Patent Publication Number: US-8990087-B1

Title: Providing text to speech from digital content on an electronic device

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     Electronic distribution of information has gained in importance with the proliferation of personal computers and has undergone a tremendous upsurge in popularity as the Internet has become widely available. With the widespread use of the Internet, it has become possible to distribute large, coherent units of information using electronic technologies. 
     Advances in electronic and computer-related technologies have permitted computers to be packaged into smaller and more powerful electronic devices. An electronic device may be used to receive and process information. The electronic device may provide compact storage of the information as well as ease of access to the information. For example, a single electronic device may store a large quantity of information that might be downloaded instantaneously at any time via the Internet. In addition, the electronic device may be backed up, so that physical damage to the device does not necessarily correspond to a loss of the information stored on the device. 
     In addition, a user may interact with the electronic device. For example, the user may read information that is displayed or hear audio that is produced by the electronic device. Further, the user may instruct the device to display or play a specific piece of information stored on the electronic device. As such, benefits may be realized from improved systems and methods for interacting with an electronic device. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating a system for using a text to speech algorithm; 
         FIG. 2  is another block diagram illustrating a system for using a text to speech algorithm; 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating an alternative configuration of a server that may be used to prepare enhanced digital content; 
         FIG. 4  is a block diagram of an alternative configuration of enhanced digital content; 
         FIG. 5  is a block diagram of another alternative configuration of enhanced digital content; 
         FIG. 6  is a block diagram illustrating an electronic device implementing a text to speech algorithm; 
         FIG. 7  is a flow diagram illustrating one configuration of a method for determining pronunciation instructions and voice instructions for a word using a text to speech algorithm; 
         FIG. 8  illustrates various components that may be utilized in a computer system; and 
         FIG. 9  illustrates various components that may be utilized in an eBook reader/wireless device. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The present disclosure relates generally to digital media. Currently, digital text is available in a variety of forms. For example, publishers of printed materials frequently make digital media equivalents, known as e-books, available to their customers. E-books may be read on dedicated hardware devices known as e-book readers (or e-book devices), or on other types of computing devices, such as personal computers, laptop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc. 
     Under some circumstances, a person may want to listen to an e-book rather than read the e-book. For example, a person may be in a dark environment, may be fatigued from a large amount of reading, or may be involved in activity that makes reading more difficult or not possible. Additionally, publishers and authors may want to give their customers another, more dynamic, avenue to experience their works by listening to them. Despite these advantages, it may be expensive and impractical to record the reading of printed material. For example, a publisher might incur expenses associated with hiring someone to read aloud and professionals to record their material. Additionally, some printed materials, such as newspapers or other periodicals, may change weekly or even daily, thus requiring a significant commitment of resources. 
     The present disclosure relates to automatically synthesizing digital text into audio that can be played aloud. This synthesizing may be performed by a “text to speech” algorithm operating on a computing device. By automatically synthesizing text into audio, much of the cost and inconvenience of providing audio may be alleviated. 
     The techniques disclosed herein allow publishers to provide dynamic audio versions of their printed material in a seamless and convenient way while still maintaining their proprietary information. Text to speech software uses pronunciation database(s) to form the audio for each word in digital text. Additionally, text to speech software may use voice data to provide multiple “voices” in which the text may be read aloud. 
     The techniques disclosed herein allow a publisher to provide a supplemental pronunciation database for digital text, such as an e-book. This allows text to speech software, perhaps on an e-book reader, to produce audio with accurately pronounced words without a user having to separately install another pronunciation database. Accurate pronunciation might be especially important when listening to newspapers where many proper names are regularly used. 
     The techniques disclosed herein also allow a publisher to provide supplemental voice data in the same file as an e-book. This allows a publisher to specify different voices for different text within an e-book. For example, if a person decided to use text to speech software while reading a book, a male synthesized voice may read aloud the part of a male character while a female synthesized voice may read aloud the part of a female character. This may provide a more dynamic experience to a listener. 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating a system  100  for using a text to speech algorithm  110  or module  110  (which may be referred to as the “TTS module”). In this system  100 , a server  102  communicates with an electronic device  104 . The server  102  may be any type of computing device capable of communicating with other electronic devices and storing enhanced digital content  106 . Likewise, an electronic device  104  may be any computing device capable of communicating with a server  102 . Some examples of electronic devices  104  include, but are not limited to, a personal computer, a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant, a mobile communications device, a smartphone, an electronic book (e-book) reader, a tablet computer, a set-top box, a game console, etc. 
