Abstract: 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.

Abstract: A method of operating a captioned telephone comprising the steps of dialing a telephone number to a relay gateway, connecting to the gateway over a communication network, performing a test to assess communication network quality, based on the test results, setting up the captioned telephone to operate in at least one of a first mode and a second mode wherein each of the first and second modes is one of (i) a PSTN mode in which data is communicated between the captioned telephone and the relay gateway via analog transmission and (ii) an IP mode in which data is communicated between the captioned telephone and the relay gateway via the Internet.

Abstract: A method for maintaining contact information in a hearing impaired assisted user's communication device includes the steps of (a) providing a web site for altering assisted user contact information, (b) linking a proxy device to the web site, (c) receiving an identifier associated with the assisted user's device via the proxy device, (d) identifying an assisted user's device via the received identifier, (e) enabling the proxy device to be used to modify contact information for the assisted user associated with the received identifier, (f) starting a timer to time out a sync timeout period, (g) during the sync timeout period, receiving an indication via the assisted user's device confirming a desire to update the assisted user's contact information, (h) updating the assisted user's contact information, and (i) at the end of the timeout period, ceasing an indication that updated data is ready to be used from the assisted user's device.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: A system and method for facilitating communication between an assisted user (AU) and a hearing user (HU) includes receiving an HU voice signal as the AU and HU participate in a call using AU and HU communication devices, transcribing HU voice signal segments into verbatim caption segments, processing each verbatim caption segment to identify an intended communication (IC) intended by the HU upon uttering an associated one of the HU voice signal segments, for at least a portion of the HU voice signal segments (i) using an associated IC to generate an enhanced caption different than the associated verbatim caption, (ii) for each of a first subset of the HU voice signal segments, presenting the verbatim captions via the AU communication device display for consumption, and (iii) for each of a second subset of the HU voice signal segments, presenting enhanced captions via the AU communication device display for consumption.

Abstract: A method of operating a captioned telephone comprising the steps of dialing a telephone number to a relay gateway, connecting to the gateway over a communication network, performing a test to assess communication network quality, based on the test results, setting up the captioned telephone to operate in at least one of a first mode and a second mode wherein each of the first and second modes is one of (i) a PSTN mode in which data is communicated between the captioned telephone and the relay gateway via analog transmission and (ii) an IP mode in which data is communicated between the captioned telephone and the relay gateway via the Internet.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: An assisted user's (AU's) captioning device for assisting an AU during a call with a hearing user (HU) wherein the hearing user uses a HU's communication device, the captioning device comprising a display screen and a processor linked to the display screen, the processor programmed to perform the steps of upon receiving a call, automatically determining if the call is from one of a first set of HUs, upon determining that the call is from one of the first set of HUs, automatically initiating captioning and presenting captions of an HU voice signal during at least a portion of the call, and upon determining that the call is not from one of the first set of HUs, starting the call without captioning and providing an option to the AU to initiate captioning during the call.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: A system and method for use with an assisted user's communication device that includes a display. The method includes providing a user communication device including a processor that is programmed to perform the step of, upon disconnection of an emergency call to a hearing user in which a captioning service has provided text transcription of voice messages from the hearing user, maintaining a link to the captioning service for a predetermined period of time. The processor also is programmed to perform the step of recognizing the call as an emergency call upon placement of the call, and the captioning service is automatically initiated upon the processor performing that recognition.

Abstract: A method for maintaining contact information in a hearing impaired assisted user's communication device includes the steps of (a) providing a web site for altering assisted user contact information, (b) linking a proxy device to the web site, (c) receiving an identifier associated with the assisted user's device via the proxy device, (d) identifying an assisted user's device via the received identifier, (e) enabling the proxy device to be used to modify contact information for the assisted user associated with the received identifier, (f) starting a timer to time out a sync timeout period, (g) during the sync timeout period, receiving an indication via the assisted user's device confirming a desire to update the assisted user's contact information, (h) updating the assisted user's contact information, and (i) at the end of the timeout period, ceasing an indication that updated data is ready to be used from the assisted user's device.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: A method of operating a captioned telephone comprising the steps of dialing a telephone number to a relay gateway, connecting to the gateway over a communication network, performing a test to assess communication network quality, based on the test results, setting up the captioned telephone to operate in at least one of a first mode and a second mode wherein each of the first and second modes is one of (i) a PSTN mode in which data is communicated between the captioned telephone and the relay gateway via analog transmission and (ii) an IP mode in which data is communicated between the captioned telephone and the relay gateway via the Internet.

Abstract: A system and method for facilitating communication between an assisted user (AU) and a hearing user (HU) includes receiving an HU voice signal as the AU and HU participate in a call using AU and HU communication devices, transcribing HU voice signal segments into verbatim caption segments, processing each verbatim caption segment to identify an intended communication (IC) intended by the HU upon uttering an associated one of the HU voice signal segments, for at least a portion of the HU voice signal segments (i) using an associated IC to generate an enhanced caption different than the associated verbatim caption, (ii) for each of a first subset of the HU voice signal segments, presenting the verbatim captions via the AU communication device display for consumption, and (iii) for each of a second subset of the HU voice signal segments, presenting enhanced captions via the AU communication device display for consumption.

Abstract: A method to transcribe communications includes obtaining an audio message from a first device during a voice communication session with a second device including a display screen, providing the message to a first speech recognition system to generate a first message transcript, providing the transcript to the second device for presentation on the screen, obtaining an indication that a transcript quality is below a threshold, providing, in response, the message to a second system to generate a second transcript while still providing it to the first system to generate the first transcript and providing the first transcript to the second device for presentation on the display screen, and in response to an event occurring that indicates the second transcript is to be provided to the second device instead of the first transcript, providing the second transcript to the second device for presentation on the screen instead of the first transcript.