Text enhanced telephony

Abstract

A system is described for assisting the hard of hearing in the use of the telephone, the system termed here text enhanced telephony or TET. The hard of hearing user uses a TET device or appliance which permits the user to speak and to hear the words spoken by the other party, the TET device also supplying to the user a text character stream of the words spoken by the other party. The TET system uses the system of voice-to-text relays, already in existence to assist the deaf community communicate with hearing persons over the telephone, to translate the spoken voice into a text stream. The TET relay and TET device are capable of separating voice and digital communications frequencies carrying text so that voice and a text communications stream of the words spoken by the voice can be carried over a common telephone line. The devices can also be capable of automated capabilities such that the devices can automatically configure a three-party relay call without the need for the user's instructions.

We claim:  
     
         1 . A text enhanced telephone station to receive both voice and text communications simultaneously over the same telephone line, the text communications transmitted using two digital communication tones, the station comprising: 
 a telephone hand set including a speaker and a microphone;    a connector adapted to be connected to the telephone line;    input wiring to carry input signals from the connector to the speaker;    output wiring to carry output signals from the microphone to the connector;    a notch filter is constructed to preferentially obstruct the passage of the two digital communication tones, the notch filter being connected in the input wiring to filter signals to the speaker so that the digital communications tones are not passed to the speaker;    a modem connected to the input wiring before the notch filter to convert any text communication at the digital communication tones to digital signals;    a microcontroller connected to receive the digital signals from the modem and to identify the characters encoded in the digital form; and    a visually readable display to display the characters identified by the microcontroller, the microcontroller programmed to display on the display the characters as they are received so that text communications received by the station representing the words spoken by a remote user can be displayed to be read by a user.    
     
     
         2 . A text enhanced telephone as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the digital communication tones are 1400 and 1800 hertz.  
     
     
         3 . A text enhanced telephone as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the microprocessor is programmed, when asked to initiate a call by the user, to (i) receive a telephone number from the user, (ii) dial and connect to a text enhanced telephone relay instead of the dialed telephone numbers, (iii) send to the relay machine control functions in an enhanced TDD protocol which directs the relay to dial the dialed telephone number and initiate text enhanced relay communications between the user and the dialed number.  
     
     
         4 . A text enhanced telephone as claimed in  claim 3  wherein there is further a plurality of user accessible switches to control the function of the microprocessor to turn on and off the automatic dialing of the text enhanced telephone relay.  
     
     
         5 . A text enhanced telephone as claimed in  claim 1  wherein there is a second notch filter on the output wiring to filter from the voice of the user any tones at the digital communication tones.  
     
     
         6 . A text enhanced telephone as claimed in  claim 1  wherein there is a band pass filter connecting the modem to the input wiring to pass only the digital communication tones to the modem.  
     
     
         7 . A text enhanced telephone communication device adapted to being connected in series between a conventional telephone and a telephone line to permit both voice and text communications to be carried on a common telephone line, the text communications carried at digital communication frequencies, the device comprising: 
 a first connector to connect to the telephone;    a second connector to connect to the telephone line;    two hybrids to separate onto separate wires the telephone signals outbound from the telephone from the telephone signals inbound to the telephone;    a notch filter connected in the wire for the inbound telephone signals connected to filter out any digital communications frequencies to prevent passage of text communications to the telephone;    a decoding circuit connected to the wire carrying the inbound telephone signals before the notch filter to decode the text communications from the digital communications frequencies;    a visual display; and    a microcontroller connected to the output of the decoding circuit programmed to decode the text characters in the text communications and to promptly display the characters on the visual display as the characters are received, wherein the device can receive both voice and text communications on the same telephone line with the voice passing to the user while the text communications of the spoken words are used to create a visual text character stream for reading by the user.    
     
     
         8 . A text enhanced telephone as claimed in  claim 7  wherein the digital communication frequencies are 1400 and 1800 hertz.  
     
     
         9 . A text enhanced telephone device as claimed in  claim 7  wherein the microcontroller is programmed, when asked to initiate a call by the user, to (i) receive a telephone number from the user, (ii) dial and connect to a text enhanced telephone relay instead of the dialed telephone numbers, (iii) send to the relay machine control functions in an enhanced TDD protocol which direct the relay to dial the dialed telephone number and initiate text enhanced relay communications between the user and the dialed number.  
     
