GB2307822A

GB2307822A - Text communication systems

Info

Publication number: GB2307822A
Application number: GB9524248A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Jeffrey Wilson
Original assignee: Intellprop Ltd
Current assignee: Intellprop Ltd
Priority date: 1995-11-28
Filing date: 1995-11-28
Publication date: 1997-06-04
Anticipated expiration: 2015-11-28
Also published as: GB9524248D0; GB2307822B

Abstract

In a communication system allowing text messages to be entered on the keypad of a telephone 13, for example for onward transmission by a transmitter 11 to a selected receiver 12 for display on the receiver, a telephony server 10 provides confirmation of correct message entry by speaking back individual words and then the complete message to the caller who has entered the message. The text message can be entered on a numerical keypad also having letters shown on the number keys. When a series of key inputs corresponds to more than one word, the caller can reject the word spoken back by the telephony server 10 until the required word is spoken. Numbers can also be entered, as can individual letters for spelling words not recognised by the system.

Description

TEXT COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS This invention relates to communication systems which can be used to send text messages such as alphanumeric messages from a telephone terminal to a desired destination.

Known communication systems include selective call or paging systems which generally use automatic means for sending tone or numeric messages to a receiver and manual means to send alphanumeric messages to an alphanumeric receiver. However, some systems exist which allow letter input from an ordinary MF (multi-frequency) telephone using a predefined alphanumeric code.

As speech recognition capability improves, there exists the possibility of automatic input of pager messages. but given the large potential vocabulary and large variation found between native speakers this approach is not yet considered fully practicable.

In one known paging system. automated services exist for numeric and alphanumeric pagers that work as follows. If a subscriber wishes a numeric pager user to telephone them, they dial a telephone number consisting of a predefined prefix followed by the number of the required pager. Upon answer they then press the star key twice. As the system captures the caller's calling line identity, their telephone number is then transmitted to the numeric pager. This is a very fast and effective means of transmitting the caller's telephone number, but does not allow specific numeric or alphanumeric messages to be sent.

For subscribers with alphanumeric pagers. it is possible to enter a message using two keystrokes for each letter; however, this system suffers from a number of disadvantages as the caller receives no feedback on the message input. This lack of feedback and flexibility therefore make the service difficult for widespread use.

In the United Kingdom, British Telecom operates a paging bureau which allows alphanumeric messages to be sent to any alphanumeric pager. This service provides for the caller to speak the required message to a bureau operator, who then enters the message via a keyboard for transmission to the requested pager. The need to route all alphanumeric messages through a bureau operator leads to relatively high operating costs which are then reflected in the pager user's service charges.

Traditionally, pagers have been available on a subscription basis with calls to the service priced relatively cheaply. However, a number of new service offerings are now available and one of these, known as "Caller Party Pays" paging, allows a pager user to buy a pager with one-off payment, with the service revenue being gained from the calling party initiating message transmission, calls being made to premium rate numbers from which the paging operator receives a share of the call revenue. This approach has allowed numeric pagers to be available on a non-subscription basis and generally numeric messages can be input from any telephone using either MF signalling or speech recognition of the digits, i.e. speech recognition using a limited vocabulary in order to achieve good recognition performance.

Current systems do not encourage widespread use of Caller Party Pays paging for alphanumeric pagers since the provision of bureau operators in such a system would result in the costs of the calls being too high for widespread use, except in countries where appropriatelyskilled labour costs are low. Even then, efficient labour utilisation is difficult to achieve since busy times requiring larger numbers of operators may be difficult to predict. This problem could to some extent be addressed by the use of recorded call systems in which the operators subsequently process recorded calls, but this would involve both increased system costs and delays in the onward transmission of messages.

It has also been proposed, for example for use in teletext systems, to use two-digit numerical codes, each representing an individual letter, for input of text messages on a letter-by-letter basis. However, this is a slow and cumbersome method of composing messages of any significant length, and also requires the user to have access to a table showing correspondence between letters and codes.

According to the invention there is provided a text communication system comprising means for decoding messages entered by the use of telephone dialling means having number entry and a plurality of letters associated with each of at least some of the numbers, the message decoding means comprising a telephony server operable to read back words identified as a number sequence but entered letter by letter by the telephone dialling means, and operable in response to a predetermined input from the telephone dialling means indicating an unwanted word to read back an alternative word associated with the same number sequence, the message decoding means being operable to validate a wanted word in response to further input from the telephone dialling means, the telephony server being operable to read back the complete message upon completion of input, the system including means for communicating the complete message.