     The enhanced digital content  106  resides on the server  102  and may include various kinds of electronic books (eBooks), electronic magazines, music files (e.g., MP3s), video files, etc. Electronic books (“eBooks”) are digital works. The terms “eBook” and “digital work” are used synonymously and, as used herein, may include any type of content which may be stored and distributed in digital form. By way of illustration, without limitation, digital works and eBooks may include all forms of textual information such as books, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, periodicals, journals, reference materials, telephone books, textbooks, anthologies, proceedings of meetings, forms, directories, maps, manuals, guides, references, photographs, articles, reports, documents, etc., and all forms of audio and audiovisual works such as music, multimedia presentations, audio books, movies, etc. 
     The enhanced digital content  106  is sent to the electronic device  104  and comprises multiple parts that will be discussed in detail below. The audio subsystem  108  resides on the electronic device  104  and is responsible for playing the output of the text to speech module  110  where appropriate. This may involve playing audio relating to the enhanced digital content. Additionally, the electronic device may include a visual subsystem (not shown) that may visually display text relating to the enhanced digital content. Furthermore, the electronic device may utilize both a visual subsystem and an audio subsystem for a given piece of enhanced digital content. For instance, a visual subsystem might display the text of an eBook on a screen for a user to view while the audio subsystem  108  may play a music file for the user to hear. Additionally, the text to speech module  110  converts text data in the enhanced digital content  106  into digital audio information. This digital audio information may be in any format known in the art. Thus, using the output of the TTS module  110 , the audio subsystem  108  may play audio relating to text. In this way, the electronic device may “read” text as audio (audible speech). As used herein, the term “read” or “reading” means to audibly reproduce text to simulate a human reading the text out loud. Any method of converting text into audio known in the art may be used. Therefore, the electronic device  104  may display the text of an eBook while simultaneously playing the digital audio information being output by the text to speech module  110 . The functionality of the text to speech module  110  will be discussed in further detail below. 
       FIG. 2  is another block diagram illustrating a system for distributing enhanced digital content  206  for use by one or more text to speech algorithms  210  or modules  210 . In this system  200 , multiple publisher databases  212  may communicate with a server  202  through a network  211 . In this configuration, the publisher databases  212  may send the enhanced digital content  206  to the server  202 . The publisher databases  212  represent the publishers and/or creators of digital content and may transmit their content to the server  202  only once or periodically. For instance, a book publisher may send a particular eBook to the server  202  only once because the content of the book may not change, but a newspaper publisher may send its content every day, or multiple times a day, as the content changes frequently. 
     In addition to the enhanced digital content  206 , the server  202  may include an online shopping interface  214  and a digital content enhancement module  216 . The online shopping interface  214  may allow one more electronic devices  204  to communicate with the server  202  over a network  211 , such as the internet, and to further interact with the enhanced digital content  206 . This may involve a user of an electronic device  204  viewing, sampling, purchasing, or downloading the enhanced digital content  206 . Online shopping interfaces may be implemented in any way known in the art, such as providing web pages viewable with an internet browser on the electronic device  204 . 
     The digital content enhancement module  216  may be responsible for enhancing non-enhanced digital content (not shown in  FIG. 2 ) that may reside on the server  202  before it is sent to the electronic devices  204  to be processed by the text to speech module  210 , after which the audio subsystem  208  may play the digital audio information output by the text to speech module  210 . 
       FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating an alternative configuration of a server  302  that may be used to prepare enhanced digital content  306 . In this configuration, the digital content  318  from the publisher databases (not shown in  FIG. 3 ) may be sent or provided to the server  302  without enhancement. The digital content enhancement module  316  may prepare or generate the enhanced digital content  306 . Note that the server  302  may receive only enhanced, only non-enhanced, or some combination of both types of digital content from the publisher databases. 
