Establishing call-based audio sockets within a componentized voice server

• US 20050246175A1
• Filed: 04/28/2004
• Published: 11/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Creamer, Thomas E., Moore, Victor S., Nusbickel, Wendi L., Sliwa, James J., Santos, Ricardo Dos
• Granted Patent: US 7,424,432 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/270.100
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/32 Multiple recognisers used in sequence or in parallel; Score combination systems therefor, e.g. voting systems

Abstract

A method of interfacing a telephone application server and a speech engine can include the step of establishing one or more audio sockets in a media converting component of the telephone application server. The audio socket can remain available for approximately a duration of a call. A work unit that requires processing by a speech engine can be detected for the call. An identifier for the audio socket and a data for the work unit can be conveyed to a selected speech engine. Work unit results from the selected speech engine can be received by the media converting component via the previously established audio socket.

Claims

1. A method of interfacing a voice server and a speech engine comprising the steps of:

establishing at least one audio socket in a media converting component of a voice server, said audio socket remaining available for approximately a duration of a call;

detecting a work unit of said call that requires processing by a speech engine;

conveying an identifier for the audio socket and data relating to a work unit to a selected speech engine; and

receiving work unit results from the selected speech engine via the audio socket.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the work unit is a speech utterance of a party participating in the call, and wherein the speech engine is an automatic speech recognition engine.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the work unit is a text segment generated by the telephone application server, and wherein the speech engine is a text-to-speech engine.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

after the work unit data is processed, the speech engine initializing a communication connection with the audio socket; and

responsive to said initialization, conveying pending audio signals from the media converting component to the audio socket.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

detecting a different work unit of said call that requires processing by a speech engine;

conveying said identifier for the audio socket and conveying data relating to the different work unit to a different speech engine; and

receiving work unit results from said different speech engine to the audio socket.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said speech engine is an automatic speech recognition engine and wherein said different speech engine is a text-to-speech engine.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one audio socket is a plurality of audio sockets.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said plurality of audio sockets comprises at least one input audio socket and at least one output audio socket.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said telephone application server has a componentized architecture of different modular components.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein each component within said architecture is configured to handle tasks in a functionally isolated fashion from other components of said architecture.

11. A machine-readable storage having stored thereon, a computer program having a plurality of code sections, said code sections executable by a machine for causing the machine to perform the steps of:

establishing at least one audio socket in a media converting component of a voice server, said audio socket remaining available for approximately a duration of a call;

detecting a work unit of said call that requires processing by a speech engine;

conveying an identifier for the audio socket and a work unit data to a selected speech engine; and

receiving work unit results from the selected speech engine via the audio socket.

12. The machine-readable storage of claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

after the work unit data is processed, the speech engine initializing a communication connection with the audio socket; and

responsive to said initialization, conveying pending audio signals from the media converting component to the audio socket.

13. The machine-readable storage of claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

detecting a different work unit of said call that requires processing by a speech engine;

conveying said identifier for the audio socket and conveying data relating to the different work unit to a different speech engine; and

receiving work unit results from said different speech engine to the audio socket.

14. The machine-readable storage of claim 13, wherein said speech engine is an automatic speech recognition engine and wherein said different speech engine is a text-to-speech engine.

15. The machine-readable storage of claim 11, wherein said at least one audio socket is a plurality of audio sockets.

16. The machine-readable storage of claim 15, wherein said plurality of audio sockets comprises at least one input audio socket and at least one output audio socket.

17. The machine-readable storage of claim 11, wherein said telephone application server has a componentized architecture of different modular components, wherein each component within said architecture is configured to handle tasks in a functionally isolated fashion from other components of said architecture.

18. A system for providing speech services comprising:

a telephone application server having a componentized architecture of different modular components, wherein one of said components is a media converting component configured as an audio socket server;

at least one speech engine, each configured to perform at least one programmatic action for said telephone application server; and

a telephone gateway that communicatively links said telephone application server to a telephone network.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein said speech engine communicates to said telephone gateway using said media converting component as an intermediary, and wherein said speech engine connects to said telephone gateway via sockets established by the media converting component, said established sockets being associated with selected telephone calls, and wherein said sockets remain available for approximately the duration of the associated telephone call.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein different speech engines convey work unit results via a single one of said sockets during a telephone call for which the socket was established.