International Business Machines Corporation

Thomas Schick

Bryan Lester Striemer

Charles A Lemaire

A battery powered hand-held portable computer device for audible processing of messages stored at one or more remote central message facilities. A telephonic interface is included within the portable computer device. A connection between the portable computer device and the remote central message facility is automatically established in response to a connection to a telephonic network and the operation of a single switch. Thereafter, selected audio and/or digital messages from a remote central message facility are transferred to the portable computer device, digitized if necessary, and stored within random access memory or stored utilizing analog storage systems. The portable computer device preferably utilizes a limited number of tape recorder-like switches. In response to a single operation of a 'start' switch, electronic messages stored in a digital format are sequentially coupled to a text-to-speech conversion application and converted to audible speech through a speaker or headphone. In one embodiment of the present invention, the portable computer device includes a microphone and analog-to-digital conversion circuitry which permit a spoken input to be digitized, stored and subsequently transmitted to the remote central message facility. Additionally, a message may be 'scanned' or 'rewound' at higher than normal speed to access a selected portion thereof.

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Raleigh, NC, United States of America

Thomas Schick