US Patent 7751431 Method and apparatus for distributed speech applications

A communication unit (105) includes a communication interface, for transmitting and receiving communications when operably connected to a first communication network; and a processor cooperatively operable with the communication interface. Responsive to receipt of an utterance, the communication unit (105) can perform a fetch (109) over the communication interface and can transmit a first message (107) having the utterance over the communication interface. The communication unit (105) can receive a second message (113) having a result (111) of a recognition of the utterance from the communication interface in response to the fetch (109).