Web server controls for web enabled recognition and/or audible prompting

• US 8,224,650 B2
• Filed: 04/28/2003
• Issued: 07/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Galanes, Francisco M., Hon, Hsiao-Wuen, Jacoby, James D., Lecoeuche, Renaud J., Potter, Stephen F., Warren, Susan M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lerner, Martin
• Application Number:
  US10/426,057
• Publication Number:
  US 20040113908A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,368 Days
• Field of Search: 704/270, 704/270.1, 704/275, 715/727, 715/760, 715/201, 715/239, 715/728
• US Class Current: 704/270.1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72445 for supporting Internet browser applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/74 with voice recognition means voice activated dialling H04M1/271; voice recognition algorithms G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML

Abstract

Web server controls are provided for generating client side markups with recognition and/or audible prompting. Three approaches are disclosed for implementation of the controls.

Claims

1. A computer readable storage medium having instructions, which when executed on a computer generate client side markup for a client in a client/server system, the instructions comprising:

a set of multimodal controls defined on an authoring page for a website for defining visual renderings and at least one of recognition and audible prompting on a client in a server/client system, each multimodal control on the authoring page having a first set of attributes to control a first modality of visual rendering and a second set of attributes to control a second modality of at least one of recognition and audibly prompting the multimodal controls being related to client side markup executable by a client browser the set of multimodal controls comprising;

a question control for generating markup related to audible prompting of a question; and

an answer control for generating markup related to a grammar for recognition, the question and answer controls being associated with a semantic map comprising one or more semantic items that form a layer between individually associated visual domain primary controls and a non-visual recognition domain of the question and answer controls, the associated visual domain primary controls comprising markup; and

a module operable on a computer, the module being configured to receive the authoring page and generate client side markup executable by the client browser on the client in the server/client system in accordance with the first and second sets of attributes of the multimodal controls on the authoring page.

2. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein one of the second set of attributes for one of the multimodal controls relates to a grammar to use for recognition.

3. The computer readable storage medium of claim 2 wherein said one of the second set of attributes provides a reference to a location of the grammar.

4. The computer readable storage medium of claim 2 wherein the grammar is for one of speech recognition, handwriting recognition, gesture recognition and visual recognition.

5. The computer readable storage medium of claim 4 wherein the multimodal controls relate to one of HTML, XHTML, cHTML, XML and WML.

6. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the multimodal controls relate to one of HTML, XHTML, cHTML, XML and WML.

7. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein one of the second set of attributes for one of the controls provides instructions related to generating audible output.

8. The computer readable storage medium of claim 7 wherein the instructions comprise text and the attribute relates to converting the text to audible output.

9. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein one of the second set of attributes for one of the multimodal controls relates to a location of data for audible output.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9 wherein the data comprises a prerecorded audio data file and the attribute relates to playing the prerecorded audio data file.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9 wherein the data comprises text and the attribute relates to converting the text to audible output.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the set of controls access and use a first library for the visual rendering and a second library for the at least one of recognition and audibly prompting, the first library including methods for generating the client side markup and a plurality of event handlers, the first library further comprising a plurality of website authoring tools, the second library including markup information for performing the at least one of recognition and audibly prompting.

13. A computer readable storage medium having instructions defined on an authoring page on a website, which when executed on a computer generate client side markup for a client in a client/server system, the instructions comprising:

a first set of visual controls having attributes related to a first modality of interaction with a user of the client that being visual renderings on the client device, the first set of controls being related to client side markup executable by a client browser, and wherein the attributes include at least one of location for visual rendering, font, background color, and foreground color;

a second set of controls having attributes related to a second modality of interaction with the user of the client that being at least one of recognition and audibly prompting, the second set of controls using at least one of the first set of controls, the second set of controls being related to client side markup executable by a client browser the second set of controls comprising;

a question control for generating markup related to audible prompting of a question; and

an answer control for generating markup related to a grammar for recognition, the question and answer controls being associated with a semantic map comprising one or more semantic items that form a layer between individually associated visual domain primary controls and a non-visual recognition domain of the question and answer controls, the associated visual domain primary controls comprising markup; and

a module operable on a computer, the module being configured to receive the authoring page, which includes a plurality of the second set of controls, wherein the module is further configured to process the plurality of the second set of controls from the authoring page to generate client side markup from the first set of controls that is executable by the client browser on the client in the server/client system in accordance with the second set of controls and the attributes of the second set of controls.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein one of the attributes for the second set of controls relates to a grammar to use for recognition.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein said one of the attributes provides a reference to a location of the grammar.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the grammar is for one of speech recognition, handwriting recognition, gesture recognition and visual recognition.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein the first set of controls and the second set of controls relate to one of HTML, XHTML, cHTML, XML and WML.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the controls relate to one of HTML, XHTML, cHTML, XML and WML.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein one of the second set of attributes for one of the controls provides instructions related to generating audible output.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19 wherein the instructions comprise text and the attribute relates to converting the text to audible output.

21. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein one of the second set of attributes for one of the controls relates to a location of data for audible output.

22. The computer readable storage medium of claim 21 wherein the data comprises a prerecorded audio data file and the attribute relates to playing the prerecorded audio data file.

23. The computer readable storage medium of claim 21 wherein the data comprises text and the attribute relates to converting the text to audible output.

24. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the first set of controls access and use a first library for the visual renderings and the second set of controls access and use a second library for the at least one of recognition and audibly prompting, the first library including methods for generating the client side markup and a plurality of event handlers, the first library further comprising a plurality of website authoring tools, the second library including markup information for performing the at least one of recognition and audibly prompting.

25. A computer readable storage medium having instructions, which when executed on a computer generate client side markup for a client in a client/server system, the instructions comprising:

a first set of visual controls defined on an authoring page for a website having attributes related to a first modality of interaction with a user of the client that being visual renderings on the client device, and the attributes including at least one of location for visual rendering, font, background color, and foreground color, and the first set of controls being related to client side markup executable by a client browser;

a second set of controls defined on the authoring page for defining desired operation on the client device having attributes related to a second modality of interaction with the user of the client that being at least one of recognition and audible prompting, the second set of controls being selectively associated with the first set of controls, and the second set of controls being related to client side markup executable by a client browser, the second set of controls comprising;

a question control for generating markup related to audible prompting of a question; and

an answer control for generating markup related to a grammar for recognition, the question and answer controls being associated with a semantic map comprising one or more semantic items that form a layer between individually associated visual domain primary controls and a non-visual recognition domain of the question and answer controls, the associated visual domain primary controls comprising markup; and

a module operable on a computer, the module being configured to receive the authoring page, wherein the module is further configured to process the controls of the first set in the authoring page to generate client side markup by incorporating the attributes in the controls that is executable by the client browser on the client in the server/client system in accordance with the controls of the first set and the attributes of the controls of the first set to perform both visual rendering, and wherein the module is further configured to process the controls of the second set to generate client side markup by incorporating the attributes in the controls that is executable by the client browser on the client in the server/client system in accordance with the controls of the second set and the attributes of the controls of the second set in the authoring page.

26. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein one of the attributes for the second set of controls relates to a grammar to use for recognition.

27. The computer readable storage medium of claim 26 wherein said one of the attributes provides a reference to a location of the grammar.

28. The computer readable storage medium of claim 26 wherein the grammar is for one of speech recognition, handwriting recognition, gesture recognition and visual recognition.

29. The computer readable storage medium of claim 28 wherein the first set of controls and the second set of controls relate to one of HTML, XHTML, cHTML, XML and WML.

30. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein the controls relate to one of HTML, XHTML, cHTML, XML and WML.

31. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein one of the second set of attributes for one of the controls provides instructions related to generating audible output.

32. The computer readable storage medium of claim 31 wherein the instructions comprise text and the attribute relates to converting the text to audible output.

33. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein one of the second set of attributes for one of the controls relates to a location of data for audible output.

34. The computer readable storage medium of claim 33 wherein the data comprises a prerecorded audio data file and the attribute relates to playing the prerecorded audio data file.

35. The computer readable storage medium of claim 33 wherein the data comprises text and the attribute relates to converting the text to audible output.

36. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein one of the attributes of the second set of controls relates to an identifier of the associated control of the first set of controls to form the association.

37. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein one of the attributes relates to whether the associated control of the second set is available for activation.

38. The computer readable storage medium of claim 37 wherein activation relates to generating markup.

39. The computer readable storage medium of claim 37 wherein activation relates to execution on the client.

40. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein the second set of controls activates another control of the second set.

41. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein the question control activates the answer control.

42. The computer readable storage medium of claim 41 wherein the answer control includes a mechanism to associate a received result with one of the first set of controls.

