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 with semantic and syntactic structures so adapted, as well as a prompting grammar and error handling methods adapted to such user interfaces.

Abstract: An archival system for voice mail messages includes recording devices, such as cassette recorders, compact disc recorders and DAT recorders. The archival system may be directly connected to one or more voice mail systems, or connectable via the public switched telephone network, so that the archival system can serve several voice mail systems. Voice mail messages identified by users to be archived are stored in a transfer queue in a voice mail system. The voice mail system performs an outdialing operation to connect to the archival system and transmits the voice mail messages, together with message identifying information, such as preferred storage medium and an optional header identifying the message, to a storage queue in the archival system. The archival system instructs an operator to mount a tape or other storage medium in a selected device and then records the voice mail messages on a removable storage medium.