Abstract:
A first party creates and edits a phonetic-alphabet representation of its name. The phonetic representation is conveyed to a second party as “caller-identification” information by messages that set up a call between the parties. The phonetic representation of the name is displayed to the second party, converted to speech, and/or converted to an alphabet of a language of the second party and then displayed to the second party.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0001]    This invention relates to telecommunications. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    In telecommunications systems, caller-identification information that is provided to the called party usually includes the spelling (i.e., a textual representation) of the calling party&#39;s name. For many names, it can be difficult to determine how the name is pronounced from the spelling. A complicating factor is that names that are spelled the same are not always pronounced the same, even in the same language. This can create numerous problems. For example, in a business environment, this can result in a customer-service agent mispronouncing a customer&#39;s name, which is embarrassing to the business and off-putting to the customer. Or, in the international telecommunications environment, attempts by receiving systems to display a calling party&#39;s name in the writing script (alphabet) of the language of the called party that is different from the writing script in which the caller-identification information is expressed are likely to be unsuccessful. Furthermore, providing of the caller-identification information to the calling party in spoken form via text-to-speech conversion often results in mispronunciation of the calling party&#39;s name. The ability to provide caller-identification information by voice to visually-impaired users is required by the USA Code of Federal Regulations part 36, section 1194, 23(e) (36 CFR §1194.23(e)). Mispronouncing the calling party&#39;s name is arguably not fully compliant with this requirement. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    According to an aspect of the invention, information identifying a first party to a call (e.g., caller-identification information such as the party&#39;s name) is made available to a second party to the call in a phonetic-alphabet form. The phonetic-alphabet form of the information is advantageously created by the first party itself to ensure that the phonetic-alphabet form is to the first party&#39;s satisfaction. For this purpose, a template and a procedure for creating the phonetic-alphabet form of the information is provided to the first party. The phonetic-alphabet form of the information is then provided—e.g., displayed and/or spoken (via a text-to-speech function)—to the second party. Further advantageously, the phonetic-alphabet form of the information may be used to convert the information from a native script of the first party (e.g., Latin, Roman) to a different native script of the second party (e.g., Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, etc.). Illustratively, the information in the phonetic-alphabet form is conveyed from the first party to the second party via messages of a signaling protocol that is used to set up the call between the parties, with the benefit that conveyance of the information can be affected through, yet transparently to, the communications network through which the call is made. 
         [0004]    The invention may be implemented both as a method and an apparatus, as well as a computer-readable medium containing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
         [0005]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a telecommunications system that includes an illustrative embodiment of the invention; and 
           [0006]      FIG. 2  is a flowchart of a process of creating a phonetic-alphabet representation of a name in the system of  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0007]      FIG. 3  shows a first embodiment of a name-creation template of the system of  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0008]      FIG. 4  shows a second embodiment of the name-creation template of the system of  FIG. 1 ; and 
           [0009]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart of use of a name represented in a phonetic-alphabet form during set-up of a call in the system of  FIG. 1 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0010]      FIG. 1  shows a communications system  100  comprising two or more communication devices  102 ,  110  interconnected by at least one communications network  106 . Each device  102 ,  110  has a display screen  112 . Within network  100 , devices  102 ,  110  connect to, and are served by, a server  104 . Alternatively, each device  102 ,  110  may be served by a different server of network  106 . Server  104  also connects a computer  124  to communication device  102 , in a conventional manner. Communications system  100  may be any desired communications system. By way of example only, network  106  comprises a private or the public service telephone network, server  104  comprises a telephone switch such as a private branch exchange or a telephone central office, and communication devices  102 ,  100  comprise wired or wireless telephones. In an alternative embodiment, network  106  comprises a data network such as the Internet or a local area network, server  104  comprises a communications server such as a proxy, a communications manager, or a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) private branch exchange, and communication devices  102 ,  110  comprise any desired devices such as wired or wireless VoIP telephones, personal digital assistants, personal computers, etc. The type and structure of the system  100  or any of its components is immaterial. As described so far, system  100  is conventional. 
         [0011]    According to an aspect of the invention, computer  114  is used to create a phonetic-alphabet representation of the name of a user of communication device  102  for use by communication device  102  in communicating with other devices such as communication device  110 . Computer  114  is illustratively either an administrative terminal of server  104  or a personal computer of a user of device  102 . Alternatively, if communication device  102  has sufficient computer-like capabilities and user interfaces to accomplish the task, the phonetic-alphabet representation of the name may be created directly on device  102 . The process of creating the phonetic-alphabet representation of a name is shown in  FIG. 2 . 
