Systems and methods for managing interactions from multiple speech-enabled applications

• US 20060069571A1
• Filed: 11/01/2005
• Published: 03/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Yip, Clement Chun Pong, Falcon, Stephen Russell, Miller, David Michael, Banay, Dan
• Granted Patent: US 7,299,185 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/270
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for speech systems that utilize an interaction manager to manage interactions—also known as dialogues—from one or more applications. The interactions are managed properly even if multiple applications use different grammars. The interaction manager maintains an interaction list. An application wishing to utilize the speech system submits one or more interactions to the interaction manager. Interactions are normally processed in the order in which they are received. An exception to this rule is an interaction that is configured by an application to be processed immediately, which causes the interaction manager to place the interaction at the front of the interaction list of interactions. If an application has designated an interaction to interrupt a currently processing interaction, then the newly submitted application will interrupt any interaction currently being processed and, therefore, it will be processed immediately.

Claims

1. A method for processing speech interactions from multiple speech-enabled applications, comprising:

receiving an interaction submitted by one of the speech-enabled applications;

determining if the interaction is an interrupting interaction;

placing the interaction in an interaction list having a front and a back and containing from one to several interactions to be processed in order from the front to the back, wherein the interaction is placed at the back of the interaction list unless the interaction is an interrupting interaction, in which case the interaction is placed at the front of the interaction list; and

interrupting an interaction currently processing when the interaction is placed at the front of the list, and the interrupted interaction does not resume processing after the interrupting interaction is processed if a self-destruct flag is set in the interaction.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the interaction list is a list of pointers to memory locations that contain the interactions submitted to the interaction list.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising sending one or more status messages to the application that submitted the interaction to inform the application of the status of the processing of the submitted interaction.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the one or more status messages sent to the application that submitted the interaction further comprises one or more of the following messages:

interaction activated;

interaction interrupted;

interaction self-destructed;

interaction re-activated; and

/or interaction completed.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the determining if the interaction is an interrupting interaction further comprises checking for the presence of an interruption flag in the interaction that, if present, indicates that the interaction is an interrupting interaction.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the interaction is a first interaction and the method further comprising waiting a pre-determined grace period after the first interaction is processed before beginning processing of a second interaction submitted from a different speech-enabled application from the speech-enabled application that submitted the first interaction.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising:

receiving a third interaction during the grace period, the third interaction being submitted from the speech-enabled application that submitted the first interaction; and

processing the third interaction prior to processing the second interaction.

8. A method for processing speech interactions from multiple speech-enabled applications, comprising:

receiving an interaction submitted by one of the speech-enabled applications;

determining if the interaction is an interrupting interaction;

placing the interaction in an interaction list having a front and a back and containing from one to several interactions to be processed in order from the front to the back,

placing an interaction received from a speech-enabled application at the end of the interaction list unless the interaction manager detects an indication to place the interaction received from the speech-enabled application at the front of the interaction list ahead of other interactions in the interaction list;

providing a grace period after processing a first interaction before beginning to process a second interaction; and

placing a chained interaction at the front of the interaction list if the chained interaction is received during a grace period after processing the first interaction and if the chained interaction is submitted by the same speech-enabled application that submitted the first interaction, even if the chained interaction does not indicate that it is to be placed at the front of the list and the chained interaction is submitted after the second interaction is submitted.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the interaction list is a list of pointers to memory locations that contain the interactions submitted to the interaction list.

10. The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising sending one or more status messages to the application that submitted the interaction to inform the application of the status of the processing of the submitted interaction.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the one or more status messages sent to the application that submitted the interaction further comprises one or more of the following messages:

interaction activated;

interaction interrupted;

interaction self-destructed;

interaction re-activated; and

/or interaction completed.

12. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the determining if the interaction is an interrupting interaction further comprises checking for the presence of an interruption flag in the interaction that, if present, indicates that the interaction is an interrupting interaction.

13. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the interaction is a first interaction and the method further comprising waiting a pre-determined grace period after the first interaction is processed before beginning processing of a second interaction submitted from a different speech-enabled application from the speech-enabled application that submitted the first interaction.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, further comprising:

receiving a third interaction during the grace period, the third interaction being submitted from the speech-enabled application that submitted the first interaction; and

processing the third interaction prior to processing the second interaction.

15. A computer readable medium containing instructions that when executed by a computing device, perform actions, including:

receiving an interaction submitted by one of the speech-enabled applications;

determining if the interaction is an interrupting interaction;

placing the interaction in an interaction list having a front and a back and containing from one to several interactions to be processed in order from the front to the back, wherein the interaction is placed at the back of the interaction list unless the interaction is an interrupting interaction, in which case the interaction is placed at the front of the interaction list; and

interrupting an interaction currently processing when the interaction is placed at the front of the list, and the interrupted interaction does not resume processing after the interrupting interaction is processed if a self-destruct flag is set in the interaction.

16. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 15, wherein the interaction list is a list of pointers to memory locations that contain the interactions submitted to the interaction list.

17. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 15, further comprising instructions for sending one or more status messages to the application that submitted the interaction to inform the application of the status of the processing of the submitted interaction.

18. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 17, wherein the one or more status messages sent to the application that submitted the interaction further comprises one or more of the following messages:

interaction activated;

interaction interrupted;

interaction self-destructed;

interaction re-activated; and

/or interaction completed.

19. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 15, wherein the determining if the interaction is an interrupting interaction further comprises checking for the presence of an interruption flag in the interaction that, if present, indicates that the interaction is an interrupting interaction.

20. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 15, wherein the interaction is a first interaction and the instructions further comprise instructions for waiting a pre-determined grace period after the first interaction is processed before beginning processing of a second interaction submitted from a different speech-enabled application from the speech-enabled application that submitted the first interaction.