Patents by Inventor Christopher R. Engelke
Christopher R. Engelke has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Publication number: 20240127822Abstract: A method to transcribe communications includes the steps of obtaining a plurality of hypothesis transcriptions of a voice signal generated by a speech recognition system, determining consistent words that are included in at least first and second of the plurality of hypothesis transcriptions, in response to determining the consistent words, providing the consistent words to a device for presentation of the consistent words to an assisted user, and presenting the consistent words via a display screen on the device, wherein a rate of the presentation of the words on the display screen is variable.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 26, 2023Publication date: April 18, 2024Inventors: Robert M. Engelke, Kevin R. Colwell, Christopher Engelke
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Publication number: 20240127823Abstract: A method and system for providing captioned telephone service, the method comprising the steps of, initiating a first captioned telephone service call, during the first captioned telephone service call, creating a first set of captions using a call assistant, simultaneous with creating the first set of captions using a call assistant, creating a second set of captions using an automated speech recognition engine, comparing the first set of captions and the second set of captions using a scoring algorithm based on errors between the first and second sets of captions to generate a score for the second set of captions, in response to the score being within a predetermined threshold range, continuing the call using only the automated speech recognition engine to generate text and in response to the score being outside of the predetermined threshold range, continuing the call using a call assistant to generate captions.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 26, 2023Publication date: April 18, 2024Inventors: Robert M. Engelke, Kevin R. Colwell, Christopher Engelke
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Publication number: 20240119940Abstract: A method to transcribe communications includes the steps of obtaining a plurality of hypothesis transcriptions of a voice signal generated by a speech recognition system, determining consistent words that are included in at least first and second of the plurality of hypothesis transcriptions, in response to determining the consistent words, providing the consistent words to a device for presentation of the consistent words to an assisted user, and presenting the consistent words via a display screen on the device, wherein a rate of the presentation of the words on the display screen is variable.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 19, 2023Publication date: April 11, 2024Inventors: Robert M. Engelke, Kevin R. Colwell, Christopher Engelke
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Patent number: 11895257Abstract: A communication system and method usable to facilitate communication between a hearing user and an assisted user. In particular, the system employs a wireless portable tablet or other portable electronic computing device linked to a captioning enabled phone as a remote interface for that phone, thereby providing an assisted user with more options, more freedom, and improved usability of the system.Type: GrantFiled: December 20, 2021Date of Patent: February 6, 2024Assignee: Ultratec, Inc.Inventors: Christopher R. Engelke, Kevin R. Colwell, Troy Vitek
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Patent number: 11856123Abstract: A communication system and method usable to facilitate communication between a hearing user and an assisted user. In particular, the system employs a wireless portable tablet or other portable electronic computing device linked to a captioning enabled phone as a remote interface for that phone, thereby providing an assisted user with more options, more freedom, and improved usability of the system.Type: GrantFiled: December 20, 2021Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: ULTRATEC, INC.Inventors: Christopher R. Engelke, Kevin R Colwell, Troy Vitek
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Publication number: 20230231949Abstract: A call captioning system for captioning a hearing user's (HU's) voice signal during an ongoing call with an assisted user (AU) includes: an AU communication device with a display screen and a caption service activation feature, and a first processor programmed to, during an ongoing call, receive the HU's voice signal. Prior to activating the caption service via the activation feature, the processor uses an automated speech recognition (ASR) engine to generate HU voice signal captions, detect errors in the HU voice signal captions, use the errors to train the ASR software to the HU's voice signal to increase accuracy of the HU captions generated by the ASR engine; and store the trained ASR engine for subsequent use. Upon activating the caption service during the ongoing call, the processor uses the trained ASR engine to generate HU voice signal captions and present them to the AU via the display screen.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 20, 2023Publication date: July 20, 2023Inventors: Robert M. Engelke, Kevin R. Colwell, Christopher R. Engelke
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Patent number: 11627221Abstract: A call captioning system for captioning a hearing user's (HU's) voice signal during an ongoing call with an assisted user (AU) includes: an AU communication device with a display screen and a caption service activation feature, and a first processor programmed to, during an ongoing call, receive the HU's voice signal. Prior to activating the caption service via the activation feature, the processor uses an automated speech recognition (ASR) engine to generate HU voice signal captions, detect errors in the HU voice signal captions, use the errors to train the ASR software to the HU's voice signal to increase accuracy of the HU captions generated by the ASR engine; and store the trained ASR engine for subsequent use. Upon activating the caption service during the ongoing call, the processor uses the trained ASR engine to generate HU voice signal captions and present them to the AU via the display screen.Type: GrantFiled: June 25, 2020Date of Patent: April 11, 2023Assignee: ULTRATEC, INC.Inventors: Robert M. Engelke, Kevin R. Colwell, Christopher R. Engelke
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Patent number: 11570291Abstract: A communication system and method usable to facilitate communication between a hearing user and an assisted user. In particular, the system employs a wireless portable tablet or other portable electronic computing device linked to a captioning enabled phone as a remote interface for that phone, thereby providing an assisted user with more options, more freedom, and improved usability of the system.Type: GrantFiled: September 29, 2021Date of Patent: January 31, 2023Assignee: ULTRATEC, INC.Inventors: Christopher R. Engelke, Kevin R. Colwell, Troy Vitek
