Bridge for non-voice communications user interface to voice-enabled interactive voice response system

• US 10,382,624 B2
• Filed: 03/01/2017
• Issued: 08/13/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WTI Innovation LLC
• Original Assignee: Speech-Soft Solutions Incorporated
• Inventors: Goldberg, Randy G., Brown, Deborah W., Reddy, Janardhan P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bezuayehu, Solomon G
• Application Number:
  US15/446,646
• Publication Number:
  US 20180255180A1
• Time in Patent Office: 895 Days
• Field of Search: 379 8801- 8819
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/279 Recognition of textual entities
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/19 Grammatical context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word sequence rules
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/405 involving speaker-dependent recognition adaptation to speaker for speech recognition G10L15/07
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/254 where the visual mode comprises menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML

Abstract

A bridging for using a non-voice-based user interface, such as a text chat interface, with a voice-enabled interactive voice response system which, during a non-voice-based communication session with a client user device, receives from the client user device, a non-voice entry entered by a client user into the communication session; identifies one or more elements in the non-voice entry constrained by one or more allowed responses by the voice-enabled interactive voice response system; maps the one or more elements to one or more of the allowed responses; and passes the mapped one or more identified elements to a voice-enabled interactive voice response system as a input via emulation of a voice recognition analysis response.

Claims

1. A method for bridging a non-voice-based user interface to a voice-enabled interactive voice response system comprising:

during a communication session with a client user device, receiving, by a computer, from the client user device, an entry representing a response by a client user into the communication session;

identifying, by a computer, using one or more Natural Language Understanding processes, one or more non-uttered non-DTMF elements in at least a portion of the entry, wherein the identifying is constrained by one or more voice markup grammars according to a voice recognition analysis protocol for a voice-enabled interactive voice response system;

mapping, by a computer, the one or more identified non-uttered non-DTMF elements to generate one or more of the voice markup grammar returns from the non-uttered non-DTMF elements; and

passing, by a computer, the generated voice-markup grammar returns to an interactive voice response system as a user input;

thereby emulating the voice recognition analysis protocol upon non-uttered non-DTMF input and without utterance-driven speech recognition.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the entry comprises a text entry.

3. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising:

subsequent to the passing of the mapped elements to the interactive voice response;

receiving, by a computer, from the voice-enabled interactive voice response system a next greeting, prompt, form or menu;

converting, by a computer, the next greeting, prompt, form or menu to a next text-based message; and

entering, by a computer, the converted next text-based message into the text-based communication session with a client user device.

4. The method as set forth in claim 3 wherein the received next greeting, prompt, form or menu comprises a voice-enabled extensible markup language document.

5. The method as set forth in claim 4 wherein the converting comprises extracting a text string from the voice-enabled extensible markup language document representing a text alternative to a digital voice recording in the voice-enabled extensible markup language document.

6. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising:

prior to the receiving of the entry from the client user device;

receiving, by a computer, from a voice-enabled interactive voice response system an initial greeting, prompt, form or menu;

converting, by a computer, the initial greeting, prompt, form or menu to an initial text-based message; and

entering, by a computer, the converted initial text-based message into the text-based communication session with a client user device.

7. The method as set forth in claim 6 wherein the received initial greeting, prompt, form or menu comprises a voice-enabled extensible markup language document.

8. The method as set forth in claim 7 wherein the converting comprises extracting a text string from the voice-enabled extensible markup language document representing a text alternative to a digital voice recording in the voice-enabled extensible markup language document.

9. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the voice markup grammars comprise a voice-enabled extensible markup language (VMXL) grammar.

10. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the communication session is selected from a group consisting of a web chat session, a conversation of Short Message Service messages, a conversation of mobile computing platform application program messages, a conversation of electronic mail messages, and a conversation of social media messages.

