Adding speech recognition libraries to an existing program at runtime

• US 6,654,955 B1
• Filed: 12/19/1996
• Issued: 11/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Segre, Marc, Kusnitz, Jeffrey Alan, Moore, John Anthony
• Primary Examiner(s): INGBERG, TODD D
• Application Number:
  US08/772,047
• Time in Patent Office: 2,532 Days
• Field of Search: 704/231, 704/271, 704/275, 345/156
• US Class Current: 717/163
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context

Abstract

A method and apparatus for enabling existing application programs for operation in speech recognition environments. Existing applications programs written with a dynamically linked library or object library, with no speech recognition capability, are capable of accepting input from a speech recognition without modification. An alternate dynamic library or object library is provided that supports the same interface or objects used by the original program. The alternate library is written so that it is aware of and receives input from the speech recognition system. The alternate library passes the input to the application program using the existing interfaces.

Claims

1. A method, implemented in a computer system, for adding speech capability to an existing application program comprising the steps of:

providing said existing application program having a plurality of object-oriented components including an input component containing interface information that is loaded and dynamically linked at runtime, said object-oriented input component originally created having no speech capability;

creating a speech enabled object-oriented input component for said existing application program by supplying an alternate object-oriented dynamic library that supports the same interface information in said input component;

determining if speech recognition is installed on said computer system while maintaining the input component and the speech enabled object-oriented input component; and

replacing said object-oriented input component of said application program with said speech enabled input component at runtime to allow speech operation in said application program.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of creating a speech enabled component further comprises the step of:

providing an interface having input/output controls including menus for said speech enabled component used by said application program.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of creating a speech enabled component further comprises the step of:

receiving input from a speech recognition system by said speech enabled component directed to said input component in said existing application program.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of creating a speech enabled component further comprises the step of:

passing input by said speech enabled component from said application program to a speech recognition system.

5. An apparatus for adding speech capability to an existing application program comprising:

means for providing said existing application program having a plurality of object-oriented components including an input component containing interface information that is loaded and dynamically linked at runtime, said object-oriented input component originally created having no speech capability;

means for creating a speech enabled object-oriented input component for said existing application program by supplying an alternate object-oriented dynamic library that supports the same interface information in said input component;

determining if speech recognition is installed on said computer system while maintaining the input component and said speech enabled object-oriented input component; and

means for replacing said object-oriented input component of said application program with said speech enabled input component at runtime to allow speech operation in said application program.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the means for enabling a speech component further comprises:

means for providing an interface having input/output controls including menus for said speech enabled component used by said application program.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the means for creating a speech enabled component further comprises:

means for receiving input from a speech recognition system by said speech enabled component directed to said input component in said existing application program.

8. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the means for creating a speech enabled component further comprises:

means for passing input by said speech enabled component from said application program to a speech recognition system.

9. A computer program product having a computer readable medium having computer program logic recorded thereon for adding speech capability to an existing application program comprising:

computer readable means for providing said existing application program having a plurality of object-oriented components including an input component containing interface information that is loaded and dynamically linked at runtime, said input component originally created having no speech capability;

computer readable means for creating a speech enabled object-oriented input component for said existing application program by supplying an alternate object-oriented dynamic library that supports the same interface information in said input component;

determining if speech recognition is installed on said computer system while maintaining the input component and said speech enabled object-oriented input component; and

computer readable means for replacing said object-oriented input component of said application program with said speech enabled input component at runtime to allow speech operation in said application program.

10. The computer program of claim 9 wherein the computer readable means for enabling a speech component further comprises:

computer readable means for providing an interface having input/output controls including menus for said speech enabled component used by said application program.

11. The computer program of claim 9, wherein the computer readable means for enabling a speech component further comprises:

computer readable means for receiving input from a speech recognition system by said speech enabled component directed to said input component in said existing application program.

12. The computer program of claim 9 wherein the computer readable means for creating a speech enabled component further comprises:

computer readable means for passing input by said speech enabled component from said application program to a speech recognition system.