Lucent Technologies INTUITY CONVERSANT System Version 6.0 Guide

							INTUITY CONVERSANT System Version 6.0
Application Design Guidelines  
585-310-670  Issue 1.0
December 1996
Designing a Voice Response Application 
Page 4-45 Text-to-Speech in Applications 
4
Multilingual Applications
If you have at least two INTUITY CONVERSANT systems, eac h with one or two 
WholeWord  speec h rec og nition software pac kag es, you c an p roc ess c allers in 
up  to four lang uag es with what ap p ears to c allers as a sing le ap p lic ation.  You 
c ould  start with the ab ove lang uage g ate.  Instead  of transferring  to the attend ant 
if the c aller d oes not say “ yes”  or “ sí”  at one of the exp ec ted  times, you c ould  
transfer the c all to an ap p lic ation on another system.  The sec ond  system c ould  
inc lud e a lang uag e g ate in the other two languag es, then branc h to the c orrec t 
ap plic ation (or to the attend ant) d ep end ing  on the c aller’s resp onse.
Text-to-Speech in Applications
Text-to-Sp eec h allows your ap plic ation to c onvert ASCII text to sp oken words.  
Text-to-Speech is supported only for US English.  This ability is especially useful 
when it is not p rac tic al to p rerec ord  the information to b e read , for example if the 
information is leng thy, c hanges often, or c omes from a d atab ase.  Text-to-Sp eec h 
is also useful when testing  app lic ations.
Use the guid elines in this sec tion when d esig ning  your ap p lic ations with 
Text-to-Speech.
Use Text-to-Speech for Prompts
and Announcements
Use the guid elines in this sec tion when using  Text-to-Sp eec h for Promp ts and  
Announc ements.
Touch-Tone Input Prompts and Announcements
When Text-to-Sp eec h is used  with touc h-tone inp ut, c allers c an interrup t, or dial 
throug h, the p romp t or announc ement just as they c an when the p romp t has 
been prerecorded.
If c allers have p rob lems d ialing  throug h a p romp t or announc ement with 
touc h-tone input, make sure that d ial throug h is enab led .  When using  d ial 
throug h, rememb er to flush all touc h-tone inp ut from the b uffer whenever the 
ap plic ation p lays an error messag e. 
						

							INTUITY CONVERSANT System Version 6.0
Application Design Guidelines  
585-310-670  Issue 1.0
December 1996
Designing a Voice Response Application 
Page 4-46 Text-to-Speech in Applications 
4
Spoken Input Prompts and Announcements
When Text-to-Sp eec h is used  with WholeWord  sp eec h rec og nition, c allers 
b arg e-in d uring  the p romp t or announc ement.  However, when using  
Text-to-Speech with FlexWord speech recognition, remember that barge-in is not 
availab le.  Callers c annot b arg e-in d uring  a Text-to-Sp eec h promp ts with 
FlexWord  sp oken inp ut.  Therefore, when ac c ep ting  FlexWord  sp eec h 
rec ognition inp ut, struc ture your Text-to-Speec h ap p lic ation to disc ourage 
b arg e-in.  See “ How to Disc ourag e Dial Through and Barg e-in,”
 ab ove for more 
information.  If you have long  announc ements, you c ould  p romp t c allers to press 
any touc h-tone key when they have heard all they want to hear of an 
announc ement.
Use Both Text-to-Speech and
Prerecorded Speech Prompts
and Announcements
A single ap plic ation c an sp eak promp ts and  announc ements in either 
p rerec ord ed  sp eec h or Text-to-Sp eec h, or a c omb ination of the two.  New c allers 
find  this more d iffic ult to und erstand  than p rerec ord ed  sp eec h.  Therefore, some 
ap plic ation d esig ners c hoose to sp eak out unc hanging  information (inc luding  
most p romp ts) with p rerec ord ed  sp eec h, unless the numb er of p hrases makes 
p re-rec ord ing  unmanageab le.  The b est way to d ec id e b etween these two 
alternatives is to test b oth with some of your c allers.  See, “ How to Test 
Text-to-Speech Applications,” b elow for more information.
The following  examp le shows how you mig ht use b oth Text-to-Sp eec h p romp ts 
and  p re-rec orded  p romp ts in an app lic ation.  With a word list inc lud ing  350 
names, instead  of p rerec ord ing  all of the names, you c ould  use Text-to-Sp eec h to 
sp eak the rec og nized  name for verific ation.  Then use p rerec ord ed  sp eec h for 
the rest of the p romp ts.  For examp le:
“ Name, p lease.”  (prerec ord ed  sp eec h)

