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Answers
to Your Questions About VoiceXML
In
this monthly column, an industry expert will answer
common questions about VoiceXML and related technologies.
Readers are encouraged to submit questions about VoiceXML,
including development, voice-user interface design,
and speech technology in general, or how VoiceXML is
being used commercially in the marketplace. If you have
a question about VoiceXML, e-mail it to speak.and.listen@voicexmlreview.org
and be sure to read future issues of VoiceXML Review
for the answer.
This
month we received more excellent questions from our
readers. It's great to see momentum begin to develop
here, and I look forward to the point where too many
questions are coming in each month to publish answers
to every one!
Q: I'm writing a script using the <transfer> tag.
I'm trying to place the call dynamically using a number
that the user speaks. I'm not having any luck. Any advice?
A: The attribute "detextpr" is available
on <transfer>, which lets you use a JavaScript
expression to set the destination phone number. For
example:
<vxml version="1.0">
<form name="transfer">
<!-- Set a form-scope variable to be some phone number.
This could have been collected using a previous form or field -->
<var name="mydest" expr="'8005558355'"/>
<block>
<audio>Ready to attempt call transfer</audio>
</block>
<!-- Now transfer using the destexpr attribute to use a JS expression -->
<transfer destexpr="mydur">
<filled>
<audio>say something here</audio>
</filled>
</transfer>
<block>
<audio>welcome back</audio>
</block>
</form>
</vxml>
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Q: How does authentication work for VoiceXML applications?
A:
Authentication can be done in many ways, just like on
the Web. None of these are specific to VoiceXML as a
language (just as on the Web they're not specific to
HTML). Typically, there are two styles used--either
strictly numeric ids/passwords that customers can say
or type in on their handset, which have no recognition
issues, or a new technology variously called "voice
printing" or "voice verification" , which
is a biometric authentication scheme that prompts the
user to speak a generated phrase, which is compared
to a previously recorded example of their speech. For
more information on this kind of techology, visit the
Nuance (http://www.nuance.com)
and SpeechWorks (http://www.speechworks.com)
web sites. Regarding integrating sites that offer both
voice and Web based access, the integration is done
on the back end, and the site can offer either the same
id/password for both (e.g. a numeric one), or a distinct
one for voice vs. web, which are linked to the same
account on the back end. In almost all cases, SSL (Secure
Sockets Layer) technology is used to secure communications
between Web servers and VoiceXML interpreters--exactly
like it is used in traditional HTML applications between
Web servers and Web browsers.
Continued...
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Copyright
© 2001 VoiceXML Forum. All rights reserved.
The VoiceXML Forum is a program of the
IEEE
Industry Standards and Technology Organization (IEEE-ISTO).
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