Application-independent language module for language-independent applications

[0002] This application has a common disclosure with U.S. application Ser. No. 09/340,872, filed on even date herewith and assigned to the same assignee.

[0003] This invention relates to arrangements for automatically generating messages, such as voice and text announcements, in any of multiple variations, e.g., languages.

[0004] Automated message-generating arrangements have a wide range of applications. For example, in interactive voice-response systems, they are used to generate messages for playback to a user which either provide the user with information or prompt the user for action.

[0005] The design and use of the message-generating arrangement is relatively simple if only one language is supported. For example, the sentence structure required for any announcement is known a-priori, thereby making the construction of announcements relatively simple. However, even if only one language is supported, there is still a problem of entering information that is context-dependent or user-dependent into the announcements. An example of context-dependent information is singular versus plural terms. An example of user-dependent information is date information: “day/month” order in some cultures versus “month/day” order in others.

[0006] As a result of language-, culture-, or market-specific variations in representing information, the design of the message-generating arrangement usually is language-, culture-, or market-specific. But this limits use of the arrangement to only the particular market, culture, or language for which it was designed, and different designs must be created for each market, culture and language. This is very expensive and highly inefficient.

[0007] To avoid this problem, efforts have been made to design message-generating arrangements that are language-, culture-, or market-independent. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,164 discloses a voice-messaging system whose design is based upon “semantic expressions” that are used to evaluate language-, culture-, or market-specific data. While effective, this design still does not separate the “semantic expressions” from associated application code to the extent needed to make the design completely application-independent and therefore completely versatile and generic.

[0008] This invention is directed to solving these and other problems and disadvantages of the prior art. Generally according to the invention, there is provided an application-independent language module for language-independent applications. The language module responds to a request identifying a concept that is generic to a plurality of languages and also identifying the language that the concept is to be expressed in by generating and returning an expression of the identified concept in the identified language. All grammar and syntax of the concept in the identified language is defined by the language module. The language module thus separates and hides all language dependencies from applications, while preferably the language module is application-independent. The term “language” is used broadly throughout to include culture and market as well as other contexts that affect the expression of concepts.

[0009] According to one aspect of the invention, a communications method comprises the following steps. The language module receives identification of a concept that is generic to a plurality of languages, and of a language that the concept is to be expressed in, from an application that needs to communicate the identified concept in the identified language. In response, the language module generates an expression of the identified concept in the identified language from stored information, and provides the generated expression to the application for communicating the expression. The application is consequently independent of languages including the identified language, and may be used to express the concept in any language for which the language module has the stored information. Preferably, the language module is also independent of applications including this application, and may be used with any application that can identify to the language module a concept and a language for which the language module has the stored information. Illustratively, the provided expression identifies stored media fragments and their order that form a communicable version of the concept, and the application obtains the identified media fragments from a database of stored media fragments and communicates them in the identified order. The language module is thus made media-independent and can be used to generate expressions of concepts in any media (e.g., voice, text, etc.)

[0010] According to another aspect of the invention, the language module comprises a plurality of stored concept definitions each defining a concept that is generic to a plurality of languages in a language-dependent manner and pointing to parsers each for expressing a portion of an expression of the concept in the language of the concept definition, and further associating any variables that are involved in the concept with the parsers. The language module also comprises a plurality of the stored parsers for expressing portions of the expressions of the concepts in the languages of the corresponding concept definitions and for expressing values of any variables associated with the parsers in the languages of the corresponding concept definitions. The language module further includes a means (a program interface, for example) for receiving identifications of any one of the concepts and of a language that the concept is to be expressed in, and values of any variables involved in the concept, and in response for returning an expression of the identified concept in the identified language. A further means (a processing engine, for example) of the language module responds to the received identifications by accessing a stored concept definition that corresponds to the received identifications, responds to the accessed concept definition by using the parsers pointed to by the accessed concept definition to express the portions of the expression in the identified language, including expressing any values of any said variables in the identified language by using any said parsers associated with any said variables. Illustratively, the language module is implemented in object-oriented programming form where the above-characterized stored entities are object instances of foundation classes (prototype objects) that are also included in the language module.