         [0012]    To create the phonetic-alphabet representation of the name, a user of computer  102  invokes a name-creation function, at step  200 , and, in response, computer  102  displays a name-creation template on its display screen  116 . Alternative forms of the name-creation template are shown in  FIGS. 3 and 4 . The template of  FIG. 3  enables creation of a phonetic representation of the name in the U.S. phonetic alphabet, whereas the template of  FIG. 4  enables creation of a phonetic representation of the name in the international phonetic alphabet. Each template includes a field  310  for entering and displaying the name in text form, a field  320  for entering and displaying the name in phonetic-alphabet form, and virtual keys  330  for entering phonetic-alphabet characters. The user enters the text form of the name into field  310  via a user interface  118  of computer  114 , such as a keyboard (or, in the alternative embodiment, via the dialing keypad of communication device  102 ), at step  202 . Next, a text-to-speech conversion engine of computer  114  (or of device  102  in the alternative embodiment) converts the text form of the name into a phonetic-alphabet representation of the name, in a conventional manner, at step  204 , and displays that representation in field  320 , at step  206 . The text-to-speech conversion engine also speaks the name as represented in the phonetic-alphabet form via user interface  108  such as a speaker, at step  208 . The user determines from the spoken form of the name whether or not is has been pronounced correctly, at step  210 . If it has not been pronounced correctly, the user uses virtual keys  330  to modify the phonetic-alphabet representation of the name in field  310 , at step  220 . (In the alternative embodiment, the name-creation function converts the keypad keys to represent the letters of the phonetic-alphabet instead of letters of the normal (e.g., Latin, Roman) alphabet, and the user uses the keys of the keypad to modify field  310 ). The text-to-speech conversion engine then speaks the name as represented in the modified form, at step  208 . 
         [0013]    If and when the user is satisfied with the pronunciation of the name, at step  230 , computer  114  (or device  112  in the alternative implementation) interacts with server  104  to store the name in the text form and in the phonetic-alphabet form on server  104  and/or device  102 , at step  222 . The use of the name represented in phonetic-alphabet form is illustrated in  FIG. 5 . 
         [0014]    When the user of communication device  102  calls another party, e.g., a user of device  110 , at step  500 , the phonetic-alphabet representation of the name is conveyed to the called party as caller ID information along with the conventional text representation of the name, at step  502 . Conversely, the phonetic alphabet representation of the called party is conveyed to the calling party in like manner. For example, if the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is used to set up the call, the phonetic-alphabet representation and the text representation of the name are both conveyed in the “From” or “Contact” header field of a SIP message, such as an “invite” message, separated from each other by a conventional SIP record separator symbol. Or, the text representation is conveyed in the “From” or “Contact” header field while the phonetic-alphabet representation is conveyed in the “P-Asserted-Identity” header field of the SIP message. Or, each representation may be conveyed by the same header field of different SIP messages, such as the “invite” and “update” messages. Alternatively, if the QSIG signaling protocol is used instead of SIP, the phonetic-alphabet representation may be conveyed in the “Name2” header field or the manufacturer specification interface (MSI) field of a QSIG message. 
         [0015]    At the receiving party&#39;s communication terminal  110 , both the text representation and the phonetic-alphabet representation of the calling party&#39;s name are displayed to the user of terminal  110  on display  112  of terminal  110 , at step  506 . If the alphabet of the native language of the receiving party is not the same as the alphabet of the native language of the sending party, the phonetic-alphabet representation of the name may be converted to the alphabet of the receiving party&#39;s native language, at step  504 , and displayed to the receiving party in the converted form at step  506 . For this purpose, server  104  has access to a language-to-script translation database  124 . If multiple servers serve devices  102 ,  110 , each server may share one copy of database  124 , or each server may have its own copy of database  124 . Database  124  correlates languages with writing scripts that are natively used to express (write) those languages, and each script correlates with one or more languages. Additionally, a text-to-speech engine of terminal  110  may speak the sending party&#39;s name as represented by the phonetic-alphabet representation, at step  508 . Call set up then continues in conventional manner, at step  510 . 
         [0016]    Conversely, if a user of terminal  110  calls terminal  102 , the text and the phonetic-alphabet representation of the name are conveyed and displayed and/or spoken to the user of terminal  110  as called-party ID information in  FIG. 5 . 
         [0017]    Of course, various changes and modifications to the illustrative embodiment described above will be apparent to those skilled in the art. For example, the phonetic-alphabet representation of the name can also be included as a part of an email business card that has a “click-to-hear” correct pronunciation icon. Or, the phonetic-alphabet representation of the name may be accessed from a telephone via a feature-access code (FAC). Such changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention and without diminishing its attendant advantages. It is therefore intended that such changes and modifications be covered by the following claims except insofar as limited by the prior art.