WEB-BASED PLATFORM FOR INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONSE (IVR)

摘要

A platform for implementing interactive voice response (IVR) applications ov er the Internet or other type of network includes a speech synthesizer, a gramm ar generator and a speech recognizer. The speech synthesizer generates speech which characterizes the structure and content of a web page retrieved over the network. The speech is delivered to a user via a telephone or other type of audio interfa ce device. The grammar generator utilizes textual information parsed from the retrieved web page to produce a grammar. The grammar is supplied to the speech recognizer and used to interpret voice commands and other speech input generated by the user. The platform may also include a voice processor which determines which of a number of predefined models best characterized a given retrieved page, such that the process of generating an appropriate verbal description of the page is considerably simplified. The speech synthesizer, grammar generator, speech recognizer and other elements of the IVR platform may be operated by a Internet Service Provider (ISP), thereby allowing the general Internet population to create interactive voice response application s without acquiring their own IVR equipment.