[0011] The language module further preferably comprises a plurality of stored concept objects each representing a different one of the concepts in a language-independent manner and pointing to the concept definitions that define the corresponding concept in language-dependent manners. The processing engine responds to the received concept and language identifications by accessing a concept object that corresponds to the identified concept and determining therefrom the concept definition that corresponds to the identified concept and language.

[0012] According to yet another aspect of the invention, a communications method involving an application that uses the language module comprises the following steps. The application identifies to the language module a concept that is generic to a plurality of languages and a language that the concept is to be expressed in, in response to needing to communicate the identified concept in the identified language. In response, the application receives from the language module an expression of the identified concept in the identified language, and in response the application communicates the received expression of the concept. The application is thus independent of languages, including the identified language. Illustratively, the received expression identifies media fragments and their order that form a communicable version of the concept, and the application obtains the identified media fragments from a database of media fragments and communicates those media fragments in the identified order.

[0013] The invention encompasses both methods that comprise the above-characterized steps and apparatuses that include the above-characterized elements or effect the method steps. The latter apparatus preferably includes an effector—any entity that effects the corresponding step, unlike a means—for each step. Further, the invention encompasses computer-readable media containing instructions which, when executed in a computer, either cause the computer to perform the method or cause the computer to embody the apparatus.

[0014] These and other features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following description of an illustrative embodiment of the invention considered together with the drawing.

[0015] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a message-generation arrangement that includes an illustrative embodiment of the invention;

[0016] FIG. 2 is a functional diagram of two illustrative prior-art applications that implement the same functionality in two different languages;

[0017] FIG. 3 is a functional diagram of a single illustrative application constructed according to the invention that implements the functionality of the two applications of FIG. 2;

[0018] FIG. 4 is a functional flow diagram of interactions between the application of FIG. 3 and the language module of the arrangement of FIG. 1;

[0019] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the language module of the arrangement of FIG. 1;

[0020] FIG. 6 is a functional flow diagram of the process of developing language data contents of the language module of the arrangement of FIG. 1;

[0021] FIGS. 7A-C are a functional flow diagram of a language developer's illustrative portion of the language module development process of FIG. 6; and

[0022] FIGS. 8A-B are a functional flow diagram of an illustrative parse method of the runtime API of the arrangement of FIG. 1.

[0023] FIG. 1 shows a message-generation arrangement that includes an illustrative embodiment of the invention. The arrangement includes a server 100 that provides services to users through their communications terminals 101-102, such as telephones 101 and data terminals or personal computers 102. Terminals 101-102 are connected to server 100 via a communications network 103, such as a local area network (LAN), the Internet, or a public or a private telephone network. Server 100 is a stored program-controlled device. It comprises hardware 110, including a processor for executing programs and a memory for storing the programs, an operating system 111 that controls the operation of server 100, platform software 112 that provides basic, generic, services to users and to application software, and application software 114 which implements the high-level services provided by server 100 to users. Users' terminals 101-102 interact with server 100 through a user interface 115, such as a telephony user interface (TUI) comprising telephone line and trunk port circuits and associated signaling, or a graphical user interface (GUI).

[0024] As described so far, server 100 is conventional. For example, elements 110-112 and 115 together comprise the Lucent Technologies Inc. Conversant® voice information system, and elements 110-112 and 114-115 together comprise the Lucent Technologies Inc. Intuity™ messaging system.

