Routing digital voice data in a communication system for hearing-impaired users

Abstract

A communication system facilitating communication for assisting hearing-impaired users includes an analog telephone adaptor (ATA) device and a communication device. The communication device is configured to route digital voice data between the ATA device and a second communication device during a conversation involving the communication device and a second communication device through a wireless port of communication device, and communicate through the wireless port with a relay service configured to provide interpretive assistance for a hearing-impaired user of the communication device. A method includes routing digital voice data received wirelessly by a communication device to an ATA device, routing digital voice data received from the ATA device from the communication device wirelessly to a second communication device, and communicating wirelessly with a relay service configured to provide captioning services of the content of a portion of the voice data received by the communication device from the second communication device.

1 . A communication device for use with a hearing-impaired user, the communication device comprising:
 a wireless data port;   a digital data port;   an analog data port; and   a processor operably coupled with the wireless data port, the digital data port, and the analog data port, wherein the processor is configured to:
 communicate through the wireless data port with a relay service for assisting hearing-impaired users to communicate with others; 
 communicate through the wireless data port with a second communication device to transmit and receive digital voice data during a conversation; and 
 route the digital voice data to an analog telephone adaptor (ATA) device through the digital data port. 
   
     
     
         2 . The communication device of  claim 1 , wherein the processor configured to communicate with the relay service by transmitting a voice signal associated with the digital voice data received from the second communication device to the relay service. 
     
     
         3 . The communication device of  claim 2 , wherein the processor is configured to communicate with the relay service by receiving a text transcription of the voice data transmitted to the relay service. 
     
     
         4 . The communication device of  claim 3 , further comprising an electronic display operably coupled with the processor, the processor further configured to cause the text transcription to be displayed as captions on the electronic display during the conversation. 
     
     
         5 . The communication device of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to route the digital voice data to the ATA device by using routing tables to pass the digital voice data to and from the ATA device. 
     
     
         6 . The communication device of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to route the digital voice data to the ATA device by using IP masquerading. 
     
     
         7 . The communication device of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to use a fixed IP address for the ATA device to route the digital voice data to and from the ATA device. 
     
     
         8 . The communication device of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to use extend dynamic host configuration protocol server (DHCP) services to the ATA device to route the digital voice data to and from the ATA device. 
     
     
         9 . The communication device of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to communicate video data with the relay service. 
     
     
         10 . A communication system facilitating communication for assisting hearing-impaired users comprising:
 an analog telephone adaptor (ATA) device; and   a communication device operably coupled with the ATA device, the communication device configured to:
 route digital voice data between the ATA device and a second communication device during a conversation involving the communication device and a second communication device through a wireless port of communication device; and 
 communicate through the wireless port with a relay service configured to provide interpretive assistance for a hearing-impaired user of the communication device. 
   
     
     
         11 . The communication system of  claim 10 , wherein the communication device is configured to configure the ATA device to operate a fixed IP address. 
     
     
         12 . The communication system of  claim 10 , wherein the communication device is configured to extend DHCP services to the ATA and masquerade the traffic to the ATA device. 
     
     
         13 . The communication system of  claim 10 , wherein the ATA device and the communication device are coupled together via a wired connection. 
     
     
         14 . The communication system of  claim 10 , wherein the ATA device is not coupled with any external network other than through the communication device. 
     
     
         15 . A communication system comprising:
 a relay service configured to provide interpretive services for hearing-impaired users;   a communication device operably coupled with the relay service, and configured to provide the interpretive services from the relay service to a hearing-impaired user of the communication device; and   an analog telephone adaptor (ATA) device operably coupled with the communication device, the ATA device configured to:
 convert digital voice data received from the communication device to analog voice data; 
 transmit the analog voice data to the communication device; 
 convert analog received from voice data from the communication device to digital voice data; and 
 transmit the digital voice data to the communication device, wherein the communication device is further configured to route the digital data between the ATA device and a second communication device. 
   
     
     
         16 . The communication system of  claim 15 , wherein the digital voice data include VoIP data. 
     
     
         17 . The communication system of  claim 15 , wherein the communication device is configured to communicate the digital data with the second communication device through a wireless port of the communication device. 
     
     
         18 . (canceled) 
     
     
         19 . (canceled) 
     
     
         20 . (canceled)