Abstract: Shortcut names corresponding to flagged locations or frequently stated destinations, phrases, or sentences are registered, maintained, used, and deregistered in a speech recognition system. If a flagged location or a frequently stated destination, phrase, or sentence is received by the speech recognition system, the user is prompted to provide a shortcut name corresponding to the frequently stated destination, phrase, or sentence in the form of speech, which is then recognized by speech recognition and registered to a personal profile of the user. The shortcut name is also added to a grammar database of the speech recognition system, so that the speech recognition system may recognize the shortcut name itself. The shortcut name may also be deleted, when speech received from a user contains a shortcut name but the user did not intend the shortcut name to mean the corresponding destination, phrase, or sentence.

Abstract: Roughly described, a natural language interface to a back-end application incorporates synonyms automatically added to user input to enhance the natural language interpretation. Synonyms can be learned from user input and written into a synonyms database. Their selection can be based on tokens identified in user input. Natural language interpretation can be performed by agents arranged in a network, which parse the user input in a distributed manner. In an embodiment, a particular agent of the natural language interpreter receives a first message that includes the user input, returns a message claiming at least a portion of the user input, and subsequently receives a second message delegating actuation of at least that portion to the particular agent.

Abstract: A speech recognition system recognizes an input speech signal by using a first speech recognizer and a second speech recognizer each coupled to a decision module. Each of the first and second speech recognizers outputs first and second recognized speech texts and first and second associated confidence scores, respectively, and the decision module selects either the first or the second speech text depending upon which of the first or second confidence score is higher. The decision module may also adjust the first and second confidence scores to generate first and second adjusted confidence scores, respectively, and select either the first or second speech text depending upon which of the first or second adjusted confidence scores is higher. The first and second confidence scores may be adjusted based upon the location of a speaker, the identity or accent of the speaker, the context of the speech, and the like.

Abstract: Roughly described, a context reactive user interface which offers user-selectable on-screen choices or hints to help the user follow up in the context of his or her previous interactions. Alternatively or additionally, the system can offer on-screen choices which, when selected by the user, can invoke one or more back-end applications with entry fields pre-filled from the user's previous interactions or from other contextual information.

Abstract: Roughly described, a context reactive user interface which offers user-selectable on-screen choices or hints to help the user follow up in the context of his or her previous interactions. Alternatively or additionally, the system can offer on-screen choices which, when selected by the user, can invoke one or more back-end applications with entry fields pre-filled from the user's previous interactions or from other contextual information.

Abstract: Roughly described, the interpretation phase of a system using an Adaptive Agent-Oriented Software Architecture allows queried agents to respond to queries before they have all their own responses from their own downchain agents. Alternatively or additionally, the originating agent can include a “depth-or-search” indication with each query, thereby preventing propagation of the query through more than the indicated number of agents. In the latter alternative, the originating agent can subsequently make the same query to the same downchain agents, but with an increased depth-or-search indication, if for example the originating agent is not yet satisfied with the claims it received in response to the first query.

Abstract: Shortcut names corresponding to flagged locations or frequently stated destinations, phrases, or sentences are registered, maintained, used, and deregistered in a speech recognition system. If a flagged location or a frequently stated destination, phrase, or sentence is received by the speech recognition system, the user is prompted to provide a shortcut name corresponding to the frequently stated destination, phrase, or sentence in the form of speech, which is then recognized by speech recognition and registered to a personal profile of the user. The shortcut name is also added to a grammar database of the speech recognition system, so that the speech recognition system may recognize the shortcut name itself. The shortcut name may also be deleted, when speech received from a user contains a shortcut name but the user did not intend the shortcut name to mean the corresponding destination, phrase, or sentence.

Abstract: Method and agent network architecture for processing a subject message, where each agent has a view of its own domain of responsibility. An initiator agent which receives a user-input request and does not itself have a relevant interpretation policy, queries its downchain agents whether the queried agent considers such message to be in its domain of responsibility. Each queried agent recursively determines whether it has an interpretation policy of its own that applies to the request, and if not, further queries its own further downchain neighboring agents. The further agents eventually respond to such further queries, thereby allowing the first-queried agents to respond to the initiator agent. The recursive invocation of this procedure ultimately determines one or more paths through the network from the initiator agent to one more more leaf agents.

Abstract: Method and agent network architecture for processing a subject message, where each agent has a view of its own domain of responsibility. An initiator agent which receives a user-input request and does not itself have a relevant interpretation policy, queries its downchain agents whether the queried agent considers such message to be in its domain of responsibility. Each queried agent recursively determines whether it has an interpretation policy of its own that applies to the request, and if not, further queries its own further downchain neighboring agents. The further agents eventually respond to such further queries, thereby allowing the first-queried agents to respond to the initiator agent. The recursive invocation of this procedure ultimately determines one or more paths through the network from the initiator agent to one more more leaf agents.

Abstract: Method and agent network architecture for processing a subject message, where each agent has a view of its own domain of responsibility. An initiator agent which receives a user-input request and does not itself have a relevant interpretation policy, queries its downchain agents whether the queried agent considers such message to be in its domain of responsibility. Each queried agent recursively determines whether it has an interpretation policy of its own that applies to the request, and if not, further queries its own further downchain neighboring agents. The further agents eventually respond to such further queries, thereby allowing the first-queried agents to respond to the initiator agent. The recursive invocation of this procedure ultimately determines one or more paths through the network from the initiator agent to one more more leaf agents.

Abstract: Method and agent network architecture for processing a subject message, where each agent has a view of its own domain of responsibility. An initiator agent which receives a user-input request and does not itself have a relevant interpretation policy, queries its downchain agents whether the queried agent considers such message to be in its domain of responsibility. Each queried agent recursively determines whether it has an interpretation policy of its own that applies to the request, and if not, further queries its own further downchain neighboring agents. The further agents eventually respond to such further queries, thereby allowing the first-queried agents to respond to the initiator agent. The recursive invocation of this procedure ultimately determines one or more paths through the network from the initiator agent to one more more leaf agents.

Abstract: Method and agent network architecture for processing a subject message, where each agent has a view of its own domain of responsibility. An initiator agent which receives a user-input request and does not itself have a relevant interpretation policy, queries its downchain agents whether the queried agent considers such message to be in its domain of responsibility. Each queried agent recursively determines whether it has an interpretation policy of its own that applies to the request, and if not, further queries its own further downchain neighboring agents. The further agents eventually respond to such further queries, thereby allowing the first-queried agents to respond to the initiator agent. The recursive invocation of this procedure ultimately determines one or more paths through the network from the initiator agent to one more more leaf agents.