Patent ID: 8447616

Claim:
A computer system, comprising: memory; a processor coupled to the memory for managing multiple applications; a speech engine configured to recognize commands from a user and make announcements to the user; an interaction manager having an interface through which multiple applications communicate through a speech server, and a speech application programming interface through which the speech server communicates with the speech engine; wherein the interaction manager manages concurrent processing of interactions submitted by the applications; a master grammar table comprising a speech recognition grammar that is registered with the speech server by the applications; the speech server passing a recognition of a grammar upon receiving an indication that the recognition of the grammar occurred in an interaction to a corresponding application that registered the grammar; wherein when the corresponding application is unloaded and not running, the speech server automatically loads the unloaded application in response to receiving a command included in the grammar used by the unloaded application; and the interaction manager moves interactions that are considered a high priority to a beginning of an order to be processed, receiving a high priority interaction and interrupting an interaction that is being processed when the high priority interaction is received, while other interactions are processed as submitted, on a first-in-first-out basis, wherein the order to be processed is maintained in an interaction list by the interaction manager.