AU733402B3 - A reliable way to send alphanumeric information from a touch tone phone to a computer - Google Patents

Description

"A reliable way to send alphanumeric information from a normal analogue touchtone phone to a computer." This invention allows reliable transmission of alphanumeric text and messages from a touchtone normal phone to a computer running a telephone listeningcomputer application. A computer program receives DTMF tone information from a speakerphone modem. The information received will either be 0123456789#* Accordingly, the computer will translate the information in the following manner.

Each phone number has the following alphabetic text associated with it.

2 abc 3 def 4 ghi jkl 6 mno 7 pqrs 8 tuv 9 wxyz The computer program accepts numbers from the modem and translates them into text in the following manner: Word register one holds the text translation by the following manner Rt N r:)y, 2 A 3 D 4 G

J

6 M 7 P 8 T 9 W Table 1.

Word register two translates according to thte Mobile Phone short message text grammer, that is, 2 A 22 B 222 C 3 D 33 E 333 F 4 G T4,;1 44 H 444 1

J

K

5555 L 6 M 66 N 666 0 7 P 77 Q 777 R 7777 S 8 T 88 U 888 V 9 w 99 X A. R 4 999 Y 9999 Z Table 2.

Note: keystrokes more than a threshold of time apart cannot be combined to form a single letter.

Word register two is presented to the user on a computer screen (say as a message that a deaf person using a text teletype can receive from a phone). When the sender of the message reaches the end of a word then he strikes a STAR key (the asterick), or the key. This key is the word delimiter. When this happens the contents of Word Register One are looked up in a dictionary by binary search. The dictionary will have two pieces of information per word, the letters that would be struck for each word in the dictionary according to Table 1, and the word that is meant by the key strokes. An Example follows: 843 is the DTMF sequence struck TGD is the word held in Word Register One via translation of Table 1.

The dictionary has the following entry: TGD THE ABLE and CABLE has the same codes accoirding to Table 1. The dictionary holds them in the following manner AAJD ABLEICABLE 4,c€t When the asterick key is struck and the dictionary lookup happens the following rules are applied: 1) if the dictionary recognizes the contents of Word Register One as a dictionary word then the word is spoken back to the user over the phone by a Text To Speech engine, and the word on the client's screen (the computer screen holding Register Word Two) are backspaced and replaced with the dictionary word recognized.

a) if the user recognizes the word as the one he meant he simply continues on with the next word confident he is sending the correct message b) if the user recognizes the word as a word but not the word he meant then he continues to strike the asterick key until he hears the correct word. Each word that matches the contents of Word Register One are in sequence spoken to him until-he hear the right one.

ABLE and CABLE:are such words, they both'equate to AAJD' according to Table 1.

(If there are two words that match for instance hitting the asterick key three times will cause the saying of WORD ONE, WORD TWO, WORD ONE. The list of matched words is a rotating one).

c) if the user hears a word that he hasn't meant to send he hits the "0" (zero) key and the contents of Word Register One and Word Register Two are cleared as well as any word that has appeared on the Client screen.

2) if the dictionary does not recognize the word then. the letter contents of Word Register Two are spelled back to the user using a text to speech RZ A engine. That is, the word that was sent as if it were by the Short Message Service familiar to mobile phones. In this way proper names and placenames as well as slang can be sent.

a) if the spelling of the word is not to the user's liking then the user can hit the Zero key and the words held in Word Register One and Word Register Two are cleared as well as the word being backspaced on the client's computer screen.

b) If the spelling of the word is true to what the user wished to send then the user continues on with the next word.

3) if the HASH key (the is struck this sends the computer program into NUMERIC mode and all numbers sent via DTMF tones are interpreted directly as numbers. When the ASTERICK key is struck again the sequence of numbers is "spoken" back to the user one number at a time and the user St :i has the option of accepting the sequence or backspacing it.

0 15 In this manner most dictionary words (the current working application has over 100,000) can be typed one DTMF tone per letter instead of the one to four DTMF tones per letter manner of the Mobile Short Message Service idea. If one has a slang word, or a proper name or placename that would not be in a dictionay they can use the Mobile Short Message Service manner of sending information. Thus all words in a language can be accomodated but most can be accomodated one DTMF tone per letter.

As well, the user (the person at the end of the phone) can be sure of what message he is sending due to the Text To Speech response echoing back to him what has succeeded in reaching the computer. In practice most computer modems only are 95 percent effective at recognising DTMF tones so this method is necessary for reliable communication between a person at a touchtone phone and a computer receiving DTMF tones through a modem.

L\ In addition to the computer program supplied dictionary which supplies most words in the language a private dictionary is also consulted. By the client adding the words (say of his family or friends or places of work) in the private dictionary then frequently needed nondictionary words can be accomodated using this scheme.

I VOV.

Claims (3)

1. A system for the transmission and reception of words, each word comprising one or more alphanumeric characters, the system including: a telephone having a DTMF tone generating means, and operable, under control of a sender, to transmit a word in the form of a sequence of DTMF tones, and decoding means, operable to receive and decode the DTMF sequence, and including: a text to speech translator, a first register, a second register, and storage means having a dictionary of known words corresponding to pre-determined DTMF tone sequences stored therein, the decoding means being operable to simultaneously decode the received DTMF tone sequence as a single word in accordance with first and second translation schemes and to store the decoded DTMF tone sequence in the first and second registers respectively, the decoding means being further operable to compare the decoded DTMF tone sequence stored in the first register with the words stored in the dictionary storage means, and, upon detection of one or more matches between the decoded DTMF tone sequence stored in the first register and those words stored in the storage m 20 means, to translate those words into speech using the textto-speech translator and to sequentially relay those matches to the telephone, and, in response to the absence of a detected match, to spell the decoded DTMF sequence stored in the second register to the sender, the telephone being operable, under the control of the sender, to send a rejection tone to the decoding means if a relayed word is incorrect, to thereby clear the first and second registers.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the first translation scheme translates the DTMF tone sequence according to the following scheme where 2=A; 3=D; 4=G; 5=J; 6=M; 7=P; 8=T; and 9=W; and the second translation scheme translates the DTMF tone sequence according to the following scheme where 2=A; 22=B; 222=C; 3=D; 33=E; 333=F; 4=G; 44=H; 444=1; 5=J; 55=K; 555=L; 6=M; 66=N; 666=0; 7=P; 77=Q; 777=R; 7777=S; 8=T; 88=U; 888=V; 9=W; 99=X; 999=Y; 9999=Z.

3. A system according to claim 1, further including a display for displaying the decoded words, firstly as stored in the second register, and then as the sequence of matches. N2 C'