System and method for providing telephonic voice response information related to items marked on physical documents

• US 7,414,925 B2
• Filed: 11/23/2004
• Issued: 08/19/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Carro, Fernando Incertis
• Primary Examiner(s): EDUN, MUHAMMAD N
• Application Number:
  US10/996,245
• Publication Number:
  US 20050138562A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,365 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 369/29.01
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72409 by interfacing with external accessories hands-free H04M1/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72445 for supporting Internet browser applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector digitizers for touch screens G06F3/041
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/003 Click to dial services

Abstract

The present invention discloses a system and method to telephonically access information related with items printed on a physical document, simply by touching with a finger items marked on the physical document or on any other physical surface. The system includes a touch foil placed over (or under) the document, for reading the coordinates of selected marked items, a telephone set for receiving the coordinates of the items selected by the user and for dialing to an interactive voice response (IVR) service used for accessing and retrieving selected hyperlinked documents from the web through a documents proxy server, for converting retrieved documents to synthesized speech, and for providing to the user through the telephone network, the selected documents that have been converted into speech.

Claims

1. A method for accessing information located on at least one web server using a user device having a telephone set connected to a network, wherein the information corresponds to an item printed or marked on a page of a physical document, the method comprising:

reading a phone number, a document identifier printed on the physical document, and a page identifier printed on a page of the physical document, and entering the phone number, the document identifier, and the page identifier in the user device;

selecting on the user device, a location of an item printed or marked in the page of the physical document and determining corresponding location information;

establishing a connection through the network by dialing the phone number read on the physical document, wherein the phone number is that of a server having an IVR server application;

encoding as a dial string, an item identification comprising the document identifier, the page identifier, and the location information of the item;

transmitting the dial string to the IVR server application using the established connection;

receiving and decoding the dial string at the IVR server application;

parsing the item identification from the decoded dial string and sending the item identification to a web proxy server application;

collecting one or more web pages corresponding to the item identification and located on the at least one web server, using the web proxy server application, and sending the web pages to the IVR server application;

transforming the web pages to synthetic voice information using the IVR server application having a text-to-speech synthesis application;

sending the synthetic voice information to the user device through the connection established across the network; and

receiving and playing the synthetic voice information on the telephone set of the user device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reading a document identifier printed on a different physical document and a page identifier printed on a page of the different physical document, and entering the document identifier and the page identifier of the different physical document in the user device; and

selecting on the user device, a location of an item printed or marked in the page of the different physical document and determining corresponding location information.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reading a page identifier printed on a different page of the physical document, and entering the page identifier of the different page in the user device; and

selecting on the user device, a location of an item printed or marked in the different page of the physical document and determining corresponding location information.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting on the user device, a location of a different item printed or marked in the page of the physical document and determining corresponding location information.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating and maintaining a document links table having a web server address for each item identification; and

wherein the collecting comprises reading the web server address associated with an item identification in the document links table and reading the one or more web pages corresponding to the web server address.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting comprises touching the item on a touch foil placed over the page of the physical document, and wherein the determining comprises computing coordinates of the touched item on the touch foil.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the entering comprises entering the phone number, the document identifier, and the page identifier on the telephone set.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising printing the physical document so as to include a phone number and a document identifier on the first page and a page identifier on each page.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the sending the item identification to the web proxy server application and the sending the web pages to the IVR server application is implemented using a network communication protocol.

10. A method for accessing information located on at least one web server using a user device having a telephone set connected to a network, wherein the information corresponds to an item printed or marked on a page of a physical document, the method comprising:

reading a phone number, a document identifier printed on the physical document, and a page identifier printed on a page of the physical document, and entering the phone number, the document identifier, and the page identifier in the user device;

selecting on the user device, a location of an item printed or marked in the page of the physical document and determining corresponding location information;

establishing a connection through the network by dialing the phone number read on the physical document, wherein the phone number is that of a server having an IVR server application;

encoding as a dial string, an item identification comprising the document identifier, the page identifier, and the location information of the item;

transmitting the dial string to the IVR server application using the established connection; and

receiving and playing the synthetic voice information on the telephone set of the user device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the selecting comprises touching the item on a touch foil placed over the page of the physical document, and wherein the determining comprises computing coordinates of the touched item on the touch foil.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the entering comprises entering the phone number, the document identifier, and the page identifier on the telephone set.

13. A method for providing information located on at least one web server using a user device having a telephone set connected to a network, wherein the information corresponds to an item printed or marked on a page of a physical document, the method comprising:

receiving and decoding a dial string at an IVR server application;

parsing an item identification from the decoded dial string and sending the item identification to a web proxy server application;

collecting one or more web pages corresponding to the item identification and located on the at least one web server, using the web proxy server application, and sending the web pages to the IVR server application;

transforming the web pages to synthetic voice information using the IVR server application having a text-to-speech synthesis application; and

sending the synthetic voice information to the user device through the connection established across the network.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

creating and maintaining a document links table having a web server address for each item identification; and

wherein the collecting comprises reading the web server address associated with an item identification in the document links table and reading the one or more web pages corresponding to the web server address.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the sending the item identification to the web proxy server application and the sending the web pages to the IVR server application is implemented using a network communication protocol.