System and method of controlling sound in a multi-media communication application

• US 7,949,109 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2009
• Issued: 05/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Isaacson, Thomas M., Civanlar, Mehmat Reha, Graf, Hans Peter, Ostermann, Joern
• Primary Examiner(s): Anwah; Olisa
• Application Number:
  US12/648,952
• Publication Number:
  US 20100114579A1
• Time in Patent Office: 511 Days
• Field of Search: 704/272, 704/276, 704/275, 704/270, 704/258, 704/260, 704/2, 704/6, 379/100.08
• US Class Current: 379/100.08
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/08 Text analysis or generation of parameters for speech synthesis out of text, e.g. grapheme to phoneme translation, prosody generation or stress or intonation determination

Abstract

A computing device and computer-readable medium storing instructions for controlling a computing device to customize a voice in a multi-media message created by a sender for a recipient, the multi-media message comprising a text message from the sender to be delivered by an animated entity. The instructions comprise receiving from the sender inserted voice emoticons, which may be repeated, into the text message associated with parameters of a voice used by an animated entity to deliver the text message; and transmitting the text message such that a recipient device can deliver the multi-media message at a variable level associated with a number of times a respective voice emoticon is repeated.

Claims

1. A system for customizing a voice in a multi-media message created by a sender for a recipient, the multi-media message comprising a text message from the sender to be delivered by an animated entity, the system comprising:

a processor;

a first module controlling the processor to receive from the sender voice emoticons, which are inserted into the text message associated with parameters of a voice used by an animated entity to deliver the text message; and

a second module controlling the processor to transmit the text message such that a recipient device can deliver the multi-media message at a variable level associated with a number of times a respective voice emoticon is repeated.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the voice emoticons comprise emoticons associated with at least one of voice stress, volume, pause, and emotion.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the voice emoticons are implicitly derived from emoticons.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein an effect of the voice emoticons within the text message begins with a word immediately following the respective voice emoticon.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the recipient device can further deliver the multi-media message such that the animated entity is modified throughout the message according to the voice emoticons.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a third module controlling the processor to receive from the sender duration tags associated with the voice emoticons, wherein the recipient device may deliver the message with durations associated with the received duration tags.

7. A system for customizing a voice in a multi-media message created by a sender for a recipient, the multi-media message comprising a text message from the sender to be delivered by an animated entity, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a module controlling the processor to receive from a sender an insert of a voice volume emoticon into a text message associated with a voice used by an animated entity to deliver the text message, wherein the voice volume emoticon may be repeated to amplify of the effect of the voice volume emoticon and wherein a recipient device can delivery the multi-media message with the voice of the animated entity modified throughout the message according to the voice volume emoticon.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the voice volume emoticon comprises one of a voice volume increase emoticon and a voice volume decrease emoticon.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein repeated use of a voice volume decrease emoticon results in the animated entity whispering a portion of the text message.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein repeated use of a voice volume increase emoticon results in the animated entity yelling a portion of the text message.

11. A system for customizing a voice in a multi-media message created by a sender for a recipient, the multi-media message comprising a text message from the sender to be delivered by an animated entity, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a module controlling the processor to receive from a sender an insert of a voice emoticon into the text message associated with parameters of a voice used by the animated entity to deliver the text message, wherein a recipient device can deliver the multi-media message such that the voice of the animated entity is modified according to a number of punctuation marks placed at the end of a word.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the voice of the animated entity is modified by increasing an amplitude of the voice of the animated entity linearly to the number of punctuation marks added to the end of the word.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the punctuation marks are at least one of question marks and exclamation points.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein if the punctuation marks are question marks, then the voice of the animated entity is modified to make it sound like a question is being asked.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to customize a voice in a multi-media message created by a sender for a recipient, the multi-media message comprising a text message from the sender to be delivered by an animated entity, the instructions comprising:

receiving from the sender voice emoticons, which are inserted into the text message associated with parameters of a voice used by an animated entity to deliver the text message; and

transmitting the text message such that a recipient device can deliver the multi-media message at a variable level associated with a number of times a respective voice emoticon is repeated.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the voice emoticons comprise emoticons associated with at least one of voice stress, volume, pause, and emotion.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the voice emoticons are implicitly derived from emoticons.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein an effect of the voice emoticons within the text message begins with a word immediately following the respective voice emoticon.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the recipient device can further deliver the multi-media message such that the animated entity is modified throughout the message according to the voice emoticons.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, the instructions further comprising receiving from the sender duration tags associated with inserted voice emoticons, wherein the recipient device may deliver the message with durations associated with the received duration tags.