Introduction to VoiceXml and Voice Web Architecture

Introduction to VoiceXML
and Voice Web Architecture
Ken Rehor

© 2007 Ken Rehor. All Rights Reserved. 1

Session Overview
• Voice Web Architecture
– Components of a Voice Web Application
• Voice Standards
– W3C Speech Interface Framework
• VoiceXML
– Language features
– Execution model - Form Interpretation Algorithm (FIA)
• Application Design Techniques
– Static vs. dynamic VoiceXML
– Performance Considerations
• CCXML, VoiceXML and VoIP
• Application Deployment Models
• New Technologies
– Speaker Biometrics, Video, Multimodal, VoiceXML 3.0


Simplifying Voice Services programming
• Web-based architecture for interactive speech services
– Exploit web technologies to simplify voice service creation and deployment
– Enable consolidation of voice and web services
– Separate service logic from user interaction

• High-level programming languages
– Control speech and telephony resources in uniform manner
– Shield application programmers from implementation details
• No need to know ASR, TTS, telephony APIs
– Create portable applications
• Run on enterprise system or in telephone network
• Run on a variety of platforms, ASR agnostic


Voice Web Application Architecture


Key Ideas

• Standard/Common high-level language
– Designed for the task
• Leverage open, known technology
– Web protocols, servers, networks, development tools, expertise
• Phone number mapped to URL
– Phone number associated with URL of voice service


Voice / Web Application Architecture

<grxml>
PSTN or .wav
VoIP
<vxml> • Grammars
• Audio files
Any phone • Scripts
VoiceXML HTTP

browser
HTTP
Internet or

HTTP
Intranet
<html> Application
(web) server
• Application logic
• Content and data
• Transaction processing
• Database interface
• Images
• Audio files
Web • Scripts
Browser


Voice Application Architecture and Components

<grxml>
Welcome to
Customer Acme products .wav
service, …
please… <vxml>

Caller HTTP

VoiceXML
PSTN platform
Internet or
intranet Web
server
VoiceXML
interpreter
OA&M
middleware
Telephony
DTMF
Audio
ASR
TTS


Application Backend Architecture

• Grammars
• Audio files
• Scripts
<vxml>

Transaction
Server
HTTP
Internet or Intranet or
Intranet Internet

Application
(web) server
• Application logic
• Content and data
• Transaction processing
• Database interface Database
(content)

Web
service

Components of a Voice Solution
• Traditional phone, VoIP phone, mobile phone, or multimodal device
• Telephone network
– Circuit-switched PSTN or packet-switched VoIP
– Connects caller’s telephone with Telephony Server

• Voice User Interface
– Dialog structure / flow
– Prompts – what the application says to the user
– Speech grammars – what the user can say

• Application logic that executes on an application server
– Web "back-end“
– Database, or database interface

• VoiceXML Server that executes dialogs
– Controls resources such as ASR, SIV, TTS, etc

• Data network to connect application server and VoiceXML server

Inbound or Outbound calls

• VoiceXML application works the same for inbound and
outbound calls
– Additional call progress detection generally required for outbound

• Simple protocol for initiating outbound calls
– No firm standards, but most vendors follow similar techniques
– HTTP, Web Services, etc.


Standards


Value of Open Standards

• Non-proprietary interfaces between components

• Allow choice of best components for the task

• User interface languages
– W3C Speech Interface Framework: VoiceXML, SRGS, SSML, SI
– W3C: HTML, XHTML, SMIL, X+V
– OMA: WAP

• Communication protocols
– W3C: CCXML for 3rd-party telephony call control
– W3C: HTTP, HTTPS, SOAP, WSDL
– IETF: SIP, MRCP, MSCP
– 3GPP: IMS
– ITU: T1, ISDN


Visual vs. Voice markup

Web app UI Voice Web app UI
• HTML – Structure • VoiceXML – Structure
– Layout – Dialog flow
– Input declaration – Input declaration
– Transitions – Transitions
• Images • Audio files
• Audio files / streams • Video, Images
• Video • Text (for TTS)
• Text • Scripts
• Scripts


Protocols
Web applications Voice Web applications
• HTTP, HTTPS • HTTP, HTTPS
• RTP • RTP
• SOAP • SOAP
• WSDL • WSDL
• … • SIP
• …


Voice Standards Activities

• Speech Interface Framework

• Network protocols
– SIP, MRCP v2, etc.