     
         10 . A text enhanced telephone device as claimed in  claim 9  wherein there is a user accessible switch to control the function of the microcontroller to turn on and off the automatic dialing of the text enhanced telephone relay.  
     
     
         11 . A text enhanced telephone device as claimed in  claim 7  wherein the device also includes a dual tone multifrequency receiver to receive and decode dialing by the user.  
     
     
         12 . A text enhanced telephone device as claimed in  claim 7  wherein there is a second notch filter connected in the wire for the outbound telephone signal to filter out any voice components at the digital communications frequencies.  
     
     
         13 . A text enhanced telephone device as claimed in  claim 7  wherein there is a band pass filter connecting the decoding circuit to the wire carrying the inbound telephone signals to pass only signals at the digital communications frequency to the decoding circuit.  
     
     
         14 . A text enhanced telephone communication device adapted to being connected in series between a conventional telephone handset and the telephone base unit, and adapted to permit both voice and text communications carried at digital communications frequencies to be carried on a common telephone line connected to the telephone, the device comprising: 
 a first connector to connect to the telephone handset;    a second connector to connect to the telephone base unit, the first and second connectors being connected by inbound and outbound telephone wires;    a notch filter connected in the inbound wire to filter out any digital communications frequencies from transmission to the telephone handset;    a decoding circuit also connected to the inbound wire to decode the text communications from the digital communications frequencies;    a visual display;    a microcontroller connected to the output of the decoding circuit and the visual display and programmed to decode the text characters in the text communications and to promptly display the text characters on the visual display as the text characters are received, wherein the device can receive both voice and simultaneous text communications on the same telephone line with the voice passing to the user while the text communications are used to create a simultaneous visual text character stream for the user of the words being spoken by the voice.    
     
     
         15 . A text enhanced telephone device as claimed in  claim 14  wherein the digital communication frequencies are 1400 and 1800 hertz.  
     
     
         16 . A text enhanced telephone device as claimed in  claim 14  further including a notch filter connected in the output wire to prevent the user's voice from interfering with the text communications.  
     
     
         17 . A text enhanced telephone device as claimed in  claim 14  further including a band pass filter connecting the decoding circuit to the inbound wire so as to present only the digital communications frequencies to the decoding circuit.  
     
     
         18 . A text enhanced telephone station for communicating in both voice and text characters over the same telephone line, the text characters being transmitted at two discrete digital communication frequencies, the station comprising 
 a telephone handset including a speaker and a microphone;    a notch filter connected to the speaker to prevent the passage to the speaker of both of the digital communication frequencies;    a decoding circuit connected to the telephone line and responsive to signals at the digital communications frequencies received over the telephone line to convert those signals to digital signals;    an analog output circuit connected to the telephone line to convert digital information into signals at the two digital communications frequencies;    a visually readable display; and    a microprocessor connected to the decoding circuit and the analog output circuit and the display, the microprocessor programmed to display text characters received in digital form from the decoding circuit on the display so that the user can hear a voice and also see the text of the words that are spoken, the microprocessor also being programmed to, if a user indicates that a text enhanced call is to be originated, to transmit on the telephone line a series of command codes causing a relay to be connected as well as the called party, so that the relay can supply the text of the words spoken by the called party for display to the user.    
     
     
         19 . A text enhanced telephone station as claimed in  claim 18  wherein there is also a notch filter connected to the microphone so that the user's voice is filtered at the digital communications frequencies to prevent interference with the text communications.  
     
     
         20 . A text enhanced telephone as claimed in  claim 18  wherein the microprocessor indicates that a text enhanced call is to be made by communicating with the relay in an enhanced TDD communication protocol that permits command functions to be transmitted to the relay.  
     
     
         21 . A text enhanced telephone as claimed in  claim 20  wherein the enhanced TDD communication operates at the digital communications frequencies of 1400 and 1800 hertz.  
     
