US 6,606,611 B1 · System and method for audio-only internet browsing using a standard telephone

Abstract

A method and apparatus for accessing Internet using voice and audio instead of a conventional visual display. POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) can be used to access the Internet by calling an “audio” ISP (Internet Service Provider) and interacting with an Intelligent Agent. An Audio ISP uses a standard telephone (POTS, digital or analog cellular telephone, PCS telephone, satellite telephone, etc.) instead of a modem, telephone line and traditional data ISP. The Intelligent Agent (IA) takes information from the caller, accesses the Internet, retrieves the desired information and reads it back to the caller using a voice signal. The IA can surf the net by responsively interacting with the caller using voice. The IA does not need a web browser. The IA does not require any change in the current world wide web data format to support audio. The IA works with the existing web data format. Users can also access email (both send and receive) by talking and listening through the IA using POTS.

Claims31

Dependent claims

A system for browsing the Internet comprising:

a telephone;
and
an audio Internet service provider coupled to the telephone and providing bi-directional voice communication with a user of the telephone, wherein an aural command from a user of the telephone is converted to an Internet address for accessing and retrieving textual content from a World Wide Web page corresponding to such Internet address, and at least a portion of such textual content is converted to an aural response to the user.

A method of browsing the Internet comprising the steps of:

establishing a bi-directional voice communication link with an audio Internet service provider;
transmitting a voice signal including a web surfing voice command over the bi-directional voice communication link;
and
generating, by the audio Internet service provider, a voice response signal representative of an Internet data signal, the Internet data signal including a World Wide Web page corresponding to the web surfing voice command, wherein the web surfing command is converted to an Internet address for accessing and retrieving textual content from such World Wide Web page, and at least a portion of such textual content is converted to such voice response signal.

1 more element

A computer accessible medium including a computer executable program, the program implementing a method comprising the steps of:

establishing a bi-directional voice communication link between a user and an audio Internet service provider;
receiving a voice signal including a web surfing voice command over the bi-directional voice communication link;
and
generating, by the audio Internet service provider, a voice response signal representative of an Internet data signal, the Internet data signal including a World Wide Web page corresponding to the web surfing voice command, wherein the web surfing command is converted to an Internet address for accessing and retrieving textual content from such World Wide Web page, and at least a portion of such textual content is converted to such voice response signal.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and method for audio-only internet browsing using a standard telephone

Life of this patent

System and method for audio-only internet browsing using a standard telephone

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims31