Patent ID: 7058578

Claim:
A media handler for use in a transaction processing system, the system configured to route incoming calls from callers to agents associated with the transaction processing system, the incoming calls based on at least one of a voice-mode communication and text-mode communication, the media handler comprising: a media translator configured to facilitate translation between the voice-mode communication and the text-mode communication; a speech recognition unit configured to convert the voice-mode communication to the text-mode communication; a speech synthesizer configured to convert the text-mode communication to the voice-mode communication; an agent preference setting selectable between a voice-mode and a text-mode; wherein if the agent preference setting is set to the voice-mode and communication from the caller is a text-mode communication, the speech synthesizer converts the text-mode communication from the caller to a voice-mode communication for the agent, and the speech recognition unit converts the voice-mode communication from the agent to a text-mode communication for the caller; and wherein if the agent preference setting is set to the text-mode and communication from the caller is a voice-mode communication, the speech synthesizer converts the text-mode communication from the agent to a voice-mode communication for the caller, and the speech recognition unit converts the voice-mode communication from the caller to a text-mode communication for the agent.