Method and apparatus for creating modifiable and combinable speech objects for acquiring information from a speaker in an interactive voice response system
First Claim
1. A method of creating a device for defining a dialog interaction between a speaker and a speech recognition mechanism, the method comprising:
- providing a set of properties associated with the dialog interaction and logic for using the set of properties to control the dialog interaction when executed in a processing system; and
defining a class to include the set of properties and the logic, such that the class can be instantiated in the processing system as an object configured to control the dialog interaction, such that one or more sub-classes are definable based on the class, each subclass including properties inherited from the class, and such that the object can control the dialog interaction without the need for a dialog manager external to said object, wherein the object implements a predefined interface, such that the object and a plurality of other similarly constructed objects for controlling dialog interaction can be invoked using the predefined interface.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for creating modifiable and combinable Speech Objects for use in an interactive voice response (IVR) environment. Each Speech Object is for acquiring a particular type of information from a speaker during an interaction between the speaker and a speech recognition mechanism. A Speech Object is an instantiation of a user-extensible class that includes properties, such as prompts and grammars, associated with the corresponding type of interaction. A Speech Object further includes logic for controlling the interaction with the user when executed in a processing system. A Speech Object can be subclassed to add additional properties and functionality to create customized Speech Objects, or such properties can be altered at runtime. Multiple Speech Objects, each for acquiring a particular type of information, can be combined to form a compound Speech Object.
657 Citations
39 Claims
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1. A method of creating a device for defining a dialog interaction between a speaker and a speech recognition mechanism, the method comprising:
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providing a set of properties associated with the dialog interaction and logic for using the set of properties to control the dialog interaction when executed in a processing system; and
defining a class to include the set of properties and the logic, such that the class can be instantiated in the processing system as an object configured to control the dialog interaction, such that one or more sub-classes are definable based on the class, each subclass including properties inherited from the class, and such that the object can control the dialog interaction without the need for a dialog manager external to said object, wherein the object implements a predefined interface, such that the object and a plurality of other similarly constructed objects for controlling dialog interaction can be invoked using the predefined interface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A machine-readable storage medium having stored therein information for configuring an interactive voice response platform to perform an interaction with a speaker, the information comprising:
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information representing a set of properties associated with the interaction;
logic for using the set of properties to control the interaction when the logic is executed in a processing system; and
information defining the set of properties and the logic to be elements of a class that can be instantiated as a speech object in the processing system to control the interaction, such that one or more sub-classes are definable based on the class, each subclass including properties inherited from the class, and such that the speech object can control the dialog interaction without the need for a dialog manager external to the speech object, wherein the speech object implements a predefined interface by which the speech object and a plurality of other speech objects can be invoked. - View Dependent Claims (10)
information representing a set of prompts associated with the interaction; and
information representing a set of grammars associated with the interaction.
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- 11. A machine-readable storage medium having stored therein information readable by a processing system, the information comprising information defining a class that can be instantiated as an object in a processing system to control a dialog interaction between a speaker and a speech recognition mechanism, the class having a set of properties associated with the dialog interaction and logic for using the set of properties to control the dialog interaction when the logic is executed, such that one or more sub-classes are definable based on the class, each subclass including properties inherited from the class, and such that the object can control the dialog interaction without the need for a dialog manager external to said object, wherein the object implements a predefined interface using which the object and a plurality of other similarly constructed objects for controlling dialog interaction can be invoked.
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13. A method of creating a software component for defining interaction between a speaker and a speech recognition mechanism in an interactive voice response environment, the method comprising:
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including first data in the software component, the first data representing a set of prompts that can be output to the speaker when the software component is invoked by a processing system;
including second data in the software component, the second data representing a set of grammars associated with the interaction;
including first code in the software component, the first code representing processing logic for controlling the interaction when executed by the processing system, based on the set of prompts and the set of grammars; and
including second code in the software component, the second code for defining the software component as a first class that can be instantiated by the processing system as an object for controlling the interaction between the speaker and the speech recognition mechanism, such that the first class is extensible by definition of one or more subclasses of the first class, each said subclass inheriting properties of the first class, such that the object implements a predefined interface by which the object and a plurality of other similarly constructed objects can be invoked;
wherein the object can control the interaction without the need for a dialog manager external to said object. - View Dependent Claims (14)
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15. A method of creating a device for defining an interaction between a speaker and a speech recognition mechanism, the method comprising:
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providing information representing a first class in an interactive voice response environment, such that the first class can be instantiated as one or more objects in a processing system to control the interaction, such that one or more sub-classes are definable based on the class, each subclass including properties inherited from the class, and such that the object can control the dialog interaction without the need for a dialog manager external to said object, wherein the object implements a predefined interface by which the object and a plurality of other similarly constructed objects can be invoked; and
using a computer system to define a second class as a specialization of the first class, the second class including a set of prompts associated with the interaction, a set of grammars associated with the interaction, and logic for using the set of prompts and the set of grammars when executed on the processing system to control the interaction between the speaker and the speech recognition mechanism, such that the second class can be instantiated as an object in the processing system to control the interaction. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17)
defining the second class to include a second set of prompts, the second set of prompts including at least one prompt of said first set of prompts and a prompt that is not part of said set of prompts; and
defining the second class to include a second set of grammars, the second set of grammars including at least one grammar of said first set of grammars and a grammar that is not part of said set of grammars.
