International Business Machines Corporation

Lawrence Leon Porter

Ronald John Bowater

Mark George Stewart Reid Thomas

Graham Derek Wallis

Nicholas David Butler

Michael Cobbett

Guy Patrick Hindle

Stephen Graham Copinger Lawrence

Jeremy Peter James Hughes

David G Martin

Mervyn Anthony Staton

Susan Malaika

Richard Thomas Smith

Simon Robert Davies

A method of synchronization for use in a distributed data processing system comprising a legacy computer having means for storing a master version of data, an application server, and a thin client computer which stores a copy of the master version of data. Firstly, the thin client executes operations locally on the copy. The operations are sent in a list to the application server. The application server executes the operations on the master data, on behalf of the thin client. If the operations can be executed successfully on the master version, synchronization occurs in that the successful operations are applied to the master version.

Synchronizing data in a distributed data processing system

A voice processing system, method and computer program product therefor, allows telephone callers without computers to access World Wide Web pages from the Internet. Usual graphical-based Hyper-Text Mark-Up language (HTML) commands are interspersed with special HTML tags including the commands and data for forming a voice application, which, when run on the voice processing system, provides a voice browser for allowing telephone callers to access Web pages. The voice application tags are provided together with the remainder of the HTML document, thus facilitating editing of the combined data. This helps to keep the graphical browser and voice browser versions of the same data set synchronized.

Voice processing system, method and computer program product having common source for internet world wide web pages and voice applications

Electronic business card exchange

A first Internet telephone system,attempts to call with a second Internet telephone system,via the Internet,However, the second Internet telephone system,is not logged onto the Internet at the time of the call. In response to the failed attempt to call, the first Internet telephone system prompts the user to send voice mail to the user of the second Internet telephone system. This results in a phone call over the Internet between a voice mail system,and the first Internet telephone system, allowing a greeting to be heard, and a message to be stored. This message may be subsequently retrieved, either using an Internet telephone system over the Internet, or using a standard phone over the conventional telephone network.

Voice mail on the internet

Using the Internet World Wide Web (WWW) network,, a WWW Client,can communicate with a WWW Server,to request access to a user's voice mail. In order to satisfy this request, the user enters their voice mail mailbox number, and activates an appropriate hyperlink. The WWW Server then launches an application, MSG Client,, which in turn communicates with an application, MSG Server,, that runs in conjunction with the voice mail system,. In response to an initial message from the MSG Client, the MSG Server returns information about all voice mail messages within the specified mailbox, which are displayed at the WWW Client. This display includes a hyperlink to each message in the mailbox. Thus a user can select a message from within the mailbox by activating this hyperlink, which prompts the WWW Server to again launch MSG Client. This in turn sends a second message to MSG Server, which responds by returning the actual audio data for the selected message to the MSG Client, which is forwarded onto the WWW Client via the WWW Server. The WWW Client then plays out the audio data, allowing the user to hear his or her selected voice mail message.

World wide web voice mail system

Voice data requires large storage resources even when compressed and takes a long time to retrieve. Further the required information cannot normally be directly located and it is difficult to analyze the voice data for statistical information. There is described a method for performing a voice recognition function on a voice telephone conversation to convert the conversation into text data using a voice processing system. The method comprises receiving voice data representing the telephone conversation comprising a first series of speech data from an agent interspersed with a second series of speech data from a client and storing the first and second series of speech data as a single body of voice data for later retrieval. Then a voice recognition function is performed on the voice data to convert it into text data representing the telephone conversation and the text data is stored for later retrieval. Such a solution allows entire days/weeks or even months of conversation to be stored and accessed. Since the memory space required is considerably smaller for text storage it is possible to keep many days of conversation in directly accessible memory that may be searched by a computer. Furthermore it is possible to search for keywords typed from the keyboard and it is not necessary to manually scan the entire conversation for the desired topic.

Voice recognition of telephone conversations

The disclosure concerns a method of processing Internet telephony messages at gateway computer such as an IBM RISC/6000 system, comprising the steps of: receiving an Internet telephony message in a first compression scheme from a computer running an Internet telephone software application which uses the first compression scheme; converting the Internet telephony message into a compression scheme optionally via an intermediate format; sending the Internet message telephony to another computer running another Internet telephone software application using the second format.

Internet telephony signal conversion

Using the Internet World Wide Web (WWW) network,, a WWW Client,can communicate with a WWW Server,to request access to and notification of a user's voice mail. The user enters their voice mail mailbox number, and activates an appropriate hyperlink. The WWW Server then launches an application, MSG Client,, which in turn communicates with an application, MSG Server,, that runs in conjunction with the voice mail system,. In response to an initial message from the MSG Client, the MSG Server returns information about all voice mail messages within the specified mailbox, which are displayed at the WWW Client. This display includes a hyperlink to each message in the mailbox. In addition, the MSG Server downloads an applet for execution on the WWW Client. This applet communicates with the voice mail system in order to provide up-to-date notification of incoming messages.

Voice mail system that downloads an applet for managing voice mail messages

Using the Internet World Wide Web (WWW) network 320, a WWW Client 310 can communicate with a WWW Server 330 to request the reconfiguration of or to generate software which controls a voice processing application. A voice response system client communicates with a voice response system server to alter the configuration of the voice response system or control the execution of software on said voice response system which enables a voice application program to be generated. The output of the voice response system ordinarily destined for display on a visual display unit of a local terminal is directed to the voice response system server. The voice response system server forwards the data to a voice response system client. The voice response system client generates data in a first format useable by said WWW client terminal from data in a second format received from said voice response system and generates data in said second format useable by said voice response system from data in said first format received from WWW client terminal, that is, the voice response system client dynamically generates HTML data from the data generated by the voice response system for transmission to and subsequent display at the WWW client terminal and visa versa.

Client-server system

A method of providing a voice mail service is disclosed using a voice processing system having a communications link to one or more voice mail systems. A voice message for a subscriber to said one or more voice mail systems is received at said voice processing system, which prompts a determination as to the voice mail system on which said subscriber has a voice mailbox. The voice message is the transmitted to the voice mail system on which said subscriber has a voice mailbox. In the preferred embodiment, the communications link forms part of the Internet, and received messages are processed independently by two separate voice processing systems to provide redundancy.

Voice processing system

The present invention relates to system for varying the voice menus and segments presented to the user of a voice response system according to the competence of the user. The response time of a user to voice prompts is measured and an average response time is determined. It is assumed that the lower the average response time, the greater the competence of the user. The average response time is used as an index to a table of ranges of response times. Each range has respective voice segments associated therewith. The voice segments comprise oral instructions or queries for the user and vary according to the anticipated competence of the user. If the average response time changes such that the voice segments indexed are different to the current voice segments then a data base containing information relating to user competence is updated to reflect such a change. Accordingly, when the user next interacts with the voice response system a new set of voice segments more appropriate to the user's competence with be played.

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Lyndhurst, United Kingdom

Lawrence Leon Porter