• Platform Certification, Developer Certification,
Speaker Biometrics, Architecture, Tools


Voice Application Standards
CCXML VoiceXML
SIP Netann Call Control Application
MSCML Application SOAP
MOML / MSML
MSCP Scripts
DMSP CCXML VXML GRXML
MGCP
etc. HTTP HTTP
HTTPS
Scripts
HTTPS

Media Audio
Control
Interface CCXML SSML
Conference/ Browser
Media
Server

Telephony Dialog
Control Control
SIP Interface Interface
VoIP VoiceXML DTMF GRXML
Phone
Gateway Browser
Networ RFC 2833
k T1 / E1 Media G.711, WAV,
ISDN VoiceXML 2.0 Audio
Mixer / .au, mp3, etc.
SS7 RTP VoiceXML 2.1
Caller Server ECMAScript 262

MRCP Client

Telephony Control Interface: SIP, etc. MRCP v1
Dialog Control Interface: SIP, MSCP, etc. MRCP MRCP v2

Server Server Server

TTS ASR SIV

© 2007 Ken Rehor. All Rights Reserved. SSML GRXML ** standards in progress **
16

W3C Speech Interface Framework


Voice Application Components

• Dialog – flow control of the inputs, outputs, next steps

• Input grammars
– Control input constraints for DTMF and speech recognition

• Output formatting
– Pronunciation, timing, sequencing


• VoiceXML
• SRGS
• SSML
• Semantic Interpretation
• Pronunciation Lexicon
• Call Control

For more information, see:
W3C Voice Browser Working Group http://www.w3.org/Voice/


Voice User Interface - Dialog
• W3C VoiceXML 2.0
– W3C Recommendation March 2004
– Widely implemented
• Approximately 4 dozen platforms
• Many service providers worldwide
– VoiceXML Forum certification program
• Nearly two dozen certified platforms, more coming

– Candidate Recommendation Sept 2006
– Test suite under development; Certification Program to follow
– Many platform vendors are implementing

– Early stages of development
– SCXML – state chart markup language designed as a controller for V3 and
CCXML 2.0 ("Working Draft" Jan 2006)


User Interaction – Input / Output Control
• Input grammars W3C SRGS 1.0
– W3C Recommendation
– Widely implemented

• Output formatting W3C SSML 1.0
– W3C Recommendation
– Widely implemented, yet minor real support
(most TTS engines ignore the SSML instructions)

• Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition W3C SISR 1.0
– Nearing Candidate Recommendation
– Implementation gaining acceptance


Semantic Interpretation


W3C Speech Recognition Grammar Specification
• Markup language to control input constraints
– Finite-state speech recognition
– DTMF recognition

• Two variations
– XML (GRXML)
– ABNF

• Version 1.0: W3C Recommendation – March 2004

• Implemented and supported by numerous vendors


GRXML ASR example
• asdf
<grammar type="application/srgs+xml" root="r2" version="1.0">
<rule id="r2" scope="public">

<one-of>
<item>coffee</item>
<item>tea</item>
<item>milk</item>
<item>nothing</item>
</one-of>
</rule>

</grammar>


GRXML DTMF example
<?xml version="1.0"?>

<grammar mode="dtmf" version="1.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/06/grammar
http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-grammar/grammar.xsd"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/06/grammar">

