Patent ID: 7921214

Claim:
A method for dynamically switching modalities in a dialogue session involving a voice server used by a speech application, the method comprising: establishing a dialogue session between a user and the speech application, wherein the dialogue session is configured to exchange communications between the user and the voice server used by the speech application via at least one communication channel connected to at least one computer, wherein the dialogue session is configured to enable the user and the speech application to interact using a first modality; detecting a modality switch trigger during the dialog session; and changing, in response to detecting the modality switch trigger, a configuration of the at least one communication channel to enable the user and the speech application to interact using a second modality that is different from the first modality, wherein the configuration of the dialog session is changed without establishing a new communication channel with the voice server used by the speech application; wherein the first modality and the second modality are selected from a group of modalities consisting of a speech modality, a text exchange modality, and a multi-mode modality that includes a speech modality and a text exchange modality.