“ John Smith”  (Text-to-Sp eec h)
“ Yes or no?”  (p rerec ord ed  speec h) 
						

							INTUITY CONVERSANT System Version 6.0
Application Design Guidelines  
585-310-670  Issue 1.0
December 1996
Designing a Voice Response Application 
Page 4-47 Text-to-Speech in Applications 
4
How to Get the Most Out of Text-to-Speech
Use the guid elines in this sec tion for better Text-to-Sp eec h performanc e in your 
ap plic ations.
Help Callers Adjust to Text-to-Speech Output
Your c allers may need  to ad just to the c omp uter voic e of Text-to-Sp eec h outp ut to 
und erstand  it well.  To help  them, you c ould  sp eak out some less imp ortant 
information b efore sp eaking  out the information c allers need .  This g ives c allers a 
c hanc e to b ec ome familiar with the rhythm and  intonation of Text-to-Speec h.  For 
examp le, your ap p lic ation c ould  use Text-to-Sp eec h to say “ Thank you.  Please 
wait while the information is loc ated .  The XYZ Tec hnolog ies d istrib utor c losest to 
you is. . .”  b efore giving  the name and  ad d ress of the store.
Bec ause the sound  of Text-to-Sp eec h may b e unfamiliar to your c allers, c onsid er 
g iving  them the op tion of having  the information rep eated , or sp elled , if 
nec essary.  Sp elling  is esp ec ially useful with names, as Text-to-Sp eec h may not 
p ronounc e names as the c aller would .
Use Complete Sentences
Text-to-Sp eec h works p rimarily as a “ read ing  mac hine.”   It op erates und er the 
assump tion that the information it is reading  is struc tured  in stand ard Eng lish 
sentenc es (using  p unc tuation, c ap italization, sub jec t, ob jec t, and  verb).  In ord er 
to make Text-to-Sp eec h outp ut sound  most natural, use g ood  grammar, 
c omp lete sentenc es, and  p unc tuation in the inp ut text to b e sp oken.
What if the information you want to sp eak is not written in c omp lete sentenc es?  
Sinc e d ata field s c annot b e p unc tuated , you may b e ab le to c ontrol the output b y 
c hanging  the sp eaking  rate and  p auses between the information.  Sinc e 
Text-to-Sp eec h c annot find  stand ard  English struc ture in unstruc tured  inp ut, the 
outp ut will not b e as und erstand ab le as the outp ut of full sentenc es.
Use Class Detectors
Some typ es of d ata req uire further c larific ation for the text to b e sp oken c orrec tly.  
Class d etec tors help  Text-to-Speec h d ec id e how to c orrec tly speak out a p rop er 
name, add ress, telep hone numb er, or frac tion.  Dep end ing  on the c lass d etec tor 
used , Text-to-Sp eec h sp eaks the d ata d ifferently.  Use c lass d etec tors within your 
ap plic ation to sp ec ify the typ e of d ata to b e sp oken.
When using  c lass d etec tors, turn them off as soon as you have finished  sp eaking  
that c lass of information.  Always leave one sp ac e b efore and  after eac h c lass 
d etec tor, and  typ e them exac tly like they ap p ear in the d oc umentation.  
Rememb er to use lower-c ase letters only. 
						

