What technologies are used to build voice applications?
There are three layers of technology required to implement a voice application: the telephony layer, the voice platform layer and the integration layer. The telephony layer answers incoming calls, performs call management, and connects the caller with a running instance of an application. This involves the installation and management of carrier connections, switches, call distributors, and the software necessary to keep them up and running. The voice platform layer provides the environment in which the voice application is run. It is responsible for providing the following functionality: • Speech recognition. Interprets callers’ spoken input. • Streaming audio. Plays audio files for prompting callers and providing information. • Text-to-speech. Automatically generates speech when pre-recorded audio isn’t available. • Voice application interpreter. Coordinates playing of prompts, invocation of the speech recognizer, and implementing application logic according to callers’ responses. The