In a preferred embodiment, it is possible to enter individual letters if the word to be input is not in a vocabulary list of the telephony server. Assuming that the number input is associated with more than one letter, the telephone server will, in response to a predetermined input from the telephone dialling means, such as the number of times that a particular key has been activated, read back one of the letters associated with the number on that key. For example, if a particular key represents 'A', 'B' or 'C', a single key activation may represent 'A', double activation may represent 'B', and triple activation may represent 'C'.

Although, at first sight, the provision on a telephone keypad or the like of a group of letters associated with each of some of the numbers may suggest that text entry using the number/letter keys might be possible, further consideration makes this seem impractical for the following reason. Since, typically, the number keys each represent either three or four letters, the number of possible letter combinations is large. For example, for a four-letter word input by keys each representing three letters, the number of letter combinations represented by a four-digit sequence will be 34 = 81; for a four-letter word input by keys each representing four letters. the number of letter combinations represented by a four-digit sequence will be 44 = 256.

Naturally, many of these letter combinations will not constitute proper words, but it would still seem that there would be sufficient word confusability to render such text input impractical. Surprisingly, it has been found that, in particular with a restricted vocabulary list such as one including only everyday words, this is not in fact the case and that the majority of letter combinations will include just one commonly-used word. This, in connection with the feature of easilyinvoked speechback of alternative words (where present) and validation of the desired word, makes systems embodying the invention both easy to use and fast in operation.In particular, if the alternative words are ranked in priority (of use) order, expanding the vocabulary list should make little difference to the ease of use of the system for simple messages, since there is a high probability that the required word in each case will be the first to be spoken back by the system. Also, the fact that, in the preferred embodiment, the complete message is read back to the caller prior to onward transmission provides a further opportunity for any errors in the message to be identified and corrected before transmission.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, throughout which like parts are referred to by like references, and in which: Figure 1 shows an automated text entry messaging system according to an embodiment of the invention; Figures 2A to 2E respectively show five different versions of telephone keypad which can be used for text entry in the system of Figure 1; and Figures 3 to 6 are flow diagrams showing the operational input steps with speech responses for four typical calls.

Referring to Figure 1 of the drawings, the preferred automated mess aging system comprises a telephony server 10 connected to a messaging transmission system, such as a paging transmission system 11 which can transmit to a multiplicity of pagers including a specific pager 12. The telephony server 10 is accessed from a telephone 13 via a telephone network 14.

The telephony server 10 may, for example, be a Telsis Hi-Call, particular features of which are described in International Patent Application Publication No. WO 92/22165. In that publication, the telephony server is referred to as a voice services equipment (VSE).

Other terms include voice response system (VRS) or interactive voice response (IVR) equipment.

Associated with the telephony server 10, and optionally forming part of the telephone server 10, are a vocabulary list store 15 and a corresponding speech output means 16. The vocabulary list store 15 includes a list of text words to be recognised by the system, and also a translation table for translating number key inputs into text words.

The speech output means 16 has the ability to provide voice-processed speech output of the words in the store 15, as well as of individual numbers and letters.

The operation of the telephony server 10, the vocabulary list store 15 and the speech output means 16 will now be described in the context of automating message entry and transmission to pagers.

A caller wishing to send a message to the pager 12 would dial from the telephone 13 a telephone number that can be one or more predefined numbers or a telephone number related in some way to the pager number. The use of the word 'dial' is intended to cover any form of telephone entry means by which telephone numbers (and the letters represented thereby) can be input by a caller.

In the event that the pager number does not form some part or part thereof of the telephone number dialled, then either a predefined pager will be selected based on some other information, which may be the caller's telephone number or other data, or at some time during the interaction between the caller and the telephony server the pager number will be entered.

The telephony server 10 will answer the call routed via the telephone network 14 and interact with the caller in order to accept in a manner acceptable for widespread use the input of text messages for onward transmission via the paging transmission system 11 to the pager 12.