43. The computer readable storage medium of claim 42 wherein the mechanism includes binding the recognition value.

44. The computer readable storage medium of claim 43 wherein the mechanism includes issuing an event related to operation of binding.

45. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein the second set of controls further includes means defining a command for generating markup related to a grammar for one of navigation in the markup, help with a task, and repeating an audible prompt.

46. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein the second set of controls further includes means for defining a confirmation for generating markup related to confirming that a recognized result is correct.

47. The computer readable storage medium of claim 46 wherein the confirmation is activated as a function of a confidence level of the recognized result.

48. The computer readable storage medium of claim 47 wherein one of the controls of the second set of controls includes an attribute related to a confidence level.

49. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein the second set of controls further includes means for defining a comparison for generating markup for comparing a recognized result with a selected value.

50. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein the second set of controls further includes means for defining a comparison for generating markup for comparing a recognized result with another recognized result.

51. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25, wherein the first set of controls access and use a first library for the visual renderings and the second set of controls access and use a second library for the at least one of recognition and audibly prompting, the first library including methods for generating the client side markup and a plurality of event handlers, the first library further comprising a plurality of website authoring tools, the second library including markup information for performing the at least one of recognition and audibly prompting.

52. A computer implemented method for defining a website application on a server in a server/client architecture, the website application providing markup to a client for performing recognition and/or audible prompting on the client, the method comprising:

defining the website application by creating an authoring page with a first set of visual controls having attributes related to a first modality of interaction with a user of the client that being visual rendering on the client device, the attributes related to visual rendering including at least one of location for visual rendering, font, background color, and foreground color and with a second set of controls having attributes related to a second modality of interaction with a user of the client that being at least one of recognition and audibly prompting, the first set of controls and the second set of controls being related to client side markup executable by a client browser, wherein defining includes selectively associating controls of the second set of controls with at least one control of the first set of visual controls, the second set of controls comprising;

a question control for generating markup related to audible prompting of a question; and

an answer control for generating markup related to a grammar for recognition, the question and answer controls being associated with a semantic map comprising one or more semantic items that form a layer between individually associated visual domain primary controls and a non-visual recognition domain of the question and answer controls, the associated visual domain primary controls comprising markup; and

processing the controls on the authoring page to generate client side markup including processing of the first set of visual controls to generate client side markup executable by the client browser on the client in the server/client system in accordance with the controls of the first set and the attributes of the controls of the first set to perform both visual rendering, and processing the controls of the second set to generate client side markup by incorporating the attributes in the controls that is executable by the client browser on the client in the server/client system in accordance with the controls of the second set.

53. The computer implemented method of claim 52 wherein each of the controls of the second set include an identifier attribute for identifying a control of the first set of visual controls, and wherein associating includes providing an identifier of at least one control of the first set of controls in the corresponding identifier attribute of each of the second set of controls.

54. The computer implemented method of claim 52 wherein the second set of controls further includes means for confirming that a recognized result is correct;

and wherein defining the website application with a second set of controls related to at least one of recognition and audibly prompting includes associating the means for confirming with a recognized result to be received.

55. The computer implemented method of claim 54 wherein defining the website application with a second set of controls related to at least one of recognition and audibly prompting further includes defining a confidence level for activation of said means for confirming.

56. The computer implemented method of claim 52 wherein the second set of controls further includes means for generating markup related to a grammar for one of navigation on the computer, help with a task, and repeating an audible prompt;

and

wherein defining the website application with a second set of controls related to at least one of recognition and audibly prompting includes associating said means with means for prompting a question control.

57. The computer implemented method of claim 52 wherein the second set of controls further includes means for comparing a recognized result with a selected value;

and wherein defining the website application with a second set of controls related to at least one of recognition and audibly prompting includes associating the means for confirming with a recognized result to be received.

58. The computer implemented method of claim 52 wherein the second set of controls further includes means for comparing a recognized result with another recognized result;

and wherein defining the website application with a second set of controls related to at least one of recognition and audibly prompting includes associating the means for confirming with a recognized result to be received.

59. The computer-implemented method of claim 52, wherein the first set of controls access and use a first library for the visual rendering and the second set of controls access and use a second library for the at least one of recognition and audibly prompting, the first library including methods for generating the client side markup and a plurality of event handlers, the first library further comprising a plurality of website authoring tools, the second library including markup information for performing the at least one of recognition and audibly prompting.