Importance

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Abstract

A messaging system (100) is interfaced with a translation facility (101) so as to provide automated message translation for hearing-impaired and vision-impaired individuals. When a message is deposited (300) in a mailbox (112-113), a daemon process (117) checks (302-304) what translation service the mailbox owner is subscribed to, and then checks (306-312) whether any messages in the mailbox have a translatable component. The daemon process removes (316-318) any such message from the mailbox and sends (320-326) the translatable component to the translation facility with a request to perform the subscribed-to translation--such as voice-to-text or text/fax-to-voice. When the translated component is returned (440), the daemon process checks (442) whether the mailbox owner is subscribed to receive only the translated component or also the original untranslated component, and accordingly either appends (446) the translated component to the message or replaces (444-446) the untranslated component with the translated component in the message. The daemon process then marks (448) the message as translated and deposits (450) the marked message back in the recipient's mailbox for retrieval by the recipient.

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First Claim