     
         22 . A relay for use in a telephone system for text enhanced communication and operated by a call assistant, the relay comprising 
 a first telephone line connected to a hearing user;    a second telephone line connected to a text enhanced user;    an audio telephone linkup with a speaker connected to the first telephone line so that the call assistant can hear words spoken on the first telephone line;    a communications terminal connected for transmitting a text character stream using digital communication frequencies to the second telephone line;    a notch filter connecting the second telephone line, the notch filters filtering out the digital communication frequencies such that voice can pass between the first and second telephone lines while no digital communication frequencies are passed to the first telephone or to the call assistant, thus permitting the call assistant to pass to the text enhanced user a text character stream of the words spoken by the hearing user without either of the hearing user or the call assistant hearing the digital communication frequencies.    
     
     
         23 . A relay as claimed in  claim 22  wherein the notch filter filters out the digital communications frequencies of 1400 and 1800 hertz.  
     
     
         24 . A relay as claimed in  claim 22  wherein there is also notch filter connected to the second telephone line so that any components of the voice of the hearing user do not interfere with the text communications between the call assistant and the text enhanced user.  
     
     
         25 . A relay as claimed in  claim 22  wherein both of the notch filters filter out the digital communication frequencies of 1400 and 1800 hertz.  
     
     
         26 . A relay as claimed in  claim 22  wherein the digital communications terminal is capable of receiving command codes from a text enhanced telephone device operated by the text enhanced user to cause the terminal to dial another party and automatically commence text enhanced telephone communications between the text enhanced user and the other party.  
     
     
         27 . A relay for use in a telephone system for text enhanced communication and operated by two call assistants, the relay comprising 
 a first telephone line connected to a first text enhanced user;    a second telephone line connected to a second text enhanced user;    an audio telephone linkup with a speaker connected to each of the first and second telephone lines so that a respective call assistant can hear words spoken on each of the respective telephone lines;    a communications terminal for each call assistant connected for transmitting a text character stream using digital communication frequencies, the terminal for each call assistant connected to transmit on the other telephone line than the one on which the call assistant is hearing words spoken;    a pair of notch filters connecting the telephone lines, the notch filters filtering out the digital communication frequencies such that voice can pass between the telephone lines while no digital communication frequencies are passed to the users or to the call assistant, thus permitting the respective call assistants to pass to a one of the two text enhanced user a text character stream of the words spoken by the other text enhanced user without either of the text enhanced users or the call assistants hearing the digital communication frequencies.    
     
     
         28 . A method for text enhancing telephone communications between a first telephone user who is hard of hearing or is deaf but can speak understandably and a second telephone user who can speak and hear the spoken word, the method comprising the steps of 
 connecting between the first and the second users a relay including speech to digital communications conversion capability such that the digital conversion of the text of the spoken words of the second user are transmitted at digital communications frequencies on the telephone line to the first user at the same time as the voice of the second user is transmitted over that same telephone line,    at the telephone station of the first user, filtering the incoming signal to the speaker of the first user so that the frequencies of digital communications are eliminated from the signal to the speaker; and    at the telephone station of the first user, simultaneously translating the digital conversion of the text received to text and displaying the text in visually readable form so that the first user receives both the voice of the second user as well as a text transcription of the words spoken by the second user.    
     
     
         29 . A method as claimed in  claim 28  wherein the digital communications conversion capability includes a human call assistant connected telephonically to the second user who enters words spoken by the second user into a digital communications terminal which places the text conversion in digital form at digital communications frequencies on the telephone line to the first user.  
     
     
         30 . A method as claimed in  claim 28  further comprising the step of at the telephone of the first user and at the relay filtering the telephone lines carrying voice to remove from the voices any frequency components at the digital communications frequencies so that the voice signals do not interfere with the text communications.  
     
     
         31 . A method as claimed in  claim 30  wherein the digital communications frequencies are 1400 and 1800 hertz.  
     
     
         32 . A method as claimed in  claim 28  further comprising the step of the first user initiating the call by dialing a number into a telephone connected to a text enhanced telephone device the text enhanced telephone device intercepting the dialed number and dialing instead the relay, the text enhanced telephone device then transmitting command codes to the relay instructing the relay to dial the number dialed by the first user and to initiate text enhanced communications through the relay with the dialed number.