     In the case of non-enhanced digital content  318 , the digital content enhancement module  316  may combine the digital content  318  with a supplemental pronunciation database  320  and voice data  322  to form enhanced digital content  306 . The digital content  318  itself may be the text of an eBook. It may be stored in any electronic format known in the art that is readable by an electronic device. The supplemental database  320  is a set of data and/or instructions that may be used by a text to speech module or algorithm (not shown in  FIG. 3 ) in an electronic device to form pronunciation instructions. Similarly, the voice data  322  may include voice instructions that may specify which simulated voice is to be used when reading words in the digital content  318 . Alternatively, the voice data may include the voice information itself enabling a text to speech module to read text in a particular simulated voice. 
     Additionally, the voice data  322  may include instructions specifying which language to use when reading words in the digital content  318 . This may utilize existing abilities on an electronic device  104  to translate or may simply read the digital content  318  that may be provided in multiple languages. The supplemental pronunciation  320  may also include pronunciation instructions for words in multiple languages. 
     Both the supplemental pronunciation database  320  and the voice data  322  may be associated with a defined set of digital content  318 . In other words, the supplemental pronunciation database  320  may not be incorporated into the default pronunciation database on the electronic device  104  and the voice data  322  may not be applied to digital content outside a defined set of digital content. For instance, a book publisher may send a supplemental pronunciation database  320  to the server  302  with pronunciation instructions for words in an eBook or series of eBooks that are not found in the default pronunciation database. Likewise, the voice data  322  may apply to one eBook or to a defined set of eBooks. 
     After the digital content enhancement module  316  combines the non-enhanced digital content  318 , the supplemental pronunciation database  320 , and the voice data  322  into a single enhanced digital content data structure  306 , it is ready to be sent to an electronic device  104 . In this configuration of enhanced digital content  306  shown in  FIG. 3 , the supplemental pronunciation database  320   a  and the voice data  322   a  are appended at the end of the digital content  318   a.    
       FIG. 4  is a block diagram of an alternative configuration of enhanced digital content  406 . The enhanced digital content  406  may be a container with digital content and other enhancements. In this embodiment the voice data is incorporated with the digital content  424 . This may be done by adding voice parameters to HTML (HyperText Markup Language) tags within the digital content. As an example, the digital content  318  may include the following HTML before incorporating the voice data  322 : 
     &lt;p&gt; “Hello Jim.”&lt;/p&gt; 
     &lt;p&gt; “How have you been, Sally?”&lt;/p&gt; 
     &lt;p&gt; “Jim and Sally then talked about old times.”&lt;/p&gt; 
     After adding the voice data  322 , the combined digital content with voice data  424  may include the following HTML: 
     &lt;p voice=“Sally”&gt;“Hello Jim”&lt;/p&gt; 
     &lt;p voice=“Jim”&gt;“How have you been, Sally?”&lt;/p&gt; 
     &lt;p voice=“Narrator”&gt;“Jim and Sally then talked about old times.”&lt;/p&gt; 
     In this way, the electronic device  104  may be able to read the different portions of the digital content with different simulated voices. For example, in the above example, “Hello Jim” might be read by a simulated female voice playing the part of “Sally,” while “How have you been, Sally?” might be read by a simulated male voice playing the part of “Jim.” There may be many different simulated voices available for a piece of enhanced digital content  406 , including a default voice used when no other simulated voice is selected. The supplemental pronunciation database  420  may be appended to the digital content  424  in this configuration. Voices, or the voice information enabling a text to speech module  110  to read text in a particular simulated voice, may reside on the electronic device or may be included as part of the voice data. 
       FIG. 5  is a block diagram of another alternative configuration of enhanced digital content  506 . Again, the enhanced digital content  506  may be a container with digital content and other enhancements. Here, however, rather than appending the supplemental pronunciation database to the end of the digital content  518 , a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of a supplemental pronunciation database  526  may be prepended to the digital content  518 . An electronic device  104  may then download this supplemental pronunciation database  320 , which may reside on the server  302  or another location accessible to the electronic device  104 , using the URI  526 . Then, each subsequent time that an electronic device  104  receives enhanced digital content  506  with the same URI  526 , it may not need to download the same supplemental pronunciation database  320  again. This allows more than one piece of digital content  518  to access a particular supplemental pronunciation database  320  without having to repeatedly download it. Also, if a user does not utilize the text to speech functionality, the enhanced digital content may be smaller in this configuration since the supplemental pronunciation database  320  may not be downloaded until a user indicates that they would like to use this functionality. Alternatively, the supplemental database  320  may be downloaded for each piece of enhanced digital content  506  received regardless of the functionality utilized by a user of the electronic device  104 . Alternatively still, the device  104  may not download but simply access the database  320  via the URI  526  when needed. In addition, the voice data  522  may be separate and distinct from the digital content  518  in this configuration. Alternatively, the enhanced digital content  506  may not include voice data  522 . 