[0025] Additionally, server 100 comprises a run-time application program interface (API) 113, a run-time language module 116, and a speech database (DB) 117. Alternatively, database 117 may define another medium, e.g., text, or a plurality of media. Run-time API 113 interfaces application software 114 to run-time language module 116. Application software 114 is also interfaced to speech database 117 by the platform software 112. Elements 116 and 117 can be located at any level of the software hierarchy (i.e., at the level of any of elements 111, 112, and 114). During normal operation, when application software 114 determines the concept (any information, including any prompt for user input) that it needs to communicate to a user, it requests run-time language module 116 via run-time API 113 to provide the precise expression of the concept that will properly convey that information. After run-time language module 116 specifies the expression, application software 114 accesses speech DB 117 via platform software 112 and retrieves therefrom the speech, text, or other media fragments specified by module 116 that are needed to compose a communicable version of the concept's expression and causes the expression to be sent to the user. Elements 113 and 116-117 are described in more detail further below.

[0026] The message-generation arrangement of FIG. 1 further includes a development platform 150 which is used to develop run-time language module 116 and speech DB 117 of server 100. Development platform 150 is a stored program-controlled device. It comprises hardware 160, including a processor for executing programs and a memory for storing the programs, an operating system 161 that controls the operation of platform 150, and a graphical user interface (GUI) 165 through which a developer's terminal or computer 155 interacts with platform 150. As described so far, platform 150 is conventional. Illustratively, hardware 160 comprises a personal computer (PC) or a workstation, and operating system 161 and GUI 165 together comprise a Windows-type operating system.

[0027] Additionally, platform 150 includes a development API 170, database administration 171, a language DB 172, speech tools 173, and compiler 174. Database administration 171 is a conventional database manager that is a function of which databases (e.g., Oracle, Informix, etc.) are selected for databases 117 and 172. Speech tools 173 are conventional tools that are conventionally used to develop a speech DB of speech fragments from which voice messages are composed at run-time. If the messages are desired to be in a medium other than voice, e.g., text, graphics, video, or multi-media, speech tools 173 change accordingly so as to facilitate the development of a database of fragments of the desired medium or media. A developer interfaces with speech tools 173 via GUI 165 in order to generate the contents of speech DB 117.

[0028] Language DB 172 stores all rules needed to construct expressions of concepts in each language and/or for each culture or market that have been defined by language DB 172 developers. Run-time language module 116 is an executable version of language DB 172 compiled by compiler 174. Language DB 172 is composed of a framework, which is a database representation of the structure of languages, and of language data, which are the data that define individual languages. Significantly, the framework is language-, culture-, and market-independent. The framework of language DB 172 thus presents a model of a language in which any language and any culture- or market-dependent variants thereof can be represented.

[0029] Turning now to FIG. 2, an application 114aor 114bmay be viewed as comprising two major distinct types of information: application logic and culture logic. Application logic is the approach used to provide the desired functionality to end-users (e.g., interact with a caller to a bank to provide the caller with an account balance). It is represented in FIG. 2 by the numbered statements. It includes the implementation of business rules (the need that the application is filling). It is coded and developed by an application specialist (a programmer). The culture logic is the approach used to communicate with end-users (e.g., U.S. English or Mandarin). It is represented in FIG. 2 by the indented statements. It includes user-interface standards (e.g., Graphical User Look Listen and Feel (GULLF)). It is developed by a language specialist (a linguist). Each one of these types of information has its own dynamics for development, reuse, and maintenance. So, although they are inter-dependent, they should not be intra-dependent (i.e., they are components of the same application, but the application logic should not be intertwined or directly interact with the culture logic, and vice versa). How this objective is met is illustrated in FIG. 3.

