Automated real time interpreter service

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10854110-B2
Application number	US-201715730176-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 11, 2017
Priority date	Mar 3, 2017
Publication date	Dec 1, 2020
Grant date	Dec 1, 2020

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to systems and methods that aid users with hearing and/or speech impediments to have a conversation with a remote phone number without human assistance. In one aspect, an application residing on a user's device, such as a smartphone, tablet computer, laptop, etc., may be used to initiate a phone call to a recipient. Upon initiating the phone call locally, a service residing on the server may receive a request to initiate a connection to the recipient. Once the recipient answers, the user may converse with the recipient by providing text input to their local app. The text input may be transmitted to the service. The service may use a text to speech converter to translate the received text to speech that can be delivered to the recipient.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of a real-time communication initiated by a non-voice caller to a voice callee, the method comprising:
receiving a voice call initiation data from an interpreter application used by the non-voice caller, wherein the interpreter application communicates the call initiation data with the non-voice caller based on text data;
establishing a voice phone call with the voice callee based on the voice call initiation data;
receiving a first data from the interpreter application used by the non-voice caller, wherein the first data is in text;
converting the first data from the text data to speech; and
providing the speech to the voice callee.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a second data from the voice callee, wherein the second data is a speech data;
converting the second data from speech data to text; and
providing the text to the non-voice caller.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the second data represents speech from the voice callee associated with a recipient device, and wherein the method further comprises processing the speech to determine a gender of the voice callee.

4. The method of claim 3 , further processing the speech to determine a current emotional state of the voice callee.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the second data represents speech from at least two voice callees.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the method further comprises:
associating a first part of the second data with a first voice callee of the at least two voice callees; and
associating a second part of the second data with a second voice callee of the at least two voice callees.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein converting the second data from speech to text data further comprises associating the first voice callee identifier identifying the first voice callee with first text data and associating the second voice callee identifier identifying the second voice callee with second text data.

8. A system comprising:
at least one processor; and
memory encoding computer executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method comprising:
receiving a request to establish a voice call from an interpreter application used by a non-voice caller, wherein the interpreter application communicates the request to establish a voice call with the non-voice caller based on text data;
in response to receiving the request, initiating the voice call with recipient device;
requesting consent for the voice call from a voice call recipient via an initial consent message to the recipient device, wherein the initial consent message is a voice message;
receiving a response to the initial consent message from the voice call recipient, wherein the response is voice data; and
when the response indicates that the voice call recipient consents to the voice call, establishing a communication between the interpreter application and the recipient device.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the method further comprises:
upon establishing communication between the interpreter application and the recipient device, receiving a first call data;
determining if the first call data was received from the interpreter application;
when the first call data was received from the interpreter application, converting the first call data from text to speech; and
providing the first call data in speech to the recipient device.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the method further comprises:
receiving second call data;
determining the source of the second call data;
when the source of the second call data is the recipient device, converting the second call data from speech to text data; and
providing the text data to the interpreter application.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the second call data represents speech from a voice call recipient associated with the recipient device, and wherein the method further comprises processing the speech to determine a gender of the voice call recipient.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the method further comprises processing the speech to determine a current emotional state of the voice call recipient.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the second call data represents speech from at least two voice call recipients.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the method further comprises:
associating a first part of the second call data with a first voice call recipient; and
associating a second part of the second call data with a second voice call recipient.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein converting the second call data from speech to text data further comprises associating a first voice call recipient identifier identifying the first voice call recipient with first text data and associating a second voice call recipient identifier identifying the second voice call recipient with second text data.

16. A system comprising:
a first device comprising:
at least a first processor; and
a first memory encoding first computer executable instructions that, when executed by the at least first processor, configure the at least first processor to:
initiate an interpreter application; and
transmit a request to establish a voice call with a voice call recipient at a recipient device; and

a recipient device comprising:
at least a second processor; and
a first memory encoding first computer executable instructions that, when executed by the at least second processor, configure the at least second processor to:
receive the request from the first device;
in response to receiving the request, initiate the voice call with the recipient device;
request consent for the voice call from a voice call recipient via an initial consent message to the recipient device, wherein the initial consent message is a voice message;
receive a response to the initial consent message, wherein the response is voice data; and
when the response indicates that the voice call recipient consents to the voice call, establish a communication between the interpreter application and the recipient device.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the first device comprises one of:
a smartphone;
a tablet; and
a computing device.

18. The system of claim 16 , wherein the recipient device is a telephone.

19. The system of claim 16 , wherein the remote device receives the request via a network connection.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Koul Anirudh
• Kasam Meher
• Johnston Michael
• Machanavajhala Swetha
• Halper Elizabeth

Classifications

• H04M1/72478

  for hearing-impaired users · CPC title

• G09B5/06

  with both visual and audible presentation of the material to be studied · CPC title

• H04M3/42382

  Text-based messaging services in telephone networks such as PSTN/ISDN, e.g. User-to-User Signalling or Short Message Service for fixed networks · CPC title

• H04M2201/39

  using speech synthesis · CPC title

• G09B21/009 Primary

  Teaching or communicating with deaf persons (G09B21/04 takes precedence) · CPC title