Systems and methods of providing push-to-application services

1. A system that provides push-to-application services, the system comprising:

a push-to-application session controller, in communication with a client via a push-to-talk infrastructure, that manages a push-to-application session between an application and the client, wherein the push-to-application session controller communicates with the push-to-talk infrastructure using a session initiation protocol and the push-to-talk infrastructure communicates with the client using a push-to-talk communication protocol;

a media controller, coupled to the session controller and in communication with the client via the push-to-talk infrastructure, that transfers media between the client and the application, wherein the media controller communicates with the push-to-talk infrastructure using a real time protocol for media;

an application synchronizer, coupled to the session controller, and in communication with the client without the involvement of the push-to-talk infrastructure, to maintain a data session with the client and to transport synchronization information to the client to synchronize media provided by the media controller to the client and data provided by the application to the client, wherein the application synchronizer communicates with the session controller using a Java message service and the application synchronizer communicates with the client using a hypertext transfer protocol; and

an application container that includes the application, the application container coupling the application to the session controller and the application synchronizer via a first set of application programming interfaces (APIs).

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a speech recognition component that receives speech from the client, converts the speech into text and provides the text to the application.

3. The system of claim 2 , further comprising:

a text-to-speech converter that receives text from the application, converts the text into speech and provides the speech to the client.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the data is a picture, video, formatted text, or a combination of picture, video and formatted text.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the application container couples the application to network services via a second set of APIs.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the second set of APIs for network services include wireless application protocol (WAP) services, presence services or location services.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the application is a voice extensible markup language (VXML) application.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein VXML application is coupled to the first set of APIs via a VXML interpreter.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the application container includes a plurality of applications.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the application container is coupled to content and a portal via a network for data retrieval and the application container includes storage for the content.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the push-to-application session controller, media controller and application synchronizer are located in a network that is distinct from a network in which the client is located.

12. A method of providing push-to-application services, the method comprising:

receiving, by a push-to-application session controller from a client, a request for a particular push-to-application service included in an application container, wherein the push-to-application session controller is in communication with the client via a push-to-talk infrastructure, wherein the push-to-application session controller and the push-to-talk infrastructure communicate using a session initiation protocol, the push-to-talk infrastructure communicates with the client using a push-to-talk communication protocol, the application container couples the application to the push-to-application session controller by a first set of application programming interfaces (APIs), and the application container and the push-to-application session controller communicate using a Java message service;

establishing, by an application synchronizer, a data session between the client and the particular push-to-application service included in the application container, wherein the application synchronizer and the application container communicate using a Java message service via the first set of APIs, and wherein the application synchronizer communicates with the client without the involvement of the push-to-talk infrastructure using a hypertext transfer protocol to maintain the data session with the client and to transport synchronization information to the client;

establishing, by the push-to-application session controller, an audio session between the client and the particular push-to-application service via a media controller, wherein the push-to-application session controller and the media controller communicate using a Java message service;

receiving, by the media controller from the client, a request for information for the particular push-to-application service;

obtaining, by the push-to-application session controller from the particular push-to-application service, the requested information; and

providing, by the push-to-application session controller, the requested information to the client by the data session and the audio session in parallel, wherein the audio session and the data session are synchronized by the application synchronizer.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the request for information is in an audio form, the method further comprising:

sending the request for information to an automatic speech recognition engine; and

receiving text corresponding to the information in audio form.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the requested is in a text form, the method further comprising:

sending the requested information to a text-to-speech conversion engine; and

receiving audio corresponding to the requested information in text form.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein the requested information is provided as a picture, video, formatted text, or a combination of picture, video and formatted text.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein when the request information includes a combination of picture, video or formatted text, the requested information is output in a synchronized manner.

17. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

receiving, by the particular application, the request for information; and

obtaining the requested information from the internet or local storage.