Universal IP-based and scalable architectures across...

Details Universal IP-based and scalable architectures across... Universal IP-based and scalable architectures across...

2002-06-25

2004-10-05

Foster, Roland (Department: 2645)

Telephonic communications

Audio message storage, retrieval, or synthesis

Interaction with an external nontelephone network

C379S088160, C704S270100, C709S203000, C709S231000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06801604

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for conversational computing and, in particular, to systems and methods for building distributed conversational applications using a Web services-based model wherein speech engines (e.g., speech recognition) and audio I/O systems are implemented as programmable services that can be asynchronously programmed by an application using a standard, extensible SERCP (speech engine remote control protocol), to thereby provide scalable and flexible IP-based architectures that enable deployment of the same application or application development environment across a wide range of voice processing platforms and networks/gateways (e.g., PSTN (public switched telephone network), Wireless, Internet, and VoIP (voice over IP)). The invention is further directed to systems and methods for dynamically allocating, assigning, configuring and controlling speech resources such as speech engines, speech pre/post processing systems, audio subsystems, and exchanges between speech engines using SERCP in a web service-based framework.
BACKGROUND
Telephony generally refers to any telecommunications system involving the transmission of speech information in either wired or wireless environments. Telephony applications include, for example, IP telephony and Interactive Voice Response (IVR), and other voice processing platforms. IP telephony allows voice, data and video collaboration through existing IP telephony-based networks such as LANs, WANs and the Internet as well as IMS (IP multimedia services) over wireless networks. Previously, separate networks were required to handle traditional voice, data and video traffic, which limited their usefulness. Voice and data connections where typically not available simultaneously. Each required separate transport protocols/mechanisms and infrastructures, which made them costly to install, maintain and reconfigure and unable to interoperate. Currently, various applications and APIs are commercially available that that enable convergence of PSTN telephony and telephony over Internet Protocol networks and 2.5G/3G wireless networks. There is a convergence among fixed, mobile and nomadic wireless networks as well as with the Internet and voice networks, as exemplified by 2.5G, 3G and 4G.
IVR is a technology that allows a telephone-based user to input or receive information remotely to or from a database. Currently, there is widespread use of IVR services for telephony access to information and transactions. An IVR system typically (but not exclusively) uses spoken directed dialog and generally operates as follows. A user will dial into an IVR system and then listen to an audio prompts that provide choices for accessing certain menus and particular information. Each choice is either assigned to one number on the phone keypad or associated with a word to be uttered by the user (in voice enabled IVRs) and the user will make a desired selection by pushing the appropriate button or uttering the proper word.
By way of example, a typical banking ATM transaction allows a customer to perform money transfers between savings, checking and credit card accounts, check account balances using IVR over the telephone, wherein information is presented via audio menus. With the IVR application, a menu can be played to the user over the telephone, whereby the menu messages are followed by the number or button the user should press to select the desired option:
a. “for instant account information, press one;”
b. “for transfer and money payment, press two;”
c. “for fund information, press three;”
d. “for check information, press four;”
e. “for stock quotes, press five;”
f. “for help, press seven;” etc.
To continue, the user may be prompted to provide identification information. Over the telephone, the IVR system may playback an audio prompt requesting the user to enter his/her account number (via DTMF or speech), and the information is received from the user by processing the DTMF signaling or recognizing the speech. The user may then be prompted to input his/her SSN and the reply is processed in a similar way. When the processing is complete, the information is sent to a server, wherein the account information is accessed, formatted to audio replay, and then played back to the user over the telephone.
An IVR system may implement speech recognition in lieu of, or in addition to, DTMF keys. Conventional IVR applications use specialized telephony hardware and IVR applications use different software layers for accessing legacy database servers. These layers must be specifically designed for each application. Typically, IVR application developers offer their own proprietary speech engines and APIs (application program interface). The dialog development requires complex scripting and expert programmers and these proprietary applications are typically not portable from vendor to vendor (i.e., each application is painstakingly crafted and designed for specific business logic). Conventional IVR applications are typically written in specialized script languages that are offered by manufacturers in various incarnations and for different hardware platforms. The development and maintenance of such IVR applications requires qualified staff. Thus, current telephony systems typically do not provide interoperability, i.e., the ability of software and hardware on multiple machines from multiple vendors to communicate meaningfully.
VoiceXML is a markup language that has been designed to facilitate the creation of speech applications such as IVR applications. Compared to conventional IVR programming frameworks that employ proprietary scripts and programming languages over proprietary/closed platforms, the VoiceXML standard provides a declarative programming framework based on XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and ECMAScript (see, e.g., the W3C XML specifications (www.w3.org/XML) and VoiceXML forum (www.voicexml.org)). VoiceXML is designed to run on web-like infrastructures of web servers and web application servers (i.e. the Voice browser). VoiceXML allows information to be accessed by voice through a regular phone or a mobile phone whenever it is difficult or not optimal to interact through a wireless GUI micro-browser.
More importantly, VoiceXML is a key component to building multi-modal systems such as multi-modal and conversational user interfaces or mobile multi-modal browsers. Multi-modal solutions exploit the fact that different interaction modes are more efficient for different user interactions. For example, depending on the interaction, talking may be easier than typing, whereas reading may be faster than listening. Multi-modal interfaces combine the use of multiple interaction modes, such as voice, keypad and display to improve the user interface to e-business. Advantageously, multi-modal browsers can rely on VoiceXML browsers and authoring to describe and render the voice interface.
There are still key inhibitors to the deployment of compelling multi-modal applications. Most arise out of the current infrastructure and device platforms. Indeed, the current networking infrastructure is not configured for providing seamless, multi-modal access to information. Indeed, although a plethora of information can be accessed from servers over a communications network using an access device (e.g., personal information and corporate information available on private networks and public information accessible via a global computer network such as the Internet), the availability of such information may be limited by the modality of the client/access device or the platform-specific software applications with which the user is interacting to obtain such information. For instance, current wireless network infrastructure and handsets do not provide simultaneous voice and data access. Middleware, interfaces and protocols are needed to synchronize and manage the different channels. In light of the ubiquity of IP-based networks such as the Internet, and the availability of a plethora a services and resources on the Internet, the advantages of

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