Patent ID: 6075842
Filing Date: 2000-06-13
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
A text enhanced telephone station for use by a user who can speak but has attenuated hearing, the station capable of carrying both voice and text communications simultaneously over one telephone line, the text communications transmitted using digital communication tones, the station comprising:a telephone including a speaker and a microphone;a filter connected to the telephone to separate the digital communication tones from voice communications, the filter being connected so that the digital communications tones are not passed to the speaker;a modem connected to the telephone to convert any text communication at the digital communication tones to digital signals;a microcontroller connected to receive the digital signals from the modem and to identify any characters encoded in the digital signals; anda visually readable display to display the characters identified by the microcontroller, the microcontroller programmed to display on the display the characters as they are received so that text communications received by the station are displayed to be read by a user;the station being capable of both transmitting voice signals over the one telephone line simultaneously as it receives and displays text communications over the one telephone line, without the digital communication tones being audible to the user.