							INTUITY CONVERSANT System Version 6.0
Application Design Guidelines  
585-310-670  Issue 1.0
December 1996
Designing a Voice Response Application 
Page 4-48 Text-to-Speech in Applications 
4
The following  is an examp le an ap p lic ation sp eaking  out an ad d ress from 
database fields:
Announce
Speak with Interrupt
Text:  \!nar The address of our nearest
location is 
Phrase: sil.500
Field: store_address as A
Phrase: sil.500
Field: store_city as A
Phrase: sil.500
Field: store_state as A
Phrase: sil.500
Text:  \!nac 
Class d etec tors and  their use are d esc rib ed in Ap p endix D, “ Ad vanc ed  
Text-to-Speech Features,”  in 
INTUITY™ C ON VERSAN T®  Sy s t e m  Ve r s io n  6 . 0  
Sp eec h Develop ment, Proc essing , and  Rec ognition
, 585-310-762.
Consider Entire Words Instead of Abbreviations
Text-to-Speech can rec ognize and speak out most standard English 
ab breviations as full word s.  For examp le, “ Blvd .”  is sp oken as “ Boulevard .”   You 
may use an ab b reviation that Text-to-Sp eec h d oes not know, and  therefore 
c annot p ronounc e.  For an abb reviation that Text-to-Sp eec h d oes not know, 
sub stitute the entire word .
If you are read ing  text from a remote d atab ase that you d o not c ontrol, you may 
only b e ab le to mod ify ab b reviations by using  a data interfac e p roc ess (DIP).  
See Chap ter 4, “ Data Interfac e Proc esses,”  and  Chap ter 6, “ IRAPI 
Prog ramming ,”  in 
INTUITY™ C ON VERSAN T®  Sy s t e m  Ve r s io n  6 . 0  Ap p l ic a t io n  
Development with Advanc ed  Method s
, 585-310-761, for more information on 
DIPs.
Control Speaking Rate
Esc ape seq uenc es and  inserting  p auses are two ways to c ontrol the rate at 
whic h Text-to-Sp eec h sp eaks.
Escape Sequences
To help  c allers und erstand  Text-to-Speec h output, you c an c hang e the 
Text-to-Sp eec h sp eaking  rate where nec essary b y using  
esc ap e seq uenc es 
within the ap p lic ation.  For example, you mig ht want to slow the speec h when you 
read  an ad d ress.
When using  esc ap e seq uenc es, always leave one sp ac e b efore and  after eac h 
esc ap e seq uenc e, and typ e them exac tly as they ap p ear in the d oc umentation.   
						

							INTUITY CONVERSANT System Version 6.0
Application Design Guidelines  
585-310-670  Issue 1.0
December 1996
Designing a Voice Response Application 
Page 4-49 Text-to-Speech in Applications 
4
Be sure to turn off sp eaking  rate esc ap e seq uenc es as soon as you are finished  
sp eaking  at that rate.
The following  is an examp le of an ap p lic ation c hang ing  sp eaking  rate:
Announce
Speak with Interrupt
Text: Your confirmation number is \!r4 743211
\!r2 .
Text: Please call us if you do not receive your
Text: tickets \!r4 in 7 days \!r2 .
Escape sequences and their use are described in Appendix D, “Advanced 
Text-to-Speech Features,”  in 
INTUITY™ C ON VERSAN T®  Sy s t e m  Ve r s io n  6 . 0  
Sp eec h Develop ment, Proc essing , and  Rec ognition
, 585-310-762.
Pauses
You c an also c ontrol the p ac e of the Text-to-Sp eec h outp ut b y inserting  p auses.  
If you are sp eaking  text you c ontrol, the easiest way to d o this is with p unc tuation 
within the word s to b e read.  Rememb er to punc tuate exac tly like you would in a 
sentenc e (for examp le, d o not leave a spac e b efore a p eriod  or a c omma).  You 
c an also use the documented escape sequences to insert pauses.
When sp eaking  out a larg e b loc k of text, you may hear a p ause where you d o not 
want a p ause to b e.  First, c hec k to see if there is any stray p unc tuation c ausing 
the p ause.  If not, you c an insert a short rec ord ed  silenc e phrase 
before the 
sentenc e d uring  whic h you heard  the p ause.  This should  eliminate the 
misp lac ed  p ause.  If the text b loc k is from a remote d atab ase, however, this may 
not b e p ossib le.  You may need  to read  in the text to d ifferent b uffers to take c are 
of this p rob lem.
Eliminate Typographical Errors
Text-to-Sp eec h p ronounc es exac tly what it is written, so typ og rap hic al errors c an 
c ause misp ronunc iations.  To make Text-to-Sp eec h outp ut as und erstand ab le as 
p ossib le, look for and  listen for typ og rap hic al errors in the ASCII text, and  remove 
them when you test the ap p lic ation.
Use Capital Letters To Spell Words
 Any word  written with all c ap ital letters is sp elled out.  Therefore, when you want 
Text-to-Sp eec h to sp ell something  out, make sure the inp ut is in c ap ital letters.  
For example, you p rob ably want the ab b reviation for the Environmental 
Protec tion Agenc y sp elled  out as “ E, P, A”  instead of b eing  p ronounc ed as 
“ ep p ah.”
If you are sp eaking  inp ut from a remote d atab ase and  the d ata is in all c ap ital 
letters, rememb er that it will b e sp elled  out.  If you want it to b e p ronounc ed  as 
word s, you must use a DIP to c onvert the information to up per and  lower c ase. 
						

