Patent Publication Number: US-2007116203-A1

Title: Vocal assistant

Description:
The present invention relates to telephone-based services, and more particularly to telephone-based services which may be particularly adapted for people who have difficulty with vocal communication.  
      The use of the standard telephone by those hard of hearing or having impaired speech has long been problematic. Devices such as the text telephone (TTY), for example, do, however, enable such people to send text messages to other compatible devices and often provide a vital line of communication, for example, to emergency services, doctors, public services and so on. When away from the home other solutions are required and now the use of mobile telephones among those hard of hearing or with impaired speech is widespread. This is due largely to the short message services (SMS) which enable people to communicate with one another using short text messages.  
      However there exist many situations where those having difficulty with vocal communication may experience difficulty in communicating, rendering the most mundane tasks involving basic human contact both difficult and frustrating. Difficulty in vocal communication may, for example, arise through disability or may equally occur in foreign language situations by those not speaking a foreign language.  
      One aim of the present invention is to alleviate at least some of the above-mentioned problems.  
      According to a first embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a network-based system for supplying a user selectable message to a telephone call, comprising: a data store for storing one or more predeterminable textual messages; a user interface for selecting one or more of the stored messages; and a converter for converting the selected textual messages to spoken messages and for delivering the spoken messages to the call.  
      Advantageously, the user is able to adapt the system to individual needs and to have any pre-stored message spoken to another person using standard mobile or fixed telephones. Furthermore, the message may be additionally translated into any language.  
      The user interface may be accessible via a telephone connected to the call. The user interface may also be accessible from a user terminal via the Internet.  
      The data store may, for example, be accessible from a user terminal, such as an Internet browser, over the Internet.  
      Preferably an identifier associated with the telephone is retrieved and is used for selecting a data store associated with the identifier.  
      Alternatively, the user interface may be adapted to accept an account identification number sent from the telephone and for selecting a data store associated with the account identification number.  
      Suitably, each textual message may be assigned a numerical identifier. Each textual message may additionally be assigned a category identifier.  
      The converter is preferably a text-to-speech (TTS) converter.  
      In a further embodiment the selected message or messages may be translated into a different language using a language translation engine.  
      According to a second embodiment, there is provided a method of providing, in a network, user selectable messages to a telephone call, comprising receiving an indication of the identity of one or more pre-determinable textual messages stored in a data store; retrieving the identified messages from the data store; converting the retrieved textual messages into spoken messages; and supplying the spoken messages to the call.  
      The method may be adapted to receive the identity of the messages from a telephone connected to the call. The method may also be adapted to receive the identity of the messages from a user terminal via the Internet.  
      The method may allow access to the data store from a user terminal over the Internet.  
      Preferably an identifier associated with the telephone is retrieved and is used for selecting a data store associated with the retrieved caller identification. Alternatively, the user interface may accept an account identification number sent from the telephone for selecting a data store associated with the account identification number.  
      Suitably the textual messages may be stored in the data store along with a numerical identifier. Additionally a numerical category identifier may also be used.  
      Preferably a text-to-speech (TTS) converter is used to convert the textual messages to speech.  
      In a further embodiment the selected messages may be translated into a different language using a language translation engine. 
    
    
      The invention will now be described, by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the accompanying diagram, in which  FIG. 1  is a block diagram showing an overview of an embodiment according to the present invention.  
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram showing an overview of a system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The system includes a data store  108 , such as a database, into which preconfigured text-based messages may be programmed by a user. Preferably each user has an individual account, for example, identified by the caller identification number or subscriber number of a given telephone or group of telephones. The database  108  may be accessible directly from a user terminal  112  via the Internet  114  using an appropriate web-based interface, or, for example, indirectly via a web-based interface provided by the service application  106  which itself manages the access to the database  108 .  
    
    
      Using an appropriate user interface and access means the user may enter and manage one or more text-based messages, along with a numerical identifier for each message in the database  108 . Alternatively, the messages may be preprogrammed by the service application operator either with or without the possibility for the user to change the messages.  
      The messages may, for example, relate to everyday situations such as:  
                                   IDENTIFIER   MESSAGE                  1   I would like some bread       2   Can you take me to the station       . . .   . . .                  
 
      The messages may also be arranged in the database in different categories for different situations. For example, one category may be for use in a bakers, another for use on a bus and so on. In this case, each category may additionally have its own numerical identifier.  
                                       CATEGORY   MESSAGE ID   MESSAGE                  1   1   I would like some bread       1   2   I would like some crolssants       1   3   I would like some cakes       . . .   . . .       2   1   I would like a ticket to the town centre       2   2   I would like a ticket to the railway               station       . . .   . . .                  
 
