Abstract: Methods and systems, including computer program products, for speech animation. The system includes a speech animation engine and a client application in communication with the speech animation engine. The client application sends a request for speech animation to the speech animation engine. The request identifies data to be used to generate the speech animation, where speech animation is speech synchronized with facial expressions. The client application receives a response from the speech animation engine. The response identifies the generated speech animation. The client application uses the generated speech animation to animate a talking agent displayed on a user interface of the client application.

Abstract: A sales system is described that enables fast, efficient shopping by customers, and thereby increases sales and encourages customer loyalty, while simultaneously improving store management. An electronic device, which may be mobile or stationary, and which may belong or be assigned to (or accessed by) each customer, is used to access shopping information that might not otherwise be available to the customer during shopping. For example, a personal digital assistant or information kiosk may be used to provide specific product information and complete a sale thereof, or to provide suggested purchase lists and best routes through the store during shopping. The sales system is multi-modal, so that a plurality of input modalities (such as voice or auto-id techniques) are simultaneously available to the customer.

Abstract: An inventory management system includes an electronic device operable to receive job data related to a task, such as for example, picking, stocking, or counting, performed by a worker in a warehouse, in a selected one of a plurality of available input modalities. The system also includes an inventory database operable to store inventory data that includes count information and location information for each of a plurality of items, accessible in a plurality of formats, such as, for example Voice Extensible Markup Language (VXML) or Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), each compatible with one of the available input modalities. The system also includes a format determination system operable to input inventory data in a received one of the formats and determine corresponding inventory data in remaining ones of the formats.

Abstract: An interactive information management system is provided to interact with e-mail systems by which information sent or received as attachment can be managed and shared dynamically among e-mail users. E-mail users can indicate rules on attachment and share information management with e-mail receivers in such a way that ensures data integrity and efficiency. The information management system uses Concurrent Version Control to manage the integrity of the content and may use a different connection channel other than the e-mail itself to transfer attachments. And the system provides both web-based information management interface and e-mail client plug-in interface for real-time attachment and related information management. The user of the system may use any e-mail clients and systems to interact with the information management system.

Abstract: A graphical user interface may include a form with a plurality of fields, each field associated with a predetermined category. Each category may have its own, independent, discrete grammar associated therewith, and the independent grammars may be individually activated, simultaneously with their respective categories. In this way, a voice-recognition system that is inputting spoken data for each of the fields may have a restricted grammar to search when attempting to match a particular voice input with an entry for a particular field in the form. Moreover, a global grammar that is active with any one of the independent grammars may be used to move between the fields or perform other high-level functionality not associated with any one of the independent grammars.

Abstract: An intelligent social agent is an animated computer interface agent with social intelligence that has been developed for a given application or type of applications and a particular user population. The social intelligence of the agent comes from the ability of the agent to be appealing, affective, adaptive, and appropriate when interacting with the user.

Abstract: A system for synchronizing multiple modalities is described. A user may use multiple modalities, such as voice and browser, to interact with data on a network, such as the World Wide Web. All of the modalities may be synchronized so that all are updated when the user enters information in just one. A method of communicating between devices includes receiving a request for first-modality data that includes first content, and sending a message in response to receiving the request, the message including information allowing the request of second-modality data that includes second content overlapping the first content. Another method includes requesting first data for a first modality, the first data including first content, and automatically requesting second data for a second modality, wherein the second data includes second content that overlaps the first content.

Abstract: An intelligent social agent is an animated computer interface agent with social intelligence that has been developed for a given application or type of applications and a particular user population. The social intelligence of the agent comes from the ability of the agent to be appealing, affective, adaptive, and appropriate when interacting with the user. An intelligent personal assistant is an implementation of an intelligent social agent that assists a user in operating a computing device and using application programs on a computing device.

Abstract: An intelligent social agent is an animated computer interface agent with social intelligence that has been developed for a given application or type of applications and a particular user population. The social intelligence of the agent comes from the ability of the agent to be appealing, affective, adaptive, and appropriate when interacting with the user.

Abstract: Performing voice recognition may include accessing a voice input including at least a first part and a second part, performing voice recognition on the first part of the voice input, performing voice recognition on a combination of the first part and the second part using a search space, and limiting the search space based on a result from performing voice recognition on the first part of the voice input. Communicating with a user may include presenting the user a first set of options and a second set of options, wherein the second set of options is limited based on the user's selection from the first set of options. The two sets of options may be presented in a single page. The user's selection from the first set of options may be used to select a vocabulary used to recognize the user's response to the second set of options.

Abstract: Automatically searching for one or more matches to a search string includes accessing a first part and a second part of a search string. A first search space is searched for a match for the first part of the search string, and a second search space is limited based on a result of searching the first search space. The limited second search space is searched for a match for the second part of the search string. Various approaches are described for structuring a grammar of a voice recognition engine to allow efficient, quick recognition, and to enhance recognition by limiting the amount of the grammar that is searched, thus minimizing the incidence of misrecognition. Search strings can be recognized and searched using a multi-cluster approach. Recognition and searching can also be performed using a multi-level, multi-parameter cascade approach. Approaches can also be applied to recognition of other modes of input.

Abstract: A system and method for providing resources to networked devices for participating in a peer-to-peer environment. In one embodiment, a peer computing system on a network may include one or more bootstrap nodes that may provide, to devices coupled to the network, mechanisms for accessing resources for participating in the peer-to-peer environment. The bootstrap nodes may be peer nodes. The resources may give the devices access to services each of which may implement peer-to-peer platform protocols. The devices may be pre-configured to access one or more predefined peer nodes for information on bootstrap nodes. Alternatively, devices may use a bootstrapping mechanism to locate bootstrap nodes on the network.

