Enabling Global Grammars For A Particular Multimodal Application

• US 20080208591A1
• Filed: 02/27/2007
• Published: 08/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: McCobb, Gerald M., Ativanichayaphong, Soonthorn, Cross, Charles W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,809,575 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/19 Grammatical context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word sequence rules

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and computer program products are described for enabling global grammars for a particular multimodal application according to the present invention by loading a multimodal web page; determining whether the loaded multimodal web page is one of a plurality of multimodal web pages of the particular multimodal application. If the loaded multimodal web page is one of the plurality of multimodal web pages of the particular multimodal application, enabling global grammars typically includes loading any currently unloaded global grammars of the particular multimodal application identified in the multimodal web page and maintaining any previously loaded global grammars. If the loaded multimodal web page is not one of the plurality of multimodal web pages of the particular multimodal application, enabling global grammars typically includes unloading any currently loaded global grammars.

Claims

1. A method for enabling global grammars for a particular multimodal application, the method implemented with a multimodal browser and a multimodal application operating on a multimodal device supporting multiple modes of user interaction with the multimodal application, the modes of user interaction including a voice mode and one or more non-voice modes, the method comprising:

loading a multimodal web page;

determining whether the loaded multimodal web page is one of a plurality of multimodal web pages of the particular multimodal application;

if the loaded multimodal web page is one of the plurality of multimodal web pages of the particular multimodal application,

loading any currently unloaded global grammars in the multimodal web page; and

maintaining any previously loaded global grammars; and

if the loaded multimodal web page is not one of the plurality of multimodal web pages of the particular multimodal application, unloading any currently loaded global grammars.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein loading any global grammars of the identified in the multimodal web page if the global grammars are not currently loaded further comprises:

identifying in dependence upon markup in the multimodal web page a global grammar;

determining that the identified global grammar is not currently loaded; and

loading the identified global grammar.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprises identifying in dependence upon markup in the loaded multimodal web page any document level grammars and loading the document level grammars identified by the markup.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein identifying in dependence upon markup in the loaded multimodal web page any document level grammars further comprises identifying a scope attribute for a VoiceXML form in an X+V document.

2. The method of claim 2 wherein determining whether the loaded multimodal web page is one of a plurality of multimodal web pages of the particular multimodal application further comprises comparing a base URI for the particular multimodal application with a designated URI in the multimodal web page.

4. The method of claim 4 wherein identifying in dependence upon markup in the multimodal web page a global grammar further comprises identifying a scope attribute for a VoiceXML form in an X+V document.

7. An apparatus for enabling global grammars for a particular multimodal application, the apparatus including a multimodal browser and a multimodal application operating on a multimodal device supporting multiple modes of user interaction with the multimodal application, the modes of user interaction including a voice mode and one or more non-voice modes, the apparatus comprising a computer processor and a computer memory operatively coupled to the computer processor, the computer memory having disposed within it computer program instructions capable of:

loading a multimodal web page;

determining whether the loaded multimodal web page is one of a plurality of multimodal web pages of the particular multimodal application;

if the loaded multimodal web page is one of the plurality of multimodal web pages of the particular multimodal application,

loading any currently unloaded global grammars in the multimodal web page; and

maintaining any previously loaded global grammars; and

if the loaded multimodal web page is not one of the plurality of multimodal web pages of the particular multimodal application, unloading any currently loaded global grammars.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein computer program instructions capable of determining whether the loaded multimodal web page is one of a plurality of multimodal web pages of the particular multimodal application further comprise computer program instructions capable of comparing a base URI for the particular multimodal application with a designated URI in the multimodal web page.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein computer program instructions capable of loading any global grammars of the identified in the multimodal web page if the global grammars are not currently loaded further comprise computer program instructions capable of:

identifying in dependence upon markup in the multimodal web page a global grammar;

determining that the identified global grammar is not currently loaded; and

loading the identified global grammar.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein computer program instructions capable of identifying in dependence upon markup in the multimodal web page a global grammar further comprise computer program instructions capable of identifying a scope attribute for a VoiceXML form in an X+V document.

11. The apparatus of claim 7 further comprise computer program instructions capable of identifying in dependence upon markup in the loaded multimodal web page any document level grammars and computer program instructions capable of loading the document level grammars identified by the markup.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein computer program instructions capable of identifying in dependence upon markup in the loaded multimodal web page any document level grammars further comprise computer program instructions capable of identifying a scope attribute for a VoiceXML form in an X+V document.

13. An computer program product for enabling global grammars for a particular multimodal application, the computer program product including a multimodal browser operating on a multimodal device supporting multiple modes of user interaction with the multimodal application, the modes of user interaction including a voice mode and one or more non-voice modes, the computer program product disposed upon a computer-readable, signal-bearing medium, the computer program product comprising computer program instructions capable of:

loading a multimodal web page;

determining whether the loaded multimodal web page is one of a plurality of multimodal web pages of the particular multimodal application;

if the loaded multimodal web page is one of the plurality of multimodal web pages of the particular multimodal application,

loading any currently unloaded global grammars in the multimodal web page; and

maintaining any previously loaded global grammars; and

if the loaded multimodal web page is not one of the plurality of multimodal web pages of the particular multimodal application, unloading any currently loaded global grammars.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein computer program instructions capable of determining whether the loaded multimodal web page is one of a plurality of multimodal web pages of the particular multimodal application further comprise computer program instructions capable of comparing a base URI for the particular multimodal application with a designated URI in the multimodal web page.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein computer program instructions capable of loading any global grammars of the identified in the multimodal web page if the global grammars are not currently loaded further comprise computer program instructions capable of:

identifying in dependence upon markup in the multimodal web page a global grammar;

determining that the identified global grammar is not currently loaded; and

loading the identified global grammar.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein computer program instructions capable of identifying in dependence upon markup in the multimodal web page a global grammar further comprise computer program instructions capable of identifying a scope attribute for a VoiceXML form in an X+V document.

17. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprise computer program instructions capable of identifying in dependence upon markup in the loaded multimodal web page any document level grammars and computer program instructions capable of loading the document level grammars identified by the markup.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein computer program instructions capable of identifying in dependence upon markup in the loaded multimodal web page any document level grammars further comprise computer program instructions capable of identifying a scope attribute for a VoiceXML form in an X+V document.

19. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the computer-readable, signal-bearing medium comprises a recordable medium.

20. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the computer-readable, signal-bearing medium comprises a transmission medium.