<rule id="digit">
<one-of>
<item> 0 </item>
<item> 1 </item>
<item> 2 </item>
<item> 3 </item>
<item> 4 </item>
<item> 5 </item>
<item> 6 </item>
<item> 7 </item>
<item> 8 </item>
<item> 9 </item>
</one-of>
</rule>

<rule id="pin" scope="public">
<one-of>
<item>
<item repeat="4"><ruleref uri="#digit"/></item>
#
</item>
</one-of>
</rule>

</grammar>


W3C Speech Synthesis Markup Language
• Markup language to control spoken and audio output

• Version 1.0: W3C Recommendation – Sept 2004

• Implemented and supported by numerous vendors

• Version 1.1: under development
– Adds support for tonal languages
– First public Working Draft published January 2007


SSML Functions

• Audio output
– <audio>
• Text-to-Speech output
– Contained within SSML constructs
• Pronunciation controls
– <say-as>
• Interpret-as
• Format
• Detail
– <emphasis>
• Timing
– <break>


SSML Functions (cont’d)

• Spoken language
– xml:lang
• Prosody and Style – voice control
– Voice
– Gender
– Age
– Name
• Prosody
– <prosody>
• Pitch
• Contour
• Range
• Rate
• Duration
• Volume


SSML Functions (cont’d)

• Sentence structure
– <p>
– <s>
• phoneme -- Modify text
– <sub> - substitute text
• Location identification
– <mark>


VoiceXML 2.x


VoiceXML Scope
• Human-machine interaction provided by voice response
systems:
– Output
• play audio files
• produce synthesized speech
– Input
• record spoken input
• recognize spoken input
• collect character input
– Control flow
– Telephony
• transfer a user to another destination, such as a live agent
• disconnect a user


VoiceXML Goals
• Separate user interaction from service logic
– Creates new possible business models
• Service developer can be separate from telephony platform provider
• Enable service portability across implementation platforms
– Assume common set of platform capabilities
– Provide common language for:
• Content providers, Tool providers, Platform providers
• Safely handle shared network-based applications
– deterministic behavior
• Easy to build common types of applications
• Features to build complex types of applications
• Shield application authors from low-level platform-specific
details
– Promotes portability, ease of service creation

VoiceXML 2.0 Basic Functions

• Input
– <field>, <menu> recognition
– <record> audio recording
• Output
– <prompt> container for TTS or prerecorded audio
– <audio> prerecorded audio
• Control Flow
– <if>, <else>, <elseif> basic conditional logic
– <script> complex scripts using ECMAScript
– <goto> transition to a new document
– <submit> submit data to a web application
• Telephony
– <disconnect>
– <transfer>


VoiceXML Execution Model

• Form Interpretation Algorithm <form>
• Execution is synchronous (mostly)
– Disconnect events are handled (somewhat) asynchronously
• Audio is queued
– Played only when encountering a waiting state
• Processing is always in one of two states:
– Waiting for input in an input item
• such as <field>, <record>, or <transfer>
– Transitioning between input items in response to an input
• Event-driven
– <catch>, <throw> generalized event mechanism
– <nomatch>, <noinput> short-hand user-input event handling
– <error> short-hand error event handling


Key Points

• Architecture leverages all things "internet"
– Languages, protocols, servers, developers, etc.
• Separation of concerns
– Application logic / database vs. telephony / speech resources
– Enables new business models
• Voice ASP
• Prepackaged applications
• URL (application) associated with phone number
– Calling party or Called party
– Share resources among many applications (VoiceASP)
• High-level languages, specific to domain / task
– Simplify development and maintenance


VoiceXML <form> and <field>

• <form>
– Dialog container
– "Form Interpretation Algorithm" (FIA) specifies default behavior
• <field>
– Collect input from caller
– <grammar> specifies input 'constraints'
• <prompt>
– Container for <audio> and text


Example
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<vxml version="2.0">