11. A computer program product for bridging a non-voice-based user interface to a voice-enabled interactive voice response system comprising:

a tangible, computer-readable memory device embodying program instructions for causing a processor to, when executed, perform steps of;

during a communication session with a client user device, receiving from the client user device, an entry representing a response by a client user into the communication session;

identifying, using one or more Natural Language Understanding processes, one or more non-uttered non-DTMF elements in at least a portion of the entry, wherein the identifying is constrained by one or more voice markup grammars according to a voice recognition analysis protocol for a voice-enabled interactive voice response system;

mapping the one or more identified non-uttered non-DTMF elements to generate one or more of the voice markup grammar returns from the non-uttered non-DTMF elements; and

passing the generated voice-markup grammar returns to an interactive voice response system as a user input;

thereby emulating the voice recognition analysis protocol upon non-uttered non-DTMF input and without utterance-driven speech recognition.

12. The computer program product as set forth in claim 11 wherein the received entry comprises a text entry.

13. The computer program product as set forth in claim 11 wherein the program instructions further comprise program instructions to:

prior to the receiving of the unstructured natural language non-voice entry from the client user device;

receive from a voice-enabled interactive voice response system an initial greeting, prompt, form or menu;

convert the initial greeting, prompt, form or menu to an initial text-based message; and

enter the converted initial text-based message into the text-based communication session with a client user device; and

subsequent to the passing of the mapped elements to the interactive voice response;

receive from the voice-enabled interactive voice response system a next greeting, prompt, form or menu;

convert the next greeting, prompt, form or menu to a next text-based message; and

enter the converted next text-based message into the text-based communication session with a client user device.

14. The computer program product as set forth in claim 13 wherein the received greeting, prompt, form or menu comprises a voice-enabled extensible markup language document, wherein the allowed responses by the voice-enabled interactive voice response system comprises elements from a voice-enabled extensible markup language grammar.

15. The computer program product as set forth in claim 11 wherein the communication session is selected from a group consisting of a web chat session, a conversation of Short Message Service messages, a conversation of mobile computing platform application program messages, a conversation of electronic mail messages, and a conversation of social media messages.

16. A system for bridging a non-voice-based user interface to a voice-enabled interactive voice response system comprising:

a computer processor; and

a tangible, computer-readable memory device embodying program instructions for causing the processor to, when executed, perform steps of;

during a communication session with a client user device, receiving from the client user device, an entry representing a response by a client user into the communication session;

identifying, using one or more Natural Language Understanding processes, one or more non-uttered non-DTMF elements in at least a portion of the entry, wherein the identifying is constrained by one or more voice markup grammars according to a voice recognition analysis protocol for a voice-enabled interactive voice response system;

mapping the one or more identified non-uttered non-DTMF elements to generate one or more of the voice markup grammar returns from the non-uttered non-DTMF elements; and

passing the generated voice-markup grammar returns to an interactive voice response system as a user input;

thereby emulating the voice recognition analysis protocol upon non-uttered non-DTMF input and without utterance-driven speech recognition.

17. The system as set forth in claim 16 wherein the received comprises a text entry.

18. The system as set forth in claim 16 wherein the program instructions further comprise program instructions to:

prior to the receiving of the unstructured natural language non-voice entry from the client user device;

receive from a voice-enabled interactive voice response system an initial greeting, prompt, form or menu;

convert the initial greeting, prompt, form or menu to an initial text-based message; and

enter the converted initial text-based message into the text-based communication session with a client user device; and

subsequent to the passing of the mapped elements to the interactive voice response;

receive from the voice-enabled interactive voice response system a next greeting, prompt, form or menu;

convert the next greeting, prompt, form or menu to a next text-based message; and

enter the converted next text-based message into the text-based communication session with a client user device.

19. The system as set forth in claim 18 wherein the received greeting, prompt, form or menu comprises a voice-enabled extensible markup language document, wherein the allowed responses by the voice-enabled interactive voice response system comprises elements from a voice-enabled extensible markup language grammar.

20. The system as set forth in claim 16 wherein the communication session is selected from a group consisting of a web chat session, a conversation of Short Message Service messages, a conversation of mobile computing platform application program messages, a conversation of electronic mail messages, and a conversation of social media messages.