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18. A method of creating a compound device for defining an interaction between a speaker and a speech recognition mechanism, the method comprising:
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selecting a plurality of classes, each of the plurality of classes defining operations for an interaction of a particular type between a speaker and a speech recognition mechanism in an interactive voice response environment, each of the plurality of classes having associated with it a set of prompts, a set of grammars, or both, and logic for using the set of prompts, the set of grammars, or both, to control an interaction between the speaker and the speech recognition mechanism when executed on a processing system, such that each of the plurality of classes can be instantiated as a speech object configured to control an interaction of the corresponding type, such that one or more sub-classes are definable based on each of the classes, each subclass including properties inherited from the corresponding class, and such that each speech object can control the dialog interaction without the need for a dialog manager external to said speech object, wherein each speech object implements an interface common to all of the speech objects; and
using a computer system to define a compound speech object class for use in the interactive voice response environment, such that the compound speech object class, when instantiated in a processing system as a compound speech object, encapsulates the speech objects representing said selected plurality of classes, the compound speech object having logic for executing the speech objects in a specified order during the interaction with the speaker. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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21. An interactive voice response (IVR) system comprising:
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a speech recognition unit;
an audio interface configured to communicate audio information with a speaker; and
an IVR platform coupled to the speech recognition unit and to the audio interface, the IVR platform including a speech-enabled application; and
a speech object invocable in response to the application to control a particular type of audio interaction with the speaker, wherein the speech object is an instantiation of a class, the class having a set of properties associated with a corresponding type of interaction and logic for using the set of properties to control an interaction of said type when the logic is executed, such that one or more sub-classes are definable by a user based on the class, each subclass including properties inherited from the class, and such that the speech object controls the interaction with the speaker without the need for a dialog manager external to the speech object, wherein the speech object implements a predefined interface using which a plurality of similarly constructed speech objects can be invoked. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. An interactive voice response (IVR) system comprising:
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interface means for communicating audio information with a speaker;
recognition means for performing speech recognition on a portion of the audio information that is received from the speaker;
means for executing a speech-enabled application, including means for requesting an interaction with the speaker to acquire said portion of the audio information; and
means for invoking a speech object to control the interaction, wherein the speech object is an instantiation of a class, the class having a set of properties associated with the interaction and logic for using the set of properties to control the interaction when the logic is executed, such that one or more sub-classes can be defined based on the class, each subclass including properties inherited from the class, such that the speech object can control the dialog interaction without the need for a dialog manager external to the speech object, wherein the speech object implements a predefined interface by which the speech object and a plurality of other speech objects can be invoked. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. A device for configuring a processing system for acquisition of information from a speaker in an interactive voice response (IVR) environment, the device comprising:
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a machine-readable storage medium; and
information stored in the machine-readable storage medium, the information defining a class for use in the IVR environment, such that the class can be instantiated in the IVR environment as a compound object encapsulating a plurality of objects, each of the plurality of objects for configuring the IVR environment to acquire a particular type of information from the speaker during an interaction with the speaker, each of the plurality of objects invocable in a specified order during the interaction, wherein one or more sub-classes are definable based on the class, each subclass including properties inherited from the class, wherein the compound object can control the dialog interaction without the need for a dialog manager external to the compound object, and wherein the compound object implements a predefined interface by which the compound object and a plurality of other objects can be invoked. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38, 39)
information representing a set of properties associated with the interaction;
logic for using the set of properties to control the interaction when the logic is executed in a processing system; and
information defining the set of properties and the logic to be elements of a user-extensible class.
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37. A device as recited in claim 36, wherein said information representing the set of properties associated with the interaction comprises:
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information representing a set of prompts associated with the interaction; and
information representing a set of grammars associated with the interaction.
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38. A device as recited in claim 35, wherein said stored information is such that the compound speech object further encapsulates a processing object separate from the plurality of objects, the processing object having processing logic.
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39. A device as recited in claim 35, wherein said stored information is such that a first one of the plurality of objects encapsulated in the compound speech object encapsulates a plurality of additional speech objects.
Specification