     Portions from the enhanced digital content  306 ,  406 ,  506  configurations herein may be combined in any suitable way. The various configurations are meant as illustrative only, and should not be construed as limiting the way in which enhanced digital content may be constructed. 
       FIG. 6  is a block diagram illustrating an electronic device  604  implementing a text to speech algorithm. Enhanced digital content  606  is first received. This may be in response to a user of the electronic device  604  interacting with an online shopping interface  214  residing on the server  202 . As an example, a user of an eBook reader might purchase an eBook from a server  202  and then receive the eBook in the form of enhanced digital content  606 . The different components of the enhanced digital content  606  (digital content  618 , supplemental pronunciation database  620 , and voice data  622 ) are shown in this configuration as distinct blocks, although they may be maintained as the same data structure within the electronic device  604 . Alternatively, the voice data  622  may be incorporated with the digital content  618  or not present as discussed above. Likewise, the enhanced digital content  606  may include a URI  526  to a supplemental pronunciation database  620  rather than the actual data itself. 
     The electronic device  604  may also include a default pronunciation database  626 . The default pronunciation database  626  may include pronunciation instructions for a standard set of words and may reside on the electronic device  604 . For instance, the default pronunciation database  626  may have a scope that is co-extensive with a dictionary. As spoken languages evolve to add new words and proper names, the default pronunciation database  626  may not include every word in a given piece of digital content  618 . It is an attempt to cover most of the words that are likely to be in a given piece of digital content  618 , recognizing that it may be difficult and impractical to maintain a single complete database with every word or name that may appear in a publication. On the other hand, the supplemental pronunciation database  620  may not have the breadth of the default pronunciation database  626 , but it is tailored specifically for a given individual or set of digital content  618 . In other words, the supplemental database  620  may be used to fill in the gaps of the default database  626 . 
     One approach to the problem of an outdated default pronunciation database  626  has been to periodically provide updates to the default pronunciation database  626 . This traditional method, though, is inconvenient since it requires the user of a device to install these updates. Additionally, this approach assimilates the update into the default pronunciation database  626  and applies it to all digital content. 
     However, in addition to being more efficient, a system utilizing both a default  626  and supplemental pronunciation database  620  may better maintain proprietary information. For instance, if newspaper publisher A has accumulated a wealth of pronunciation instructions for words or names relating to national politics and publisher A does not want to share that data with competitors, the system described herein may allow an electronic device  604  to use this data while reading digital content from publisher A, because the supplemental pronunciation database  620  was sent with the digital content. However, the proprietary pronunciation instructions may not be used when reading digital content from other sources since the supplemental  620  and default  626  pronunciation databases are not comingled. 
     The electronic device  604  may also include a text to speech module  610  that allows the device  604  to read digital content as audio. Any TTS module  610  known in the art may be used. Examples of TTS modules  610  include, without limitation, VoiceText by NeoSpeech and Vocalizer by Nuance. A TTS module  610  may be any module that generates synthesized speech from a given input text. The TTS module  610  may be able to read text in one or more synthesized voices and/or languages. Additionally, the TTS module  610  may use a default pronunciation database  626  to generate the synthesized speech. This default pronunciation database  626  may be customizable, meaning that a user may modify the database  626  to allow the TTS module  610  to more accurately synthesize speech for a broader range of words than before the modification. 
     The text to speech module  610  may determine the synthesized voice and the pronunciation for a given word. The TTS module  610  may access the supplemental database  620  for pronunciation instructions for the word, and the default database  626  if the word is not in the supplemental database  620 . Additionally, the TTS module  610  may access the voice data  622  to determine voice instructions, or which simulated voice should be used. The output of the TTS module  610  may include digital audio information  629 . In other words, the TTS module  610  may construct a digital audio signal that may then be played by the audio subsystem  608 . Examples of formats of the digital audio information may include, without limitation, Waveform audio format (WAV), MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (MP3), Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), or Pulse-Code Modulation (PCM). This digital audio information may be constructed in the TTS module  610  using the pronunciation instructions and voice instructions for a word included in the digital content  618 . 
