Abstract: An apparatus comprises pattern matching circuitry for detecting instances of at least one predetermined pattern of symbols within a subject stream of symbols. Encoding circuitry is provided for generating an encoded stream of symbols from an input stream of symbols, where the encoding circuitry maps a number of consecutive repetitions of a same pattern of one or more symbols detected within the input stream to a single instance of a symbol of the encoded stream and a corresponding repetition indicator indicative of the number of consecutive repetitions. Control circuitry controls the pattern matching circuitry to process the encoded stream of symbols generated by the encoding circuitry as the subject stream.

Abstract: An apparatus comprises pattern matching circuitry for detecting instances of at least one predetermined pattern of symbols within a subject stream of symbols. Encoding circuitry is provided for generating an encoded stream of symbols from an input stream of symbols, where the encoding circuitry maps a number of consecutive repetitions of a same pattern of one or more symbols detected within the input stream to a single instance of a symbol of the encoded stream and a corresponding repetition indicator indicative of the number of consecutive repetitions. Control circuitry controls the pattern matching circuitry to process the encoded stream of symbols generated by the encoding circuitry as the subject stream.

Abstract: A system for identifying relational tuples is provided. The system extracts a relation phrase from a sentence by identifying a verb in the sentence and then identifying a relation phrase of the sentence as a phrase in the sentence starting with the identified verb that satisfies both a syntactic constraint and a lexical constraint. The system also identifies arguments for a relation phrase. To extract the arguments, the system applies a left-argument-left-bound classifier, a left-argument-right-bound classifier, and a right-argument-right-bound classifier to identify a left argument and right argument for the relation phrase such that the left argument, the relation phrase, and the right argument form a relational tuple.

Abstract: A system and method are provided for an intermediate party to facilitate an interactive telephony session between a customer and a sender of a request for the session. The sender can provide the request to the intermediate party via electronic mail. The request includes the information to initiate the interactive telephony session with the customer as well as the information to conduct that session. In one embodiment, the information to conduct the interactive telephony session includes a URL that provides an application in VoiceXML (Voice Extensible Markup Language). The intermediate party can initiate and conduct the session at the appropriate time and provide the sender with a status regarding the session. During the session, the customer can respond with voice or DTMF inputs to various prompts, thereby proceeding with a transaction and/or providing valuable feedback to the sender.