Announcement signaling on board an aircraft

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016372114-A1
Application number	US-201615184337-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 16, 2016
Priority date	Jun 18, 2015
Publication date	Dec 22, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method of signaling speech signal related text messages on board an aircraft, a computer program product for carrying out such a method, an apparatus for signaling speech signal related text messages on board an aircraft, and an aircraft comprising such an apparatus. A method embodiment comprises: providing a speech signal related to an announcement to passengers of an aircraft; obtaining a text message containing text corresponding to spoken words of the speech signal; and signaling the text message to one or more devices on board the aircraft.

First claim

1 . A method of signaling speech signal related text messages on board an aircraft, wherein the method comprises:
providing a speech signal related to an announcement to passengers of the aircraft; obtaining a text message containing text corresponding to spoken words of the speech signal; and signaling the text message to one or more devices on board the aircraft.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of obtaining comprises converting the spoken words of the speech signal into the text contained in the text message.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of obtaining comprises retrieving the text message corresponding to the speech signal from a storage component.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises determining the one or more devices to which the text message is to be signaled.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the step of determining the one or more devices comprises at least one of:
determining one or more mobile devices that have registered at an onboard connectivity system of the aircraft; determining one or more devices on which a respective application is installed; and determining one or more devices on which a subscription procedure has been performed.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method comprises, before signaling the text message to the one or more devices, notifying the one or more devices that the text message is to be expected.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of signaling comprises transmitting the text message to one or more passenger owned devices and the step of providing comprises forwarding the speech signal to one or more loudspeakers installed on-board the aircraft.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method comprises automatically detecting, for each of the one or more devices, a preferred language and the step of signaling comprises transmitting the text message containing text in the detected preferred language.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method comprises detecting a preferred language for each of the one or more devices based on information related to the respective device.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the information related to the respective device comprises at least one of:
information about a Subscriber Identity Module, SIM, card of the respective device; information about a telephone number of the respective device; information about an operating system running on the respective device.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more devices comprise at least one or more passenger owned devices, PODs.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more devices comprise at least one or more devices of an In-Flight-Entertainment, IFE, system installed on-board the aircraft.

13 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions executable by a computer processor for signaling speech signal related test messages on board an aircraft, comprising instructions to:
provide a speech signal related to an announcement to passengers of the aircraft; obtain a text message containing text corresponding to spoken words of the speech signal; and signal the text message to one or more devices on board the aircraft.

14 . An apparatus for signaling speech signal related text messages on board an aircraft, wherein the apparatus comprises:
a first component configured to provide a speech signal related to an announcement to passengers of an aircraft; a second component configured to obtain a text message containing text corresponding to spoken words of the speech signal; and a third component configured to signal the text message to one or more devices on board the aircraft.

15 . An aircraft comprising the apparatus of claim 14 .

Assignees

• Airbus Operations Gmbh

Inventors

• Klose Peter
• Luedtke Michael

Classifications

• G06F40/263

  Language identification · CPC title

• H04W4/21

  for social networking applications · CPC title

• G10L2015/221

  Announcement of recognition results · CPC title

• H04M15/751

  Card based account, e.g. smart card, SIM card or USIM · CPC title

• H04W4/48

  for in-vehicle communication · CPC title