Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-06
2003-12-02
Metjahic, Safet (Department: 2171)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C704S270000, C704S275000, C379S088010, C379S088020
Reexamination Certificate
active
06658414
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates generally to voice portals. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods, systems, and computer program products for generating and providing efficient access to end-user-definable voice portals.
BACKGROUND ART
With the proliferation of the Internet and intranets, there has been an increasing demand for the creation of voice portals. As used herein, the term “voice portal” refers to an audio interface that allows an end user to search and access information using primarily spoken commands. The information accessed through a voice portal may be delivered to the user in a variety of formats, including audio format.
One problem with voice portals is that unlike traditional Internet or Web portals, voice portals present information to the user in a serial, one-dimensional format. There is no ability to scan ahead. Thus, organizing information into topics with specific sources and content therein becomes important.
Scanning a Web page visually is a two-dimensional phenomenon in that the surface of a computer monitor or similar display device is two-dimensional and can be visually scanned in both the horizontal and vertical directions with great visual and comprehensive efficiency. A user can use visual perception to look for underlined text or text of a different color. The user can access this text by clicking on the text using an input device while perceptually discarding and paying no attention to all the other information on a visual Web page. In contrast, there is no such analogy in delivering HTML or similar information to a user in audible format only. When the user is listening to information, the user does not know if a “link” is coming up or if the user desires or does not desire to hear the upcoming information. Thus, a problem with conventional voice portals is an efficient way to allow users to create such portals and efficiently navigate audible information using such portals.
One particular problem encountered in serially oriented content delivery, such as the audible delivery from a voice portal, is that of searching. If the user submits the term “cardiology” arbitrarily to a search engine driving a voice portal that utilizes the entire Internet as a data source, the number of “hits” would preclude the efficient and practical navigation of the numerous results in an audible manner. Thus, there exists a need for the simplification of full-text searching in the context of voice portal audible navigation and delivery.
Furthermore, voice portals today, by their method of implementation, are limited to a offering a finite or fixed vocabulary or grammar, meaning that a typical voice portal may have a finite number of words, e.g., 50, 100, or 500 words, that the voice portal understands and that the entire user base shares. These vocabularies are not extensible; i.e., the user cannot define arbitrary words or grammar. In addition, the user cannot define arbitrary links to the source of information that is to be associated with the user-defined words. Accordingly, another problem with conventional voice portals is to provide a solution for creating extensible voice portals that can be rapidly created and that are unique from one user to the next.
The need for rapid creation of user-defined grammar and source data associations can be thought of as analogous to the need for bookmarks in a visual Web environment. A bookmark is an association between user-defined text and a Web page that can be rapidly created using a conventional Web browser. Each user typically has his or her own set of bookmarks. A corresponding need exists in the voice portal environment whereby a user can define a word or utterance and rapidly associate this word or utterance with information accessible via a voice portal. The action of speaking the word would be analogous to the Web action of selecting a bookmark.
While voice portals are a relatively new phenomenon, there are currently three solutions emerging in the marketplace to the problem of creating an operational voice portal. Each of these problems is briefly discussed below with examples. The discussion of each solution is divided into two parts: what the voice portal solution offers and how one goes about implementing it.
1. The first solutions are those that merely offer pre-defined keyword choices and predefined categories of services (restaurants, sports, stocks, etc.) to the end user. An example of one such solution can be accessed through www.tellme.com or 1-800-555-TELL. These voice portal solutions are provided by service-oriented companies (as opposed to product-oriented companies). The service these companies offer is a voice portal implemented typically as a toll-free phone number which the user dials, and then is requested to choose between predetermined categories of information such as stock reports, weather reports, etc. The user then utters various predefined commands to access the standard services. For example, the user might say “weather” and then receive, in audible format via a telephone handset, the forecast for the user's geographic area. The user might say “C” “S” “C” “O” to receive the current stock quote for the company Cisco Systems whose symbol is “CSCO.” It must be emphasized that the company or service provider chooses the words that will be available to the user, such as “weather”, “stocks”, or the English alphabet “A” through “Z”, for the purpose of inputting specific stocks. At no time is the user allowed to define his or her own words such as “cardiology” or the data with which a word or series of words is associated.
2. System integration companies that can add or integrate a voice portal solution for a client company for a fee represent the second category of solutions. These companies leverage off-the-shelf software/hardware and their own systems integration expert personnel with much “know how” on how to put it together. A good example of a system integration company offering the ability to implement a voice portal for a client is Nortel Networks. The difference between this type of solution and the first solution (1) described above is that this solution gathers the client's customer requirements in the form of the words that the client desires to be part of the voice portal system vocabulary, builds a system to this specification, and then hosts the voice portal solution for a monthly fee. In this solution, the client company can add a word like “cardiology” to the existing vocabulary by making a formal request to Nortel Networks. Nortel Networks then uses its experts to add this to the voice portal system vocabulary. After the word has been added, a user can access the voice portal speak via a telephone, speak the new word, such as “cardiology”, and access the information provisioned for that word. However, like solution (1) above, there is no easy solution for end users to define their own words or data associations once the system is up and running. Rather, the addition of new words to the voice portal vocabulary is done through an expensive and time-consuming process of the client company utilizing the expertise of the system integrator under contract to implement, enhance, and host the client company's voice portal. Expertise in VXML and database languages would be essential.
3 . A third group of voice portal solutions is provided by system integration companies that go into a client company and add/integrate a voice portal solution for that company for a fee. These companies also have commercial tools they have developed to greatly speed the time of implementation of voice portals. These companies differ from the (2) vendors above in that these tools allow rapid customization at the time of implementation by leveraging a custom tool suite. However, once the customization is done, it is “cast in stone” so-to-speak in that whatever the system is at the time of implementation, this is all of the functionality the users will get when they use the system. In other words, like solutions (1) and (2) above, at no time are the users t
Balu Suresh
Bennett David Tracy
Bryan Edward Lee
Idaszak Raymond Leo
Jenkins & Wilson & Taylor, P.A.
Metjahic Safet
Thai Hanh
Topic Radio, Inc.
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