Abstract:
Methodology for voice-enabling an application minimizes code add-ons or code insertions. As an example, in applications used by a plurality of remote devices, the method may include dividing a master wordlist associated with the application into a plurality of wordlists respectively associated with the plurality of remote devices, and then converting the plurality of wordlists to a plurality of grammar lists respectively associated with the plurality of remote devices. Accordingly, the methodology voice enables applications with minimal alteration of the code of the applications.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]     The present application claims priority on U.S. Provisional Application for Patent Ser. No. 60/546,691, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     The present invention relates in general to computer systems and associated software applications. The invention relates more particularly to methods and apparatus for configuring applications to be voice enabled for use by remote devices such as PDAs and computers.  
         [0003]     Conventional methods for voice enabling software applications require amending the actual code of the application or adding code to the application so that the application is voice enabled. This is an intensive process requiring substantial manpower and time and is, therefore, expensive. Further, each application needs to be voice enabled individually. The added code then controls the operation of the speech recognizer and interprets the recognizer&#39;s outputs. Generation of the code added to the application is a tedious and time-consuming task that must be re-done for each application and for each change to an application. Success at this task requires a programmer who is familiar with both the application and experienced in voice-enabling.  
         [0004]     In view of the foregoing, there is a need in the art for a system and methodology for enhancing voice enabling of applications.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005]     The invention provides methodology for voice-enabling applications that minimizes the amending the code of the applications themselves.  
         [0006]     According to one aspect of the invention, a method for voice-enabling an application for use by a plurality of remote devices includes dividing a master wordlist associated with the application into a plurality of wordlists respectively associated with the plurality of remote devices, and then converting the plurality of wordlists to a plurality of grammar lists respectively associated with the plurality of remote devices. The plurality of grammar lists may then be pushed to the plurality of remote devices.  
         [0007]     According to another aspect of the invention, a method for voice-enabling an application includes creating a speech object for the application, identifying an application element for voice-enabling, describing a property of the application element, and placing an identification and a description of the property in the speech object, with the speech object being associated with the application. These steps may be repeated a plurality of times for a plurality of application elements. In addition, the speech object may be packaged by attaching wordlist files and action files.  
         [0008]     According to still another aspect of the invention, a voice-enabling method for an application having a speech object with a plurality of elements includes receiving an indication from the application that an element has been activated. Up receipt, the element may be associated with the speech object of the application to determine an action. A speech system may then be initialized to perform the action indicated by the element, and a speech recognizer may be started upon receiving a request from the application. The result of the speech recognizer may then be transformed into the action as indicated by the element, with the action being passed on to the application for appropriate action.  
         [0009]     According to a further aspect of the invention, a method for voice-enabling an application associated with a target recognizer and a rules interpreter may including providing a recognition grammar that is unrelated to an actual grammar compiler language, and then compiling a plurality of words from the recognition grammar that are associated with the target recognizer, and compiling a plurality of actions from the recognition grammar that are associated with the rules interpreter. The plurality of words may then be linked with the plurality of actions, respectively.  
         [0010]     Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration of the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0011]      FIG. 1  illustrates methodology for subdividing a master wordlist into a plurality of divided wordlists and for generating grammars from the divided wordlists for list-based speech recognizers in remote devices;  
         [0012]      FIG. 2  illustrates methodology for voice enabling an application;  
         [0013]      FIG. 3  illustrates methodology for operating a voice-enabled application;  
         [0014]      FIG. 4  illustrates methodology for expressing and actualizing grammars for speech recognition systems; and  
         [0015]      FIG. 5  illustrates a system for voice-enabling applications. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0016]     Referring more particularly to the drawings,  FIG. 1  illustrates methodology for subdividing a master wordlist  100  into a plurality of divided wordlists  102  of devices A, B, C, . . . , N according to some of the embodiments of the invention.  FIG. 1  also illustrates methodology for generating grammars  104  from the divided wordlists  102  for list-based speech recognizers in devices  106  remote or external to the dividing entity according to other embodiments of the invention.  
