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AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsPeter Thomas Brunet, Abraham P. Ittycheriah, Chandrasekhar Narayanaswami, Michael Alan Picheny, Bhuvana Ramabhadran
Estimating the term…
A method and apparatus is disclosed that allows people to carry on unobtrusive phone conversations in business or other settings where it is either not possible or impolite to talk. In the system of FIG. 1, the telephone user one will listen in the same manner as with a regular telephone. However, he will not speak into the telephone microphone. User one instead employs a unit including a keyboard to enter the text corresponding to what he wants to say. The text is converted into a synthesized speech using TTS apparatus and a voice output is sent to the microphone of the phone apparatus. The telephone apparatus transmits the synthesized voice signal over a standard telephone line to a unit including a conventional telephone speaker 26 and telephone microphone. User two, the party using the telephone at the other end, listens to a synthesized voice, but user one listens to the actual voice of user two with the telephone speaker, unless user two is also using a system similar to that of user one. Handwritten text may also be used in the system by employing a computer with a character recognition program as an input. In such a case handwriting is converted into synthesized sound and inputted into the telephone microphone. The telephone system can be used by the hearing impaired without involving a third party human transcriber.
A communication system for conducting a telephone communication without speaking and/or hearing comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.