Voice Xml Web Console

• US 20080065984A1
• Filed: 09/21/2004
• Published: 03/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: Sap Ak Tiengesellschaft
• Inventors: Kagan, Arkadi, Winkler, Matthias, Roediger, Karl, Rosenbaum, Alexander, Yair, Ben-Shaul, Lessmoellmann, Christoph, Rayiani, Samir, Gong, Li
• Granted Patent: US 7,783,984 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/700
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management

Abstract

The invention provides a method and apparatus, including computer program products, for interfacing communication between a warehouse management system and a portable device, the device being adapted for processing voice XML data, the method comprising: receiving, from the warehouse management system, GUI screen data comprising visual content; generating voice XML data one the basis of the visual content, the voice XML data comprising at least one portion which is representative of voice information; and transmitting the generated voice XML data to the device.

Claims

1. A method of interfacing, in a web-enabled console application, to communicate between a warehouse management system and a portable device, the method comprising:

receiving, from the warehouse management system, graphical user interface (GUI) screen data comprising visual content;

generating voice extensible markup language (XML) data based on the visual content, the voice XML data including at least one portion which is representative of voice information; and

transmitting the generated voice XML data to the portable device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating voice XML data comprises transforming text data to speech, the speech to be outputted by the portable device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting comprises:

performing an internet protocol transaction.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmission is performed via a wireless network.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

reading a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag information with a portable RFID tag reading device; and

transmitting the information to the web-enabled console application.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

modifying the RFID tag information responsive to an instruction transmitted via the web-enabled console application to the portable RFID tag reading device.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending voice information from the portable device to the web-enabled console application in the form of voice XML data.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

supporting a plurality of communication protocols for communicating with a portable device in the web-enabled console application.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

mapping GUI screen data to display data according to a selected one of the communication protocols.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

scanning optical bar code information with the portable device; and

transmitting the optical bar code information to the device to the web-enabled console application.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein generating voice XML data comprising:

the voice XML data at runtime.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the portable device is part of a radio frequency identification (RFID) system.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein further comprising:

creating a single data message to transmit multiple activities in a warehouse to the RFID system.

14. The method of one of claims 12 further comprising:

simultaneously and instantaneously scanning multiple tags, where each tag refers to a specific activity.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

determining the respective activity to which a tag refers.

16. The method of one of claims 14 further comprising:

splitting a data message into multiple activities;

assigning the activities to multiple scans;

aggregating confirmation for the activities; and

transmitting the confirmations to the web-enabled console application.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein further comprising:

updating an external system with respect to a completed activity.

19. The method of claim 2, wherein the portable device is one of a laptop, personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile phone, barcode scanner, radio frequency identification (RFID) tag reading device, and smartphone.

18. A method of receiving data by a portable device from a web-enabled console application, the web-enabled console application being coupled to a warehouse management system, the method comprising:

receiving voice XML data, the voice XML data including at least one portion which is representative of voice information, and being generated on the basis of graphical user interface (GUI) screen data a web-enabled console application of the warehouse management system, the screen data having visual content.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

displaying at least a portion of the voice XML data on a web browser of the portable device.

21. A system comprising:

a web console;

a voice converter associated with the web console to convert visual content to voice extensible markup language (XML) data; and

a plurality of portable devices capable of wireless communication with the web console, to receive the voice XML data from the web console.