Contents

Author's Note on VoiceXML 2.0 vii
Preface ix

Chapter 1: The Role of Voice on the Web 3

Using Sight and Sound Together

Chapter 2: The Convergence of Speech and the Web 7

What Is VoiceXML? 7
Meet the Technical Parents 7
Why Merge Speech and the Web? 13
Making Voice User Interfaces Easy to Build and Use 14
Summary 14

Chapter 3: The Evolution of Web
Application Architectures 15
The Good Old Days: Browsers, Servers, and Content 15
Sessions and Dynamic Content 17
GUIs, WUIs, and VUIs 18

Summary 21

Chapter 4: Simplified Personal Information
Manager Example 2o
Use Case Analysis 26
Object Model 30
Summary 31
Chapter 5: VoiceXML Concepts 33
VoiceXML History 33
Voice Web Browsing 35
Elements of VoiceXML 38
Summary 40

Chapter 6: Outfitting Your VoiceXML Expedition

Standalone versus Hosted Development 41
Development Environment 43
VoiceXML 1.0 versus VoiceXML 2.01 44
Some Available Software Options 45
Speech Developer Accessories 46
Summary 47

Chapter 7: VoiceXML Language Tutorial 49
"Hello, World!" 49
SPIM Menu Navigation 50
SPIM Main Menu 51
Application with Multiple Dialogs 52
Visiting Documents 54
Form Handling 57
Handling Events 66
Queries and Sets 74
Telephony Features 84
Summary 85

Chapter 8: VUI Design Principles and
Techniques 87

Core Principles 87
Speech Design 90
Interface Design 94
Summary 102
Chapter 9: VoiceXML Programming Guide 105

Struclure of a VoiceXML Program 105
Input and output 107
Navigation 108
Forms and Fields 109
Dialog, Document, and Application 110
Speech Recognition Grammars 111
Speech Synthesis Markup 112
Events and Handlers 114
Form Items and the Form Interpretation Algorithm 117
Mixed-Initiative Dialogs 119
Executable Content 120
Telephony 121
Platform and Performance Features 121
Summary 121

Chapter 10: Advanced VoiceXML Topics 123

Resource Fetching 123
Audit Trail 125
Accessing the Voice Gateway 126
Advanced Event Handling 129
Summary 139

Chapter 11: Overview of Related Web

Technologies 143
XML 143
XSL 145
Serviet 148
JavaServer Pages 149
XML Publishing 152
Summary 155
Chapter 12: Adding VoiceXML to Web
Applications 157
One Application, Multiple User Interfaces 157
Web Application Architectures 162
Summary 175

Chapter 13: The Web Application Prototype 177
Prototype Setup and Installation 178
Anatomy of the Prototype 188
Trying It Out 201
Tips for Dissecting the Prototype 203
Summary 207

Chapter 14: What's Next? 209
Changes from VoiceXML 1.0 to VoiceXML 2.0 209
Grammar and Speech Synthesis Specification 210
Reusable Dialog Components 211
Multimodal Interfaces 213
Architectural Issues 214
Summary 216
Appendix A 219
A Quick Reference to VoiceXML 1.0 Syntax 219
Index 241