Voice enabled network communications

• US 7,739,350 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2003
• Issued: 06/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Haenel, Walter, Cazzolla, John J., Hansen, Joseph A., Ghasemi, Reza
• Primary Examiner(s): Pwu; Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Li; Guang
• Application Number:
  US10/732,085
• Publication Number:
  US 20050132023A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,379 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/227, 709/224, 379/88.17, 379/88.18
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference

Abstract

A method of communicating with a remote user. The method can include receiving a plurality of server requests from the remote user via a communications network. The plurality of server requests can be processed in a single user session without re-authenticating the user, and can include at least one server request that includes voice data and at least one server request that includes non-audio data. A portlet can be provided to process the voice data and the non-audio data server requests. Responsive to the server requests, data can be provided to the remote user via the communications network.

Claims

1. A method for a remote user to communicate with a voice enabled portal using both voice and non-voice server requests, the method comprising the steps of:

establishing a single communications session by sending an initial server request from the remote user to the portal via a communications network, wherein the remote user is a subscriber having a web browser and a voice browser, and wherein the voice enabled portal includes a voice aggregator for formatting requested data as acoustic presentation and sending the formatted data to the voice browser and a visual aggregator for formatting requested data as visual presentation and sending the formatted data to the web browser;

monitoring a mode of the single communications session established between the portal and the remote user, wherein the mode for the single communications session is a voice communications mode or a non-voice communications mode;

during the established single communications session, receiving by the portal a subsequent server request from the remote user via the communications network, wherein the received subsequent server request comprises either voice data or non-voice data;

responsive to the received subsequent server request, determining whether the current mode of the established single communications session is compatible with the received subsequent server request;

if the current mode of the established single communications session is inappropriate for processing the received subsequent server request, copying and storing session information of the current mode and switching the mode of the communications session by restoring saved session information of the switched mode within the same communications session, wherein an authentication associated with the communications session in the current mode is used as an authentication for the communications session in the switched mode without requiring the user to be re-authenticated; and

providing data responsive to the received subsequent server request to the remote user via the communications network.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of receiving user credentials with the initial server request, the user credentials being common for voice data and non-voice data received from a particular user.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

providing a portlet configured for receiving server requests comprising voice data; and

operatively connecting the portlet to the communications network.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the portlet is further configured to receive server requests comprising non-voice data.

5. The method of claim 1, said receiving step further comprising the step of receiving the server request over a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) communication link.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a portion of the data provided to the remote user is formatted in accordance with a voice extensible markup language (VXML).

7. A system for a remote user to communicate with a voice enabled portal using both voice and non-voice server requests, comprising:

at least one memory; and

at least one processor configured to;

establish a single communications session by sending an initial server request from the remote user to the portal via a communications network, wherein the remote user is a subscriber having a web browser and a voice browser, and wherein the voice enabled portal includes a voice aggregator for formatting requested data as acoustic presentation and sending the formatted data to the voice browser and a visual aggregator for formatting requested data as visual presentation and sending the formatted data to the web browser;

monitor a mode of the single communications session established between the portal and the remote user, wherein the mode for the single communications session is a voice communications mode or a non-voice communications mode;

during the established single communications session, receive by the portal a subsequent server request from the remote user via the communications network, wherein the received subsequent server request comprises either voice data or non-voice data;

responsive to the received subsequent server request, determine whether the current mode of the established single communications session is compatible with the received subsequent server request;

if the current mode of the established single communications session is inappropriate for processing the received subsequent server request, copy and store session information of the current mode and switch the mode of the communications session by restoring saved session information of the switched mode within the same communications session, wherein an authentication associated with the communications session in the current mode is used as an authentication for the communications session in the switched mode without requiring the user to be re-authenticated; and

provide data responsive to the received subsequent server request to the remote user via the communications network.

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

establishing a single communications session by sending an initial server request from a remote user to a portal via a communications network, wherein the remote user is a subscriber having a web browser and a voice browser, and wherein the voice enabled portal includes a voice aggregator for formatting requested data as acoustic presentation and sending the formatted data to the voice browser and a visual aggregator for formatting requested data as visual presentation and sending the formatted data to the web browser;

monitoring a mode of the single communications session established between the portal and the remote user, wherein the mode for the single communications session is a voice communications mode or a non-voice communications mode;

during the established single communications session, receiving by the portal a subsequent server request from the remote user via the communications network, wherein the received subsequent server request comprises either voice data or non-voice data;

responsive to the received subsequent server request, determining whether the current mode of the established single communications session is compatible with the received subsequent server request;

if the current mode of the established single communications session is inappropriate for processing the received subsequent server request, copying and storing session information of the current mode and switching the mode of the communications session by restoring saved session information of the switched mode within the same communications session, wherein an authentication associated with the communications session in the current mode is used as an authentication for the communications session in the switched mode without requiring the user to be re-authenticated; and

providing data responsive to the received subsequent server request to the remote user via the communications network.