Importance

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Abstract

A system and method is provided for real time teleconferencing, where one of the participants is deaf or hearing-impaired. In one aspect of the system and method, each participant has an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system and a chat service system, such as AOL Instant Messenger.TM.. Each participant may have a different type of ASR system, as well as a different type of chat service system. It is not necessary that the deaf or hearing-impaired participant have an ASR system. For each participant, the participant's ASR system transcribes the speech of the participant and provides it to the participant's chat service system, which translates the transcribed text into the chat service message in the format of the participant's chat service system. An Integration Server receives all the participant's chat messages, which have various formats, and translates them into the format used by the chat service system of the deaf or hearing-impaired participant, thus allowing her to see the transcribed text of the conversation between the other participants. In addition, the deaf or hearing-impaired participant inputs text to her chat service system, which creates a formatted message text. The Integration Server receives this formatted chat message and translates it into the formats of the remaining participant's chat service systems, so that the remaining participants see the comments of the deaf or hearing-impaired participant. In other aspects, the teleconferencing system and method is used to connect disparate chat service systems, without necessarily including a deaf or hearing-impaired participant.

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First Claim