by respective data. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16)
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Specification