Method and apparatus for telephonically accessing and navigating the internet
View Patent ↗A method for accessing and browsing the interne through the use of a telephone and the associated DTMF signals is disclosed. The preferred embodiment provides a system that converts the information content of a web page from text to speech (voice signals), signals the hyperlink selections of a web page in an audio manner, and allows selection of the hyperlinks through the use of DTMF signals generated from a telephone keypad. Upon receiving a DTMF signal corresponding to a hyperlink, the corresponding web page is fetched and again delivered to the user via one of the available delivery methods such as voice, fax-on-demand, electronic mail, or regular mail.
1. A method, comprising:
receiving, by a computing device, a data signal generated using a voice user interface and transmitted from a phone, the data signal corresponding to a unique address of a document;
retrieving, by the computing device, the document from a computer system using the unique address; and
transmitting, by the computing device, an electronic mail message containing the document.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the unique address is a uniform resource locator (URL).
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing device is coupled to the Internet.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the document is a web page.
5. A server system, comprising:
a phone voice user interface configured to receive a data signal from a phone, the data signal including a unique address of a document; and
a document delivery subsystem configured to:
receive the data signal from the phone voice user interface,
retrieve the document from a computer system using the unique address, and
transmit an electronic mail message containing the document.
6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the unique address is a uniform resource locator (URL).
7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the server system is coupled to the Internet.
8. The system of claim 5 , wherein the document is a web page.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving the data signal further comprises receiving a dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signal from the phone.
10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
translating, by the computing device, the received DTMF signal to a hyperlink comprising the unique address.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the retrieving further comprises retrieving the document from the computer system using the unique address by browsing through web pages; and
the receiving the data signal further comprises receiving a dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signal from the phone, the method further comprising:
translating, by the computing device, the received DTMF signal to a hyperlink comprising the unique address.
12. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions, execution of which by a computing device causes the computing device to perform operations comprising:
receiving a data signal generated using a voice user interface and transmitted from a phone, the data signal corresponding to a unique address of a document on a computer system;
retrieving the document from a computer system using the unique address; and
transmitting an electronic mail message containing the document.
13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein the unique address is a uniform resource locator (URL).
14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein the computing device is coupled to the Internet.
15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein the document is a web page.
16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the retrieving further comprises retrieving the document from the computer system using the unique address by browsing through web pages.