Componentized voice server with selectable internal and external speech detectors

A method for detecting speech utterances within a telephone call comprising the steps of:

• receiving a signal representing a telephone call received over a telephone network by a telephone gateway;
• initializing a componentized voice server having an internal speech detection module with a plurality of software-based speech detection routines and a Pluggable, configurable external speech detection component operationally located remotely from the voice server, wherein the external speech detection component is implemented as an electronic module plugged into a piece of equipment coupled in a signal path between the telephone network and the voice server;
• presenting through a user interface options for speech detection settings and receiving through the user interface user selections indicating speech detection parameters, wherein the speech detection parameters determine whether the internal speech detection module, the external speech detection component or both the internal speech detection module and the external speech detection component will be activated;
• when the received speech detection parameters indicate that the external speech detection component will be activated:
• sending a message from the voice server to the external speech detection component to activate said external speech detection component;
• processing the received signal to detect a speech utterance within the signal using the activated external speech detection component;
• sending a message from the external speech detection component to the voice server conveying results of detecting a speech utterance;
• and
• performing with said voice server at least one programmatic action responsive to the detecting of the speech utterance, the programmatic action comprising recognizing speech in the detected speech utterance;
• and
• when the received speech detection parameters indicate that both the internal speech detection module and the external speech detection component will be activated:
• sending a message from the voice server to the external speech detection component to activate said external speech detection component;
• processing the received signal using the activated external speech detection component;
• sending a message from the external speech detection component to the voice server conveying results of an attempt to detect a speech utterance;
• and
• performing with said voice server at least one programmatic action, the programmatic action comprising using the internal speech detection module conjunctively with the results of the attempt to detect the speech utterance in the external speech detection component to detect the speech utterance in the received signal;
• and
• when the received speech detection parameters indicate that the internal speech detection module will be activated:
• processing the received signal to detect a speech utterance within the signal using the internal speech detection module;
• and
• performing with said voice server at least one programmatic action responsive to the detecting of the speech utterance.