Claims
- 1. In a communication system that transmits text messages to mobile terminals, a mobile terminal comprising:
a receiver that receives voice and text messages over an RF channel; a text-to-speech (TTS) converter that employs a low complexity phonetic TTS algorithm; a speech decoder; and a switch that operates to selectively provide decoded data to the TTS converter or the speech decoder, wherein decoded data comprising a text message is provided to the TTS converter and decoded data comprising voice data is provided to the speech decoder.
- 2. The mobile terminal of claim 1, further comprising:
a voice recognition module; and a command interpreter module.
- 3. The mobile terminal of claim 2, further comprising:
a controller that produces text menu messages.
- 4. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the text messages are text messages transmitted under the Global Standard for Mobile communication (GSM) Short Message Service (SMS) protocol.
- 5. A method for providing audible output of text messages in a communication system that transmits voice and text messages to mobile terminals, the method comprising:
receiving voice and text messages over an RF channel; decoding a received message; selectively providing the decoded data to a text-to-speech (TTS) converter or a speech decoder based on the decoded data, wherein decoded data comprising a text message is provided to the TTS converter and decoded data comprising voice data is provided to the speech decoder; and outputting the received message in audible form, wherein the TTS converter employs a low complexity phonetic TTS algorithm.
- 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:
producing, by a controller within the mobile terminal, text menu messages; generating, within the mobile terminal, audible messages corresponding to the text menu messages; and outputting the audible text menu messages to the user.
- 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the audible menu messages are generated using the TTS converter.
- 8. The method of claim 6, wherein the audible menu messages are generated using a voice synthesizer connected to the speech decoder.
- 9. The method of claim 5, further comprising:
receiving a spoken command; processing the received command within a voice recognition module to produce a recognized word; matching the recognized word to an associated mobile terminal command; issuing an action corresponding to the mobile terminal command to a command execution block within the mobile terminal; and providing an audible acknowledgment to user upon completion of the command.
- 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the audible acknowledgment is generated using the TTS converter.
- 11. The method of claim 9, wherein the audible acknowledgment is generated using a voice synthesizer connected to the speech decoder
Parent Case Info
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/069,173 filed on Apr. 29, 1998; the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09069173 |
Apr 1998 |
US |
Child |
09955035 |
Sep 2001 |
US |