Granted Patent B2

US 7,797,159 · App. 10/244,648 · Granted Sep 14, 2010

Abstract

Claims (21)

1. A voice-controlled messaging system comprising:

a voice messaging system; and

a speech recognition system coupled to the voice messaging system via a control link over a wired or wireless transmission channel, the speech recognition system including a speech recognition application and a voice messaging application, the control link providing a communications pathway for out-of-band TCP/IP messages between the voice messaging system and the speech recognition system;

wherein the voice messaging system is operable to (1) receive an incoming call from a caller; (2) connect the call to the speech recognition system via an audio channel pursuant to at least one out-of-band TCP/IP message sent to the speech recognition system over the control link, the out-of-band TCP/IP message requesting the establishment of an audio path between the voice messaging system and the speech recognition system whereby spoken commands received by the voice messaging system can be directly delivered to the speech recognition system; (3) receive, via the control link, at least one out-of-band TCP/IP message from the speech recognition system; and (4) process the call pursuant to the at least one received out-of-band TCP/IP message; and

wherein the speech recognition system is operable to (1) provide, via the audio channel, at least one audio prompt eliciting a spoken response from the caller; (2) receive a spoken response via the audio channel; (3) interpret the spoken response to produce an executable command; and (4) send the executable command to the voice messaging system as an out-of-band TCP/IP message over the control link, wherein the executable command dictates the call processing by the voice messaging system.

2. A voice-controlled messaging system comprising:

a voice messaging system to which an incoming call from a caller is connected; and

a speech recognition system coupled to the voice messaging system;

wherein the voice messaging system is operable to connect the call to the speech recognition system through a voice channel by sending at least one out-of-band TCP/IP communication message to the speech recognition system over a control link via a wired or wireless transmission channel, the out-of-band TCP/IP communication message comprising a request to establish a voice channel between the voice messaging system and the speech recognition system; and

wherein the speech recognition system is operable to (1) receive a call connected by the voice messaging system through the voice channel; (2) send at least one audio prompt to the caller via the voice channel; (3) receive at least one spoken response from the caller via the voice channel; (4) interpret the received at least one spoken response; and (5) send an out-of-band TCP/IP message to the voice messaging system via the control link.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the out-of-band TCP/IP message sent by the speech recognition system to the voice messaging system via the control link comprises an executable command from the group consisting of (1) a request to retrieve data; (2) a request to store data; and (3) a request to delete data.

4. A method of providing voice-controlled messaging, said method comprising:

receiving an incoming call from a caller at a voice messaging system;

opening a voice channel between the caller and a stand alone speech recognition system, wherein the voice channel is opened by the stand alone speech recognition system upon receipt of an out-of-band TCP/IP message from the voice messaging system;

processing the call by the voice messaging system, wherein the call processing is controlled by the stand alone speech recognition system by:

(i) providing at least one prompt to the caller via the voice channel, said at least one prompt eliciting a spoken response from the caller;

(ii) receiving a spoken response from the caller via the voice channel;

(iii) interpreting the response to produce an executable command;

(iv) forwarding the executable command to the voice messaging system via an out-of-band TCP/IP message;

(v) performing, by the voice messaging system, at least one task associated with the forwarded executable command to control the call processing operation; and

(vi) using the voice messaging system for data storage and retrieval, said data storage requests and retrievals provided by out-of-band TCP/IP messaging via a control link between the stand alone speech recognition system and the voice messaging system.

Assignments (12)