Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer conferencing – Demand based messaging
Reexamination Certificate
2002-07-10
2004-11-23
Barot, Bharat (Department: 2155)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer conferencing
Demand based messaging
C709S217000, C709S218000, C709S219000, C709S246000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06823370
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
This invention relates generally to the retrieval of information from accessible sources on or via the World Wide Web (WWW, or Web). More specifically, the invention relates to the retrieval of Web-based information using ordinary telephones to browse and select the desired information from any of a large number of differently-organized sources available through the Web.
1. Definitions
HDML: Handheld Device Markup Language, and the Wireless Markup Language (WML)—are languages, similar to HTML, that allows the text portion of a Web page to be presented on cellular phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) via wireless access.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,884,262 (Wise et al.) describes a telephone voice browser enabling a caller to access Web pages and data including audio files and documents in various formats, browsing the Web and selecting content through the use of speech-to-text analysis of spoken commands and DTMF signals issuing from the caller's telephone connection, and obtaining content through audio and text-to-speech processing onto the caller's connection. This speech-to-text method of browsing and selecting content has three disadvantages.
First, it relies on speech recognition technology. Even after decades of effort, large-vocabulary, speaker-independent, continuous-speech voice recognition does not produce highly-reliable speech-to-text results without unacceptable cost in time and hardware. Regional and ethnic accents and cadences, widely-varying speech habits, unreliable telephone connections, obscure vocabulary and syntax usage, all contribute to increased error rates in automated speech recognition processing. Reduction of error rate requires restriction of one or more of the dimensions of vocabulary range, speech continuity, and speaker-to-speaker variation. Such restriction limits the range of usefulness of the Wise proposal.
Second, for data retrieval, the Wise proposal requires an easy-to-use yet powerful interface between the ordinary telephone user and any number of Web-accessible databases of widely-varying complexity and sophistication. Such a requirement limits the range of users to the few who are satisfied with the results of simple queries and the few who possess sufficient database-search skills to use successfully the results returned by more-complex requests.
Despite progress in ‘intelligent’ software, complexities of language still limit the range and power of such methods. Much effort has been expended to make database query languages such as SQL more ‘user-friendly’, but such efforts have forced a tradeoff between usefulness of search results and simplicity of performing the searches. No simple substitute has yet been found for skilled human search practice.
Third, the speech recognition process in Wise must be applied to speech as delivered from a user across an ordinary PSTN POTS line. Speech delivered this way sharply attenuates speech frequencies outside the range of 300-3300 Hz, making its analysis for content significantly more difficult and inconclusive than such analysis for speech delivered with full fidelity. The result is a significantly-increased error rate in recognition, which diminishes the value of Wise for an ordinary user.
Problems inherent in speech recognition technology are compounded by typical low-fidelity telephone connections. Given such problems, the use of voice menus becomes predominant as a way of reducing error rates in the user-browser dialog. Voice menus are time-consuming (particularly where URLs are presented to the user) and limited to a short range of choices, again reducing the value of inventions, such as Wise, using them.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,873,077 (Kanoh et al.) describes a fax-based Web-access method and apparatus allowing a user to exchange faxes with a Website; the Website scans the user's faxes to select a course of action or a collection of data to return via a fax. Kanoh does not describe any voice access or any non-fax telephone usage.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,838,682 (Dekelbaum et al.) describes a dual-link system, using both a network connection and a PSTN line, to establish and use a secure connection for customer-merchant transactions. It does not address customer-driven browsing and searching the Web, independently of a merchant or sales entity.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,761,280 (Noonen et al.) describes a method and interface for Web browsing using telephone DTMF inputs, a menu system, and a display system attached to the telephone. It does not address the use of audio speech-to-text or text-to-speech.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,159 Kikinis) describes a system whereby low-end computers similar to personal digital assistants (PDAs) not ordinarily capable of Web browsing may be used to browse the Web. It does not address any telephone interfaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,436 (Kikinis) describes a work-order transcription and communication system using the Internet. It does not address Web browsing at all.
The Web-On-Call™ product made by General Magic, Inc., is a software product designed to be installed in a Web server, which provides a client user the ability to browse the Web using a telephone, in a manner similar to the Wise proposal. Like the Wise proposal, it relies on automated methods to respond to the user's requests. The Web-On-Call™ product is subject to the same limitations outlined above for Wise.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5727159 (1998-03-01), Kikinis
patent: 5761280 (1998-06-01), Noonen et al.
patent: 5799063 (1998-08-01), Krane
patent: 5838682 (1998-11-01), Dekelbaum et al.
patent: 5873077 (1999-02-01), Kanoh et al.
patent: 5875436 (1999-02-01), Kikinis
patent: 5884262 (1999-03-01), Wise et al.
patent: 5926789 (1999-07-01), Barbara et al.
patent: 6240448 (2001-05-01), Imielinski et al.
patent: 6298129 (2001-10-01), Culver et al.
patent: 6366650 (2002-04-01), Rhie et al.
patent: 6621502 (2003-09-01), Nair et al.
patent: 6643621 (2003-11-01), Dodrill et al.
Knight Stephen
Kohl Kenneth J.
Kredo Thomas J.
Barot Bharat
Hunton & Williams LLP
Nortel Networks Limited
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