As described above, the telephony server 10 is associated with the vocabulary list store 15 which includes a stored list of text words, namely a vocabulary list, and also means for correlating information input by the caller with the words as well as individual letters or numbers, by means of which the equipment is able to decode messages entered by the use of a telephone dialling means, such as a telephone keypad, and to read back the entered messages by the speech output means 16 for confirmation of correct entry.

In order for effective input to be possible, the telephone 13 may be provided with letters shown on the number keys, for example in accordance with Figure 2A. This is a number/letter layout being introduced in the UK; other layouts such as those shown in Figures 2B to 2E may be used, for example in other countries such as the USA, and the access to the vocabulary list store 15 associated with the telephony server 10 would need to be arranged accordingly to allow for any different layout, as discussed below.

If the telephone to be used does not have letters on the number keys, it may be possible to provide a template or simply an illustration as in Figure 2A (or any of Figures 2B to 2E as appropriate) for the user to work out which number keys are to be activated.

Operation of the preferred system will be described by referring to specific examples of word input, these corresponding to the key layout shown in Figure 2A. In general, in the preferred system, to enter a word, it is sufficient to press the keys which contain each of the letters in turn, then to press the hash (&num;) key.

For example, to enter "OFFICE", the following keys would be depressed: "6 3 3 4 2 3 &num;". Assuming that the word is in the vocabulary list store 15 associated with the telephony server 10, the word "office" will be identified from the number key inputs, and the speech output means 16 will cause the system to say "office" as soon as the hash key is activated and will then await the next word.

It may sometimes be necessary to enter numbers, such as for time or date identification purposes. This is done by firstly depressing the star (*) key. For example, to enter "636", the following keys would be depressed: "* 6 3 6 #". The system will say "six, three, six" as soon as the hash key is activated.

If a desired word is not in the vocabulary list store 15, the system will say "no entry" or similar upon attempted entry. In that case, it is possible to spell the message letter by letter; multiple activation of the corresponding key is used, as follows. For example, the number 2 represents 'A', 'B' or 'C' in Figure 2A. One activation of the key represents 'A', two represent 'B' and three represent 'C'.

In order to enter spelling mode, key number 1 is depressed, whereupon the system will say "spelling" or the like. The code for each letter is then entered, using multiple key activation where necessary. Each time that the hash key is depressed, the system will say the letter and then await the next.

For example, to enter "ESHER", first input "1" to enter spelling mode, then "3 3 &num;" for 'E', "7 7 7 7 #" for 'S', "4 4 &num;" for 'H', "3 3 &num;" for 'E', and "7 7 7 &num;" for 'R'. Each letter will be spoken back by the system upon each depression of the hash key. At the end of the spelled word, the key "1" is depressed once more, and the system will confirm by saying "end spelling" or the like.

As indicated above, there are situations in which different common words will have the same code, for example "RAIN" and "PAIN" both have the code 7246. In such cases. upon input of "7 2 4 6 &num;", the system will say the more popular of the words with that code. If this is the desired word, the user proceeds to the next word in the message to be input in the usual way; if not, the hash key is pressed again, and the system will say the alternate word. If there are more than two possible words, the user continues to depress the hash key until the desired word is spoken. Again, once this has occurred, the user proceeds to the next word in the message to be input.When the user comes to the end of the list of words, the system may say "no entry" whereupon the user can continue to press the hash key to hear the list of words again in turn, or may press the key "1" to enter the spelling mode as discussed above.

If the user makes a mistake, an entry can be deleted by pressing "0 0 0 &num;". For example, if the word "meet" has been entered by "6 3 3 8 &num;" and the system has spoken back the word "meet", the user may delete this by entering "0 0 0 &num;" whereupon the system will say "meet deleted" or similar.

Once the message has been completed, the code "* * &num;" is entered, whereupon the system will say the complete message and ask the user to confirm or validate the message, for example by pressing the key "1" to confirm or the key '0' to reject the message. If 'O' is pressed, it is then possible to start with a completely new message.

If '1' is pressed, the system will confirm acceptance of the message, which will then be sent to the transmission system 11 for onward transmission/reception and display.

