Communication system for hearing-impaired persons comprising speech to text conversion terminal

摘要

A method and an apparatus for providing automated speech-to-text encoding and decoding for hearing-impaired persons. A broadband subscriber terminal interfaces to: (a) a network to convey speech packets thereover, (b) a telephone to convey speech information, and (c) a display device to display textual information of spoken words. A speech buffer in the subscriber terminal receives speech data and a processor decodes and displays textual representations of speech on the display device. A database stores voice and/or speech patterns that are used by a speech analyzer to recognize an incoming caller and to associate a name or characteristic (e.g., male or female) with the incoming call. A tonal and inflection analyzer analyzes speech to add punctuation to the displayed text. A detector, such as a DTMF detector, responds to subscriber inputs to activate/deactivate speech recognition or other functions. <IMAGE>