EP0903922A2
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EP
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Voice processing system
Assignee: International Business Machines Corp
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Filing: 1998-09-07
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2018-09-07
Abstract
Abstract A voice processing system 30 is connected to a switch 20 via multiple telephone lines 25, and provides a set of line objects 335, each line object being associated with one of the physical telephone lines. The line object allows a demarcation to be made between the underlying voice processing system software 335, and external business applications 310. Thus a line object supports a set of methods such as Get DTMF Tone, Play Audio, Answer call, and End call, to allow the external business applications 310 to perform desired operations on a telephone line. These methods are invoked via a set of corresponding IVR action objects 320, which in turn are integrated into the business application. The business application itself, and its IVR actions, regard the line objects effectively as servers to provide IVR functionality. The business application may therefore run partially or completely on a separate physical machine from the IVR system itself.
Inventors
- 👤 Ronald John Bowater
- 👤 Nicholas David Butler
- 👤 David Andrew Clarke
- 👤 David Seager Renshaw
- 👤 Graham Hugh Tuttle
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-06 10:15
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04M; H04M3/00; H04M3/42; H04M3/487; H04M3/493
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 20
Claim 1
Independent Claim
55 words
A voice processing system having means for connecting to multiple
telephone lines, and comprising a set of line objects, each associated
with one of said telephone lines, and each line object including a set of
methods which may be invoked by other objects for performing operations
on the telephone line associated with that line object.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
16 words
The voice processing system of claim 1, wherein said methods
include Answer Call and End Call.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
19 words
The voice processing system of claim 1 or 2, wherein said methods
include Get DTMF Key(s) and Play Audio.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
24 words
The voice processing system of any preceding claim, further
comprising a set of IVR action objects which invoke the methods of a line
object.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
22 words
The voice processing system of claim 4, wherein there is an IVR
action object corresponding to each method of a line object.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
18 words
The voice processing system of claim 4, wherein the IVR action
objects include a Voice Menu action object.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
29 words
The voice processing system of claim 4, wherein there is at least
one higher level component IVR action object corresponding to a sequence
of methods in a line object.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
18 words
The voice processing system of claim 7, wherein said higher level
component object comprises a Voice Menu object.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
19 words
The voice processing system of any of claims 4 to 8, wherein the
IVR action objects are Java Beans.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
32 words
The voice processing systems of any of claims 4 to 9, wherein the
IVR action objects may execute on a remote system, and interact with the
line objects via remote method invocation.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
65 words
A business application system including voice processing
functionality for a set of multiple telephone lines, comprising: business application programming objects; voice processing component objects integrated with said business
application programming objects, to be called when said business
application requires voice processing functionality; and a voice processing server including programming object means
responsive to said voice processing component objects to provide the
required voice processing functionality.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
24 words
The system of claim 11, wherein said programming object means
comprise line objects, each line object being associated with one of said
telephone lines.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
20 words
The system of claim 12, wherein a line object is created in
response to an application request for a line.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
23 words
The system of claim 13, wherein the application is passed a
connection identifier which allows it to interact with the allocated line
object.
Claim 15
Independent Claim
157 words
A method of operating a business application including voice
processing functionality for a set of multiple telephone lines,
comprising the steps of: providing business application programming objects, said business
application programming objects including voice processing component
objects; calling said voice processing component objects when said business
application programming objects require voice processing functionality; providing software server means including voice processing software
which interacts with voice processing hardware to perform voice
processing functions, wherein said business application objects including
said voice processing component objects are independent of said voice
processing software, and interact with said voice processing software
only via said software server means; and invoking a method in said software server means by said voice
processing component objects, responsive to a call from said business
applications programming objects for voice processing functionality,
wherein said method in the software server means interacts with the voice
processing software and voice processing hardware to perform the
requested voice processing function.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
40 words
The method of claim 15, wherein said software server means includes
a plurality of line objects, each line object being associated with one
of said telephone lines, and wherein said voice processing component
objects invoke methods in said line objects.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
20 words
The method of claim 16, wherein a line object is created in
response to an application request for a line.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
23 words
The method of claim 17, wherein the application is passed a
connection identifier which allows it to interact with the allocated line
object.
Claim 19
Independent Claim
48 words
The method of any of claims 15 to 18, wherein said business
application programming objects including said voice processing component
objects are located on a first system, and said software server means is
located on a second system which includes said voice processing software
and voice processing hardware.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
21 words
The method of claim 19, wherein said voice processing component
objects and said software server means communicate via remote method
invocation.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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