Figures 3 to 6 show operational input steps for four typical calls, with details of the speech interaction during the call, including message destination input and message text entry. The message texts for Figures 3 to 6 are, respectively, "Meeting delayed until 5", "Please call the office", "Meet me at Asda", and "Did you win The system has been described as operating with a telephone keyboard layout as shown in Figure 2A. As mentioned above, the translation between number key activation and the text words in the vocabulary list store 15 will need to be changed if a different keyboard layout, such as one of the layouts shown in Figures 2B to 2E, is used instead.In a simple system, the translation between a particular keyboard layout and the associated letters may be fixed, and this will be adequate in situations where it is definite that no other keyboard layout will be used. However, when it is possible that different users may have different keyboard layouts, some means of layout identification should be provided. For example, in a scriptdetermined system, the telephony server 10 may initially request the user to activate some key combination, such as firstly the star key followed by the hash key, and then the user may be requested to enter either a series of letters which will uniquely identify the key layout, or possibly a characteristic word which will provide different (but unique) number codes depending on the key layout.Alternatively, the user may enter, in response to an appropriate request, the name and/or serial number of the telephone, or respond appropriately to a list of such names and/or numbers spoken by the system, such that an affirmative reply will set the appropriate translation mode within the system.

Although as described above, the system can be used for the immediate transmission of messages, the addition of a database 17 allows other facilities such as reminder services to be offered as well. Thus, for example, by the use of appropriate codes, the user could enter date/time dependent reminders via the telephony server 10 to the database 17, for example providing notification of meetings, birthdays, anniversaries and the like; when the entered date/time matches the current date/time, the appropriate reminder will be sent from the database 17 via the telephony server 10 and the transmission system 11, or alternatively direct from the database 17 to the transmission system 11, to the required pager, which can be either the user's own pager or one belonging to a third party.

The system can also be used to expand the facilities available from a telephone system, such as the provision of contact services.

Thus, for example, if a message to a pager user, entered as described above, gives an indication that the caller wishes to speak to the pager user at that instant, a facility can be provided by the telephony server 10 to hold the incoming call (for example, for a predetermined time) whereupon the pager user can telephone the system and be linked up with the caller.

The system can be used to control other aspects of telephone systems as well. As long as the telephone system is set up to recognise text word commands sent to it. these can be entered by means of the preferred text-entry communication system.

As discussed above, the telephone network 14 is a public network but it will be apparent that communication between the telephones and the telephony server 10 could in appropriate circumstances be provided by a PABX system instead or as well.

If desired, the telephony server 10 can be set up to deliver a personalised acknowledgement or greeting when a caller rings in to deliver a message for a particular user. This could be either by way of voice synthesis or could be a pre-recorded message. Other types of voice interaction can also be provided by the telephony server 10. For example, if personnel within a company each carry a pager, and the caller does not know an individual's number, it could be possible for the caller to get the required information by specifying the company name, whereupon a list of numbers and associated personnel would be reproduced. This facility could also be available in a broader context to provide a "directory enquiries" type feature.

Although the invention has been described in the context of a paging system whereby entered messages are communicated for display on selected pagers, it will be apparent that a similar technique can be used in any system requiring text messages or commands to be entered by telephone, such as for onward transmission to a required party.

Examples of other such systems include electronic mail systems, teletext systems, SMS (short message service) telephone systems which provide displays on mobile telephones for the communication of text information, computer access systems, classified advertisement entry systems, and fax entry systems.

The telephone dialling means as described above is in the form of a layout of keys on a keypad, such as one using MF dialling. However, any other form of dialling may be used, even pulse dialling although this would involve some reduction in user convenience and speed of use.

A further alternative would be a screen-based processing system in which a representation of the keypad is displayed on the screen, and individual keys may be activated by the use of a mouse, cursor keys or other input entry devices.

It will be apparent that the words included in the vocabulary list store 15 (and the corresponding spoken versions from the speech output means 16) can be selected as desired, and may be customised to fit specific requirements. For example, the vocabulary list may include names, places and parts of addresses in order to simplify use of the system. Common misspellings, slang and US spellings are further examples which can be included in the list. Hyphenated words can be treated in various ways; preferably the hyphen is ignored and the word is input as either two separate words or as a single merged word.

Apostrophes may again simply be ignored and the text merged together, or a dedicated code provided for entry of the apostrophe by means of the keys. Other punctuation can also be ignored or, if desired, could be entered by dedicated key combinations; if a large number of punctuation symbols is to be accommodated, alternatives can be spoken back by the system and selected by the user as with multiple words.

