Voice over short message service
View Patent ↗A method of operating a mobile communication device, the method involving: over a wireless messaging channel receiving a text message that contains a non-text representation of an utterance; extracting the non-text representation from the text message; synthesizing an audio representation of the spoken utterance from the non-text representation; and playing the synthesized audio representation through an audio output device on the mobile communication device.
1. A method of operating a mobile communication device, said method comprising:
over a wireless messaging channel receiving a text message, wherein the text message contains a non-text representation of an utterance;
extracting the non-text representation from the text message;
synthesizing an audio representation of the spoken utterance from the non-text representation; and
playing the synthesized audio representation through an audio output device on the mobile communication device.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mobile communication device is a cellular phone.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-text representation of the utterance is a string of symbols representing sounds of the utterance.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the symbols in the string of symbols are selected from the group consisting of phonemes, diphones, triphones, syllables, and demisyllables.
5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the symbols in the string of symbols are phonemes.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wireless messaging channel is an SMS channel and the text message is an SMS message.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received text message includes an indicator identifying the text message as containing a non-text representation of the utterance.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-text representation is a compressed version of the utterance.
9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
over the wireless messaging channel receiving a plurality of text messages in addition to the first-mentioned text message, said first-mentioned text message and said plurality of text messages forming a set of text messages, wherein each text message of the set of text messages contains a non-text representation of a different portion of the utterance;
extracting the non-text representations from the plurality of text messages; and
synthesizing the audio representation of the spoken utterance from the non-text representations extracted from the set of text messages.
10. A mobile communication device for receiving a voice message, said mobile communication device comprising:
a processor system;
a transceiver for receiving a text message that contains a non-text representation of an utterance;
an audio output device; and
memory storing code which when executed on the processor system causes the mobile communication device to:
extract the non-text representation from the received text message; synthesize an audio representation of the spoken utterance from the non-text representation; and
play the synthesized audio representation through the audio output device.
11. The mobile communication device of claim 10 , wherein The mobile communication device includes a cellular phone.
12. The mobile communication device of claim 10 , wherein the non-text representation of the utterance is a string of symbols representing sounds of the utterance.
13. The mobile communication device of claim 12 , wherein the symbols in the string of symbols are selected from the group consisting of phonemes, diphones, triphones, syllables, and demisyllables.
14. The mobile communication device of claim 12 , wherein the symbols in the string of symbols are phonemes.
15. The mobile communication device of claim 10 , wherein the wireless messaging channel is an SMS channel and the text message is an SMS message.
16. The mobile communication device of claim 10 , wherein the received text message includes an indicator identifying the text message as containing a non-text representation of the utterance.
17. The mobile communication device of claim 10 , wherein the non-text representation is a compressed version of the utterance.
18. The mobile communication device of claim 10 , wherein the code when executed on the processor further causes the mobile communication device to:
over the wireless messaging channel, receive a plurality of text messages in addition to the first-mentioned text message, said first-mentioned text message and said plurality of text messages forming a set of text messages, wherein each text message of the set of text messages contains a non-text representation of a different portion of the utterance;
extract the non-text representations from the plurality of text messages; and
synthesize the audio representation of the spoken utterance from the non-text representations extracted from the set of text messages.