Abstract: Method, system, and computer program product for building a voice prompt menu for a collection of portlets by acquiring a list of portlets, building a voice menu comprising voice menu items to activate each of the portlets, acquiring a portlet profile containing customization information, and adapting the voice menu using the customization information in the portlet profile. The web portlet may define custom characteristics for consideration by the voice aggregator, for instance, in the positions for its menu items in the hierarchy of the voice portal menu.

Abstract: A voice processing complex has a plurality of host machines, each host machine supporting one or more voice applications, at least one host in the complex including telephony hardware for providing access to a plurality of telephone lines. Such a host provides telephony functions to the complex. This is achieved by maintaining a mapping of voice applications to telephone lines, and creating a call object in response to an incoming call on one of the lines. It is then determined which voice application to associate with the incoming call on the basis of this mapping, and an identifier to the call object is then passed to the determined voice application. Thereafter the call object is responsive to requests from this voice application for providing telephony functions for the call. This includes receiving a media object from the voice processing application which represents desired output over a telephone line.

Abstract: An interactive voice response method and system comprising a VoiceXML browser for processing an interaction with a user. A music score (for example a MIDI file) describing background music for playing during the interaction, and a music synthesizer for generating background music from the music score and from acoustic parameters are included. Acoustic parameters are generated whereby the music synthesizer may be controlled independently of the music score to change the audio environment during an interaction.

Abstract: This invention relates to the management, in an interactive voice response system, of a plurality of speech technology modules. In particular it relates to an apparatus and a method for dynamically determining which of a plurality of speech technology modules to use during voice interaction between the system and a user. In prior art IVR systems each speech technology module is configured for a specific application or task. Most speech technology modules have different lexicons for the range of functions but it is the full lexicon which can determine an engine's suitability for a language. For instance, one type of speech recognition engine is preferred for certain languages whereas IBM ViaVoice is a good general all rounder. Choosing one speech recognition module according to application or function alone is not entirely satisfactory and there is a need for improvement.

Abstract: The invention provides a method, system and computer program product for creating a form definition data file using a visual programming development environment on a computer system. The data file is for interpretation by a dialogue management system and is XML-based markup. A graphical program representation of the data file is created in the development environment and is then compiled and executed in order to generate the data file. The program itself is built by linking a main Java bean component and a plurality of Java bean sub-components, all containing characteristic data file information. On running the executable, the main Java bean outputs its respective data file information into the data file and does this by creating a file output stream and writing its respective data file information to that output stream. This action also causes the next and subsequent java bean components to output their respective data file information into the data file.

Abstract: A voice processing system is disclosed having a first interface for receiving telephone calls from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and application software for processing received PSTN telephone calls. The voice processing system supports an API to allow the first interface to inform the application software of the presence of the call. The voice processing system further has a second interface for receiving telephone calls from an internet protocol (IP) network, and a signaling subsystem for routing an IP call from the second interface to the application software. This signaling subsystem uses the same API as is used to inform the application software about PSTN calls. Therefore, it is transparent to the application software whether an incoming call has been received from the IP network rather than the PSTN.

Abstract: A voice processing complex has a plurality of host machines, each host machine supporting one or more voice applications, at least one host in the complex including telephony hardware for providing access to a plurality of telephone lines. Such a host provides telephony functions to the complex. This is achieved by maintaining a mapping of voice applications to telephone lines, and creating a call object in response to an incoming call on one of the lines. It is then determined which voice application to associate with the incoming call on the basis of this mapping, and an identifier to the call object is then passed to the determined voice application. Thereafter the call object is responsive to requests from this voice application for providing telephony functions for the call. This includes receiving a media object from the voice processing application which represents desired output over a telephone line.

Abstract: A voice processing system for connection to a telephone line for providing telephony support to voice processing applications having a voice processing application and a media object, the media object having an output element for outputting a set of output components in accordance with one or more presentation criteria such as locale and style; a receiving element for receiving the media object from the voice processing application, the media object representing desired output over a telephone line; and the outputting element outputting the output components over the telephone line.

Abstract: A call handling solution for IVR applications with embedded components. A method of handling an incoming call in a network connected interactive voice response system (IVR), comprising the steps of: receiving a signal indicating an incoming telephone call with a call identification (CLID); retrieving, from a database, a database record associated with the call identification; retrieving, from a network location identified in the retrieved record, at least one VoiceXML application identified in the retrieved record; storing the retrieved at least one VoiceXML into cache memory; and answering the incoming telephone call.

