Method and system for audio access to information in a wide area computer network

• US 6,240,448 B1
• Filed: 05/07/1999
• Issued: 05/29/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Rutgers University
• Original Assignee: Rutgers University
• Inventors: Imielinski, Tomasz, Virmani, Aashu
• Primary Examiner(s): Dinh, Dung C.
• Application Number:
  US09/091,591
• Time in Patent Office: 753 Days
• Field of Search: 709/229, 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 709/246, 379/88.15, 379/90.01, 379/93.01, 379/93.25, 379/101.01
• US Class Current: 709/218
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/247 Telephone sets including user guidance or feature selection means facilitating their use user interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones H04M1/724
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0036 where the data service is an information service
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/12 for working between exchanges having different types of switching equipment, e.g. power-driven and step by step or decimal and non-decimal

Abstract

Method and system for representing different types of information on a wide area network in a form suitable for access over an audio interface (12). Audio enabled pages (29) are created to link particular text data, which data can be from the World Wide Web (WWW). The audio enabled pages (29) can be retrieved by an audio web server (16, 18) for interpreting the pages into audio which is displayed at the audio interface (12). Audio input means are created to traverse the links of the audio enable pages (29). A user can use the keypad of the phone (12) or spoken commands to traverse the audio menus. In addition, dynamic audio input means can be created to selectively traverse a database of the WWW information.

Claims

1. A system for providing audio access to resources in a wide area network comprising:

means for generating an audio enabled page by selectively choosing linked data from said resources;

an audio web server providing text to audio conversion of said audio enabled page;

means for establishing a connection to said audio web server from an audio interface;

means for selecting information from said audio enabled page in response to input entered over said connection, said input establishing links to said audio enabled page;

means for generating user input audio menus to traverse said links of said audio enabled pages, said input being entered from said user input audio menus; and

means for retrieving said selected information;

wherein said retrieved information is received as audio at said audio interface.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said audio enabled page is stored remotely of said audio web server at a universal resource locator and further comprising:

means for electronically connecting said audio server to said universal resource locator to form an electronic connection; and

means for retrieving said audio enabled page over said electronic connection.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said audio enabled page is stored at said audio web server.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said input is entered from a keypad of a phone of a user said system.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein said links are established between said keypad and said audio enabled page.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein said audio web server further comprises:

means for converting speech to text,

wherein said input is speech spoken from a user of said system into said means for converting speech to text.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said means for establishing a connection to said audio web server comprises a call processor in said audio web server.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein said resource is a database and said means for generating user input audio menus generates dynamic user input audio menus for selectively traversing said database in which a graphical representation is used to determine selective ordering of database attributes accessed by said dynamic user input audio menus.

30. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

means for linking a first said audio enabled page and at least one subsequent audio enabled page.

31. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

means for terminating said user input with a specified character and bringing the user to a root of the linked tree of audio enabled pages.

9. A method for providing audio access to resources in a wide area network comprising the steps of:

a. generating an audio enabled page by selectively choosing linked data from said resources;

b. generating at least one link from input entered by a user at an audio interface to said audio enabled page;

c. determining a query from said links, said query being entered from said audio interface to an audio web server;

d. selecting information from said audio enabled page in response to said query;

e. retrieving the selected information from said audio enabled page at said audio web server;

f. converting said retrieved information into audio; and

g. displaying said retrieved information at said audio interface.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein step a further comprises the steps of:

entering text to be displayed when said audio enabled page is retrieved.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein said link is established between a number of a keypad of a phone and said audio enabled page and said keypad is used to generate said query and further comprising the step of:

generating a prompt related to said link; and

displaying said prompt as audio at said audio interface.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising the steps of:

providing a second prompt requesting entry of information in a predetermined format;

indexing database information with the requested information; and

outputting the indexed database information into an output data file.

13. The method of claim 9 further comprising the steps of:

storing said audio enabled page at a universal resource locator and electronically connecting said audio server to said universal resource locator for retrieving the stored audio enabled page.

14. The method of claim 9 further comprising the step of:

converting spoken commands into text,

wherein said spoken commands are used to generate said input entered by said user.

15. The method of claim 9 wherein said resource is a database and further comprising the steps of.

h. determining at least one Target attribute of said database;

i. determining at least one Identifier attribute of said Target attribute; and

j. determining rules for controlling flow of user input into dynamic user input audio menus from said target attribute and said Identifier attribute.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein said dynamic user input audio menus are generated by the steps of:

k. selecting a preference attribute of said Target and said Identifier attribute;

1. identifying said attributes which immediately follow one another;

m. creating a graph of said attributes which immediately follow one another;

n. sorting the remaining attributes in decreasing order of selectivity;

o. adding to said graph said attributes in decreasing order of selectivity;

p. topologically sorting said graph;

q. determining attributes of zero degree;

r. creating a first audio enabled page for determined attributes of zero degree;

s. determining double edge attributes;

t. creating a second audio enabled page for each of said double edge attributes; and

u. updating said graph by removing the determined attributes of zero degree and the determined double edge attributes from said graph.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising the steps of:

determining if ambiguities exist for said attributes of the zero degree; and

performing ambiguity resolutions for the determined attributes of the zero degree.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising the steps of:

determining if ambiguities exist for said double edge attributes; and

performing ambiguity resolution for said double edge attributes.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising the steps of repeating steps o. through u. until all attributes are removed from said graph.

20. The method of claim 15 wherein step j. comprises the step of:

specifying a character to be used to terminate user input.

21. The method of claim 15 further comprising the step of:

linking a first said audio enabled page and at least one subsequent audio enabled page, thereby forming a linked tree.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising the step of:

specifying a character to be used to terminate said linked tree and bring a user back to the root of said linked tree.

23. A method of representing resources in a wide area network for audio access comprising the steps of:

selecting linked data from said resources;

creating links between said selected linked data to form an audio enabled page;

translating said audio enabled page into audio; and

displaying said audio at an audio interface.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein a TEXT command is used in said audio enabled page to generate an audio message to said audio interface.

25. The method of claim 23 wherein a LINK command is used for creating said links, said links linking a number of a keypad to said audio enabled page to form a linked audio enabled page, said LINK command being formed of a first identifier for said number of said keypad, a prompt which is displayed at said audio interface and a second identifier for said linked audio enabled page.

26. The method of claim 23 further comprising the step of:

forming input audio menus for selecting said linked data and displaying said audio, said input audio menus being formed from an ENTER command, said ENTER command including at least one prompt and at least one format identifier to identify the format to be used for said input, an identifier of at least one resource to be accessed by said input audio menu and an identifier of an output file, said output file receiving said selected information from said at least one resource accessed by said input audio menu.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein said ENTER command further comprises:

at least one prompt and at least one format identifier to identify the format to be used for said input.

28. The method of claim 23 further comprising the step of:

traversing said links of said linked audio is enabled page, wherein a JUMPTO command is used for said traversing of said links, said JUMPTO command including at least one identifier of said input and at least one of said audio enabled pages to be linked to said identifier of said input.

29. The method of claim 23 further comprising the step of:

generating a user profile for linking an input sequence to said audio enabled page, said input sequence being inputted by the user to said audio interface.