Voice-interactive marketplace providing promotion and promotion tracking, loyalty reward and redemption, and other features

Claim 1

An operating model for a telephone-based audio-interfaced goods and services information service, comprising: an information database provider storing merchant information including a merchant identity information, at least one good or service associated with said merchant, at least one merchant audio voice coupon associated with the at least one good or service, and an end-consumer notification service data set; an audio merchant interface including a first telephone for inputting said merchant information into said database; a second telephone for inputting end-consumer spoken voice commands making a request for information and for receiving said merchant information in audio form stored in said database in response to said input spoken voice commands making said request for information, said inputting end-consumer spoken voice commands making a request for information occurring without a conversion of a text command into a spoken voice command and without the use of a computer; and at least one speech server separate from said merchant interface and said end-consumer second telephone and operable to: (i) receive said input spoken end-consumer voice commands in audio form and translate said received input spoken voice commands into a first symbolic command form using a speech-to-text conversion engine so that said symbolic command form may be used to search said information database and retrieve an information item in a second symbolic form therefrom, and (ii) convert said retrieved second symbolic form information item into speech using a text-to-speech conversion engine for communication to said end user in spoken form.

Claim 4

A system comprising: a speech server receiving a spoken voice telephone call from an external telephone including spoken voice input commands requesting information on a good or service from an end consumer without requiring said end consumer to provide any text or symbolic command representation; a speech-to-text conversion engine converting said received spoken voice input commands from said external telephone separate from said speech-to-text conversion engine over a wired or wireless telephone line to generate output text-based or symbol-based commands and data; a database storing a plurality of data items including a merchant identity information, at least one good or service associated with said merchant, at least one merchant promotional audio voice coupon associated with the at least one aood or service, and an end-consumer notification service data set; p 1 a database search engine searching the database for a particular data item in response to said generated output text-based command and data, said generated output-text-based commands and data being used to query said database to service said request for information by retrieving said particular data item; a text-to-speech conversion engine generating a speech-based audio representation of said retrieved text-based particular data item identified in said database search; and a server separate from said end-consumer telephone for communicating said speech-based audio representation of said particular data item to said end-consumer external telephone; and means for communicatina and validating the promotional merchant audio coupon, said means for validating including means for inserting a spoken message to the merchant after the call has been connected to identify the caller as a valid service user and to validate the audio coupon.

Claim 5

A system comprising: a speech server receiving a spoken voice telephone call from an external telephone including spoken voice input commands requesting information on a good or service from an end consumer without requiring said end consumer to provide any text or symbolic command representation; a speech-to-text conversion engine converting said received spoken voice input commands from said external telephone separate from said speech-to-text conversion engine over a wired or wireless telephone line to generate output text-based or symbol-based commands and data; a database storing a plurality of data items including a merchant identity information, at least one good or service associated with said merchant, at least one merchant promotional audio voice coupon associated with the at least one aood or service, and an end-consumer notification service data set; p 1 a database search engine searching the database for a particular data item in response to said generated output text-based command and data, said generated output-text-based commands and data being used to query said database to service said request for information by retrieving said particular data item; a text-to-speech conversion engine generating a speech-based audio representation of said retrieved text-based particular data item identified in said database search; and a server separate from said end-consumer telephone for communicating said speech-based audio representation of said particular data item to said end-consumer external telephone; and means for communicatina and validating the promotional merchant audio coupon, said means for validating including means for inserting a spoken message to the merchant after the call has been connected to identify the caller as a valid service user and to validate the audio coupon.

Claim 7

A system comprising: a speech-to-text conversion engine converting speech-based audio input commands and data received from an external telephone separate from said speech-to-text conversion engine over a wired or wireless telephone line into output text-based commands and data; a database storing a plurality of data items including a merchant identity infonnation and at least one good or service associated with said merchant; a database search engine searching. the database for a particular data item in response to said output text-based command and data; a text-to-speech conversion engine generating a speech-based audio representation of said text-based particular data item identified in said database search; a server separate from said telephone for communicating said speech-based audio representation of said particular data item to said telephone; and means for communicating and validating a promotional audio coupon, said means for validating including means for inserting a spoken message to the merchant after the call has been connected to identify the caller as a valid service user and to validate the audio coupon.

Claim 8

A system comprising: a speech-to-text conversion engine converting speech-based audio input commands and data received from an external telephone separate from said speech-to-text conversion engine over a wired or wireless telephone line into output text-based commands and data; a database storing a plurality of data items including a merchant identity infonnation and at least one good or service associated with said merchant; a database search engine searching. the database for a particular data item in response to said output text-based command and data; a text-to-speech conversion engine generating a speech-based audio representation of said text-based particular data item identified in said database search; a server separate from said telephone for communicating said speech-based audio representation of said particular data item to said telephone; and means for communicating and validating a promotional audio coupon, said means for validating including means for inserting a spoken message to the merchant after the call has been connected to identify the caller as a valid service user and to validate the audio coupon.

Claim 12

A method comprising: receiving a speech utterance in the form of an electronic audio signal directly from an end user consumer from a telephone, the speech utterance including spoken voice input commands requesting information on a merchant good or service from the end user consumer without requiring the end user consumer to provide any text or symbolic command representation for the request; converting the speech utterance to text and extracting commands and optional data from said converted text; searching a database storing a plurality of data items including a merchant data items and at least one good or service data item associated with said merchant for a particular one of said plurality of said data items in response to said converted text-based command and data; generating a speech-based audio representation of said particular data item identified in said database search for playback over a telephone; serving said speech-based representation of said particular data item including said audio voice coupon to said telephone providing an audio processed merchant good or service rating to an end user consumer requesting information with said speech utterance; validating a promotional audio coupon or discount offering by a merchant; and generating a referral to a merchanl having a oredetermined rating.

Claim 13

A method comprising: receiving a speech utterance in the form of an electronic audio signal directly from an end user consumer from a telephone, the speech utterance including spoken voice input commands requesting information on a merchant good or service from the end user consumer without requiring the end user consumer to provide any text or symbolic command representation for the request; converting the speech utterance to text and extracting commands and optional data from said converted text; searching a database storing a plurality of data items including a merchant data items and at least one good or service data item associated with said merchant for a particular one of said plurality of said data items in response to said converted text-based command and data; generating a speech-based audio representation of said particular data item identified in said database search for playback over a telephone; serving said speech-based representation of said particular data item including said audio voice coupon to said telephone providing an audio processed merchant good or service rating to an end user consumer requesting information with said speech utterance; validating a promotional audio coupon or discount offering by a merchant; and generating a referral to a merchanl having a oredetermined rating.