Establishing call-based audio sockets within a componentized voice server
View Patent ↗A method of interfacing a telephone application server and a speech engine can include the step of establishing one or more audio sockets in a media converting component of the telephone application server. The audio socket can remain available for approximately a duration of a call. A work unit that requires processing by a speech engine can be detected for the call. An identifier for the audio socket and a data for the work unit can be conveyed to a selected speech engine. Work unit results from the selected speech engine can be received by the media converting component via the previously established audio socket.
1. A method for establishing call-based audio sockets within a componentized voice server for communicating with external speech engines, the method comprising the steps of:
receiving a call;
initializing the voice server to handle the call;
establishing at least one audio socket in a media converting component of the voice server for interfacing the voice server with an external speech engine, said audio socket remaining available for approximately a duration of the call;
detecting a work unit of said call that requires processing by an external speech engine;
conveying an identifier for the audio socket and data relating to the work unit to a selected external speech engine; and
receiving work unit results from the selected external speech engine via the audio socket.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the work unit is a speech utterance of a party participating in the call, and wherein the external speech engine is an automatic speech recognition engine.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the work unit is a text segment generated by the voice server, and wherein the external speech engine is a text-to-speech engine.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:
after the work unit data is processed, the external speech engine initializing a communication connection with the audio socket; and
responsive to said initialization, conveying pending audio signals from the media converting component to the audio socket.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:
detecting a different work unit of said call that requires processing by an external speech engine;
conveying said identifier for the audio socket and conveying data relating to the different work unit to a different external speech engine; and
receiving work unit results from said different external speech engine via the same audio socket.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein said external speech engine is an automatic speech recognition engine and wherein said different external speech engine is a text-to-speech engine.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said at least one audio socket is a plurality of audio sockets.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein said plurality of audio sockets comprises at least one input audio socket and at least one output audio socket.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein said componentized voice server has a componentized architecture of different modular components.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein each component within said architecture is configured to handle tasks in a functionally isolated fashion from other components of said architecture.