<form>

<field name="main_menu">
<prompt>
<audio src="welcome.wav"> Welcome to Acme.
You can choose sales, repair, or order status.</audio>
</prompt>
<grammar src="main_menu.grxml"/>
</field>

<block>
<submit next="http://acme.com/route... " method="get"/>
</block>

</form>
</vxml>
main.vxml
Note: Code simplified for demonstration purposes…

User Input - Grammars

• Grammars can be speech or DTMF (touchtone)
– Both types can be active simultaneously

• Specified by SRGS
– XML grammars are normative (aka GRXML)
– ABNF grammars are more concise but more complex to author

• Grammars may be specified inline or sourced externally

• External grammars are referenced by URI

• Multiple grammars may be active simultaneously.


Grammars can get very complicated:
There are many ways to say the same thing…

Sales
I'd like to place an order
I need to talk to a salesman
Repair
repair department
service
service department
customer service
Order status
where's my order?
track my order
track my shipment
where the hell is my stuff?


Basic GRXML grammar example

<grammar …xml:lang="en-US" version="1.0">

<rule id="dept" scope="public">
<one-of>
<item>sales</item>
<item>repair</item>
<item>order status</item>
</one-of>
</rule>

</grammar>

main_menu.grxml


VoiceXML example – next step

<form>

<field name="sales_menu">
<prompt>
<audio src="sales_menu.wav">
You've reached Acme's sales department.
To place an order, say sales. To speak to
an associate, say I'd like to speak to someone.
</audio>
</prompt>
<grammar src="sales_menu.grxml"/>
</field>

<block>
<submit next="http://acme.com/... " method="get"/>
</block>

</form>

sales.vxml

VoiceXML example with error handling

<form>

<prompt>
</prompt>
</field>

<noinput> You must say something. </noinput>

<block>
</block>

</form>

newmain.vxml


<form>

<prompt>
</prompt>
</field>

<nomatch> I didn't understand you. Please try again. </nomatch>

<block>
</block>

</form>
newmain.vxml

<form>

<prompt>
</prompt>
</field>

<help> You can say sales, repair, or order status. </help>
<nomatch> I didn't understand you. Please try again. </nomatch>

<block>
</block>

</form>
newmain.vxml

Basic VoiceXML menu using <option>

<field name="maincourse">
<prompt>
Please select an entree. Today, we are featuring <enumerate/>
</prompt>

<option dtmf="1" value="fish"> swordfish </option>
<option dtmf="2" value="beef"> roast beef </option>
<option dtmf="3" value="chicken"> frog legs </option>

<filled>
<submit next="/cgi-bin/maincourse.cgi"
method="post" namelist="maincourse"/>
</filled>
</field>

maincourse.vxml

Set platform features via <property>

• Input modes: type of input from a caller
DTMF-only <property name="inputmodes" value="dtmf">
Voice-only <property name="inputmodes" value="voice">
Both <property name="inputmodes" value="dtmf voice">

• Timeouts
<property name="timeout" value="1450ms">
<property name="termtimeout" value="2500ms">
...


Call processing: <transfer>

• Blind
– Go somewhere but don't return

• Bridge
– Add on another party, resume
execution when done talking



• Blind transfer

<form id="xfer">

<block>
<prompt> Calling Riley. Please wait. </prompt>
</block>

<transfer name="mycall" dest="tel:+1-555-123-4567" >

</transfer>

</form>



• Bridge transfer

<form id="xfer">
<block> <prompt> Calling Riley. Please wait. </prompt> </block>

<transfer name="mycall" dest="tel:+1-555-123-4567" bridge="true" >

</transfer>
</form>



• Bridge transfer with cancel feature

<form id="xfer">


<prompt> Say cancel at any time to disconnect this call.</prompt>
<grammar src="cancel.grxml" type="application/srgs+xml"/>