							INTUITY CONVERSANT System Version 6.0
Application Design Guidelines  
585-310-670  Issue 1.0
December 1996
Designing a Voice Response Application 
Page 4-50 Text-to-Speech in Applications 
4
Remember Text-to-speech Pronunciation 
Differences
Text-to-Sp eec h relies on b uilt-in rules, b ut c annot ac c ount for all exc ep tions.  
Therefore, it may misp ronounc e word s, esp ec ially some names.  If 
Text-to-Sp eec h misp ronounc es a word , use p honetic  sp elling  to c orrec t the 
p ronunc iation.  For examp le, Text-to-Sp eec h p ronounc es the name “ Bag g e”  as 
“ b ag g y,”  b ut the c orrec t p ronunc iation is with a silent 
e.  You c an c hang e the 
sp elling  of the name to “ b ag ”  so that Text-to-Sp eec h will p ronounc e it c orrec tly.
Another way to overc ome mispronunc iation or misund erstand ing s is to sp ell 
some of the information, esp ec ially for names.  Desig n the ap p lic ation to speak 
the name, then sp ell it out.  Or, you c an give c allers the op tion of having  a name 
sp elled  out.
How to Test Text-to-Speech Applications
Writing  ap p lic ations with und erstand ab le Text-to-Sp eec h outp ut is a p roc ess of 
trial and  error.  It is very imp ortant to p lan the ap p lic ation, then test it with real 
d ata to ensure that the sp eec h is und erstandab le.  Onc e you c an und erstand the 
outp ut well, test the ap p lic ation with some rep resentative c allers, refine, and  test 
it ag ain until you and the c allers are satisfied  with the result.  See Chap ter 5, 
‘‘Testing  and  Using  a Voic e Resp onse Ap p lic ation Desig n,’’  for more information 
on ap p lic ation testing . 
						

							INTUITY CONVERSANT System Version 6.0
Application Design Guidelines  
585-310-670  Issue 1.0
December 1996
Designing a Voice Response Application 
Page 4-51 Script Builder FAX Actions in Applications 
4
Script Builder FAX Actions in 
Applications
This sec tion d esc rib es some of the uses for the FAX Ac tions in your ap plic ations.
NOTE:
See Chap ter 8, “ Using  Op tional Features, in INTUITY™ C O N VERSAN T®  
System Version 6.0 Ap plic ation Develop ment with Sc ript Builder
, 
585-310-760,
 for more information on Sc rip t Build er FAX Ac tions.
Informing Callers of Available Information
If you have a long list of information availab le to c allers, allow c allers to req uest 
that the list b e faxed  to them.  If eac h fax is tag g ed  with a numb er, c allers who 
have the list c an simply c all in and  req uest a fax b y number, without having  to 
listen to a menu.  For examp le:
“ Welc ome to State Hosp ital’s Pharmac eutic al Information Line.  Please enter the 
four-dig it numb er of the med ic ine you would  like to know ab out.  To rec eive a fax 
listing  all med icines, p ress the p ound key.”
Managing Delays
This sec tion d esc rib es some ways to manag e d elays in the c all when using  the 
FA X  A c t i o n s .
Process Information After the Call
Yo u  c a n  a vo id  d e l a y s  b y u si n g  t h e  O N _H AN GU P_EVEN T l a b e l  w i t h in  y o u r  
ap plic ation.  All steps that c ome after the lab el are c omp leted  after the c aller 
hang s up .  This saves the c aller time; however, if the proc essing  fails, the c aller is 
no long er on the line and  so c annot b e informed .  To avoid  this, desig n the 
ap plic ation to notify the administrator (p ossib ly through elec tronic  mail), so that 
the c aller c an b e c ontac ted .
Store Information in Fax Files
Information stored  as a text file must first b e c onverted  to fax format before b eing  
sent out as a fax.  Information stored  as a fax file d oes not need to b e c onverted  
if sent with the FAX_Send  ac tion.  To sp eed  up  c alls, store information in fax 
format whenever p ossib le.  Use text format mainly for information that c hang es 
often. 
						

