Personal voice portal service

• US 7,216,287 B2
• Filed: 08/02/2002
• Issued: 05/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Creamer, Thomas E., Moore, Victor S., Davis, Brent L., Jaiswal, Peeyush, Colson, Vicki L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bashore; William
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen; Maikhanh
• Application Number:
  US10/211,155
• Publication Number:
  US 20040205475A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,740 Days
• Field of Search: 704/206, 704/270.1, 370/352, 709/231, 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 709/226, 715/500, 715/501.1, 715/513, 715/514, 715/523
• US Class Current: 715/239
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154

Abstract

A method of deriving audio content from visual content can include modifying a visual markup language document requested by a client computer system to specify a control for generating an audio markup language document version of the visual markup language document. The modified visual markup language document can be provided to the client computer system. Responsive to a selection of the control, an audio markup language document version of the visual markup language document can be generated. The audio markup language document can be saved for subsequent presentation through an audio interface.

Claims

1. A method of deriving audio content from visual content comprising:

receiving a request from a client computer system for a visual markup language document served by a Web server;

responsive to the client request, retrieving the visual markup language document from the Web server;

parsing the visual markup language document to identify at least one of text sections, headings, images, selectable icons, hyperlinks, data-entry fields, lists, and tables within the visual markup language document;

modifying the visual markup language document to include a corresponding visual marker for, and adjacent to, each identified text section, heading, image, selectable icon, hyperlink, data-entry field, list, and table for generating an audio markup language document version of the visual markup language document;

modifying said visual markup language document to specify at least one marker specifying a text label, wherein said marker specifying a text label is associated with a field for receiving text in said visual markup language document;

further modifying the visual markup language document to include at least one user-selectable control;

providing said modified visual markup language document to said client computer system for presentation within a visual interface of the client computer system;

receiving an indicator from said client computer system that the at least one user-selectable control was selected;

responsive to a selection of the at least one user-selectable control, generating the audio markup language document version of said visual markup language document;

during said generating step, associating said text label with a section of said audio markup language document corresponding to said field of said visual markup language document;

saving said audio markup language document version for subsequent presentation through an audio interface;

wherein the at least one user-selectable control is a plurality of controls, each control being associated with a subset of content contained within the visual markup language document, and wherein the audio markup language document version includes content associated with a selected one of said controls and does not include content within the visual markup language document associated with unselected ones of said controls; and

wherein said associating step renders said text label as a selectable speech label specifying that speech is to be used as an input to said section of said audio markup language document.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing a communication connection with an audio-enabled communication device;

identifying a user of the audio-enabled communication device as the user of the client computer system; and

providing content of the previously saved audio markup language document to the audio-enabled communication device upon request.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

during a different communication session from that involving the client computing system, sending said audio markup language document to a communications device having the audio interface.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one user-selectable control comprises a speech-selectable control responsive to a speech utterance.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to a selection of at least one visual marker, excluding a portion of said visual markup language document corresponding to an identified text section, heading, image, selectable icon, hyperlink, data-entry field, or predetermined structure of said visual markup language document from said generating step.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said portion of said visual markup language document corresponds to an image.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein said portion of said visual markup language document corresponds to text.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

during said generating step, associating a text label with a section of said audio markup language document.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said associating step renders said text label as a selectable speech label for requesting playback of said section of said audio markup language document.

10. A system for audibly presenting user-selected visual Web content comprising:

a Web server configured to serve visual markup language documents to clients via a computer communications network; and

a personal voice portal service configured to;

receive a request from a client computer system for a visual markup language document served by said Web server,

retrieve the visual markup language document from the Web server in response to the client request,

parse the visual markup language document to identify at least one of text sections, headings, images, selectable icons, hyperlinks, data-entry fields, lists, and tables within the visual markup language document,

modify the visual markup language document to include a corresponding visual marker for, and adjacent to, each identified text section, heading, image, selectable icon, hyperlink, data-entry field, list, and table for generating an audio markup language document version of the visual markup language document,

modify said visual markup language document to specify at least one marker specifying a text label, wherein said marker specifying a text label is associated with a field for receiving text in said visual markup language document,

modify the visual markup language document to include at least one user-selectable control,

provide said modified visual markup language document to a client computer system for presentation within a visual interface of the client computer system,

receive an indicator from said client computer system that the at least one user-selectable control was selected,

generate the audio markup language document version of said visual markup language document in response to a selection of the at least one user-selectable control,

associate said text label with a section of said audio markup language document corresponding to said field of said visual markup language document when generating the audio markup language document version,

save said audio markup language document version for subsequent presentation through an audio interface,

wherein the at least one user-selectable control comprises a plurality of controls, each control being associated with a subset of content contained within the visual markup language document, and wherein the audio markup language document version includes content associated with a selected one of said controls and does not include content within the visual markup language document associated with unselected ones of said controls, and

wherein said associating said text label renders said text label as a selectable speech label specifying that speech is to be used as an input to said section of said audio markup language document.

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

receiving a request from a client computer system for a visual markup language document served by a Web server;

responsive to the client request, retrieving the visual markup language document from the Web server;

parsing the visual markup language document to identify at least one of text sections, headings, images, selectable icons, hyperlinks, data-entry fields, lists, and tables within the visual markup language document;

modifying the visual markup language document to include a corresponding visual marker for, and adjacent to, each identified text section, heading, image, selectable icon, hyperlink, data-entry field, list, and table for generating an audio markup language document version of the visual markup language document;

modifying said visual markup language document to specify at least one marker specifying a text label, wherein said marker specifying a text label is associated with a field for receiving text in said visual markup language document;

further modifying the visual markup language document to include at least one user-selectable control;

providing said modified visual markup language document to said client computer system for presentation within a visual interface of the client computer system;

receiving an indicator from said client computer system that the at least one user-selectable control was selected;

responsive to a selection of the at least one user-selectable control, generating the audio markup language document version of said visual markup language document;

during said generating step, associating said text label with a section of said audio markup language document corresponding to said field of said visual markup language document;

saving said audio markup language document version for subsequent presentation through an audio interface;

wherein the at least one user-selectable control is a plurality of controls, each control being associated with a subset of content contained within the visual markup language document, and wherein the audio markup language document version includes content associated with a selected one of said controls and does not include content within the visual markup language document associated with unselected ones of said controls; and

wherein said associating step renders said text label as a selectable speech label specifying that speech is to be used as an input to said section of said audio markup language document.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising:

establishing a communication connection with an audio-enabled communication device;

identifying a user of the audio-enabled communication device as the user of the client computer system; and

providing content of the previously saved audio markup language document to the audio-enabled communication device upon request.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising:

during a different communication session from that involving the client computing system, sending said audio markup language document to a communications device having the audio interface.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the at least one user-selectable control comprises a speech-selectable control response to a speech utterance.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising:

responsive to a selection of at least one visual marker, excluding a portion of said visual markup language document corresponding to an identified text section, heading, image, selectable icon, hyperlink, data-entry field, or predetermined structure of said visual markup language document from said generating step.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein said portion of the visual markup document corresponds to an image.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein said the portion of the visual markup document corresponds to text.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising:

during the generating step, associating a text label with a section of said audio markup language document.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein said associating step renders said text label as a selectable speech label for requesting playback of said section of said audio markup language document.