Technique for synchronizing visual and voice browsers to enable multi-modal browsing
View Patent ↗A system and method for interacting with content, such as web-based markup content, using visual and voice browsers. A first browser facilitates communication in a first mode (e.g., an HTML browser that facilitates visual/tactile interaction with HTML content), and a second browser facilitates communication in a second mode (e.g., a VXML browser that facilitates audio interaction with VXML content). HTML and VXML content is created that: (1) indicates a correspondence between HTML and VXML pages that represent the same underlying content; and (2) contains specialized tags that indicate information to be send from one browser to the other to synchronize each browser to equivalent parts of the content. The HTML browser is adapted to use relative links as signals that information is to be sent to the VXML browser, and the platform on which the VXML browser runs is adapted to recognize a “hit” on its own port 80 as a signal that information is to be sent to the HTML browser.
1. A method of synchronizing a first browser and a second browser for a user wherein said first browser further comprises a multimodal manager, comprising the steps of:
providing tags on a first content within a page of the first browser, wherein said tags perform the functions of,
identifying a corresponding content within a page of the second browser that corresponds to the first content within the page of the first browser,
containing a relative link to a non-existent label on the first content within the page of the first browser; and
providing an instruction to jump to a non-existent relative link while the user browses the first content within the page of the first browser;
receiving a request from said user, said request created by a user instruction to process the tags on the first content within the page, wherein said processing enables multimodal synchronization;
applying a component object model object for,
parsing content in the first content within the page of the first browser and arriving at a position within the first content within the page that is determined by said request received from said user;
moving to the position of said non-existent label or non-existent relative link within the first content within the page, based on information contained in a tag at said arrived position; and
invoking said multimodal manager to perform actions when the tag at said arrived position is encountered that points to the non-existing label or non-existent relative link, said actions of the multimodal manager further comprising;
parsing a label within said encountered tag to which the component object model object is attempting to jump to; and
using information contained in said label for sending information to the second browser indicative of the first browser's, and instructing the second browser to jump to a label on the corresponding content whereby the first browser and the second browser are synchronized.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said first browser comprises a visual browser, and wherein said second browser comprises a voice browser.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said first content within the page comprises an Hypertext Markup Language page.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information indicative of the first browser's state comprises a representation of a position at which a user is browsing in said first content item.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said first content comprises an identifier of a second content that corresponds to said first content, said second content item being render-able on said second browser.
6. A computer-readable medium encoded with computer-executable instructions to perform the method of claim 1 .
7. A system for communication, comprising:
a computing device comprising a first browser;
a multimodal platform comprising a second browser;
a server in communication with said multimodal platform and said computing device, wherein said server provides content to said first browser and said second browser;
wherein said content within a page of the first browser comprises tags, wherein said tags:
identify a corresponding content within a page of the second browser that corresponds to the first content within the page of the first browser;
contain a relative link to a non-existent label on the first content within the page of the first browser; and
provide an instruction to jump to a non-existent relative link while the user browses the first content within the page of the first browser;
said first browser further comprising:
a multimodal manager;
a component object model object, wherein said component object model object:
parses the content in the first content within the page of the first browser and arriving at a position within the first content within the page that is determined by a request received from a user;
moves to the position of said non-existent label or non-existent relative link within the first content within the page, based on infonnation contained in a tag at said arrived position; and
invokes said multimodal manager to perform actions when the tag at said arrived position is encountered that points to the non-existent label or non-existent relative link, said actions of the multimodal manager further comprising;
parsing a label to said encountered tag to which the component object model object is attempting to jump to; and
using the information contained in the label for sending information to the second browser indicative of the first browser's state, and instructing the second browser to jump to a label on the corresponding content whereby the first browser and the second browser are synchronized.
8. The system for synchronizing of claim 7 , wherein said information indicative of said state of said first browser comprises information indicative of a position within said first content at which a user of said first browser is navigating.
9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the control object model object is a hyper text mark-up language viewer.
10. The system of claim 7 , further comprising event filters in the first and second browsers that only permit transmissions of events to the multimodal manager that are relevant for enabling multimodality functionality.
11. The system of claim 10 , wherein event filters are used to vary the synchronization granurality of modal coupling.