Explicitly registering markup based on verbal commands and exploiting audio context

• US 7,240,006 B1
• Filed: 09/27/2000
• Issued: 07/03/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Howland, Michael J., Pritke, Steven M., Brocious, Larry A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lerner; Martin
• Application Number:
  US09/670,646
• Time in Patent Office: 2,470 Days
• Field of Search: 704/270, 704/270.1, 704/275, 379/88.01, 379/88.04, 379/88.17
• US Class Current: 704/270
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context

Abstract

A generic way of encoding information needed by an application to register voice commands and enable a speech engine are used to tell a browser what to present to the user and what options are available to the user to interact with an application. This is accomplished by enhancements to a markup language which register and enable voice commands that are needed by an application to the speech engine, and provide an audio context for the page scope command by adding a context option to make the page much more flexible and usable. The action of the application can be altered based on the current audio context by adding a context option. The application remains independent of the browser and separate from interaction with the speech engine. The application can accommodate both verbal and visual interactions by registering the verbal commands and identifying to what those commands will translate.

Claims

1. A system for providing context based verbal commands to a multi-modal browser, comprising:

a context-based audio queue ordered based on contents of a page being audibly read by the multi-modal browser to a user;

a store for storing a current context of the audio queue; and

a speech recognition engine for recognizing and registering voice commands, wherein said speech recognition engine compares a current audio context with the context associated with a voice command and causes the browser to perform an action based on the comparison, wherein when a first tag is used to designate the audio context, recognized voice commands associated with the audio context are ignored unless an audio context has been established, and wherein if a context has been established, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is followed after appending the current context.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the browser action comprises accessing a different Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and rendering a page specified by the URL.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein said first tag is designated a REQUIRED tag.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein when a second tag is used to designate the audio context, if a context is established, it is appended before driving the URL, and wherein if no context is established, the URL is followed without appending anything.

5. The system as recited in claim 4, wherein the second tag is designated an OPTIONAL tag.

6. The system as recited in claim 4, wherein when a third tag is used to designate the audio context, the context is not appended even if it is defined.

7. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the third tag is designated an IGNORE tag.

8. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein when a fourth tag is used to designate the audio context, the command is driven only if a context is not defined.

9. The system as recited in claim 8, wherein the fourth tag is designated an INVALID tag.

10. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the page being audibly read is a markup language page.

11. A computer implemented method for providing context based verbal commands to a multi-modal browser, comprising the steps of:

building a context based audio queue based on the contents of markup language page being audibly read by the multi-modal browser to a user;

storing a current context of the audio queue; and

recognizing and registering voice commands, wherein the current audio context is compared with a voice command, thereby causing the multi-modal browser to perform an action based on the comparison, wherein when a first tag is used to designate the audio context, recognized voice commands associated with the audio context are ignored unless an audio context has been established, and wherein if a context has been established, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is followed after appending the current context.

12. The computer implemented method for providing context based verbal commands to a multi-modal browser as recited in claim 11, wherein said first tag is designated a REQUIRED tag.

13. The computer implemented method for providing context based verbal commands to a multi-modal browser as recited in claim 11, wherein the browser action comprises accessing a different Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and displaying the contents of the URL.

14. The computer implemented method for providing context based verbal commands to a multi-modal browser as recited in claim 13, wherein when a second tag is used to designate the audio context, if a context is established, it is appended before following the URL, and wherein if no context is established, the URL is driven without appending anything.

15. The computer implemented method for providing context based verbal commands to a multi-modal browser as recited in claim 14, wherein the second tag is designated an OPTIONAL tag.

16. The computer implemented method for providing context based verbal commands to a multi-modal browser as recited in claim 14, wherein when a third tag is used to designate the audio context, the context is not appended even if it is defined.

17. The computer implemented method for providing context based verbal commands to a multi-modal browser as recited in claim 16, wherein the third tag is designated an IGNORE tag.

18. The computer implemented method for providing context based verbal commands to a multi-modal browser as recited in claim 16, wherein when a fourth tag is used to designate the audio context, the command is driven only if a context is not defined.

19. The computer implemented method for providing context based verbal commands to a multi-modal browser as recited in claim 18, wherein the fourth tag is designated an INVALID tag.