</transfer>
</form>



<form id="xfer">



<filled>
<assign name="mydur" expr="mycall$.duration"/>
<if cond="mycall == 'busy'">
<prompt> Riley's line is busy. Try again later. </prompt>
<elseif cond="mycall == 'noanswer'"/>
<prompt> Riley didn't answer the phone.
Please call back another time. </prompt>
</if>
</filled>

</transfer>
</form>


<form id="xfer">

<transfer name="mycall" dest="tel:+1-555-123-4567" bridge="true"
transferaudio="music.wav" connecttimeout="60s" >


<filled>
<assign name="mydur" expr="mycall$.duration"/>
<if cond="mycall == 'busy'">
<prompt> Riley's line is busy. Try back later. </prompt>
<elseif cond="mycall == 'noanswer'"/>
<prompt> Riley didn't answer the phone. Please call
back another time. </prompt>
</if>
</filled>

</transfer>
</form>


New Features in VoiceXML 2.1
• Dynamically referencing grammars and scripts
– <grammar expr=“…”> <script expr=“…”>
• Detect Barge-in During Prompt Playback: enhance SSML 1.0 <mark>
– Add markexpr attribute
– Add markname and marktime to application.lastresult$ object
• Fetch (XML) data without transition: <data>
– Uses read-only subset of DOM
• Dynamically concatenate prompts: <foreach>
– Interate through ECMAScript array and execute content
• Record user’s utterance while attempting ASR
– recordutterance property
– Add shadow variables: recording, recordingsize, recordingduration
• Send data upon disconnect
– <disconnect namelist=“…” >
• Additional <transfer> types
– <transfer type=“…” …/>


Dynamic Applications


VoiceXML Application Structure
• Static
– User experience is the same for everyone
• Information doesn’t change frequently
• No customization per user, time of day, etc.
• Pages are created once and used many times
• Dynamic
– User experience is customized by:
• User: e.g. my.yahoo.com, amazon.com (especially once you log in)
• Situation: e.g. travel specials on expedia.com
– Data driven, e.g. inventory system, airline reservations
– Generated by a program at runtime
• JSP, ASP
• App servers such as BEA, IBM Websphere, Oracle 9iAS


VoiceXML 2.1 and AJAX

• VoiceXML + ECMAScript + <data> + XML
• <data> element allows retrieval of arbitrary XML data
without document transition
• Static VoiceXML document can fetch user-specific data at
runtime
• Decouple presentation layer from business logic
• Performance improvements due to:
– Cache-able VoiceXML
– No need to generate entirely new pages for each dialog when only the
content is new
– Less network traffic


Dynamic Application Considerations
Execution of VoiceXML is running a program on your server…

• Must guarantee quality of dynamically-generated VoiceXML
documents and ASR grammars
– Catch parse errors, execution errors
– What does the caller hear if there is an error?
• not “Could not parse VoiceXML document”
• Runtime performance
– Parse and interpretation time of large documents
– Inefficient scripts and speech grammars
• Security implications
– Exploit a bug in a particular implementation? Make free phone calls?
– Could there be a VoiceXML virus? Will all platforms protect against them?

 Careful application design, testing and monitoring is essential

Dynamic Application Considerations
• A mix of different simultaneous applications means variable
platform load and execution profile
– Parse time of VoiceXML document
– Fetching VoiceXML documents, grammars, audio from remote web servers
– Load Balancing
– How to protect platform from harmful application? (intentional or otherwise?)
• Max size of document
• Max size of grammar
• Complexity measurement of document or grammar (statically checked before
execution?)

 Platforms, networks, and applications must be carefully engineered


Performance Considerations


Load Balancing for Performance and Reliability

• CPU/memory utilization
– Grammar compilation
– ASR load
– TTS load
• Telephony Network
– Channel balancing
– Dead channel
• Incoming/Outgoing channel assignment / mix


Performance: Caching

• Fetched documents, grammars, audio files, streams
• Local or distributed cache?
• Effects of prefetching
• Where to cache generated grammars?
– Per system
– In-network
• Use external grammar compilation server?