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Patent number: 11201957Abstract: A text-assisted telephony system for use by an assisted user while communicating with a hearing user via a hearing user's phone device. The system includes first and second assisted user's communication devices, each including a processor, a microphone, a speaker, a display and a communication component. One processor is programmed to establish a voice call with the hearing user's phone device. One processor is programmed to establish a communication link with the other processor. Each processor is programmed to generate an alert indicating when an incoming call is received and to enable an assisted user to answer the call and, upon one of the devices being used to answer a call, that device receiving text captions from a remote relay corresponding to a hearing user's voice signal and presenting the text captions to the assisted user via the device display.Type: GrantFiled: September 12, 2019Date of Patent: December 14, 2021Assignee: Ultratec, Inc.Inventors: Christopher R. Engelke, Kevin R. Colwell, Troy Vitek
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Patent number: 11190630Abstract: A communication system and method usable to facilitate communication between a hearing user and an assisted user. In particular, the system employs a wireless portable tablet or other portable electronic computing device linked to a captioning enabled phone as a remote interface for that phone, thereby providing an assisted user with more options, more freedom, and improved usability of the system.Type: GrantFiled: December 4, 2018Date of Patent: November 30, 2021Assignee: ULTRATEC, INC.Inventors: Christopher R. Engelke, Kevin R. Colwell, Troy Vitek
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Publication number: 20200329139Abstract: A call captioning system for captioning a hearing user's (HU's) voice signal during an ongoing call with an assisted user (AU) includes: an AU communication device with a display screen and a caption service activation feature, and a first processor programmed to, during an ongoing call, receive the HU's voice signal. Prior to activating the caption service via the activation feature, the processor uses an automated speech recognition (ASR) engine to generate HU voice signal captions, detect errors in the HU voice signal captions, use the errors to train the ASR software to the HU's voice signal to increase accuracy of the HU captions generated by the ASR engine; and store the trained ASR engine for subsequent use. Upon activating the caption service during the ongoing call, the processor uses the trained ASR engine to generate HU voice signal captions and present them to the AU via the display screen.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 25, 2020Publication date: October 15, 2020Inventors: Robert M. Engelke, Kevin R. Colwell, Christopher R. Engelke
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Patent number: 10742805Abstract: A captioning system comprising a processor and a memory having stored thereon software such that, when the software is executed by the one or more processors, the system generates text captions from speech data, including at least the following, receiving, from a hearing user's (HU's) device, an HU's speech data, generating, at the one or more hardware processors, first text captions from the speech data using a speech recognition algorithm, automatically determining, at the one or more processors, whether the generated first text captions meet a first accuracy threshold and when the first text captions meet the first accuracy threshold, sending the first text captions to an assisted user's (AU's) device for display, when the first text captions do not meet the first accuracy threshold, generating, at the one or more processors, second text captions from the speech data based on user input to the speech recognition algorithm from a call assistant and sending the second text captions to the AU's device for disType: GrantFiled: April 3, 2017Date of Patent: August 11, 2020Assignee: ULTRATEC, INC.Inventors: Robert M. Engelke, Kevin R. Colwell, Christopher R. Engelke
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Patent number: 10601980Abstract: A communication system for communicating between a hearing user using a hearing user's communication device and an assisted user, the communication system comprising a relay that receives a hearing user's voice signal and converts that voice signal to text, a text to braille converter that receives the text generated at the relay and converts that text to braille data, a braille display device that is capable of generating braille messages that can be detected by an assisted user via touch and an assisted user's captioned device that receives the braille data and uses the braille data to drive the braille display device to generate braille messages for the assisted user to sense.Type: GrantFiled: September 15, 2015Date of Patent: March 24, 2020Assignee: Ultratec, Inc.Inventors: Robert M Engelke, Christopher R Engelke, Kevin R Colwell, Troy Vitek
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Publication number: 20200007671Abstract: A text-assisted telephony system for use by an assisted user while communicating with a hearing user via a hearing user's phone device. The system includes first and second assisted user's communication devices, each including a processor, a microphone, a speaker, a display and a communication component. One processor is programmed to establish a voice call with the hearing user's phone device. One processor is programmed to establish a communication link with the other processor. Each processor is programmed to generate an alert indicating when an incoming call is received and to enable an assisted user to answer the call and, upon one of the devices being used to answer a call, that device receiving text captions from a remote relay corresponding to a hearing user's voice signal and presenting the text captions to the assisted user via the device display.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 12, 2019Publication date: January 2, 2020Inventors: Christopher R. Engelke, Kevin R. Colwell, Troy Vitek
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Patent number: 10389876Abstract: A system for providing voice-to-text captioning service comprising a relay processor that receives voice messages generated by a hearing user during a call, the processor programmed to present the voice messages to a first call assistant, a call assistant device used by the first call assistant to generate call assistant generated text corresponding to the hearing user's voice messages, the processor further programmed to run automated voice-to-text transcription software to generate automated text corresponding to the hearing user's voice messages, use the call assistant generated text, the automated text and the hearing user's voice messages to train the voice-to-text transcription software to more accurately transcribe the hearing user's voice messages to text, determine when the accuracy exceeds an accuracy requirement threshold, during the call and prior to the automated text exceeding the accuracy requirement threshold, transmitting the call assistant generated text to the assisted user's device for disType: GrantFiled: February 26, 2015Date of Patent: August 20, 2019Assignee: Ultratec, Inc.Inventors: Robert M. Engelke, Kevin R. Colwell, Christopher R. Engelke