The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 04, 1999
Filed:
Jan. 25, 1996
C Eric Kirkland, Rockville, MD (US);
National Captioning Insitute, Inc., Fairfax, VA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus for providing described television services includes a receiver for receiving description data corresponding to an audiovisual program; a text-to-speech converter for converting the description data into a speech signal corresponding to the description data; a memory device for receiving and storing the speech signal and a corresponding time code from the audiovisual program; a mixing circuit for retrieving the speech signal from the memory device and mixing the retrieved speech signal with the audio track of the audiovisual program to produce a combined audio signal; and a transmitter for simultaneously providing the combined speech signal and the audiovisual program to a viewer. The apparatus provides the combined speech signal to the viewer via the SAP channel. The apparatus may also include a translator for translating the description data into a foreign language prior to converting the description data into the speech signal. A method for providing described television services includes the steps of generating description data corresponding to an audiovisual program; converting the description data to a speech signal corresponding to the description data; synchronizing the speech signal with the audiovisual program using a time code signal from the audiovisual program; mixing the synchronized speech signal with the audio track of the audiovisual program to create a combined audio signal; and simultaneously transmitting the combined audio signal and the audiovisual program to the viewer.