Application Management


Application Monitoring and Maintenance
• Runtime logs
– Web / application server
– Voice server
– Call Detail Reporting
• Utterance recordings and logs
– Useful for grammar and dialog tuning
– Security of recordings may be an issue
– Disk space: full-call recordings may be prohibitively large

 Usage data must be continually monitored to improve user experience


Operations, Administration, Maintenance,
Provisioning
• System Monitoring
– Interfacing to existing Telco OSSs
– Web-based for ISP environment
• Provisioning
– Application, Customer
• DN-URI mapping
– Telephony
• Call origination/transfer
• Max call timeout
• Max number of concurrent calls
– Platform-specific VoiceXML features
• ECMAScript allowed?
• Telephony control allowed?
• Max grammar size


Billing
Logging and Charging for usage of resources
• "platform time"
– Usage of server resources
• Toll Free usage
– It's toll free, not free
• Transferred calls
– Inbound minutes
– Outbound minutes
– Network features, e.g. Network Redirect
• Outbound calls
 Accurate billing information is a critical factor in application cost or profitability


Application Deployment Models
Build-your-own network vs. Outsourcing


Build vs. Outsource?
Deployment Options Enable a Variety of Business Models

• Completely in-house
– Maintain complete control for security
– Development and deployment systems can be identical

• Outsourced VoiceXML/Telephony
– Large-scale distributed networks without major capital investment
– Grow quickly and incrementally

• Completely outsourced hosting
– All components and systems managed by 3rd party

• Packaged software
– VoiceXML application integrated with existing apps


Completely In-House

• Local control of all systems
• Voice server, app server, database can be on local network
• Development and deployment systems can be identical
• Physical security: in-house team “owns” it
• Failover, reliability, scalability must be locally managed
• Redundant power, networks, etc. are required


VoiceXML On-premises Deployment
using TDM or VoIP carrier connection

VoIP
Web
"pipe"
Applications
Web
VoIP Applications
Gateway, VoiceXML
PSTN Cisco
PBX, etc. Browsers
IPCC
TDM:
DS3,
Multiple PRI,
etc.
ASR
servers
Database
Co-location facility


Outsourced VoiceXML / Telephony

• Telephony and VoiceXML servers outsourced to "Voice
Service Provider" (VSP)

• Application remains in your data center(s)
– Geographically distributed
– May be dedicated to specific customers

• Many carrier-grade vendors to choose from


Outsourced VoiceXML / Telephony

• Architecture is identical to in-house deployment
• Secure IP connection used between facilities

Voice Service Provider:
Carrier-grade outsourcing facility

Co-location facility
Web
VoiceXML Applications
Web
PSTN VoIP Cisco Applications
Browsers
gateway IPCC Interne
t

ASR
servers
Database


Advantages of Outsourcing to a VSP
• Choice of many vendors: one for all customers, or choose the
best one for each customer
• Add capacity by adding multiple vendors
• No capital investment
• Pay-as-you-go pricing models
• Failover, reliability, scalability simplified
• Physical security of equipment and networks managed by VSP
• VPN or dedicated data connection to your backend systems


Distribute Load to Multiple VSPs

VoiceXML
Cisco
Browsers
IPCC

PSTN
VoiceXML ASR
Cisco Customer
Browsers servers
IPCC co-location facility

Web
ASR Applications
Web
servers Applications
Internet

Database
VoiceXML
Cisco
Browsers
IPCC
Multiple co-lo facilities
can be deployed for geographic
redundancy and enhanced
capacity.
ASR VoiceXML
Cisco
servers Browsers
IPCC


Completely Outsourced

• Deploy hardware & software systems at customer-
managed co-location facilities

• Deploy complete systems at co-location facilities managed
by 3rd party

• Deploy pre-packaged VoiceXML application integrated
with customer's call center (managed by customer)


