Text Captioned Telephone Service via Internet Relay
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users who rely on text captioning for communication face challenges when using telephone systems outside their normal environment, particularly with proprietary PBX lines and cellular telephones that do not support analog text captioning, limiting accessibility and requiring specialized equipment.
Innovation Solution
A system that utilizes a standard telephone in conjunction with an Internet-connected computer to provide text captioning, where voice signals are transmitted over the Internet to a relay service for real-time captioning, allowing text captioning to be implemented using commonly available office equipment and existing relay services, without the need for specialized telephone hardware or high-speed Internet.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If specialized telephone terminal hardware is used for text captioning, then text captioning functionality is provided, but device complexity increases and adaptability to different telephone systems decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary system consisting of a relay service and Internet connection that mediates between the telephone terminal and the captioning service. The relay service receives voice signals from the telephone, processes them through speech recognition, and transmits text captions via the Internet, eliminating the need for specialized terminal hardware while maintaining compatibility with various telephone systems including PBX and cellular phones
Solution Approach 2:
The patent makes the captioning service universal by allowing any standard telephone terminal (including PBX phones and cellular phones) to access the service through the relay and Internet infrastructure. The system is not limited to specialized TDD hardware but can be accessed through any telephone that can connect to the relay service, providing multi-functionality across different device types
2Adaptability or versatility
If proprietary PBX telephone lines are used, then telephone communication is provided, but text captioning capability is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The relay service acts as an intermediary that bridges proprietary PBX telephone lines with the captioning service. It receives voice signals from PBX phones, processes them through speech recognition, and transmits text captions via Internet connection, enabling text captioning capability on PBX systems without modifying the proprietary telephone infrastructure
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical/analog captioning system with a digital system that uses Internet communication. Instead of requiring analog text captioning capabilities on PBX lines, the system substitutes this with digital voice signal transmission over the Internet to the relay service, which then generates and transmits text captions electronically
3Adaptability or versatility
If cellular telephones without text captioning support are used, then portability is achieved, but text captioning functionality is unavailable
Solution Approach 1:
The relay service and Internet connection serve as intermediaries that enable text captioning functionality on portable cellular phones. The cellular phone transmits voice signals through the relay service, which processes them and sends text captions back to the user's device, providing captioning capability on portable devices without requiring built-in captioning hardware
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides universal access to text captioning on any cellular phone with Internet capability, regardless of whether the phone has native text captioning support. The relay service infrastructure makes the captioning functionality available across different cellular phone models and carriers, enhancing the versatility and portability of the service
Data Source
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AI summary
Text captioned telephony, in which a telephone conversation is accompanied b text captions to aid in hard-of-hearing users, is implemented without the use of specialized text captioned telephone terminals by using a combination of an Internet appliance such as a computer and a telephone or by generalized voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) telephones.