Semiautomated relay method and apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11368581-B2
Application number	US-202017018634-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 11, 2020
Priority date	Feb 28, 2014
Publication date	Jun 21, 2022
Grant date	Jun 21, 2022

Abstract

A method to transcribe communications includes obtaining an audio message from a first device during a voice communication session with a second device including a display screen, providing the message to a first speech recognition system to generate a first message transcript, providing the transcript to the second device for presentation on the screen, obtaining an indication that a transcript quality is below a threshold, providing, in response, the message to a second system to generate a second transcript while still providing it to the first system to generate the first transcript and providing the first transcript to the second device for presentation on the display screen, and in response to an event occurring that indicates the second transcript is to be provided to the second device instead of the first transcript, providing the second transcript to the second device for presentation on the screen instead of the first transcript.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method to transcribe communications, the method comprising:
obtaining an audio message originating at a first device during a voice communication session between the first device and a second device, wherein the second device includes a display screen;
providing the audio message to a first speech recognition system to generate a first transcript of the audio message;
making the first transcript available to the second device for presentation on the display screen;
in response to obtaining an indication that indicates a quality of the first transcript is below a quality threshold, providing the audio message to a second speech recognition system to generate a second transcript based on the audio message while continuing to provide the audio message to the first speech recognition system to generate the first transcript and continuing to make the first transcript available to the second device for presentation on the display screen; and
in response to occurrence of an event that indicates the second transcript is to be made available to the second device instead of the first transcript, making the second transcript available to the second device for presentation on the display screen instead of the first transcript.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first speech recognition system and the second speech recognition system are automated speech recognition systems that work independent of human interaction.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the quality indication is obtained from the second device.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first speech recognition system is an automated speech recognition system that works independent of human interaction and the generation of the second transcript by the second speech recognition system includes:
(i) broadcasting the audio message; and
(ii) obtaining a second audio message based on a re-voicing of the broadcast audio message, wherein the second transcript is generated based on the second audio message.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising obtaining a confidence score of the first transcript from the first speech recognition system and obtaining the indication of quality based on a comparison of the confidence score to the quality threshold.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the event includes the second transcript including at least one captioned word based on the audio message.

7. The method of claim 1 further including, in response to the event, ceasing providing the audio message to the first speech recognition system.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the event includes passage of a short delay.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the delay is a predefined delay duration.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the first device provides the first speech recognition system.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein a remote relay provides the second speech recognition system and wherein the step of providing the audio message to the second speech recognition system includes transmitting the audio message to the remote relay.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the second device presents a portion of at least one of the first and second transcripts for each portion of the audio message via the display screen.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the audio message is also presented to the second device and wherein the second device controls a speaker to broadcast the audio message.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the second device presents the first transcript as captions via the display screen during a first portion of the voice communication session and presents the second transcript as captions via the display screen during a second portion of the voice communication session.

15. The method of claim 14 further including presenting an indication via the display screen that the first speech recognition system generated the first transcript when the first transcript is presented on the display screen and presenting an indication via the display screen that the second speech recognition system generated the second transcript when the second transcript is presented on the display screen.

16. The method of claim 15 further including presenting a first on screen icon on the display screen that is selectable to switch from the first speech recognition system to the second speech recognition system while the first transcript is presented on the display screen and presenting a second on screen icon on the display screen that is selectable to switch from the second speech recognition system to the first speech recognition system while the second transcript is presented on the display screen.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the second device provides the first speech recognition system.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein a remote relay provides the second speech recognition system and wherein the step of providing the audio message to the second speech recognition system includes transmitting the audio message to the remote relay.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the second device presents a portion of at least one of the first and second transcripts for each portion of the audio message via the display screen.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein a remote relay provides each of the first and second speech recognition systems and wherein the audio message is transmitted to the relay.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of providing the audio message to a first speech recognition system includes:
(i) broadcasting the audio message to a call assistant; and
(ii) obtaining a second audio message based on a re-voicing of the broadcast audio message by the call assistant, wherein the first transcript is generated based on the second audio message.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the second audio message is provided to a first automated speech recognition system that is trained to a voice of the call assistant.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the second speech recognition system includes a second automated speech recognition system.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the second speech recognition system trains during the voice communication session to a voice of a user speaking the audio message.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein the first transcript is presented via the display screen prior to occurrence of the event and the second transcript is presented via the display screen subsequent to occurrence of the event.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the second device includes a speaker and wherein the audio message is provided to the second device and is broadcast as a voice message via the speaker.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein transcript captions presented via the display screen lag the voice message, the method further including presenting an indication via the display screen indicating a magnitude of a lag period between a most recently broadcast voice message and a most recently presented transcript caption.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the lag period is expressed in seconds.

29. The method of claim 1 wherein the audio message is a first audio message and wherein the method further includes obtaining a second audio message originating at the second device during the voice communication session and providing the second audio message to a speech recognition system to generate a third transcript associated with the second audio message.

Assignees

• Ultratec Inc

Inventors

• Engelke Robert M
• Colwell Kevin R
• Engelke Christopher

Classifications

• H04M3/42391 Primary

  where the subscribers are hearing-impaired persons, e.g. telephone devices for the deaf · CPC title

• H04W4/12

  Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements · CPC title

• G10L15/22

  Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue · CPC title

• H04M1/72478

  for hearing-impaired users · CPC title

• H04M1/2475

  for a hearing impaired user · CPC title