Combination of In-house and Outsourced
Several ways to balance resources

• Primary in-house, with overflow or failover to a VSP
– Local control of resources
– Overflow to VSP during peak usage
– Backup for failover / disaster recovery

• In-house development, with primary deployment via VSP
– In-house development and trials
– “Push to the network” when ready to deploy


CCXML, VoiceXML, and VoIP
3rd-Party Call Control


Inbound call using TDM connections

• 1st-party call control: VoiceXML server handles call
routing/setup/answer

VoiceXML
PSTN Server

Caller


Inbound call using VoIP (SIP and RTP)

• 1st-party call control: VoIP gateway routes call to VoiceXML
server, which handles call routing/setup/answer

1. INVITE
VoIP VoiceXML
PSTN Gateway 2. RTP Server

customer


Why VoIP?

• Flexible network topology

• Simplified integration of voice dialog resources

• Vendor independence for network elements

• Separation of concerns: voice dialog resources vs. call
control


Inbound Call using 3rd Party Call Control

• 3rd party application handles call routing/setup/answer

Call Routing
Application

1. INVITE 2. INVITE
VoIP VoiceXML

caller


Outbound call using 3rd Party Call Control
• 3rd party application handles outbound call
initiation/setup/routing
• “Attaches” VoiceXML dialog to connection
Outbound
Calling
Application

1. INVITE 2. INVITE
VoIP VoiceXML

caller


What is CCXML?

• XML-based language that manages the connections and
resources used in phone calls

• Designed for 3rd-party call control applications

• Allows for easy integration into back end web applications
very similar to VoiceXML’s model

• Uses the finite state machine model
– Event handlers move from one state to the next using markup tags

• CCXML provides commands to run a “dialog” on a call leg


Why is CCXML Needed?

• VoiceXML was designed primarily for voice dialogs
– 1st-party call control: <disconnect> and a several predefined common
<transfer> types

• Connection management requires full asynchronous event
handling
– Connection/telephony events can occur any time during a call and must be
handled
– VoiceXML specifically limits asynchronous events to simplify the execution
and programming model

• 1st-party Call Control can be useful but has limited flexibility
– VoiceXML 2.1 <transfer> adds "consultation" feature for network
redirect


CCXML System Architecture

Telephony Voice
Web Web
Application Application

CCXML VXML

HTTP HTTP

CCXML
Conference Server
Server

Telephony Dialog
Control Control
Interface Interface
Telephony Dialog
PSTN Interface Server
Media

Caller


CCXML features

• Telephony channel control: voice paths and signaling
– <createcall>, <accept>, <disconnect>,
<reject>, <redirect>

• Media control: Conference Bridges and Mixers
– <join>, <unjoin>, <createconference>,
<destroyconference>

• Dialog control: Add a VoiceXML (or other dialog)
resource to a connection
– <dialogstart>, <dialogprepare>,
<dialogterminate>


Integration of CCXML and VoiceXML
• Dialogs are created using <dialogstart>
– You pass the URL of the document that you want to run

• Dialogs can be ended using <dialogterminate>
– This allows CCXML to end a dialog based on a external event such as
someone calling you on a second line

• Dialogs can return data back to the CCXML platform
– In VoiceXML use <exit namelist="a b c"/>
– This is exposed in the CCXML dialog.exit event


W3C CCXML 1.0 status
• Nearing "Candidate Recommendation" status
– Language complete
– Test suite under development
– Certification Program under consideration

• Growing support throughout the world

• Several open source projects underway
– See http://www.sourceforge.net


Next-Generation Technologies


Next-Generation Technologies
• Speaker Biometrics-based authentication
– Speaker Identification
– Speaker Verification

• Video IVR --VoiceXML augmented with video
– Early stages of commercial deployment now
– Simple extension to standard platforms
– Straightforward step towards full multimodal

• Multimodal
– Multiple input modalities: speech recognition, keypad, handwriting,
biometrics (voice, fingerprint, iris, etc.), geolocation, motion
– Multiple output modalities: graphics, audio (speech, TTS, music,
polyphonic tones)


Speaker Biometrics


Why Speaker Biometrics?