[0030] To meet this objective, we provide a self-contained language module 116 that contains all language-dependent, culture-dependent and market-dependent logic, designated as 116aand bin FIG. 3, and no application logic (i.e., the contents of module 116 are language-dependent but application-independent) so that application 114 contains only application logic and no culture logic (i.e., application 114 is language-independent but application-dependent), as shown in FIG. 3. Application 114 provides all context information to the language module 116, and language module 116 provides all language information back to application 114. A usage example, showing how this is accomplished, is given in FIG. 4. Via runtime API 113, application 114 provides a request 400 to language module 116 identifying a particular concept (4400), the language in which that concept is to be expressed (English), the medium in which the concept is to be expressed (recorded speech), and values of variables ($today_date and $balance_1) used by the concept. Concepts are generic to a plurality (illustratively all) languages. Via runtime API 113, language module 116 provides a response 401 that lists a sequence of fragment identifiers in speech database 117 which, when they are retrieved via platform software 112 from speech database 117 and are voiced in the indicated sequence, result in the appropriate announcement being communicated, e.g., “On Apr. 15, 1998, you have three hundred dollars in . . . ”.

[0031] Shown in FIG. 5, language module 116 comprises a repository 500, foundation classes 501, and an engine 502. Repository 500 is a store (e.g., a database) of object instances that contains all language-related information (language resources) for use by one or more applications, and a conventional database manager. All grammar and syntax information for all defined concepts in all defined languages is stored in repository 500. Foundation classes 501 are definitions of prototype objects that can be instantiated to allow the developer of the language module (e.g., a language developer) to describe the language resources. They enable the developer to represent language-dependent information in object-oriented programming form, in a way that facilitates use by different applications, to map external representations of information into corresponding representations internal to repository 500, and to access the language resources in repository 500. Engine 502 is either a library or a stand-alone processing program that allows either the developer to manipulate the contents of repository 500 or an application 114 to access the contents of repository 500 through an application programming interface (API) without directly using foundation classes 501. Optionally, language module 116 may further include add-ons 503, such as libraries or stand-alone programs that extend the basic language-module functionality to allow a developer to perform repository and media-related information creation and management. Add-ons 503 may implement one or more of the following capabilities. Application simulation, which allows a developer to test the repository prior to its use with an application, and supports language resource development without requiring an actual application to support the resource development. Media check, which verifies that all media-dependent information accessed by an application is actually available in the run-time environment. Repository migration, which enables the repository and all media-related information to be moved between and managed in different development environments and installed in the run-time environment. Media conversion, which converts media-dependent language resources from a variety of different formats into a format suitable for use in the run-time environment. Support of batching, which batches a list of media-dependent information that is to be presented to the user simultaneously. Media proxy, which allows the application simulation to obtain and use media-dependent information obtained through a network. And support for speech recording (e.g., a sound card), which permits a developer to generate media-dependent language resources, such as speech files.

[0032] The following is a brief description of the process through which the repository gets populated with language resources as illustrated in FIG. 6. From a description 600 of what an application 114 needs to accomplish, an application specialist 601 specifies the language-related knowledge 602 comprising language elements (e.g., prompts, announcement) that are required by the application and the languages (e.g., English, Spanish, French, Japanese) that the application will use. A language specialist 603 defines a language-specific representation 604 of the language elements in each language that will be used by the application. The developer 605 of the language module 116 structures the language-specific information 604 in a language-module (LM) representation 606 that is reusable by (i.e., is generic to) all of the languages used by the application. The language module developer 605 then stores the results in language database 172 (see FIG. 1).

[0033] Language database 172 has an associated manager-database administration 171—which is dependent upon the particular database being used and which performs conventional database management functions (e.g., manages accesses to the language resources). The language resources that populate language database 172 include instances of the following foundation class objects 501:

[0034] A language, which posits, or defines the existence of, a language in the repository. It comprises a language ID and a language name, both of which are preferably defined consistently with ISO 639/ISO 3166.

[0035] A concept, which posits, or defines the existence of, a concept in a language-independent manner. It comprises a concept ID, a concept description which is a text description of the purpose of the concept, a concept scope that defines who has access rights to this concept (e.g., application developers, language developers, or both), and a concept variable list that lists the variables that are used as input and output parameters by this concept and the order in which the variables must be presented to this concept. Via the concept ID, it identifies or points to all language-specific definitions of the posited concept.

