Method and apparatus for automatically building conversational systems

• US 8,462,917 B2
• Filed: 05/07/2012
• Issued: 06/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2003
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Interactions, LLC
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Feng, Junlan, Rahim, Mazin G., Bangalore, Srinivas
• Primary Examiner(s): Gauthier, Gerald
• Application Number:
  US13/465,659
• Publication Number:
  US 20120221331A1
• Time in Patent Office: 400 Days
• Field of Search: 370/352, 379/88.01, 379/88.17, 379/220.01, 701/117, 704/235, 704/251, 704/260, 704/265
• US Class Current: 379/88.17
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/355 Interactive dialogue design tools, features or methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0009 where voice calls remain entirely in the telephone network
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0036 where the data service is an information service

Abstract

A system and method provides a natural language interface to world-wide web content. Either in advance or dynamically, webpage content is parsed using a parsing algorithm. A person using a telephone interface can provide speech information, which is converted to text and used to automatically fill in input fields on a webpage form. The form is then submitted to a database search and a response is generated. Information contained on the responsive webpage is extracted and converted to speech via a text-to-speech engine and communicated to the person.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

prompting a user, via a prompt, to provide information associated with a field on a form;

receiving speech from the user in response to the prompt;

converting, via a processor, the speech to a text;

filling in the field of the form with the text, to yield a filled form; and

receiving a webpage generated based at least in part on the filled form.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the field comprises a plurality of fields.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of fields comprises a first field of the form and a second field of the form;

and

wherein filling in the field of the form with the text further comprises;

placing a first portion of the text into the first field of the form; and

placing a second portion of the text into the second field of the form.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the speech relates to an entity name and location identifier.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein prompting the user and receiving the speech occur within a spoken dialog.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing a website structure associated with the form, where the prompt is associated with the website structure.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein analyzing the website structure occurs off-line.

8. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed on the processor, perform a method comprising;

prompting a user, via a prompt, to provide information associated with a field on a form;

receiving speech from the user in response to the prompt;

converting the speech to a text;

filling in the field of the form with the text, to yield a filled form; and

receiving a webpage generated based at least in part on the filled form.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the field comprises a plurality of fields.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the plurality of fields comprises a first field of the form and a second field of the form;

and

wherein filling in the field of the form with the text further comprises;

placing a first portion of the text into the first field of the form; and

placing a second portion of the text into the second field of the form.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the speech relates to an entity name and location identifier.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein prompting the user and receiving the speech occur within a spoken dialog.

13. The system of claim 8, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing additional instructions which perform a method comprising analyzing a website structure associated with the form, where the prompt is associated with the website structure.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein analyzing the website structure occurs off-line.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed on a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:

prompting a user, via a prompt, to provide information associated with a field on a form;

receiving speech from the user in response to the prompt;

converting the speech to a text;

filling in the field of the form with the text, to yield a filled form; and

receiving a webpage generated based at least in part on the filled form.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the field comprises a plurality of fields.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the plurality of fields comprises a first field of the form and a second field of the form;

and

wherein filling in the field of the form with the text further comprises;

placing a first portion of the text into the first field of the form; and

placing a second portion of the text into the second field of the form.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the speech relates to an entity name and location identifier.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein prompting the user and receiving the speech occur within a spoken dialog.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing additional instructions which perform a method comprising analyzing a website structure associated with the form, where the prompt is associated with the website structure.