System and method for providing and using universally accessible voice and speech data files

A method for delivering caller-customized services to a telephone caller, comprising:

• storing caller-specific information in a computer file on a computer network in accordance with a universal resource locator (URL) address wherein the stored caller-specific information includes a speaker dependent speech recognition training file for the caller;
• prompting the caller to input identifying information;
• responsive to the identifying information, determining a URL for the file storing the caller-specific information;
• retrieving the caller-specific information from the file stored at the URL;
• and
• accessing information in a voice web in accordance with the caller-specific information wherein accessing information in a voice web in accordance with the caller-specific information comprises:
• prompting the caller for voice commands,
• recording the voice commands, and
• performing speaker dependent speech recognition on the voice commands using the training file for the caller.

In a computer system coupled to a computer network, wherein the computer network is the Internet, a method of providing user specific input to a computer program, comprising:

• determining a universal resource locator (URL) address corresponding to a user;
• retrieving, over the computer network, a personal profile associated with the user wherein the personal profile includes data for voice authentication and is stored at the determined URL address;
• accessing information included in the personal profile to affect the execution of a computer program for navigating and accessing information in a voice web;
• receiving a user authentication request;
• retrieving user authentication data from the personal profile;
• collecting voice data from the user;
• processing the collected voice data;
• and
• comparing the processed voice data to the authentication data to authenticate the identity of the user.

In a computer system coupled to a computer network, wherein the computer network is the Internet, a method of providing user specific input to a computer program, comprising:

• determining a universal resource locator (URL) address corresponding to a user;
• retrieving, over the computer network, a personal profile associated with the user wherein the personal profile includes data for speaker dependent speech recognition and is stored at the determined URL address;
• accessing information included in the personal profile to affect the execution of a computer program for navigating and accessing information in a voice web;
• receiving a voice command from the user;
• performing speaker dependent speech recognition to identify the voice command;
• and
• executing the recognized voice command.

A speech processing system, comprising:

• a computer network;
• a gateway computer coupled to the computer network adapted to receive subscriber commands;
• a server computer program coupled to the network;
• a user profile stored on the computer network;
• voice web pages stored on the computer network wherein each voice web page is addressable by a universal resource locator (URL) address unique within the computer network and wherein each voice web page includes voice information;
• and
• speech processing software adapted to operate in the computer network for
• receiving a user identifier,
• receiving a command,
• determining a URL address associated with a voice web page responsive to the command,
• determining a URL address associated with the user profile responsive to the user identifier,
• retrieving the user profile,
• retrieving the voice web page, and
• generating an output responsive to the user command and information included in the retrieved voice web page and the user profile.

A personal voice web for a subscriber comprising:

• a plurality of linked voice web pages, each page including an agent for performing various processing tasks required for each respective page and a specially tagged set of key words and touch tone sequences that are associated with embedded anchors and links used for navigation within the web;
• each voice web page having access to a respective speech training profiles web page, the speech training profiles web page comprising subscriber specific profiles, the profiles including component sets of related words likely to occur in combination within the respective voice web page, and each voice web page having access to an attributes and preferences web page having access to subscriber specific attributes and preferences specific to the respective voice web page;
• and
• said plurality of linked voice web pages including a personal profile page and service pages.

In a personal voice web comprising a plurality of linked voice web pages including a personal profile page and service pages, each voice web page having access to a respective speech training profiles web page, the speech training profiles web page comprising subscriber specific profiles, the profiles including component sets of related words likely to occur in combination within the respective voice web page, and each voice web page having access to an attributes and preferences web page having access to subscriber specific attributes and preferences specific to the respective voice web page, a method for providing customized interaction with a subscriber in response to a request for a service from the subscriber, the method comprising:

• responsive to the request for the service, retrieving information from a service database comprising information of the requested service;
• retrieving subscriber specific speech training profiles and subscriber specific attributes and preferences applicable to the requested service;
• and
• customizing voice web pages in accordance with the subscriber specific speech training profiles and attributes and preferences applicable to the requested service for presentation to the subscriber.