System for text assisted telephony

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9967380-B2
Application number	US-201615010199-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 29, 2016
Priority date	Aug 23, 2001
Publication date	May 8, 2018
Grant date	May 8, 2018

Abstract

A communication system including a hard of hearing user's captioned device, the captioned device including a display screen and a processor. The processor in the captioned device is configured to: establish communication with a hard of hearing user's phone device that is independent of the hard of hearing user's captioned device, receive a text communication originating at a relay, the text communication corresponding to a transcription of the hearing user's voice signal, and display a text caption corresponding to the text communication on the display of the hard of hearing user's captioned device.

First claim

We claim:

1. A communication system comprising:
a hard of hearing user's captioned device, the captioned device including a display screen and a processor, the processor in the captioned device configured to:
establish communication with a hard of hearing user's phone device that is independent of the hard of hearing user's captioned device;
receive a text communication originating at a relay, the text communication corresponding to a transcription of a hearing user's voice signal; and
display a text caption corresponding to the text communication on the display of the hard of hearing user's captioned device;
wherein at least one of the captioned device and the hard of hearing user's phone device is configured to establish a first communication link directly with the relay for routing the hearing user's voice signal to the relay; and
wherein the captioned device includes an activation button which, when selected, initiates a communication link with the relay and transmission of the hearing user's voice signal to the relay for transcription into text.

2. The communication system of claim 1 wherein the captioned device establishes communication with the hard of hearing user's phone device via an acoustic coupling to the hard of hearing user's phone device.

3. The communication system of claim 1 wherein the captioned device is configured to establish communication with the hard of hearing user's phone device in response to a user input.

4. The communication system of claim 1 wherein the captioned device further comprises a button and wherein the captioned device is further configured to receive the hearing user's voice signal responsive to a detection of a user selecting the button.

5. The communication system of claim 1 wherein the captioned device comprises a communication connection configured to establish the communication with the hard of hearing user's phone device.

6. The communication system of claim 5 wherein the communication connection includes at least one of an acoustic coupling to the phone device and an electrical connection to the phone device.

7. The communication system of claim 5 wherein the communication connection includes an electrical connection between the phone device and the captioned device.

8. The communication system of claim 1 wherein the processor is configured to establish the communication link to the relay responsive to selection of the activation button and to transmit the hearing user's voice signal to the relay after the communication link is established.

9. The communication system of claim 1 wherein the captioned device establishes communication with the hard of hearing user's phone device such that the hearing user's voice signal is received at the captioned device.

10. The communication system of claim 1 wherein an action from the hard of hearing user establishes communication between the hard of hearing user's phone device and the captioned device.

11. The communication system of claim 1 wherein the hard of hearing user's phone device can be used independently of the captioned device to facilitate a voice conversation with a hearing user using the hearing user's device.

12. The communication system of claim 1 wherein the captioned device receives the text communication from the relay on the first communication link.

13. The communication system of claim 1 wherein the hard of hearing user's phone device is a hard of hearing user's cellular phone device.

14. The communication system of claim 13 wherein the hard of hearing user's cellular phone device can be used independent of the captioned device to facilitate a voice conversation with a hearing user using the hearing user's device.

15. The communication system of claim 13 wherein the step of establishing communication includes coupling the hard of hearing user's cellular phone device to the captioned device.

16. The communication system of claim 15 wherein the step of coupling the hard of hearing user's cellular device to the captioned device includes physically coupling the hard of hearing user's cellular device to the captioned device.

17. The communication system of claim 16 wherein the step of coupling the hard of hearing user's cellular phone device to the captioned device includes forming an electrical connection between the hard of hearing user's phone device and the captioned device.

18. The communication system of claim 16 wherein the step of coupling the hard of hearing user's cellular phone device to the captioned device includes establishing an acoustic coupling between the hard of hearing user's phone device and the captioned device.

19. A communication system comprising:
a hard of hearing user's captioned device, the captioned device including a display screen and a processor, the processor in the captioned device configured to:
establish communication with a hard of hearing user's phone device that is independent of the hard of hearing user's captioned device;
receive a text communication originating at a relay, the text communication corresponding to a transcription of a hearing user's voice signal; and
display a text caption corresponding to the text communication on the display of the hard of hearing user's captioned device;
wherein at least one of the captioned device and the hard of hearing user's phone device is configured to establish a first communication link directly with the relay for routing the hearing user's voice signal to the relay; and
wherein the captioned device routes the hearing user's voice signal from the hard of hearing user's phone device to the relay.

20. A communication system comprising:
a hard of hearing user's captioned device, the captioned device including a display screen and a processor, the processor in the captioned device configured to:
establish communication with a hard of hearing user's phone device that is independent of the hard of hearing user's captioned device;
receive a text communication originating at a relay, the text communication corresponding to a transcription of a hearing user's voice signal; and
display a text caption corresponding to the text communication on the display of the hard of hearing user's captioned device;
wherein at least one of the captioned device and the hard of hearing user's phone device is configured to establish a first communication link directly with the relay for routing the hearing user's voice signal to the relay; and
wherein the captioned device is configured to receive the text communication directly from the relay without passing through the hard of hearing user's phone device.

21. A communication system comprising:
a hard of hearing user's captioned device, the captioned device including a display screen and a processor, the processor in the captioned device configured to:
establish communication with a hard of hearing user's phone device that is independent of the hard of hearing user's captioned device;
receive a text communication originating at a relay, the text communication corresponding to a transcription of a hearing user's voice signal; and
display a text caption corresponding to the text communication on the display of the hard of hearing user's captioned device;
wherein at least one of the captioned device and the hard of hearing user's phone device is configured to establish a first communication link directly with the relay for routing the hearing user's voice signal to the relay; and
wherein the captioned device establishes the first communication link with th

Assignees

• Ultratec Inc

Inventors

• Engelke Robert M
• Colwell Kevin R

Classifications

• H04M1/21

  Combinations with auxiliary equipment, e.g. with clocks or memoranda pads · CPC title

• H04M2201/60

  Medium conversion · CPC title

• H04M1/2475 Primary

  for a hearing impaired user · CPC title

• H04M11/066

  Telephone sets adapted for data transmision · CPC title

• G10L15/26

  Speech to text systems (G10L15/08 takes precedence) · CPC title