Abstract: A method and system for creating mobile avatars, customizing or personalizing mobile avatars and distributing mobile avatars including real-time updates thereof across a wireless network. A mobile avatar of a service subscriber is stored in mobile clients across the wireless network, and the mobile avatar is retrieved from the mobile clients and displayed upon receipt of a call from the service subscriber.

Abstract: A comprehensive system is provided for designing a voice activated user interface (VA UI) having a semantic and syntactic structure adapted to the culture and conventions of spoken language for the intended users. The system poses, to at least one respondent, a hypothetical task to be performed; asks each of the at least one respondent for a word that the respondent would use to command the hypothetical task to be performed; receives, from each of the at least one respondent, a command word; develops a list of command words from the received command word; and rejects the received command word, if the received command word is acoustically similar to another word in the list of command words. The approach is general across languages and encompasses universal variables of language and culture. Also provided are prompting grammar and error handling methods adapted to such user interfaces.

Abstract: A method and system for pronoun disambiguation adapts or learns from evaluating input by the user. The system stores pronoun information relating to pronoun usage for people, entities, and things that a user can use a pronoun to refer to in interacting with the system. The pronoun information is used by the system in a process that interprets the meaning of the pronoun in the context of the interaction with the user. The system and method include matching the pronoun reference input by the user to the likely person or thing based upon an evolving pronoun preference associated with the person, entity or thing. During each interaction, the system and method permit the user to verify that the system interpreted the pronoun as referring to the correct person, entity or thing and modifies the stored pronoun information to reflect the verified usage.

Abstract: A method for providing an animated audio message includes wirelessly receiving indicia of an audio message and an image, and animating the image in association with the audio message to produce an animated audio message. A system for providing animated audio messages includes a wireless interface that can receive wireless communications that provide or identify an audio message and provide or identify an image. An animator is coupled to the wireless interface and can animate the image in accordance with the audio message to form an animated audio message. An animation interface is coupled to the animator and can transfer the animated audio message from the animator toward a desired destination.

Abstract: Multiple Identity empowers a subscriber to use several accounts to charge and control their subscribed services. The subscriber can segment their activities into different accounts to meet their different life roles. This specifying and directing of activities, both incoming and outgoing, may be automatically or manually segmented. Rules are defined for selecting the preferred identity automatically in real-time, based on any of date/time, location of the subscriber, and the service requested; including specific phone numbers (or other communication terminal identifiers) connected to a communication device, such as a cellular telephone. The subscriber is also provided with a mechanism for manually specifying the identity to be used for a particular communication session.

Abstract: A process of creating a resource database storing message service information, storing a message in the portable wireless telephone without establishing a voice or data channel with the message storage system, receiving in the portable wireless telephone the message service information from the resource database via a data channel between the portable wireless telephone and the resource database, processing a message responsive to the message service information via a data channel between the portable wireless telephone and the message storage system according to the message service information, and updating the message service information in the resource database by the message storage system according to the processing via a data channel between the resource database and the message storage system. Further, a computer system programmed to perform the process.

Abstract: Predicting speech recognizer confusion where utterances can be represented by any combination of text form and audio file. The utterances are represented with an intermediate representation that directly reflects the acoustic characteristics of the utterances. Text representations of the utterances can be directly used for predicting confusability without access to audio file examples of the utterances. First embodiment: two text utterances are represented with strings of phonemes and one of the strings of phonemes is transformed into the other strings of phonemes for a least cost as a confusability measure. Second embodiment: two utterances are represented with an intermediate representation of sequences of acoustic events based on phonetic capabilities of speakers obtained from acoustic signals of the utterances and the acoustic events are compared. Predicting confusability of the utterances according to a formula 2K/(T), K is a number of matched acoustic events and T is a total number of acoustic events.

Abstract: A distributed communication system is most efficient if subscriber data is located as close as possible to subscribers when they access the system. However, it is common for subscribers of mobile communication systems to relocate for long periods of time. Relocation of subscribers is automatically detected by generating an activity log file of location data and identifiers, where each identifier is associated with either a communication device or a person using the communication system. Pattern analysis is automatically performed based on the location data and the identifiers to determine whether private data should be relocated from a first location to a second location within the communication system, when service can be provided more efficiently from the second location.

Abstract: An interactive voice response system is able to respond to questions from users on general topics by including words related to those topics in the grammar of a speech recognition system. Words that are added for all users are obtained from current news reports obtained from news providers accessible via the Internet, or a similar source. In addition, information is stored in an information database about places or people that may be of interest to users, such as weather reports and forecasts for many cities. The grammar of the speech recognition system is modified for an individual user to enable the system to recognize questions relating to, e.g., the weather in one of the cities, only when the system detects that the user has accessed a file containing a word included in the information database. The file may be a message, calendar or address book.