      The category and message identifiers may also make use of the letters associated with each number key on a standard telephone handset to ease identification of categories and/or messages. For example, the category relating to phrases for use in a bakers may be identified by the number ‘225’, corresponding to the first three letters of the word ‘bakers’ as typed on a standard telephone handset.  
      When the user is in a situation where it is necessary to communicate one of the pre-prepared messages, the user makes a telephone call to a service application  106 , via a telecommunications network  104 . Such a network may, for example, be a public switched telephone network (PSTN), a mobile, voice over IP (VoIP) or other suitable network. The service application  106  may, for example, be provided by a network operator or a third party operator, and may be located either inside the network  104  or, as illustrated, outside the network, for example, on a suitable media platform.  
      Once a call is connected to the service application  106 , the service application  106  identifies the user, for example, by matching the caller party identity provided by the network  104  to the subscriber number of an existing account. The user could alternatively or additionally enter a personal identification number (PIN) and/or account information by sending appropriate dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) tones from the telephone handset to identify the user and/or the user account.  
      Once identification has been made, the user may request, for example using DTMF tones, one or more of the messages stored in the user account of the database  108  by using the numeric identifier of each message.  
      For example, the user may enter the sequence:
 
12*8*23#
 
 which would be interpreted by the service application  106 : ‘play message number  12 , followed by message number  8  followed by message number  23 ’. 
 
      If different categories are used, the user may enter a sequence such as:
 
1#1*1#2#
 
 which would be interpreted by the service application  106  as: ‘play message number  1  from category  1 , followed by message number  2  from category  1 ’. 
 
      The user may then hand the telephone handset to another person who presses, for example, the # key to listen to the messages. When the service application  106  detects that the # key has been pressed, the requested text messages are retrieved from the database  108  and are passed to a text-to-speech (TTS) engine  110 . It will be appreciated that the database  108  may be co-located with the service application  106 , or alternatively may be remotely located, for example, on the Internet or on part of another external network. The TTS engine  110  may be integral to the service application  106  or may be remotely located and accessed via a network, using for example, real-time protocol (RTP), as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art. The TTS engine  110  then ‘speaks’ the requested message or messages to the call thereby enabling the messages to be heard via the telephone handset  102 .  
      In this way, a user can pre-program numerous messages into the database  108  in order to cater for any situation the user is likely to encounter. Through the simple interface for accessing and creating the messages, the user can easily use and adapt such a system for individual needs and any number of situations. Advantageously, such a service is accessible via any telephone handset which supports DTMF tone sending, and avoids the user to having to write down messages or rely on a third party to translate messages.  
      In further embodiments the user may cause one or more messages stored in the database  108  to be played during an established call to a third party. For example, in a further embodiment, the user terminal  112 , has access to the service application  106  via an appropriate user interface as described above. The user places a call to the service application  106  using the telephone handset  102 , for example using an appropriate audio conferencing or 3-party calling service, and additionally places a call to a third party which is joined to the call. The user, via the user terminal  112 , is then able to select one or more of the messages stored in the database  108  and to cause the selected messages to be spoken to the call. Alternatively, the user could select the messages to be spoken via the telephone handset  102  as described above. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, any access to the service application  106  or database  108  is preferably secure and may require, for example, entering of password and account information.  
      Such a facility may be useful, for example, when making a reservation at a hotel or ordering a taxi, or the like. For example, the user pre-programs into the database  108  one or messages detailing the type of room required, the number of nights required and so on. Once a call to the hotel is connected in the manner described above, the user may select the required messages and have them spoken to the call so that the called party can hear the messages. This embodiment, for examples, enables a user to communicate in situations which may not have been previously possible.  
      Alternatively, the user may be able to pre-select messages from database  108  which are to be played to the call when the third party answers the call.  
      In a yet further embodiment, the concepts described above may be used in foreign language situations. For example, a user can pre-program in the database  108  a number of common phrases, as described above. Upon accessing the service application  106 , the user may be requested to enter a language into which the messages are to be translated. Alternatively, the user may be able to pre-select, for example via the Internet browser  112 , a default language in which to translate the messages. In this case, the service application makes use of a textual language translation tool (not shown) of which those skilled in the art will be aware of many suitable systems.  
      For example, the user may enter the sequence:
 
2#12*10#
 
 which could mean ‘translate into language  2  (e.g. French) message  12  followed by message  10 ’. The service application  106  would then retrieve messages  12  and  10 , pass them to a suitable language translation engine, and pass the results to a suitable TTS engine. 
 
      Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the above-described Internet-based interface is just one example of how such the messages in the database  108  may be managed by a user. Other alternatives may include, for example, a wireless application protocol (WAP) based interface which would, advantageously, allow a user to pre-program the messages stored therein from a wireless location. In this case, it is possible that the handset  102  and the user terminal  112  be located in the same device.