Systems and techniques for producing spoken voice prompts

• US 10,229,668 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2017
• Issued: 03/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Eliza Corporation (Gainwell Technologies)
• Original Assignee: Eliza Corporation (Gainwell Technologies)
• Inventors: Lavoie, Lisa, Merrow, Lucas, Drane, Alexandra, Rizzo, Frank, Krull, Ivy
• Primary Examiner(s): Yen, Eric
• Application Number:
  US15/797,770
• Publication Number:
  US 20180053499A1
• Time in Patent Office: 498 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/033 Voice editing, e.g. manipulating the voice of the synthesiser
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/0335 Pitch control
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/04 Details of speech synthesis systems, e.g. synthesiser structure or memory management
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/10 Prosody rules derived from text; Stress or intonation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1822 Parsing for meaning understanding
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/28 Constructional details of speech recognition systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/22 Interactive procedures; Man-machine interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/24 the user being prompted to utter a password or a predefined phrase
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/39 using speech synthesis speech synthesis per se G10L13/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4936 Speech interaction details speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML

Abstract

Methods and systems are described in which spoken voice prompts can be produced in a manner such that they will most likely have the desired effect, for example to indicate empathy, or produce a desired follow-up action from a call recipient. The prompts can be produced with specific optimized speech parameters, including duration, gender of speaker, and pitch, so as to encourage participation and promote comprehension among a wide range of patients or listeners. Upon hearing such voice prompts, patients/listeners can know immediately when they are being asked questions that they are expected to answer, and when they are being given information, as well as the information that considered sensitive.

Claims

1. A method of producing spoken voice prompts for telephony-based informational interaction, the method comprising:

for one or more voice prompts, determining words that receive an optimized speech parameter, based on a meaning of a text of the one or more voice prompts in a context of a dialog with a listener;

recording the one or more voice prompts for a listener, and thereby producing one or more spoken voice prompts; and

conveying the one or more spoken voice prompts to a listener over a telephone system; and

conducting a telephony-based informational call with a called person, who receives the one or more spoken voice prompts as the listener.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a number of words that receive an optimized speech parameter based on context and/or meaning of the one or more voice prompts.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the optimized speech parameter comprises one or more pitch accents.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more pitch accents yield a pause lengthening pattern.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more pitch accents comprise a phrase-final lengthening pattern.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising one or more boundary tones, wherein the one or more pitch accents and boundary tones comprise a defined intonation pattern.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the defined intonation pattern comprises specific rises or falls of a fundamental frequency of a spoken prompt.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the defined intonation pattern corresponds to a defined type of information conveyed by the spoken prompt.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the defined intonation pattern is determined based on responses of a population of participants in a computer-based exchange to specific types of voice prompts.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein the words receiving the one or more pitch accents are determined based on a desired behavior that is desired of a person receiving a telephony call.