         [0017]     In a number of embodiments, it may be desirable to have many similarly configured exterior or remote devices  106  (such as PDAs, portable computers, desktop computers, and so on) in an enterprise environment (such as a corporation, a factory, a hospital, a governmental organization, and so on). Each remote device  106  may have list-based speech recognition capabilities, with each of these devices requiring the ability to recognize words or collections of words from the lists  102 .  
         [0018]     For example, the lists  102  may include names or inventory items local to the device  106 , which lists may change periodically. Further, the lists  102  may be derived from one or more master wordlists  100  provided by the enterprise. For example, the master wordlist  100  may be a master patient list in a hospital embodiment or a master inventory list in a production embodiment.  
         [0019]     In other embodiments, the speech-recognition capability of the remote devices  106  may require that the items of the lists  102  be rendered into an expression suitable for operation by the devices. For the purposes of this description, these expressions are referred to as “grammars” and indicated as grammar lists  104  of device A, B, C, . . . , N. Prior to the present invention, it was not possible to parse a master wordlist  100  into the sub-lists  102  and then to render the sub-lists  102  into grammars  104  suitable for the operation of a list-based speech recognizer.  
         [0020]     According to some of the embodiments, a system  108  may build and store the dispersible wordlists  102  and may then distribute the wordlists  102  to a plurality of similarly configured devices  106  so that each device may has a predictable configured wordlist at runtime. The distribution of the wordlists  102  may be either accomplished by “pushing” the wordlists  102  to the devices  106  as shown at  114  or, alternatively, by “pulling” the wordlists  102  by the devices  106 .  
         [0021]     In a number of embodiments, an external entity such as an enterprise IT department, may generate or provide new master wordlist  100 , which may then be divided according to rules provided by enterprise system (see  110 ) into a plurality of subsets  102 . The subsets  102  may then be automatically converted (see  112 ) into grammars  104  for a speech recognizer. The dynamically created grammars  104  may then be pushed (see  116 ) to the remote devices  106  according to configuration information  116 .  
         [0022]     Referring to  FIG. 2 , methodology for voice enabling an application is illustrated according to a number of embodiments. As mentioned above, conventional approaches to voice enabling applications requires substantial addition of in-line or attached code. According to the invention, objects are produced and logically attached to applications. More specifically, in many of the embodiments to voice enable an application  200 , during development time, the method may create a speech object template for the application (see  202 ) creating objects and linking the objects to the application. Thereafter, the method may then perform element inspection and object population by identifying a first of a plurality of application elements for voice enabling (see  204 ), describing the properties of the identified application element (see  206 ), and placing identification and description of the properties in a speech object (see  208 ). This process may continue (see  212 ) until all appropriate elements of the application  200  have been treated. Thereafter, the speech objects may be packaged (see  210 ) by attaching wordlist or data files, attaching action files, and associating speech object with the application  200 .  
         [0023]     As shown in  FIG. 3 , an engine  214  of the invention develops and builds into objects the representations of the application  200 . The engine  214  then logically attaches the representation objects to existing application code. The application code is accordingly, provided with the means to create the minimal linkage between user activity and a runtime object manager which facilitates result production.  
         [0024]     For example, within a run-time environment, a speech object  210  for the application  200  may include a plurality of Elements  1 ,  2 ,  3 , . . . , N(end). A link (see  300 ) between the speech object  210  and the application  200  may be created at the development time. The application  200  may then indicate to the engine  214  that an Element N has been activated (see  302 ), with the contents of Element N being accessed by the engine  214  (see  304 ). The engine  214  may then associate with Element N in the speech object  210  of the application  200  (see  306 ).  
