Systems and methods for managing and building directed dialogue portal applications

• US 7,395,206 B1
• Filed: 01/14/2005
• Issued: 07/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Original Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Inventors: Dallaway, Owen Simon, Weiman, Alan, Irwin, James S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hudspeth, David R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): HERNANDEZ, JOSIAH J
• Application Number:
  US11/036,032
• Time in Patent Office: 1,264 Days
• Field of Search: 704/270.1
• US Class Current: 704/270
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence

Abstract

A directed dialogue portal system management scheme is disclosed, providing a manager application layer over portal system managed applications. The manager application layer may include a global grammar (e.g., the grammar of each managed application) and each managed application may inherit behaviors of the manager application. Responses to prompts received by a first managed application that are unrecognized or are directed to a second managed application are sent to the manager application. The manager application sends the response to the second application. The scheme is transparent to the user and, from the user'"'"'s perspective, a user is able to directly access any application or services in a directed dialogue portal system from other locations in the system.

Claims

1. A directed dialogue portal system, comprising:

a manager application comprising a behavior;

a first and a second managed application associated with the manager application, wherein the first and the second managed application each inherit the behavior;

wherein an input associated with the second managed application is received during execution of the first managed application, wherein the first managed application sends the input to the manager application pursuant to the behavior, and wherein the manager application recognizes the input as being associated with the second managed application.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the manager application sends the input to the second managed application.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a speech recognition device for recognizing the input, wherein the input is a verbal communication.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the input is communicated from a telephone.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a prompting device for sending a directed dialogue prompt to the user;

an input device for receiving the input from the user; and

a recognizer for recognizing the input.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the behavior comprises grammar.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the behavior comprises navigational logic.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the behavior comprises business logic.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the first managed application comprises a first grammar, wherein the second managed application comprises a second grammar, and wherein the manager application comprises the first and the second grammar.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the manager application comprises a listing comprising:

the first managed application and valid user inputs for the first managed application; and

the second managed application and valid user inputs for the second managed application.

11. A method of constructing a directed dialogue portal system, comprising:

obtaining a name of a manager application comprising a behavior from a first and a second managed application; and

applying the behavior of the manager application to the first and the second managed application, wherein an input associated with the second managed application received during execution of the first managed application is sent to the manager application pursuant to the behavior, and wherein the input is recognized as being associated with the second managed application.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

sending a directed dialogue comprising a listing of a name of the first and of the second managed applications; and

receiving an input that selects the first managed application.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein sending the directed dialogue comprises using a voice interpreter.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

applying grammar of the first and the second managed application to the behavior of the manager application, wherein the grammar comprises a name of the first and the second managed application.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the behavior comprises grammar.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the behavior comprises navigational logic.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the behavior comprises business logic.

18. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing steps, comprising:

obtaining a name of a manager application comprising a behavior from a first and a second managed application; and

applying the behavior of the manager application to the first and the second managed application, wherein an input associated with the second managed application received during execution of the first managed application is sent to the manager application pursuant to the behavior, and wherein the input is recognized as being associated with the second managed application.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, having further computer-executable instructions for performing the steps of:

applying grammar of the first and the second managed application to the behavior of the manager application, wherein the grammar comprises a name of the first and the second managed application.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, having further computer-executable instructions for performing the steps of:

sending a directed dialogue comprising a listing of a name of the first and of the second managed applications; and

receiving an input that selects the first managed application.