A method and system for providing efficient menu services for an
information processing system that uses a telephone or other form of
audio user interface. In one embodiment, the menu services provide
effective support for novice users by providing a full listing of
available keywords and rotating house advertisements which inform novice
users of potential features and information. For experienced users, cues
are rendered so that at any time the user can say a desired keyword to
invoke the corresponding application. The menu is flat to facilitate its
usage. Full keyword listings are rendered after the user is given a brief
cue to say a keyword. Service messages rotate words and word prosody.
When listening to receive information from the user, after the user has
been cued, soft background music or other audible signals are rendered to
inform the user that a response may now be spoken to the service. Other
embodiments determine default cities, on which to report information,
based on characteristics of the caller or based on cities that were
previously selected by the caller. Other embodiments provide speech
concatenation processes that have co-articulation and real-time
subject-matter-based word selection which generate human sounding speech.
Other embodiments reduce the occurrences of falsely triggered barge-ins
during content delivery by only allowing interruption for certain special
words. Other embodiments offer special services and modes for calls
having voice recognition trouble. The special services are entered after
predetermined criterion have been met by the call. Other embodiments
provide special mechanisms for automatically recovering the address of a
caller.