     The audio subsystem  608  may have additional functionality. For instance, the audio subsystem  608  may audibly warn a user when the battery power for the electronic device  604  is low. Alternatively, the electronic device may have a visual subsystem (not shown) that may give a user some visual indication on a display, like highlighting, correlating to the word currently being read aloud. In the configuration shown, the text to speech module  610  may determine the words to retrieve to be read aloud, based on some order within the digital content, for instance sequentially through an eBook. Alternatively, the electronic device  604  may have a user interface that allows a user to select specific words from a display to be read aloud out of sequence. Furthermore, a user interface on an electronic device  604  may have controls to allow a user to pause, speed up, slow down, repeat, or skip the playing of audio. 
       FIG. 7  is a flow diagram illustrating one configuration of a method  700  for determining pronunciation instructions and voice instructions for a word using a text to speech algorithm. First, an electronic device  104  may receive  732  enhanced digital content  606 . As discussed previously, the enhanced digital content  606  may be formatted in any way known in the art. Next, the electronic device  104  may start  734  the text to speech module  610 , which may retrieve  736  a word from the enhanced digital content  606 . The text to speech module  610  then determines  738  if pronunciation instructions for the word are in a supplemental pronunciation database  620 . The supplemental pronunciation database  620  may have been downloaded as part of the enhanced digital content  606 , may have been downloaded using a URI  526  stored as part of the enhanced digital content  606 , or may otherwise reside on the device. Alternatively, the supplemental pronunciation database  620  may not reside on the electronic device  104  at all, but rather may simply be accessed by the electronic device  104 . If pronunciation instructions for the word are found in the supplemental pronunciation database  620 , those pronunciation instructions may be used  740  with the word. If there are no pronunciation instructions for the word in the supplemental pronunciation database  620 , the pronunciation instructions for the word found in the default pronunciation database  626  may be used  742 . 
     Next the TTS module  610  may determine  744  if a voice is specified for the same word in the enhanced digital content  606 . If yes, the specified simulated voice may be used  746  with the word. If there is no specified simulated voice for the word, a default simulated voice may be used  748  with the word. The TTS module  610  may then determine  750  if there are more words in the enhanced digital content  606  waiting to be read. If yes, the TTS module  610  may retrieve  736  the next word and repeat the accompanying steps as shown in  FIG. 7 . If there are no more words to be read, the TTS module  610  may construct  752  digital audio information from the words, the pronunciation instructions, and voice instructions and send the digital audio information to the audio subsystem to be played. In the configuration shown, the TTS module  610  may construct  752  the digital audio information of each word to be read before sending it to the audio subsystem  608 . Alternatively, the TTS module  610  may construct and send the digital audio information on an individual word basis, rather than constructing the digital audio information including all the words before sending. 
       FIG. 8  illustrates various components that may be utilized in a computer system  801 . One or more computer systems  801  may be used to implement the various systems and methods disclosed herein. For example, a computer system  801  may be used to implement a server  102  or an electronic device  104 . The illustrated components may be located within the same physical structure or in separate housings or structures. Thus, the term computer or computer system  801  is used to mean one or more broadly defined computing devices unless it is expressly stated otherwise. Computing devices include the broad range of digital computers including microcontrollers, hand-held computers, personal computers, servers  102 , mainframes, supercomputers, minicomputers, workstations, and any variation or related device thereof. 
     The computer system  801  is shown with a processor  803  and memory  805 . The processor  803  may control the operation of the computer system  801  and may be embodied as a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a digital signal processor (DSP) or other device known in the art. The processor  803  typically performs logical and arithmetic operations based on program instructions stored within the memory  805 . The instructions in the memory  805  may be executable to implement the methods described herein. 
     The computer system  801  may also include one or more communication interfaces  807  and/or network interfaces  813  for communicating with other electronic devices. The communication interface(s)  807  and the network interface(s)  813  may be based on wired communication technology, wireless communication technology, or both. 
     The computer system  801  may also include one or more input devices  809  and one or more output devices  811 . The input devices  809  and output devices  811  may facilitate user input. Other components  815  may also be provided as part of the computer system  801 . 
       FIG. 8  illustrates only one possible configuration of a computer system  801 . Various other architectures and components may be utilized. 
