Data retrieval assistance system and method utilizing a speech recognition system and a live operator

• US 20020019737A1
• Filed: 06/04/2001
• Published: 02/14/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Don Hornback, Robert O. Stuart, Scott P. Stuart
• Original Assignee: Don Hornback, Robert O. Stuart, Scott P. Stuart
• Inventors: Hornback, Don, Stuart, Scott P., Stuart, Robert O.
• Granted Patent: US 6,643,622 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/357 Autocues for dialog assistance
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4931 Directory assistance systems

Abstract

A method and apparatus utilizes a personal speech recognition system to enable data retrieval assistance operators to retrieve customer requested information from an information database based upon a voiced inquiry by the operator. Instead of requiring an operator to interpret a calling customer'"'"'s request and communicate the same to a computer via a number of keyboard strokes, the live operator may submit the same or equivalent inquiry via a voice utterance that is recognized by the searching computer as a searchable inquiry by a speech recognition system, which is preferably trained to recognize the particular voice of the live operator. Only the voice of the live operator needs to be identified by the voice recognition unit, and the incorporation of the voice recognition technology into the system is thus transparent to the requesting customer. Once the appropriate data is found, the information is released to the requester in a conventional manner, automatically, or after a particular voice command is uttered by the live operator to the computer.

Claims

1. A data retrieval assistance system for providing requested information to a requester based upon identifying information provided by the requester, the system comprising:

means for conveying said identifying information to a live operator;

a computer having access to an information database, and means for searching said database in response to an inquiry; and

a voice communication interface from said live operator to said computer that includes a speech recognition system capable of converting a spoken inquiry from said live operator into an interpreted searchable inquiry that is available to said means for searching.

2. The data retrieval assistance system of claim 1 wherein said means for conveying includes an audio recording apparatus and a playback device.

3. The data retrieval assistance system of claim 1 wherein said speech recognition system is specifically trained to recognize a voice of said live operator.

4. The data retrieval assistance system of claim 1 further comprising a manual communication interface from said live operator to said computer.

5. The data retrieval assistance system of claim 1 further comprising a direct voice communication interface from said requester to said computer that includes an independent speech recognition system capable of converting said identifying information spoken by said requestor into an independent searchable inquiry that is available to said means for searching.

6. The data retrieval assistance system of claim 5 further comprising means for merging a first search result based upon said independent searchable inquiry with a second search result based upon said interpreted searchable inquiry.

7. The data retrieval assistance system of claim 1 further comprising a video display interface between said computer and said live operator that is capable of visually communicating a search result to said live operator.

8. A method of data retrieval assistance for providing requested information to a requestor based upon identifying information provided by the requestor, comprising the steps of:

establishing a communication link between a directory assistance system and a requestor;

conveying said identifying information to a live operator;

positioning a speech recognition system between said live operator and a computer having access to an information database;

searching said information database at least partially in response to an utterance spoken by said live operator to said computer via said speech recognition system, wherein at least a portion of said utterance is an interpretation of at least a portion of said identifying information; and

providing a search result to said requester.

9. The method of data retrieval assistance of claim 8 wherein said conveying step includes the steps of:

recording a requester utterance made by said requester;

playing back a portion of said requester utterance to said live operator.

10. The method of data retrieval assistance of claim 8 further comprising a step of specifically training said voice recognition system to recognize speech by said live operator.

11. The method of data retrieval assistance of claim 8 further comprising a step of identifying a group of most frequently requested data that is a subset of said information database.

12. The method of data retrieval assistance of claim 11 further comprising the steps of:

determining whether said identifying information corresponds to one of said most frequently requested data; and

if said identifying information corresponds to one of said most frequently requested data, then searching said subset of said information database at least partially in response to said utterance spoken by said live operator to said computer.

13. The method of data retrieval assistance of claim 8 further comprising the steps of:

displaying a search result on a view screen visible to said live operator;

choosing a single data group if said search result includes a plurality of data groups; and

providing said single data group to said requestor; and

at least one of said choosing step and said providing step includes a voiced communication from said live operator to said computer.

14. The method of data retrieval assistance of claim 8 further comprising the steps of:

conveying said identifying information to a direct voice communication interface from said requester to said computer; and

converting said identifying information with an independent speech recognition system into an independent searchable inquiry.

16. The software program of claim 15 wherein said searchable inquiry includes a plurality of keywords distributed into a plurality of search fields.

17. The software program of claim 15 further comprising means for displaying a search result to said individual live operator.

18. The software program of claim 15 further comprising means for interpreting voiced commands spoken by said individual live operator.

19. The software program of claim 15 further comprising means for playing recordings made by said individual live operator to a third party requester.

20. The software program of claim 15 further comprising means for training said speech recognition system to recognize words from a selected vocabulary.

15. A software program executable by a computer processor for use in a data retrieval assistance system, the software comprising:

means for training a speech recognition system to recognize words spoken by an individual live operator;

means for converting words spoken by said individual live operator into a searchable inquiry;

means for searching a information database using said searchable inquiry; and

means for providing a search result based upon said searchable inquiry to a third party requester.