Claims
- 1. A method of operating language-based conversion of a present text message into speech, the method comprising the following steps:
a. retrieving the present text message; b. automatically generating a language identifier corresponding to the present text message; c. converting the present text message directly into computer-generated speech in response to the language identifier; and d. playing the computer generated speech to a subscriber.
- 2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of converting is performed by a text-to-speech engine utilizing a phoneme library.
- 3. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the following steps:
a. sensing a subsequent text message; and b. repeating the steps of retrieving, generating, converting, and playing in response to the step of sensing.
- 4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of automatically generating further comprising the following steps:
a. examining a sequence of characters of the present text message; b. forming an occurrence frequency of the present text message based upon the sequence of characters of the present text message; and c. matching the occurrence frequency with one of a plurality of corecurrence libraries.
- 5. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the step of matching further comprising the steps of:
a. comparing the occurrence frequency with each of a plurality of reference frequencies wherein each of the plurality of reference frequencies corresponds to one of the plurality of corecurrence libraries; and b. determining a best match between the occurrence frequency and one of the plurality of reference frequencies.
- 6. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the step of examining comprises a trigraph analyzer for inspecting a combination of three consecutive characters within the sequence of characters.
- 7. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the sequence of characters is found in a first portion of the present text message.
- 8. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the step of matching further comprising the following steps:
a. comparing the occurrence frequency with each of a plurality of reference frequencies wherein each of the plurality of reference frequencies corresponds to one of the plurality of corecurrence libraries; and b. determining that a sufficient number of matches exist between the occurrence frequency and one of the plurality of reference frequencies.
- 9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the step of matching is performed when there is the sufficient number of matches between the occurance frequency and one of the plurality of reference frequencies.
- 10. The method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising the step of terminating the method when the sufficient number of matches does not exist.
- 11. A method of providing language-based conversion of an original text message into speech for a user comprising the following steps:
a. retrieving the original text message; b. automatically generating a language identifier corresponding to the original text message; and c. translating the original text message into a translated text message in a user selected language based upon the language identifier.
- 12. The method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising the following steps:
a. converting the translated text message into computer generated speech based upon the user selected language; and b. playing the computer generated speech to the user.
- 13. The method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising the following step: polling the user for the user selected language.
- 14. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the step of automatically generating further comprising the following steps:
a. examining a sequence of characters of the original text message; b. forming an occurrence frequency of the original text message from the sequence of characters of the original text message; and c. matching the occurrence frequency with one of a plurality of corecurrence libraries.
- 15. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the step of matching further comprising the following steps:
a. comparing the occurrence frequency with each of a plurality of reference frequencies wherein each of the plurality of reference frequencies corresponds to one of the plurality of corecurrence libraries; and b. determining that there is a sufficient number of matches between the occurrence frequency and one of the plurality of reference frequencies.
- 16. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the step of matching further comprising the following steps:
a. comparing the occurrence frequency with each of a plurality of reference frequencies wherein each of the plurality of reference frequencies corresponds to one of the plurality of corecurrence libraries; and b. determining a best match between the occurrence frequency and the plurality of reference frequencies.
- 17. A messaging system for converting a text message into computer generated speech, the system comprising:
a. means for storing the text message; b. means for automatically generating a language identifier corresponding to the text message wherein the means for automatically generating is coupled to the means for storing; and c. a text to speech engine coupled to the means for storing wherein the text to speech engine converts the text message into the computer generated speech based upon the language identifier.
- 18. The system as claimed in claim 17 wherein the means for automatically generating further comprising means for comparing an occurrence frequency of the text message with a plurality of reference frequencies wherein each reference frequency corresponds to a particular corecurrence library.
- 19. The system as claimed in claim 17 further comprises a phoneme library coupled to the text to speech engine for converting the text message into the computer generated speech.
- 20. The system as claimed in claim 17 wherein the means for automatically generating further comprises a trigraph analyzer to formulate an occurrence frequency of the text message based on examining a combination of three consecutive characters within the text message.
- 21. A voice messaging system for providing voice messaging services to a set of subscribers, the voice messaging system comprising:
a. means for retrieving a text message; b. means for automatically generating a language identifier corresponding to the text message; c. means for converting the text message into computer-generated speech based upon the language identifier; and d. means for playing the computer-generated speech to a subscriber.
- 22. The voice messaging system according to claim ? further comprising a voice gateway server configured to be connected to a computer network and a Private Branch Exchange, wherein the voice gateway server facilitates.
- 23. A method of operating language-based conversion of a present text message into speech, the method comprising the following steps:
a. retrieving the present text message; b. automatically generating a language identifier corresponding to the present text message; c. selecting an appropriate text-to-speech engine in response to the language identifier; d. converting the present text message directly into computer-generated speech in response to the appropriate text-to-speech engine; and e. playing the computer generated speech to a subscriber.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation application filed from and claiming priority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 of co-pending non-provisional U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/099,744, filed on Jun. 18, 1998, entitled “UNIFIED MESSAGING SYSTEM WITH AUTOMATIC LANGUAGE IDENTIFICATION FOR TEXT-TO-SPEECH CONVERSION,” which claims priority, under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of provisional U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 60/051,720, filed on Jul. 3, 1997, and entitled “UNIFIED MESSAGING SYSTEM WITH AUTOMATIC LANGUAGE IDENTIFICATION FOR TEXT-TO-SPEECH CONVERSION.” This application also claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 of co-pending non-provisional U.S. patent application Ser. No. not yet assigned, filed on Jan. 7, 2000, entitled “UNIFIED MESSAGING SYSTEM WITH VOICE MESSAGING AND TEXT MESSAGING USING TEXT-TO-SPEECH CONVERSION.” application Ser. No. 09/099,744, filed on Jun. 18, 1998, application Ser. No. ______, filed on Jan. 7, 2000, and provisional application Serial No. 60/052,720, filed Jul. 3, 1997, are hereby incorporated by reference. In addition, this application relates to and incorporates by reference U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,659, entitled “ELECTRONIC MAIL SYSTEM HAVING INTEGRATED VOICE MESSAGES.”
Provisional Applications (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60051720 |
Jul 1997 |
US |
Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09099744 |
Jun 1998 |
US |
Child |
09480296 |
Jan 2000 |
US |