							INTUITY CONVERSANT System Version 6.0
Application Design Guidelines  
585-310-670  Issue 1.0
December 1996
Designing a Voice Response Application 
Page 4-52 Script Builder FAX Actions in Applications 
4
Inform Your Callers of a Wait
If you know the c aller must wait, use an announc ement suc h as, “ Please wait 
while the information is loc ated .”
For more information on to make an unavoid ab le wait more p leasant, see “Pace 
the Ap p lic ation,” above.
Use Fewer Fax Channels
If you find  long , unavoid ab le d elays, sp eec h up  resp onse times b y running  the 
ap plic ation on fewer c hannels.
Use the Correct FAX Action
If you are c omb ining  a number of text files, use the UNIX c ommand  cat
 instead of 
FAX_Comb ine.  Only use FAX_Comb ine if you are c omb ining  fax files, or fax and  
text files.
If you d o not need  to c ustomize your c over p ag e for every d ifferent fax, you c an 
j u s t  u s e  FA X_Se n d ,  r a t h e r t h a n  FA X_C o v rPa g e  a n d  FA X_Se n d .   Wh e n  u s in g  FA X_
Send , send  your c over p ag e as the first file, and  the d esired  fax as the sec ond  
file.
Assuring Faxes Are Sent Successfully
Struc ture your ap p lic ation to d etec t when the system mig ht have a p rob lem with 
c omp leting  an instruc tion.  Always c hec k the return value from an ac tion that 
attemp ts to send  a fax.  If the return value indic ates a p rob lem, inform the c aller 
that there is a p rob lem and  the fax c annot b e sent.
Sp eaking  the fax id entific ation numb er, or 
job  ID, b ac k to the c aller is a g ood  way 
to trac k the d elivery of a fax.  If the fax is not rec eived and  the c aller c alls to find  
out why, the system ad ministrator c an use the job  ID c aller p rovid es to trac e the 
problem. 
						

							INTUITY CONVERSANT System Version 6.0
Application Design Guidelines  
585-310-670  Issue 1.0
December 1996
Designing a Voice Response Application 
Page 4-53 Script Builder FAX Actions in Applications 
4
Exec_UNIX in Non-FAX Actions Applications
The Exec _UNIX FAX Ac tion g ives you the p ower to exec ute c ommand s, 
p rog rams, or shell sc ripts, and  to ac c ess datab ases on host c omp uters, whether 
or not fax messag ing  is p art of your ap p lic ation.  Exec _UNIX allows you to d o in 
Sc rip t Build er what you formerly c ould  d o only with a C lang uag e, either using  a 
DIP or the I
NTUITY Resp onse Ap p lic ation Prog ramming Interfac e (IRAPI).  If you 
know the UNIX shell, you c an use Exec_UNIX.
For example, you may want an app lic ation to read  a c aller’s elec tronic  mail over 
the telep hone.  You c ould first ask the c aller to enter a log in ID and  p assword for 
sec urity.  You might then use Exec _UNIX to issue a shell c ommand  to find  the first 
mail messag e in the c aller’s d irec tory, then loc ate the line c ontaining  the word  
“ Sub jec t.”   You c ould  then use Text-to-Sp eec h to read  out the sub jec t line, and 
then offer the c aller the op tion of listening  to the messag e.  If the c aller c hooses 
to listen, you c ould have Text-to-Sp eec h sp eak the c ontents of the file, or skip  to 
the next messag e in the mailb ox. 
						

							INTUITY CONVERSANT System Version 6.0
Application Design Guidelines  
585-310-670  Issue 1.0
December 1996
Designing a Voice Response Application 
Page 4-54 Script Builder FAX Actions in Applications 
4