IP Library Granted Patent US 8,688,455
Granted Patent B2
US 8,688,455 · App. 13/455,303 · Granted Apr 1, 2014

Facilitating text-to-speech conversion of a domain name or a network address containing a domain name

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 8,688,455
App. No.
13/455,303
Granted
Apr 1, 2014
Kind
B2
Abstract

A method and apparatus of facilitating text-to-speech conversion of a domain name are provided. At a processor of a computing device, a pronunciation of a top level domain of a network address is determined by one or more of: generating a phonetic representation of each character in the top level domain pronounced individually; and, generating a tokenized representation of each individual character of the top level domain suitable for interpretation by a text-to-speech engine. For each other level domain of the network address, at the processor, a pronunciation of the other level domain is determined based on one or more recognized words within the other level domain.

Claims (38)

1. A method comprising:

determining, at a processor of a computing device, a pronunciation of a top level domain of a network address by determining whether said top level domain is one of a predetermined set of top level domains that are pronounced as a whole, and when said top level domain is not one of the predetermined set, then one or more of:

generating a phonetic representation of each character in the top level domain pronounced individually; and,

generating a tokenized representation of each individual character of the top level domain suitable for interpretation by a text-to-speech engine; and

for each other level domain of the network address, determining, at the processor, a pronunciation of the other level domain based on one or more recognized words within the other level domain.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the pronunciation of a top level domain of the network address further comprises one or more of:

generating a phonetic representation of the top level domain pronounced as a whole; and

generating a tokenized representation of the top level domain as a whole suitable for interpretation by a text-to-speech engine.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network address is an electronic mail (email) address or a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the pronunciation for the top level domain is further based upon whether the top level domain has at least a threshold number of characters.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the threshold number of characters is three.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein when the top level domain does not have at least the threshold number of characters, the determining comprises one or more of:

generating a phonetic representation of each character in the top level domain pronounced individually; and,

generating a tokenized representation of each individual character of the top level domain suitable for interpretation by a text-to-speech engine.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the pronunciation of the other level domain comprises generating a phonetic representation of each recognized word pronounced as a whole.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the recognized words comprises at least one or more of names of organizations, abbreviated names of the organizations and words in a spoken language.

9. A computing device comprising:

a processor and a memory, the processor enabled to:

determine a pronunciation of a top level domain of a network address by determining whether said top level domain is one of a predetermined set of to level domains that are pronounced as a whole, and when said top level domain is not one of the predetermined set, then one or more of:

generating a phonetic representation of each character in the top level domain pronounced individually; and,

generating a tokenized representation of each individual character of the top level domain suitable for interpretation by a text-to-speech engine; and

for each other level domain of the network address, determine, at the processor, a pronunciation of the other level domain based on one or more recognized words within the other level domain.

10. The computing device of claim 9 wherein the processor is further enabled to determine the pronunciation of a top level domain of the network address by one or more of:

generating a phonetic representation of the top level domain pronounced as a whole; and

generating a tokenized representation of the top level domain as a whole suitable for interpretation by a text-to-speech engine.

11. The computing device of claim 9 , wherein the network address is an electronic mail (email) address or a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).

12. The computing device of claim 9 , wherein the processor is further enabled to determine the pronunciation of a top level domain of a network address based upon whether the top level domain has at least a threshold number of characters.

13. The computing device of claim 12 , wherein the threshold number of characters is three.

14. The computing device of claim 13 , the processor is further enabled to determine the pronunciation of a top level domain of a network address wherein when the top level domain does not have at least the threshold number of characters, by one or more of:

generating a phonetic representation of each character in the top level domain pronounced individually; and,

generating a tokenized representation of each individual character of the top level domain suitable for interpretation by a text-to-speech engine.

15. The computing device of claim 9 , the processor is further enabled to determine the pronunciation of the other level domain by generating a phonetic representation of each recognized word pronounced as a whole.

16. The computing device of claim 9 , wherein the recognized words comprises at least one or more of names of organizations, abbreviated names of the organizations and words in a spoken language.

17. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions for execution by a processor of a computing device to implement a method for:

determining, at the processor, a pronunciation of a top level domain of a network address by determining whether said for level domain is one of a predetermined set of top level domains that are pronounced as a whole, and when said top level domain is not one of the predetermined set, then one or more of:

generating a phonetic representation of each character in the top level domain pronounced individually; and,

generating a tokenized representation of each individual character of the top level domain suitable for interpretation by a text-to-speech engine; and

for each other level domain of the network address, determining, at the processor, a pronunciation of the other level domain based on one or more recognized words within the other level domain.

Assignments (4)
NUNC PRO TUNC ASSIGNMENT Recorded Jun 19, 2023
From: BLACKBERRY LIMITED
To: MALIKIE INNOVATIONS LIMITED
Reel/Frame 064270/0001 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jun 16, 2023
From: BLACKBERRY LIMITED
To: MALIKIE INNOVATIONS LIMITED
Reel/Frame 064104/0103 →
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Feb 14, 2014
From: RESEARCH IN MOTION LIMITED
To: BLACKBERRY LIMITED
Reel/Frame 032265/0592 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Apr 25, 2012
From: BELLS, MATTHEW; LHOTAK, JENNIFER ELIZABETH; NANNI, MICHAEL ANGELO
To: RESEARCH IN MOTION LIMITED
Reel/Frame 028102/0884 →