초록 ▼

A singlecast interactive radio system of the invention delivers digitized audio-based content to subscribers, upon their request, economically and with human voice quality. The system includes personal radio station servers, and a plurality of user terminals, and exploits one of the existing wireles

A singlecast interactive radio system of the invention delivers digitized audio-based content to subscribers, upon their request, economically and with human voice quality. The system includes personal radio station servers, and a plurality of user terminals, and exploits one of the existing wireless communication networks as a transmission medium. A highly compressed voice-based information content is stored on data network servers, such as Internet World Wide Web servers. The personal radio station server stores multiple subscriber's profiles with topics of individual interest, assembles a content material from various Web sites according to the topics, and transmits the content to a subscriber's user terminal on subscriber's request over the wireless digital network. The user terminal restores voice-based material with at least AM-radio voice quality and transmission costs of such a material is very low in comparison to existing methods of voice communication, at least as a result of chosen compression algorithms. The user terminal optionally integrates, electrically and mechanically, a conventional radio and with a cellular phone equipment. The user can control system functions hands-free by issuing voice commands only. Such functions include, but are not limited to, cellular telephony voice dialing and control, secure network log-on based on voice identification, hands-free tuning to conventional radio-stations, changing audio playback level, and switching between functions. The user terminal also retrieves text material from the Internet or other data depositories, plays the material back as a computer-generated speech, digitizes a voice response from the user, and delivers the response to other e-mail addresses over related networks, including wired networks.

대표청구항 ▼

[ What is claimed is:] [35.]35. A client/server system comprising:at least one client terminal adapted to generate a user-initiated signal upon a user request, to receive and decode data, and to synthesize an audio signal representative of at least a portion of the data for playback to the user in o

[ What is claimed is:] [35.]35. A client/server system comprising:at least one client terminal adapted to generate a user-initiated signal upon a user request, to receive and decode data, and to synthesize an audio signal representative of at least a portion of the data for playback to the user in one of a plurality of narrative voices selected by the user, the portion of the data comprising a phonetically encoded audio information signal;an information retrieval and delivery server, operatively coupled to a wide area network having data servers containing a variety of types of data, and operatively coupled to the at least one client terminal via a wireless communications network, the information retrieval and delivery server including:memory means; andprocessing means, operatively coupled to the memory means, including:means for receiving user-related information from the at least one client terminal and storing the user-related information in the memory means;means for retrieving data from at least one data server on the wide area network and storing the data in the memory means in response to the user-related information receipt and storage means; andmeans for transmitting the retrieved data to the at least one client terminal.