Establishing a Preferred Mode of Interaction Between a User and a Multimodal Application

• US 20080065386A1
• Filed: 09/11/2006
• Published: 03/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Pike, Hilary A., Cross, Charles W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,145,493 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/270
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42153 by subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4936 Speech interaction details speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones

Abstract

Establishing a preferred mode of interaction between a user and a multimodal application, including evaluating, by a multimodal application operating on a multimodal device supporting multiple modes of interaction including a voice mode and one or more non-voice modes, user modal preference, and dynamically configuring multimodal content of the multimodal application in dependence upon the evaluation of user modal preference.

Claims

1. A method of establishing a preferred mode of interaction between a user and a multimodal application, the method comprising:

evaluating, by a multimodal application operating on a multimodal device supporting multiple modes of interaction including a voice mode and one or more non-voice modes, user modal preference; and

dynamically configuring multimodal content of the multimodal application in dependence upon the evaluation of user modal preference.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying a mode of interaction used by a user for an interaction with the multimodal application;

wherein evaluating user modal preference further comprises evaluating user modal preference in dependence upon the identity of the mode

3. The method of claim 1 wherein evaluating user modal preference further comprises evaluating user modal preference in dependence upon a user-supplied configuration value of user modal preference.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the multimodal application comprises a set of multimodal application markup documents organized in a sequence of presentation; and

dynamically configuring multimodal content of the multimodal application further comprises altering the sequence of presentation.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the multimodal application comprises static markup documents, the markup documents including varying proportions of support for voice mode and non-voice modes; and

dynamically configuring multimodal content of the multimodal application further comprises selecting among the static markup documents, in dependence upon the value of the user modal preference, a markup document for presentation to a user as part of the multimodal application.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the multimodal application specifies a dynamic server page capable of generating static markup documents of the multimodal application that include varying proportions of support for voice mode and non-voice modes; and

dynamically configuring multimodal content of the multimodal application further comprises generating by the dynamic server page a static markup document for presentation to a user as part of the multimodal application, the static markup document characterized by proportions of support for voice and non-voice modes established by the dynamic server page in dependence upon the value of the user modal preference.

7. Apparatus for establishing a preferred mode of interaction between a user and a multimodal application, the apparatus comprising a computer processor and a computer memory operatively coupled to the computer processor, the computer memory having disposed within it computer program instructions capable of:

evaluating, by a multimodal application operating on a multimodal device supporting multiple modes of interaction including a voice mode and one or more non-voice modes, user modal preference; and

dynamically configuring multimodal content of the multimodal application in dependence upon the evaluation of user modal preference.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 further comprising computer program instructions capable of:

identifying a mode of interaction used by a user for an interaction with the multimodal application;

wherein evaluating user modal preference further comprises evaluating user modal preference in dependence upon the identity of the mode

9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein evaluating user modal preference further comprises evaluating user modal preference in dependence upon a user-supplied configuration value of user modal preference.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein:

the multimodal application comprises a set of multimodal application markup documents organized in a sequence of presentation; and

dynamically configuring multimodal content of the multimodal application further comprises altering the sequence of presentation.

11. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein:

the multimodal application comprises static markup documents, the markup documents including varying proportions of support for voice mode and non-voice modes; and

dynamically configuring multimodal content of the multimodal application further comprises selecting among the static markup documents, in dependence upon the value of the user modal preference, a markup document for presentation to a user as part of the multimodal application.

12. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein:

the multimodal application specifies a dynamic server page capable of generating static markup documents of the multimodal application that include varying proportions of support for voice mode and non-voice modes; and

dynamically configuring multimodal content of the multimodal application further comprises generating by the dynamic server page a static markup document for presentation to a user as part of the multimodal application, the static markup document characterized by proportions of support for voice and non-voice modes established by the dynamic server page in dependence upon the value of the user modal preference.

13. A computer program product for establishing a preferred mode of interaction between a user and a multimodal application, the computer program product disposed upon a signal bearing medium, the computer program product comprising computer program instructions capable of:

evaluating, by a multimodal application operating on a multimodal device supporting multiple modes of interaction including a voice mode and one or more non-voice modes, user modal preference; and

dynamically configuring multimodal content of the multimodal application in dependence upon the evaluation of user modal preference.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the signal bearing medium comprises a recordable medium.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the signal bearing medium comprises a transmission medium.

16. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising computer program instructions capable of:

identifying a mode of interaction used by a user for an interaction with the multimodal application;

wherein evaluating user modal preference further comprises evaluating user modal preference in dependence upon the identity of the mode

17. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein evaluating user modal preference further comprises evaluating user modal preference in dependence upon a user-supplied configuration value of user modal preference.

18. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein:

the multimodal application comprises a set of multimodal application markup documents organized in a sequence of presentation; and

dynamically configuring multimodal content of the multimodal application further comprises altering the sequence of presentation.

19. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein:

the multimodal application comprises static markup documents, the markup documents including varying proportions of support for voice mode and non-voice modes; and

dynamically configuring multimodal content of the multimodal application further comprises selecting among the static markup documents, in dependence upon the value of the user modal preference, a markup document for presentation to a user as part of the multimodal application.

20. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein:

the multimodal application specifies a dynamic server page capable of generating static markup documents of the multimodal application that include varying proportions of support for voice mode and non-voice modes; and

dynamically configuring multimodal content of the multimodal application further comprises generating by the dynamic server page a static markup document for presentation to a user as part of the multimodal application, the static markup document characterized by proportions of support for voice and non-voice modes established by the dynamic server page in dependence upon the value of the user modal preference.