       FIG. 9  illustrates various components that may be utilized in one configuration of an electronic device  104 . One configuration of an electronic device  104  may be an eBook reader/wireless device  904 . 
     The wireless device  904  may include a processor  954  which controls operation of the wireless device  904 . The processor  954  may also be referred to as a central processing unit (CPU). Memory  956 , which may include both read-only memory (ROM) and random access memory (RAM), provides instructions and data to the processor  954 . A portion of the memory  956  may also include non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM). The processor  954  typically performs logical and arithmetic operations based on program instructions stored within the memory  956 . The instructions in the memory  956  may be executable to implement the methods described herein. 
     The wireless device  904  may also include a housing  958  that may include a transmitter  960  and a receiver  962  to allow transmission and reception of data between the wireless device  904  and a remote location. The transmitter  960  and receiver  962  may be combined into a transceiver  964 . An antenna  966  may be attached to the housing  958  and electrically coupled to the transceiver  964 . The wireless device  904  may also include (not shown) multiple transmitters, multiple receivers, multiple transceivers and/or multiple antenna. 
     The wireless device  904  may also include a signal detector  968  that may be used to detect and quantify the level of signals received by the transceiver  964 . The signal detector  968  may detect such signals as total energy, pilot energy per pseudonoise (PN) chips, power spectral density, and other signals. The wireless device  904  may also include a digital signal processor (DSP)  970  for use in processing signals. 
     The wireless device  904  may also include one or more communication ports  978 . Such communication ports  978  may allow direct wired connections to be easily made with the device  904 . 
     Additionally, input/output components  976  may be included with the device  904  for various input and output to and from the device  904 . Examples of different kinds of input components include a keyboard, keypad, mouse, microphone, remote control device, buttons, joystick, trackball, touchpad, lightpen, etc. Examples of different kinds of output components include a speaker, printer, etc. One specific type of output component is a display  974 . 
     The various components of the wireless device  904  may be coupled together by a bus system  972  which may include a power bus, a control signal bus, and a status signal bus in addition to a data bus. However, for the sake of clarity, the various busses are illustrated in  FIG. 9  as the bus system  972 . 
     As used herein, the term “determining” encompasses a wide variety of actions and, therefore, “determining” can include calculating, computing, processing, deriving, investigating, looking up (e.g., looking up in a table, a database or another data structure), ascertaining and the like. Also, “determining” can include receiving (e.g., receiving information), accessing (e.g., accessing data in a memory) and the like. Also, “determining” can include resolving, selecting, choosing, establishing and the like. 
     The phrase “based on” does not mean “based only on,” unless expressly specified otherwise. In other words, the phrase “based on” describes both “based only on” and “based at least on.” 
     The various illustrative logical blocks, modules and circuits described herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array signal (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core or any other such configuration. 
     The steps of a method or algorithm described herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor or in a combination of the two. A software module may reside in any form of storage medium that is known in the art. Some examples of storage media that may be used include RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM and so forth. A software module may comprise a single instruction, or many instructions, and may be distributed over several different code segments, among different programs and across multiple storage media. An exemplary storage medium may be coupled to a processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. 
     The methods disclosed herein comprise one or more steps or actions for achieving the described method. The method steps and/or actions may be interchanged with one another without departing from the scope of the claims. In other words, unless a specific order of steps or actions is required for proper operation of the method that is being described, the order and/or use of specific steps and/or actions may be modified without departing from the scope of the claims. 
     The functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored as one or more instructions on a computer-readable medium. A computer-readable medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and not limitation, a computer-readable medium may comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and Blu-ray® Blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers. 
     Software or instructions may also be transmitted over a transmission medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of transmission medium. 
     Functions such as executing, processing, performing, running, determining, notifying, sending, receiving, storing, requesting, and/or other functions may include performing the function using a web service. Web services may include software systems designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a computer network, such as the Internet. Web services may include various protocols and standards that may be used to exchange data between applications or systems. For example, the web services may include messaging specifications, security specifications, reliable messaging specifications, transaction specifications, metadata specifications, XML specifications, management specifications, and/or business process specifications. Commonly used specifications like SOAP, WSDL, XML, and/or other specifications may be used. 
     It is to be understood that the claims are not limited to the precise configuration and components illustrated above. Various modifications, changes and variations may be made in the arrangement, operation and details of the systems, methods, and apparatus described herein without departing from the scope of the claims.