Patent ID: 8233592

Claim:
A method for remotely requesting information and/or services from at least one remote service server through a home personal computer, the method comprising steps of: receiving, at the home personal computer, a telephone call from a user that is registered with the home personal computer, wherein the telephone call is a call originating from a device remote from the home personal computer, wherein the home personal computer is directly connected to the user's subscriber line; receiving a user spoken utterance over the telephone call; performing speech recognition on the user spoken utterance to determine a request for information and/or a service; formatting an electronic message according to the request; sending the electronic message over a communication network from the home personal computer to the at least one remote service server; receiving content at the home personal computer from the at least one remote service server; converting the content to speech audio at the home personal computer; and playing the speech audio to the user over the telephone call.