The following Table shows part of a vocabulary list (with associated number key inputs) which can be used in the system. As can be seen, some of the number key combinations include one alternative word, and a few others include more than one alternative version.

TABLE 949 why 966 won zoo 968 you 969 wow 2225 back 2227 cabs 2229 baby 2233 cafe 2243 ache 2247 bags 2249 achy 2253 cake able 2255 ball call 2256 calm 2263 came band 2265 bank 2267 cans camp 2268 cant 2273 card case base care acre 2274 cash 2275 cask 2277 bars cars 2278 cast 2284 bath 2287 cats 2327 bear 2328 beat 2336 been 2337 beds beer 2355 bell 2378 best 2428 chat 2433 aged 2437 ages 2447 chip 2453 bike 2455 bill 2473 bird 2483 bite 2489 city 2547 clip 2569 blow 2582 club 2583 blue clue 2625 coal 2628 coat boat 2639 body 2653 cold coke 2663 come 2665 book cook cool 2673 cope core 2676 born 2677 boss 2678 cost

Claims

CLAIMS 1. A text communication system comprising means for decoding messages entered by the use of telephone dialling means having number entry and a plurality of letters associated with each of at least some of the numbers, the message decoding means comprising a telephony server operable to read back words identified as a number sequence but entered letter by letter by the telephone dialling means. and operable in response to a predetermined input from the telephone dialling means indicating an unwanted word to read back an alternative word associated with the same number sequence, the message decoding means being operable to validate a wanted word in response to further input from the telephone dialling means, the telephony server being operable to read back the complete message upon completion of input, the system including means for communicating the complete message.
2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the telephony server is further operable, when set in letter entry mode, to read back letters entered by the telephone dialling means in response to predetermined input from the telephone dialling means.
3. A system according to claim 2, wherein the predetermined input from the telephone dialling means involves activation of a predetermined number key a different number of times respectively corresponding to the different letters associated with that number key.
4. A system according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim 3, including means for storing a vocabulary list of text words for identification of words entered letter by letter by a caller entering the message, and for identification of alternative words if necessary.
5. A system according to claim 4, including speech output means having a store of speech words corresponding to the vocabulary list in the text word store, for reading back speech words to the caller.
6. A system according to claim 4 or claim 5, wherein the message decoding means includes means for correlating the input from the telephone dialling means with the list of text words, at least some of the number code inputs from the telephone dialling means each corresponding to more than one word in the list.
7. A system according to claim 6, wherein the means for correlating the input from the telephone dialling means with the list of text words has the ability for the correlation to be changed to allow for different formats of telephone dialling means.
8. A system according to claim 7, wherein the correlating means is changeable in script-determined form.
9. A system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein correspondence between numbers and letters on the telephone dialling means is as set out in any of Figures 2A to 2E of the accompanying drawings.
10. A system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the message decoding means can be set into a number receiving mode upon respective input from the telephone dialling means, such that the resulting message can include numbers.
11. A system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the message decoding means can delete an entered word, letter or number, upon receipt from the telephone dialling means of a delete code.
12. A system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein activation of a predetermined key by the telephone dialling means indicates completion of a word, letter or number.
13. A system according to claim 12, wherein further activation of the predetermined key causes the telephony server to read back an alternative word.
14. A system according to claim 12 or claim 13, wherein the predetermined key is a hash (&num;) key.
15. A system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the communicating means comprises means for transmitting the complete message to a selected receiver.
16. A system according to claim 15, wherein the transmitting means and the receivers form part of a paging system.
17. A system according to claim 15, wherein the transmitting means and the receivers form part of a mobile telephone system provided with a short message service facility.
18. A system according to claim 15, wherein the transmitting means and the receivers form part of an electronic mail system, a teletext system, a computer access system, a classified advertisement entry system or a fax entry system.
19. A system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the system is operable to control a function of a telephone system in response to an entered text message.
20. A system according to any one of the preceding claims, including a database for storing time and/or date dependent messages and for forwarding each message at the appropriate time and/or date.
21. A system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the telephony server is operable to hold an incoming call following message entry, and to link that call with a response call from the message recipient.
22. A text communication system substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.