Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.p.

Hewlett-packard Company

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP

Stephen John Hinde

Andrew D Thomas

Lawrence Wilcock

Paul St John Brittan

Martin Sadler

Guillaume Alexandre Belrose

Andrew Arthur Hunter

Colin Andrew Low

Simon Edwin Crouch

Robert H Hyerle

Marianne Hickey

Timothy Alan Heath Wilkinson

Stephen B Pollard

Mariann Hickey

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method, in a telecommunication system, of processing a communication event associated with a subscriber of a communication network, the method comprising: obtaining context data relating to the subscriber, and in response to receiving the communication event, the telecommunications system processing the communication event in accordance with one or more rules generated by the telecommunications system based on the obtained context.

Context-based event processing

To enable controlled, secure connections using a versatile protocol such as TCP/IP to be established through a firewall and proxy server, the versatile protocol is tunnelled using HTTP. Client to server communications are effected using an HTTP POST operation. Server to client communications are effected using an HTTP GET operation to establish a tunnelled socket; this socket is closed within an interval less than any timeout imposed by the proxy server and immediately re-established by another GET operation, irrespective of whether data continue to be pending for communication to the client. A globally-unique ID is included in each POST and GET message to enable related messages to be recognized.

Providing secure access through network firewalls

An audio 'desktop' user-interface is provided in which services are represented by audio labels presented in an audio field through respective synthesized sound sources. A desired service is selected by identifying it through its sound source or audio label. A user can modify the layout of service-representing sound sources and preferably add and remove services.

Audio user interface

The grammar of the speech input to a voice service system is normally specified by the voice service system. However, this can produce problems in respect of idioms, such as dates, which are expressed different ways by different users. To facilitate the handling of idioms, a user is permitted to specify their own idiom grammar which is then used by the voice service system to interpret idioms in speech input from that user. Typically, the normal grammar of speech input is specified by grammar tags used to mark up a voice page script interpreted by a voice page browser; in this case, it will generally be the voice browser that is responsible for employing the user-specified idiom grammar to interpret the corresponding idiom in the speech input by the user. The user-specified grammar can be pre-specified directly to the voice browser by the user or fetched by the browser from a remote location on the fly.

Idiom handling in voice service systems

A local entity without its own means of voice communication is provided with the semblance of having a voice interaction capability. This is done by providing a beacon device at or near the entity, the beacon device transmitting, over a short-range communication link, contact data identifying a voice service associated with, but hosted separately from, the entity. The transmitted contact data is picked up by equipment carried by a nearby person and used to contact the voice service over a wireless network. The person then interacts with the voice service, the latter acting as a voice proxy for the local entity. The contact data can be presented to the user in other ways, for example, by being inscribed on the local entity for scanning or user input into the equipment.

Voice communication concerning a local entity

Voice-controlled apparatus is provided which minimises the risk of activating more than one such apparatus at a time where multiple voice-controlled apparatus exist in close proximity. To start voice control of the apparatus, a user needs to be looking at the apparatus when speaking. Preferably, after the user stops looking at the apparatus, continuing voice control can only be effected whilst the user continues speaking without breaks longer than a predetermined duration. Detection of whether the user is looking at the apparatus can be effected in a number of ways including by the use of camera systems, by a head-mounted directional transmitter, and by detecting the location and direction of facing of the user.

Enabling voice control of voice-controlled apparatus using a head mounted camera system

A browser with a sound input receives a sound passage associated with a content site. The browser sends a representation of the sound passage to a service system where it is compared with stored representations of sound passages that each have an associated URI. On finding a match, the service system sends back the URI associated with the matched stored sound-passage representation. The browser uses this URI to access the content site.

Sound link translation

When a person first enters an unfamiliar work space, it is useful for that person to know what devices are present in the space and often the person will spend the first few minutes looking around, effectively carrying out an inventory of the devices present. In order to simplify this process the devices are arranged to announce their existence by sound in response to a prompt, such as a handclap. To avoid the announcements being made all at once in an unintelligible manner, the devices interact with each other to order their announcements so that each device announcement is, at least in due course, made uninterrupted by announcements from other devices. Typically, this interaction involves the devices using a collision-detection and back-off protocol applied to the announcements themselves.

Device inventory by sound

Audio alerts are provided in an environment, such as a house, concerning categorized events to be reported. Examples of the events are receipt of e-mails and voice mails. The presence of a person entering or leaving a space of the environment is detected and a processing system determines reportable event categories that have occurred. Each possible event category has a corresponding audio signature. The event categories signatures that have occurred are played either simultaneously or sequentially, within the hearing of the person detected.

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Bristol, United Kingdom

Stephen John Hinde