Method of training a computer system via human voice input

1. A method of training a computer system via human voice input from a human teacher, the computer system having a text to speech engine and a speech recognition engine, the method comprising:

presenting a text spelling of an unknown word;

requesting to receive the human voice pronunciation of the unknown word using speech output;

wherein the request from the computer system takes a form of an ongoing natural language dialog between the computer system and the human teacher with the computer system having a list of ways to ask questions with a variable for the questionable data;

receiving a human voice pronunciation of the unknown word from the human teacher;

determining a phonetic spelling of the unknown word with the speech recognition engine based on the human voice pronunciation of the unknown word; and

associating the text spelling with the phonetic spelling to allow the text to speech engine to correctly pronounce the unknown word in the future when presented with the text spelling of the unknown word.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the phonetic spelling includes a sequence of phonemes.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the phonetic spelling includes a sequence of known words.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

establishing a plurality of request statements, each request statement having an information content level, the information content levels ranging from a low information content level to high information content level, the plurality of request statements being used by the computer system during the ongoing dialog.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein presenting, receiving, determining, and associating are repeated for a plurality of unknown words, and wherein the information content level for the request statements in the ongoing dialog progressively lessens as presenting, receiving, determining, and associating are repeated.

6. A computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that direct a computer to perform a method of training a computer system via human voice input from a human teacher, the computer system having a text to speech engine and a speech recognition engine, the medium further comprising:

instructions for presenting a text spelling of an unknown word;

requesting to receive the human voice pronunciation of the unknown word suing speech output;

wherein the request from the computer system takes a form of an ongoing natural language dialog between the computer system and the human teacher with the computer system having a list of ways to ask questions with a variable for the questionable data;

instructions for receiving a human voice pronunciation of the unknown word from the human teacher;

instructions for determining a phonetic spelling of the unknown word with the speech recognition engine based on the human voice pronunciation of the unknown word; and

instructions for associating the text spelling with the phonetic spelling to allow the text to speech engine to correctly pronounce the unknown word in the future when presented with the text spelling of the unknown word.

7. The medium of claim 6 wherein the phonetic spelling includes a sequence of phonemes.

8. The medium of claim 6 wherein the phonetic spelling includes a sequence of known words.

9. The medium of claim 6 further comprising:

instructions for establishing a plurality of request statements, each request statement having an information content level, the information content levels ranging from a low information content level to a high information content level, the plurality of request statements being used by the computer system during the ongoing dialog.

10. The medium of claim 9 wherein presenting, receiving, determining, and associating are repeated for a plurality of unknown words, and wherein the information content level for the request statements in the ongoing dialog progressively lessens as presenting, receiving, determining, and associating are repeated.