Abstract: Recognition of proper nouns by an automated speech recognition system is improved by augmenting the pronunciation of each proper noun or name in the natural language of the speech recognition system with at least one “native” pronunciation in another natural language. To maximize recognition, preferably the pronunciations are predicted based on information not available to the speech recognition system. Prediction of pronunciation may be based on a location derived from a telephone number or postal address associated with the name and the language or dialect spoken in the country or region of that location. The “native” pronunciation(s) may be added to a dictionary of the speech recognition system or directly to the grammar used for recognizing speech.

Abstract: An interactive voice response system has speak-ahead capabilities similar to type-ahead IVR systems by determining multi-level grammars for responses. Preferably, an existing IVR application is processed automatically to generate a multi-level grammar database that can then be used in recognizing multi-level responses by a user.

Abstract: A method and apparatus facilitates voice, text, pager or e-mail communication between first and second parties. The second party requests a token from the first party, wherein the token is associated with contact information, such as a telephone number, but does not reveal the telephone number. The first party, at their discretion, provides the token to the second party. The second party is then able to contact the first party by using the token but without knowing the contact information, such as the telephone number, of the first party.

Abstract: The present invention is a system that allows users to compose and deliver voicemail messages that contain embedded applets. Users may interact with the system via telephone, multi-access device, PC, or any number of other devices. Users may also interact with the system via a variety of interfaces such as speech, dual tone multi-frequency, and graphical user interface. The system allows user to compose voicemail messages with embedded applets for delivery to multiple recipients. The applets provide the sender with the ability to leverage the voice messaging system so as to take full advantage of all systems and applications of the computer platform upon which the applet is being run. The voice message based applets may be updated dynamically based upon variables such as when the recipient receives the message. The message sender may also configure the system to provide notification and statistics regarding receipt of the message and embedded applets.

Abstract: A system and method to protect a target telephone number from unauthorized access includes a first one-way encoding unit to encode the target telephone number using nonreversible encoding. A storage unit stores the encoded target telephone number. A second one-way encoding unit encodes a calling telephone number and a receiving telephone number using the non-reversible encoding. A comparing unit determines whether the stored encoded target telephone number matches the encoded calling telephone number and/or the receiving telephone number and routing a call between the calling telephone number and the receiving telephone number matching the target telephone number to a monitoring unit. The monitoring unit monitors and/or records the call and connects the calling telephone number to the receiving telephone number.

Abstract: The present invention is a system that uses a limited text input entry device to narrow the possibilities for the selection of a phonetically based name used in a voice dialer. The user enters a DTMF signature of a name using only one key for each letter of the name. The signature is used by a dictionary to generate likely possibilities for the word. The user is asked whether the name is the name entered via playing the name to the user. If the user confirms the choice, the phonetic representation is stored along with a corresponding telephone number. If the played word does not match, a word generator generates additional likely possibilities from the signature. A speech recognizer picks the best representation from the dictionary and generator words based on a spoken version of the name. A first name and last name procedure, in which the first and last name signatures produce separate candidate lists, is used to provide an entry to an address book for voice dialing.

Abstract: Method and apparatus are provided for generating a prompt stream in a telephony system. At least one voice prompt associated with at least one audio stream to be played to a user of the telephony system is inserted into the prompt stream. Also inserted into the prompt stream is at least one active prompt associated with computer program instructions to be executed when the prompt stream is processed. Also provided are method and apparatus for processing the prompt stream. The at least one audio stream associated with the at least one voice prompt is played to the user, and the computer program instructions associated with the at least one active prompt are executed.

Abstract: A real-time personal advisory service. In a preferred embodiment, experts access a server and register, providing their credentials, charge rates, and keywords related to their field of expertise. Information regarding the experts and customers are stored in a database. A registered customer sends a question as an SMS message to the server through a cellular device. The server scans the question for keywords and uses the keywords to query the database, generating a list of experts likely to be willing to answer the question. The question is then forwarded as another SMS message to the experts. Experts wanting to answer the question press an accept button, sending an SMS message back to the server. The server sends an SMS message to the customer, indicating that there are experts who want to answer the question. The customer selects an expert and replies to the message. The server then bridges the parties.

Abstract: The present invention is a system that allows customers to use a mobile device or personal terminal to obtain complete product or service information so as to complete an impartial list. The system aides in the identification of a store or place of interest where the customer may obtain the list items. The system further provides the customer with directions to the store or place of interest, and to the needed item or service within the store, thereby increasing the customers efficiency. The list and directions may be dynamically changed based upon the customers changing needs and changing location.

Abstract: A comprehensive system is provided for designing a voice activated user interface (VA UI) having a semantic and syntactic structure adapted to the culture and conventions of spoken language for the intended users. The system decouples the content dimension of speech (semantics) and the manner-of-speaking dimension (syntax) in a systematic way. By decoupling these dimensions, the VA UI can be optimized with respect to each dimension independently and jointly. The approach is general across languages and encompasses universal variables of language and culture. Also provided are voice activated user interfaces.

Abstract: A wireless telephone handset sends commands over a data network, and places voice calls over a telephone network, to a message storage system. The commands include information that enables the message storage system to identify the handset and correlate the voice calls with their corresponding commands. The message storage system can then execute the commands by playing or recording voice signals over the voice channels provided by the voice calls.