Communication volume level change detection

• US 10,375,234 B1
• Filed: 07/28/2017
• Issued: 08/06/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Securus Technologies Incorporated (Securus Special Investments LLC)
• Original Assignee: Securus Technologies Incorporated (Securus Special Investments LLC)
• Inventors: Keiser, Luke, Schneider, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): Elbin, Jesse A
• Application Number:
  US15/662,812
• Time in Patent Office: 739 Days
• Field of Search: 700 94, 381 58, 379 24, 379 2903, 379 9302, 37911414, 379168, 379187, 379199, 37920706, 379377
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/21 the extracted parameters being power information
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/51 for comparison or discrimination
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/58 of audio determination or detection of speech characteristics in general G10L25/00; speech recognition in general G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/82 Line monitoring circuits for call progress or status discrimination for detecting caller identity H04M1/573
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2272 Subscriber line supervision circuits, e.g. call detection circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2281 Call monitoring, e.g. for law enforcement purposes; Call tracing; Detection or prevention of malicious calls
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/40 Applications of speech amplifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42221 Conversation recording systems at the subscriber's set H04M1/656
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/568 audio processing specific to telephonic conferencing, e.g. spatial distribution, mixing of participants echo suppression in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/02; sound field processing per se H04S7/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73

Abstract

Systems and methods for detecting volume level changes in communications are described herein. In some embodiments, a system comprises a computer system. The computer system comprises at least one processor and a memory coupled to the at least one processor. The memory stores program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor to cause the computer system to perform tasks. The tasks include recording a communication that comprises audio, and analyzing the audio of the communication. The analysis of the audio is operable to detect a change in a volume level of the audio that indicates an occurrence of a potential event of interest. The tasks also include creating and storing an information record corresponding to the communication in a second database. The information record includes an indication of the detected change in the volume level.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a computer system comprising at least one processor and a memory coupled to the at least one processor, the memory storing program instructions executable by the at least one processor to cause the computer system to;

record a communication;

save resultingly recorded audio of the communication to a first database;

analyze the audio of the communication, the analysis of the audio operable to detect a change in a volume level of the audio that indicates an occurrence of a potential event of interest; and

create and store an information record corresponding to the communication in a second database, wherein the information record includes a directional indication of any increase in the volume level, and any decrease in the volume level in the detected change of the audio that indicates the occurrence of the potential event of interest.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first database and the second database are a same database.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the recording of the communication is stored as part of the information record.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication is analyzed while the communication is on-going.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication is analyzed after the communication has concluded.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the analysis is operable to:

determine an average volume level of a window of the audio of the communication; and

determine a difference between the average volume level of the window and a volume level of an instance of the audio of the communication, wherein the change in the volume level of the audio that indicates the occurrence of the potential event of interest is detected when a magnitude of the difference exceeds a threshold.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the analysis is operable to detect the change in a volume level of the audio that indicates an occurrence of a potential event of interest based on a signature profile of previous communications having one or more known changes in volume level that indicated one or more events of interest.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the previous communications do not include a previous communication including a person that is not a participant to the communication being analyzed.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the previous communications include a previous communication including a person that is not a participant to the communication being analyzed.

10. A method, comprising:

operating at least one computer system comprising;

analyzing audio of a communication to detect a change in a volume level of the audio that indicates an occurrence of a potential event of interest;

recording a copy of the communication; and

storing a directional indication of any increase in the volume level and any decrease in the volume level in the detected change in an information record corresponding to the communication in a database.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein operating the at least one computer system further comprises recording the copy of the communication in the database.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the copy of the communication is recorded to conclusion before the audio of the communication is analyzed.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein analyzing the audio of the communication comprises:

determining an average volume level of a window of the audio of the communication; and

determining a difference between the average volume level of the window and a volume level of an instance of the audio of the communication, wherein the change in the volume level of the audio that indicates the occurrence of the potential event of interest is detected when a magnitude of the difference exceeds a threshold.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein analyzing the audio of the communication comprises comparing a signature profile to the audio of the communication, wherein the signature profile is based on previous communications having one or more known changes in volume level that indicated one or more events of interest.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the previous communications do not include previous audio of a person that is not a participant to the communication.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the previous communications include previous audio of a person that is not a participant to the communication.

17. A tangible computer-readable storage medium having program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by at least one processor of a computer system, cause the computer system to:

generate and store in a database a communication detail record (CDR) corresponding to a communication;

detect a significant volume level change in audio of the communication; and

store a flag in the CDR indicating where in the audio of the communication the significant volume level change was detected and indicating direction of any increase in the volume level and direction of any decrease in the volume level.

18. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein detecting the significant volume level change comprises:

determining an average volume level of a window of the audio of the communication; and

determining a difference between the average volume level of the window and a volume level of an instance of the audio of the communication, wherein the significant volume level change is detected when a magnitude of the difference exceeds a threshold.

19. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein detecting the significant volume level change comprises comparing a signature profile to the audio of the communication, wherein the signature profile is based on previous communications having one or more known significant volume level changes.