         [0025]     The engine  214  may then initialize a speech system to perform the action indicated by Element N (see  308 ). When the application  200  requests the engine  214  to start recognition (see  310 ), the engine  214  then starts the speech recognizer (see  312 ). Thereafter, the engine  214  may transform the speech recognition result, if applicable, into either an action or data as indicated by Element N (see  314 ). The engine  214  may then pass the data or the action to the application  200  as specified by Element N (see  316 ). The application  200  may then operate on the data or the action according to its own internal logic (see  318 ). This process may then be repeated a plurality of times (see  320 ).  
         [0026]      FIG. 4  illustrates methodology for expressing and actualizing grammars for voice-recognitions systems. A list-based speech recognizer system  400  may include a wordlist compiler  402  and a rules compiler  404  at development time, and may include a target recognizer  406  and a rules interpreter  408  at run time. Grammars enable list-based speech recognizers to perform meaningful functions in complex application environments. Grammars may include wordlists and rules. Rules specify what action should be taken upon recognition of a given word or set of words in a wordlist. Grammars are written in a definition language specified by the compiler vendor. Many conventional grammar definition languages, compilers, and associated recognizers cannot specify or actualize complex semantic expressions. Accordingly, the invention provides methodology for permitting complex semantic expressions to be specified and actualized with any list-based speech recognizer system.  
         [0027]     According to a number of embodiments, starting with a grammar definition language  410 , an arbitrarily grammar  412  from the application  200  may be expressed in a manner not tied or unrelated to any specific actual grammar compiler language. Thereafter, from a grammar front end  414 , words (see  416 ) may be compiled by the wordlist compiler  402  for the target recognizer  406 . When compiled, the wordlists may be stored in a file  418  for the target recognizer. In addition, actions (see  420 ) may be compiled by a rules compiler  404  and then provided to a rules file  422 . The compiled wordlist and the compiled actions may then be linked (see  424 ) between the files  418  and  422 . Accordingly, the actions  420  are encoded in a representational notation linked to a speech recognition system that is not able to convey such actions. The representational notation may then interpret by the rules interpreter  408  so as to produce the desired encoded action from speech recognition outputs.  
         [0028]     With reference to  FIG. 5 , a system  500  for implementing the methodology of the invention may include a speech studio  502 , a speech server  504 , one or more speech clients  506 , and a speech transcriber  508 . New applications  200  may be voice enabled by the speech studio  502  in the development environment, which may entail a graphical user interface (GUI) inspector, a grammar developer, and a simulator. The speech studio  502  may then provide the speech server  504  speech-enabled applications, new grammars and speech objects, and updated grammars and speech objects (see  510 ). Based on these inputs, the speech server  504  may perform dynamic grammar updates, including receiving updated wordlists from an IT department (see  512 ). The speech server  504  may also perform configuration management, system administration, and backup and archiving functions.  
         [0029]     The speech clients  506  may communicate with the speech server  504  with regard to voice-enabled applications, grammars and speech objects, and audio files for enrollment and transcription (see  513 ). The speech clients  506  operate in a mobile runtime environment in a plurality of PDAs or tablets or in native Windows, browsers, or Java applications. The clients  506  may operate speech service packages and may communicate application data (see  514 ) with an application server  516 .  
         [0030]     The speech transcriber  508  may operate in a CSR environment to perform continuous speech to text translation. The transcriber  508  may also perform user enrollment and user profile management functions. Accordingly, audio enrollment and transcription files may be communicated with the speech server  504  to perform these functions.  
         [0031]     An example of code for implementing the methodology of the invention is included on a CD-R disc filed herewith and labeled “Copy 1.” The CD-R disc and all of the code thereon is incorporated herein by reference. A listing of the names of the folders on the CR-R and the files contained therein, their date of creation, and their sizes in bytes is included in a letter filed the subject application.  
         [0032]     Those skilled in the art will understand that the preceding embodiments of the present invention provide the foundation for numerous alternatives and modifications thereto. These other modifications are also within the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the present invention is not limited to that precisely as shown and described in the present invention.