System and method for voice user interface navigation
AssigneeMCI, Inc.
InventorPaul Thomas Schultz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A Voice User Interface (VUI) or Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system utilizes three levels of navigation (e.g. Main Menu, Services, and Helper Commands) in presenting information units arranged in sets. The units are “spoken” by a system in a group to a human user and the group of information at each level is preceded by a tone that is unique to the level. When navigating the levels, the tones of the levels are in a musical progression, e.g. the three-note blues progression I, IV, V, for preceding the groups of information, respectively. The musical progression returns to the tonic of the musical key when the navigation returns to the level one of the first group of information.
Claims23
A method of communicating information to a human user, comprising:
- providing the information in groups;
- and
- sending at least one group of the information as a voice transmission with a tonality unique to the at least one group that distinguishes the at least one group from others of the groups.
An information system, comprising:
- storage having information retrievable in groups, each group corresponding to one of words and syllables;
- and
- means for sending, to a human, each of the groups of the information as a voice transmission preceded by a unique tone of a musical key that distinguishes each group from others of the groups.
An information system, comprising:
- storage having information retrievable in groups, each group comprising sets of information units that correspond to one of words and syllables;
- an interface for voice transmitting each group preceded by a unique tone, which tones are in a single musical key, so that the tones distinguish each group from the other groups to a human;
- and
- whereby the unique tones provide a human user navigation aid to identify the group to which the units belongs.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.