• Identify an individual for remote transactions

• Text / DTMF PINs are inadequate
– Easily compromised
– Easily forgotten
– Does not identify an individual

• US Federal Regulations
– FFIEC guidelines for financial services


Speaker Identification and Verification (SIV)

• Authentication
– The process of confirming one or more identities.

• Speaker Identification (one-to-many)
– Authentication with multiple identity claims.

• Speaker Verification (one-to-one)
– Authentication with a single identity claim.


Types of SIV
• Text independent
– SIV technology that can operate on any freeform or structured spoken input.

• Text dependent
– SIV technology (usually verification technology) that requires the voice input
of one or more specific passwords or pass phrases (having been enrolled).

• Text prompted
– SIV technology (usually verification) that randomly selects words and/or
phrases and prompts the speaker to repeat them. The term is also called
challenge-response.


Fundamental Phases of SIV

• Enrollment
– Capture one or more user utterances to ‘train’ the system

• Verification
– Capture one or more user utterances to make an identity claim

• Adaptation & Scoring
– Judge how close the user’s verification utterance is to the enrolled
utterance
– Refine the existing enrolled utterance with information from the
verification utterance


Video and Multimodal


“Video” VoiceXML

• Video extensions to VoiceXML
– 3G Wireless
– VoIP phones
• VoiceXML is just a dialog language
– Initially only for voice input/output
• Example
– Videomail is a dialog application very similar to voicemail
• Video and audio are somewhat analogous
– VoiceXML can be ‘hacked’ to handle video now:
• <audio src="foo.au“/> could “play” a video file
via <audio src=“foo.mpeg4”/>
– VoiceXML 3.0 might add a new language feature
• e.g. <video src="foo.avi"> or <media src="foo.mpeg4">


“Video” VoiceXML
Deployment and Standardization
• Simple extension to standard platforms
– Easy integration with current platforms
– Doesn’t “break” existing functionality
– Well aligned with “VoiceXML model”
• Early stages of commercial deployment
– Several vendors have deployed large-scale commercial systems
• Step towards full multimodal


Multimodal Applications
• W3C Multimodal Interaction Working Group
– Defining new standards based on extensive industry experience

• IBM / Motorola / Opera X+V 1.2
– Early stages of commercial deployment
– Freely available from Opera http://dev.opera.com/articles/voice/

For more information, see:
W3C Multimodal Interaction Working Group http://www.w3.org/2002/mmi


VoiceXML 3.0


VoiceXML 3.0

• Modularization
– Cleanly separate functions to enable integration with other modalities
– Enables code reuse
• New media processing
– Video
– Voice processing
– Navigation
– Speaker biometrics
• Separation of data, control flow and presentation
– Control flow embodied in new language: SCXML
• Clean data model


References
• W3C Voice Browser Working Group http://www.w3.org/voice
– VoiceXML 2.0 Recommendation
• http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/
– VoiceXML 2.1 Working Draft
• http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml21/
– Semantic Interpretation Working Draft
• http://www.w3.org/TR/semantic-interpretation/
– SRGS 1.0 Recommendation
• http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-grammar/
– SSML
• 1.0 Recommendation http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-synthesis/
• 1.1 Working Draft http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-synthesis11/
– CCXML 1.0
• http://www.w3.org/TR/ccxml/
– SCXML
• http://www.w3.org/TR/scxml/
• IETF http://www.ietf.org


Ken Rehor
http://www.kenrehor.com

VoiceXML Forum
Co-founder and past-Chair
Chair, VoiceXML Forum Conformance Committee
Co-Chair, VoiceXML Forum Speaker Biometrics Committee

W3C
Co-editor: VoiceXML 1.0, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0
Co-editor: CCXML 1.0


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