Abstract: A system and method for uniquely identifying peers and other resources in a peer-to-peer networking environment. In one embodiment, every peer in the peer-to-peer network may have a unique peer identifier. Other peer-to-peer network resources may also have unique identifiers, including peer groups, services, applications, pipes, endpoints, content and resource advertisements. Identifiers may serve to canonically refer to resources. Identifiers may be embedded in advertisements for resources. In one embodiment, a peer identifier may identify a peer group in which the peer is a member peer. In one embodiment, a peer may have a different peer identifier for each group in which it is a member peer. In one embodiment, an identifier may be bound to a network address of the resource. If the resource changes network addresses, the identifier may be bound to the new network address. Thus, identifiers provide dynamic addressing for resources in the peer-to-peer environment.

Abstract: A peer-to-peer platform that may provide mechanisms through which peers may discover each other, communicate with each other, and cooperate with each other to form peer groups is described. The peer-to-peer platform may comprise several layers including a peer-to-peer platform layer, a peer-to-peer services layer, and a peer-to-peer applications layer. At the highest abstraction level, the peer-to-peer platform may be viewed as a set of protocols. Each protocol may be defined by one or more messages exchanged among participants of the protocol. In one embodiment, the peer-to-peer platform may include, but is not limited to, one or more of a peer discovery protocol, a peer resolver protocol, a peer information protocol, a peer membership protocol, a pipe binding protocol, and an endpoint routing protocol. To underpin this set of protocols, the peer-to-peer platform may define a number of concepts including peer, peer group, advertisement, message, pipe, and endpoint.

Abstract: A system and method for providing peer groups in a peer-to-peer environment. A peer group may be one or more peers in a peer-to-peer environment that share a set of network services and content. A peer group may define an implicit scope for messages originating from members peers of the peer group. A peer group may provide redundant services and content for greater reliability. In one embodiment, interaction among peers and peer groups in the peer-to-peer environment may be implemented using protocols that are platform-independent as to programming language implementations and network transports. In one embodiment, peers may discover existing peer groups and join the existing peer groups. In one embodiment, peers may create new peer groups.

Abstract: A system and method for providing rendezvous nodes in a peer-to-peer networking environment is described. Rendezvous nodes preferably cache information about network resources that may be useful to peer nodes on a peer-to-peer network. In one embodiment, a network of rendezvous nodes may help peer nodes to discover network resources over long-range on the peer-to-peer network. Network resource may include, but may not be limited to peer nodes, peer groups, services, content, and communication channels. In one embodiment, rendezvous nodes may respond to discovery query messages from peer nodes. The discovery query messages may specify desired network resource information. In one embodiment, rendezvous nodes may provide route discovery for network resources. In one embodiment, a peer node may be pre-configured with a pre-defined set of rendezvous nodes to access on startup. These bootstrapping rendezvous may help the peer node discover network resources that it needs to start up.

Abstract: A system and method for establishing communications channels between and among peers in a peer-to-peer networking environment. Pipes may be used as communication channels for sending and receiving messages and other data between services or applications over input and output endpoints. Pipes may be asynchronous, unidirectional, stateless and unreliable. Bidirectional pipes may also be supported. Pipes may have ends that may be moved around and bound to different peers at different times. Point-to-point and propagate pipes may be supported. Pipes may connect peers that have a direct physical link and peers that do not have a direct link. Peers may communicate through pipes without knowing on which peer a pipe endpoint is bound. A message is sent to all peer endpoints currently connected (listening) to the pipe. The set of connected endpoints may be obtained from a pipe service using a pipe binding protocol.

Abstract: A system regulates access to resources requested by an operation executing on a computer. The operation invokes a plurality of methods that operate upon code during execution. The system includes a policy file, a call stack, and an execution unit. The policy file stores permissions for each of the resources. The permissions authorize particular types of access to the resource based on a source of the code and an executor of the code. The call stack stores representations of the methods and executors in an order of invocation by the operation. The execution unit grants access to the resource when the types of access authorized by the permissions of all of the methods and executors on the call stack encompass the access requested by the operation.

Abstract: Embodiments of a system and method for establishing reliable connections between peers in a peer-to-peer networking environment. In one embodiment, a reliable communications channel may use transmit and receive windows, acknowledgement of received messages, and retransmission of messages not received to provide reliable delivery of messages between peers in the peer-to-peer environment. In one embodiment, each message may include a sequence number configured for use in maintaining ordering of received messages on a receiving peer. A communications channel may make multiple hops on a network, and different hops in the connection may use different underlying network protocols. Communications channels may also pass through one or more firewalls and/or one or more gateways on the network. A communications channel may also pass through one or more router (relay) peers on the network. The peers may adjust the sizes of the transmit and receive window based upon reliability of the connection.

Abstract: A system and method for providing an open network computing platform designed for peer-to-peer computing. The peer-to-peer platform may provide protocols for peer-to-peer services and applications that allow peers to discover each other, communicate with each other, and cooperate with each other to form peer groups. The protocols may include a peer membership protocol, a peer discovery protocol, a peer resolver protocol, a peer information protocol, a pipe binding protocol, and a peer endpoint protocol. Services and applications that participate in the protocols may be provided to deal with higher-level concepts. Advertisements may be used to publish peer resources. The peer-to-peer platform provides the ability to replicate information toward end users and may enable peers to find content that is closest to them. The peer-to-peer protocols and unique peer identifiers may allow peer nodes to move to different locations and access services and other content independent of network physical addresses.