Patent ID: 7487096

Claim:
A method for automatically enabling closed captioning in video conferencing when a heavy accent is detected from a current speaker, comprising: receiving language background information or ethnicity information as a user preference; determining an acceptable accent level according to the user preference, wherein the acceptable accent level comprises at least one of none, low, medium, and heavy; receiving an audio signal of a speaker speaking in a language; comparing a pronunciation of the speaker in the audio signal to standard pronunciation for the language; determining an accent level of the speaker in the language, wherein the accent level of the speaker comprises at least one of none, low, medium, and heavy; comparing the accent level of the speaker to the acceptable accent level corresponding to the user preference, wherein: if the comparison determines that the accent level of the speaker does not comply with the acceptable accent level, closed captioning is enabled for the audio signal; and if the comparison determines that the accent level of the speaker complies with the acceptable accent level, closed captioning is not enabled for the audio signal.