Semiautomated relay method and apparatus

A method for captioning a hearing user's (HU's) voice during a call with an assisted user (AU), the method comprising the steps of:

• during a voice call between an HU communication device and an AU communication device, receiving an HU voice signal;
• using an automated speech recognition (ASR) engine to generate caption text for the HU voice signal;
• storing the caption text in a memory device without initially presenting the text captions;
• receiving a caption activation signal from the assisted user at a first time;
• and
• presenting the caption text corresponding to a period prior to the first time to the AU via an AU communication device display screen.

A method for captioning a hearing user's (HU's) voice during a call with an assisted user (AU), the method comprising the steps of:

• during a voice call between an HU communication device and an AU communication device, receiving an HU voice signal;
• broadcasting the HU voice signal via a speaker to the AU;
• receiving a caption activation signal from the assisted user at a first time;
• in response to receiving the caption activation signal;
• using an automated speech recognition (ASR) engine to generate ASR text for the HU voice signal;
• forming a link to a call assistant (CA) at a remote relay;
• transmitting the HU voice signal to the CA for transcription to CA generated text;
• receiving the CA generated text at the AU communication device;
• prior to receiving the CA generated text at the AU communication device, presenting the ASR text via an AU communication device display screen;
• and
• subsequent to receiving the CA generated text at the AU communication device, presenting the CA generated text via the AU communication device display screen.