[0036] A concept definition, which defines how to implement a specific concept in a specific language; it ties a language and a concept together. It comprises a concept definition component list which lists the language components (e.g., words, phrases) that are used to implement the concept and their order, and a concept definition-to-component-variable mapping that maps the language components to the corresponding variables in the corresponding concept variable list. Not every language component needs to correspond to a variable; a variable can correspond to only one language component. The language components are expressed by parsers, and the concept definition component list points to the specific parsers that implement the expression of the corresponding concept in the corresponding language.

[0037] A parser, which defines how to convert input data (a portion, e.g., a phrase, of the concept expression, including the value of any input variable) to language fragments of a specific language (and vice versa). A parser may (but may not) accept an input, and generates a syntactically and semantically correct output in the target language and data type that it represents. As in other computer science contexts, a parser here is an entity that determines the syntactic structure of a language unit by decomposing it into more elementary sub-units and establishing the relationships among the sub-units. For example, to decompose blocks into statements, statements into expressions, and expressions into operators and operands. In this illustrative example, the output takes the form of a sequence of one or more fragment identifiers of fragments in speech database 117. A parser can also be viewed as a dynamic-concept definition.

[0038] A data type, which defines a type of data (e.g., integer, character, undefined, etc.) in the same manner as is common in computer programming languages.

[0039] A variable, which defines a variable ID and its data type, in the same manner as is common in computer programming languages.

[0040] In language database 172, languages are constructed from concept definitions. Individual concept definitions may in turn be constructed from other, simpler, concepts. Concepts are in turn constructed from concept definitions, data types, and variables.

[0041] In its simplest form, an object is a unit of information. In an object-oriented programming environment, an object contains both attributes and method describing how the content is to be interpreted and/or operated on.

[0042] Foundation class objects 501 provide the framework to development API 170 for creating the language resources and populating language database 172 therewith. With respect to each foundation class, the API 170 provides functions to create, modify, or remove (delete) instances of the foundation class object. The create functions check if the identified instance already exists, and if so, deny permission to create it. The modify functions and the remove functions guarantee referential integrity between the candidate for modification or removal, respectively, and any other entities that refer to it. If other entities do refer to it, the developer is forced to modify or remove them before modifying or removing the candidate.

[0043] The development API 170 includes the following basic functions.

[0044] FIG. 7 illustrates the use of the development API 170 to create in language database 172 the language resources needed for the announcement “On (today's date) you have (balance) in your savings account” in U.S. English.

[0045] Once the developer has created language DB 172 for a particular language, the developer causes compiler 174 to compile language DB 172 into executable code, which populates repository 500 of runtime language module 116 (see FIG. 5). For example, if language DB 172 is an object-orientated database, the compilation is as simple as a direct data dump (copy) of language DB 172 into repository 500 of module 116.

[0046] Once runtime language module 116 has been created, it is available for use by application software 114. Interaction between the two is via runtime API 113, which is supported by engine 502 and includes the following basic functions.

[0047] The first three functions (method calls) apply only to manager instances, and involve communication from application 114 to the manager and back again. The fourth function, representing the parse method, involves at the highest level communication from application 114 to the manager, from the manager to the indicated concept definition, from the concept definition to a parser, from the parser back to the concept definition and therefrom to the manager, and finally from the manager back to application 114. An example of the parse method implementing the usage example of FIG. 4 is shown in FIGS. 8A-B.

[0048] Of course, various changes and modifications to the illustrative embodiment described above will be apparent to those skilled in the art. For example, definitions, naming of functions, and passing of parameters in the APIs may be changed as necessary to adapt to a particular programming environment. The media may change as desired, and the information passed back by the language module may change accordingly: for example, it can pass back text directly instead of fragment pointers. Also, the database structure may be changed; for example, to add legacy information for backwards compatibility. Such changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention and without diminishing its attendant advantages. It is therefore intended that such changes and modifications be covered by the following claims except insofar as limited by the prior art.