Filtering transcriptions of utterances

Abstract

A method for facilitating mobile phone messaging, such as text messaging and instant messaging, includes receiving audio data communicated from the mobile communication device, the audio data representing an utterance that is intended to be at least a portion of the text of the message that is to be sent from the mobile phone to a recipient; transcribing the utterance to text based on the received audio data to generate a transcription; and applying a filter to the transcribed text to generate a filtered transcription, the text of which is intended to mimic language patterns of mobile device messaging that is performed manually by users. The method may also be applied to the audio data of a voicemail, with the filtered, transcribed text being communicated to a mobile phone as, for example, an SMS text message.

1 . A method for facilitating mobile device messaging, comprising the steps of:
 (a) receiving audio data communicated from the mobile communication device, the audio data representing an utterance that is intended to be at least a portion of the text of the message that is to be sent from the mobile communication device to a recipient;   (b) transcribing the utterance to text based on the received audio data to generate a transcription;   (c) applying a filter to the transcribed text to generate a filtered transcription, the text of which is intended to mimic language patterns of mobile device messaging that is performed manually by users; and   (d) communicating the filtered transcription to a mobile communication device.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the mobile communication device to which the filtered transcription is communicated is the mobile communication device from which the audio data is received. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the mobile communication device to which the filtered transcription is communicated is a mobile communication device of the recipient of the message. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the audio data is communicated from the mobile communication device using the HTTP/HTTPS protocol. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the audio data is communicated from the mobile communication device over the Internet using the HTTP/HTTPS protocol. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the utterance is transcribed using a statistical language model. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a filter includes a list of predetermined words, including phrases and alphanumeric strings, each predetermined word being associated with another predetermined word, including a predetermined phrase or a predetermined alphanumeric string; and wherein the step of applying a filter to the transcribed text comprises comparing words, including phrases and alphanumeric strings, from the transcribed text to the list of words of the filter and, upon a match, replacing the matching word, including a phrase or alphanumeric string, with the associated, predetermined word including a predetermined phrase or a predetermined alphanumeric string. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the filter that is applied comprises a finite grammar. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the filter that is applied comprises a software filter. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the step of selecting one or more filters to apply to the transcribed text from a group of filters that may be applied to the transcribed text to generate the filtered transcription. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the selection of the one or more filters to apply is made based on an indication that is received in conjunction with the recorded audio data received from the mobile communication device. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the indication is included within a header of the communication from the mobile communication device in which the audio data is received. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the selection of the one or more filters to apply is made based on preferences of a user of a mobile communication device. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the mobile communication device of the user is the mobile communication device from which the audio data is received. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the group of filters comprises an ad filter, a caller name filter, a caller number filter, a closing filter, a contraction filter, a currency filter, a date filter, a digit filter, a digit format filter, a digit homonym filter, an engine filter, a greeting filter, a hyphenate filter, a number filter, a profanity filter, an ordinal filter, a proper noun filter, a punctuation filter, a sentence filter, a shout/scream filter, an SMS filter, a tag filter, and a time filter. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said step of applying a filter to the transcribed text to generate a filtered transcription comprises applying an ad filter, whereby advertisement is inserted into the transcribed text based on, and in association with, predetermined keywords that are identified in the transcribed text. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the mobile communication device comprises a mobile phone. 
     
     
         18 . A method for facilitating mobile device messaging, comprising the steps of:
 (a) receiving from a mobile communication device,
 (i) a destination address for sending a message to a recipient, and 
 (ii) audio data representing an utterance that represents the text of the message that is to be sent to the recipient; 
   (b) transcribing the utterance to text based on the received audio data to generate a transcription;   (c) applying a filter to the transcribed text to generate a filtered transcription, the text of which is intended to mimic language patterns of mobile device messaging that is performed manually by users; and   (d) communicating to the recipient the filtered transcription as the text of the message.   
     
     
         19 . A method for facilitating mobile device messaging, comprising the steps of:
 (a) receiving from a mobile communication device,
 (i) a destination address for sending a message to a recipient, and 
 (ii) audio data representing an utterance that represents the text of the message that is to be sent to the recipient; 
   (b) transcribing the utterance to text based on the received audio data to generate a transcription;   (c) applying a filter to the transcribed text to generate a filtered transcription, the text of which is intended to mimic language patterns of mobile device messaging that is performed manually by users;   (d) communicating to the filtered transcription to the mobile communication device;   (e) presenting the filtered transcription by the mobile communication device for verifying; and   (f) sending to the recipient from the mobile communication device the filtered transcription as the text of the message.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising revising the filtered transcription presented by the mobile communication device for verifying, wherein the filtered transcription that is sent as the text of the message is a revised, filtered transcription. 
     
     
         21 - 50 . (canceled)