Dynamic generation of voice application information from a web server

• US 20050028085A1
• Filed: 05/03/2002
• Published: 02/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Original Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Inventors: Vleiman, Alan J., Scholz, Karl Wilmer, Irwin, James S.
• Application Number:
  US10/476,746
• Publication Number:
  US 20050028085A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/355 Interactive dialogue design tools, features or methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/40 terminals with audio html browser
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML

Abstract

A server (410) communicates with a client (435) in a client-server architecture to carry out a dialogue with a user. The client comprises a browser (440) that supports a particular mark-up language, such as voiceXML. The server comprises a dialogue flow interpreter (DFI) (420) that reads a data file containing information representing different states of the dialogue with the user and that uses that information to generate for a given state of the dialogue objects (310) representing prompts to be played to the user, grammars of expected responses from the user, and other state information.

Claims

1. A server that communicates with a client in a client-server computing system to carry out a dialogue between a user and the computing system, wherein the client comprises a browser that fetches from the server a document containing instructions in a mark-up language and renders the document in accordance with the mark-up language instructions to provide interaction with the user, the server comprising:

a dialogue flow interpreter (DFI) that reads a data file containing information representing different states of said dialogue and that uses that information to generate for a given state of said dialogue an object representing at least one of a prompt to be played to the user and a grammar of expected responses from the user;

a mark-up language generator that generates within a document instructions in said mark-up language that represent an equivalent of the object generated by said DFI; and

a server application that delivers documents containing instructions generated by said mark-up language generator to the client browser.

2. The server recited in claim 1, wherein said mark-up language comprises one of VoiceXML, SALT, HTML, and WML.

3. The server recited in claim 1, wherein said mark-up language comprises voiceXML and wherein said browser comprises a voiceXML-enabled browser.

4. The server recited in claim 1, further comprising an application server that directs communications from the client to said server application of said server.

5. The server recited in claim 4, wherein said application server and server application conform to the JSP/Servlet model.

6. The server recited in claim 4, wherein said application server and server application conform to the ASP/IIS model.

7. A method for carrying out a dialogue between a user and a computer system in a client-server environment, wherein a client comprises a browser that fetches from a server a document containing instructions in a mark-up language and renders the document in accordance with the mark-up language instructions to provide interaction with the user, the method comprising the following performed at the server:

instantiating a dialogue flow interpreter (DFI) at the server in response to a request from a user, the DFI reading a data file containing information representing different states of said dialogue and using that information to generate for a current state of said dialogue an object representing at least one of a prompt to be played to the user and a grammar of expected responses from the user;

generating, within a document, instructions in said mark-up language that represent an equivalent of the object generated by said DFI; and

transmitting the documents containing the generated mark-up language instructions to the client browser.

8. The method recited in claim 7, wherein said mark-up language comprises one of VoiceXML, SALT, HTML, and WML.

9. The method recited in claim 7, wherein said mark-up language comprises voiceXML and wherein said browser comprises a voiceXML-enabled browser.

10. The method recited in claim 7, wherein said transmitting step is performed in accordance with a JSP/Servlet model.

11. The method recited in claim 7, wherein said transmitting step is performed in accordance with an ASP/IIS model.