Abstract: A method for identifying and assigning an address of a particular device is disclosed. The method includes discharging a capacitor in response to a first command from a host. A voltage of the discharged capacitor is then measured in response to a second command from the host. The address is assigned to the particular device when the voltage indicates that the particular device is an intended destination of the address.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method and apparatus is provided for processing a spoken request from a user. A speech recognizer converts the spoken request into a digital format. A frame data structure associates semantic components of the digitized spoken request with predetermined slots. The slots are indicative of data which are used to achieve a predetermined goal. A speech understanding module which is connected to the speech recognizer and to the frame data structure determines semantic components of the spoken request. The slots are populated based upon the determined semantic components. A dialog manager which is connected to the speech understanding module may determine at least one slot which is unpopulated based upon the determined semantic components and in a preferred embodiment may provide confirmation of the populated slots. A computer generated-request is formulated in order for the user to provide data related to the unpopulated slot.