Abstract: An interactive voice response system (103) and a method for use in an interactive voice response system are provided. The interactive voice response system (103) has means for receiving telephone calls via a telephone network (102). The interactive voice response system (103) has means for accessing an application server (105) via a computer network (104) to obtain information in response to an audio input from a telephone call. A cookie (112) sent from an application server (105) relating to the access of the application server (105) in response to an audio input from a telephone call is linked to a telephone calling line identifier (110) and the cookie (112) is stored for use during subsequent telephone calls from the same telephone calling line.

Abstract: Office workers are equipped with a telephone and a desktop computer, the latter including an email system which allows telephony applets to be included in email messages. Thus the recipient of a message which includes an applet might typically be presented with a call back button. When this button is selected, it automatically provides the recipient with a telephone connection through to the sender of the message. This is accomplished by the applet using JTAPI to interact with the appropriate telephony equipment in order to form the desired connection.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for subclassing System Object Model (SOM) class objects for a dynamic object-oriented language. A proxy class object is created using the dynamic language that points to the SOM class object. Next, a dynamic language subclass is created. This is followed by the creation of a SOM class object using the SOM interface, which causes certain SOM methods to be overridden by dynamic language redispatch stubs. The dynamic language overrides the SOM dispatch procedures and replaces the dispatcher with its own procedures. The new dispatch procedure will search for a method in the dynamic language class object method table first in response to a message, and if not found, redirects the message to the SOM environment.

Abstract: A voice processing system is connected to a switch via multiple telephone lines, and provides a set of line objects, each line object being associated with one of the physical telephone lines. The line object allows a demarcation to be made between the underlying voice processing system software, and external business applications. Thus a line object supports a set of methods such as Get DTMF Tone, Play Audio, Answer Call, and End Call, to allow the external business applications to perform desired operations on a telephone line. These methods are invoked via a set of corresponding IVR action objects, which in turn are integrated into the business application. The business application itself, and its IVR actions, regard the line objects effectively as servers to provide IVR functionality. The business application may therefore run partially or completely on a separate physical machine from the IVR system itself.

Abstract: A communications system may be used for transmitting and/or receiving data over a network. The communications system includes means responsive to requests for a desired quality of service specifying at least two quality of service parameters, such as bandwidth, latency, error rate, and so on, for determining whether or not the requested quality of service is available. The quality of service requests specify the desired quality of service in terms of logical expressions involving two or more of said at least two quality of service parameters. This allows, for example, a desired quality of service to accept a higher error rate if the available bandwidth is higher. In the preferred embodiment, each quality of service parameter is specified in terms of a range between minimum and a maximum acceptable values.

Abstract: A method of presenting information via a user interface of a computer system is disclosed. The method is executed by a book component and a renderer component. The book determines page boundaries for pages in which information is to be presented, and communicates the page boundaries to the renderer. The renderer determines a number of pages, constrained by the page boundaries, required to fully render the information, and communicates the number of pages to the book. Responsive to the book providing an input token representing a prominent element of information on a page, the renderer determines a page number for the page containing the element of information represented by the token, and communicates the page number to the book. Responsive to an event requiring the presentation of a page including a prominent element of information, the book communicates the page number to the renderer.

Abstract: A system for remotely developing an telephony application for a call handling server comprises: program code components for each process used by the call handling server and an associated reduced code components for each process; an application designer for combining the reduced code components into an application design; networking capability for sending the application designer and reduced code components to a client and receiving a completed application design; and an application builder for assembling, according to the application design, the program code components into an self contained application.

Abstract: The present invention relates to embedded HTML documents and to a method and system for rendering such documents to a visual display unit. The Internet does not currently support embedded documents. The current manner of viewing a plurality of HTML documents is to include a URL within one documents which allows access to a second document. HTML does not provide for the nesting or embedding of HTML documents. Accordingly the present invention provides a system and method for realising embedded HTML documents. The present invention utilises a Java applet which can be launched by a Java enabled browser. The Java applet can parse and render HTML instructions contained within an HTML document to a reserved area of a visual display unit. The Java applet can also launch further applets and therefore allow further nesting or embedding of HTML documents.

Abstract: A communications system may be used for transmitting and/or receiving data over a network. The system needs to exchange capability information with other systems in the network, in order to determine which forms of communication can be mutually supported. The exchange of information includes logical expressions involving two or more parameters. This allows, for example, a system to indicate that a higher error rate will occur if the throughput is increased. In the preferred embodiment, each capability parameter is specified in terms of a range between a minimum and a maximum acceptable value.