International Business Machines Corporation

Other

Nuance Communications, Inc.

Matthew W Hartley

William V Da Palma

Brien H Muschett

Brett J Gavagni

James Robert Lewis

David E Reich

Wendi L Nusbickel

Mario Ernesto De Armas

Geetika Tandon

David F Ma

Joseph I Herman

An access control system comprised of access points and a social access control system. The access points can be communication intermediaries for accessing an associated entity. The social access control system can be configured to limit interactions with the access point to mobile devices associated with members of a social access control network as defined by an owner of the access point. The owner can be a member of the social access control network. The mobile device can be required to be within a physical proximity, defined by the owner, of the access point. The mobile devices of members of the social access control network lacking an association with the access point can be unable to perform interactions that affect the entity of the access point when within the physical proximity.

Social access control system

A method and system for testing voice applications, such as VoiceXML applications, is provided. The system provides a run-time simulation environment for voice applications that simulates and automates user interaction. A user simulation script is provided in a customized mark-up language. The voice application is processed to derive a nominal output of the voice application. The user simulation script is processed to generate a simulated output for the voice application corresponding to the nominal output. The user simulation script is also processed to generate a simulated input for the voice application corresponding to a pre-determined user input to the voice application. The simulated inputs and outputs are executed in conjunction with the voice application in real-time to test the application.

Run-time simulation environment for voiceXML applications that simulates and automates user interaction

A machine readable storage can include a set of instructions for load balancing. The storage can include a plug-in receptor of a load balancer. The plug-in receptor can be compliant with a known industry standard and can be is associated with a two or more load balancing algorithms. The load balancer can utilize selected ones of the load balancing algorithms to determine which of two or more voice servers are to handle incoming speech processing requests. Selected ones of the load balancing algorithms can include a speech utilization algorithm. The speech utilization algorithm can calculate a speech utilization score for at least one of the voice servers based upon speech processing specific factors.

Load balancing based upon speech processing specific factors

A method and system for testing voice applications, such as VoiceXML applications, is provided. The system provides a run-time simulation environment for voice applications that simulates and automates user interaction. A user simulation script is provided in a customized mark-up language. The voice application is processed to derive a nominal output of the voice application. The user simulation script is processed to generate a simulated output for the voice application corresponding to the nominal output. Conditional logic may be applied to the nominal output to generate a simulated input in response thereto. The user simulation script is specified in a customized mark-up language having a set of one or more conditional tags and an internal variable for the nominal output of the voice application.

Method and system for dynamic conditional interaction in a VoiceXML run-time simulation environment

A method and system of compiling and caching voice application documents in order to provide more efficient retrieval of resources in a web-programming model such as in the VoiceXML domain. The method and system of the present invention requires that a voice application resource such as a VoiceXML document first be transformed into a representative object model before it is stored in the system's cache memory, and that this model becomes the voice application resource that is ultimately executed by the VoiceXML interpreter. The representative object model contains all of the data of the original source document but in a compressed and optimized format therefore occupying a smaller footprint in memory. The representative object model also contains the code necessary to execute the data. Further, the compressed representative object model does not need to be compiled again before execution. Because the object model stored in cache contains a compiled representation of the original resource and not the original resource itself, it can be executed as a binary object, thus leading to greater efficiency during execution and the reduction of cost and hardware utilization.

Method and procedure for compiling and caching VoiceXML documents in a voice XML interpreter

A method and system of storing and accessing documents on a computer file system utilizing a file system-independent key for use in an index-less browser caching mechanism. The present invention is a method and system for storing a resource such as a document or group of documents on a computer file system using a Universal Resource Indicator (URI) as the file name by generating a unique system-independent key from the URI for use in an index-less browser caching system. The invention takes into account the various file entry length limitations enforced by each unique file system by converting the specified URI into a key containing hexadecimal values of the key's characteristics. In this fashion, an index-less browser caching system such as a Web browser of a VoiceXML browser is created that is file system-independent.

System and method for generating a unique, file system independent key from a URI (universal resource indentifier) for use in an index-less voicexml browser caching mechanism

A method and system for testing voice applications, such as VoiceXML applications, is provided. The system provides a run-time simulation environment for voice applications that simulates and automates user interaction. A user simulation script is provided in a customized mark-up language. The voice application is processed to derive a nominal output of the voice application. The user simulation script is processed to generate a simulated output for the voice application corresponding to the nominal output. The user simulation script is also processed to generate a simulated input for the voice application corresponding to a pre-determined user input to the voice application. The simulated inputs and outputs are executed in conjunction with the voice application in real-time to test the application. Execution time rates for text based input and output are calculated based on empirical speaking rates of human users.

Method and process to generate real time input/output in a voice XML run-time simulation environment

A voice spelling method. A voice spelling method can include the steps of: in an audio-only interface, receiving a plurality of audio signals representative of spoken characters, the plurality of spoken characters specifying a string; and, through the audio-only interface, providing audible feedback in between each received spoken character. Additionally, the method can include the steps of: through the audio-only interface, audibly playing back each spoken character; accepting a voice selection of one of the played back characters, the selection denoting a disputed character; identifying a replacement character; and, replacing the disputed character with the identified replacement character in the specified string.

Voice spelling in an audio-only interface

A method for performing speech recognition can include determining a recognition result for received user speech. The recognition result can include recognized text and a corresponding confidence score. The confidence score of the recognition result can correspond to a predetermined minimum threshold. If the confidence score does not exceed the predetermined minimum threshold, the user can be presented with at least one empirically determined alternate word candidate corresponding to the recognition result.

Method of speech recognition using empirically determined word candidates

A method for performing speech recognition can include the steps of providing a grammar including entries comprising a parent word and a pseudo word being substantially phonetically equivalent to the parent word. The grammar can provide a translation from the pseudo word to the parent word. The parent word can be received as speech and the speech can be compared to the grammar entries. Additionally, the speech can be matched to the pseudo word and the pseudo word can be translated to the parent word.

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Boynton Beach, FL, United States of America

Matthew W Hartley