Voice-operated interface for DTMF-controlled systems

• US 20020090066A1
• Filed: 01/10/2001
• Published: 07/11/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gupta, Narendra K., Stern, Benjamin J.
• Granted Patent: US 6,868,142 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/88.03
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/00 Speaker identification or verification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/24 the user being prompted to utter a password or a predefined phrase
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/271 controlled by voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6041 Portable telephones adapted for handsfree use
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/652 Means for playing back the recorded messages by remote control over a telephone line H04M1/658 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/665 by checking the validity of a code
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72433 for voice messaging, e.g. dictaphones for answering incoming calls H04M1/64
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53333 Message receiving aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 1/45 using multi-frequency signalling H04Q1/46 takes precedence

Abstract

An arrangement for allowing “hands-free” access to DTMF-controlled systems, such as one'"'"'s voice mail messaging systems, utilizes a speech-to-DTMF tone application that monitors the communication between the user and the DTMF-controlled system. A speech recognition unit is utilized to retrieve certain voice commands (e.g., “next”, “skip”, “repeat”, “forward”, etc.) when uttered by the user. The application then translates the received commands into the proper DTMF tone sequence used by the DTMF-controlled system and transmits the DTMF tones to the system. The application is particularly useful in the cell phone environment and avoids the necessity of the user to constantly switch between using the keypad and listening to messages/commands from the system.

Claims

1. A voice-operated arrangement for interacting with a dual-tone multifrequency (DTMF)-controlled system, the arrangement comprising

a speech recognition unit responsive to voice commands from a user and generating a digital signal representative of a particular received voice command;

a speech-to-DTMF tones application, responsive to the digital signal outputs from the speech recognition unit for accessing a proper user record from a plurality of user records, retrieving dial-out information for the accessed user'"'"'s DTMF-controlled system and completing a communication path between the user and said DTMF-controlled system, wherein said voice-operated arrangement monitors the communication path and retrieves predetermined voice commands uttered by the user and translates said predetermined voice prompts into DTMF tones which are thereafter transmitted to said DTMF-controlled system.

2. The arrangement as defined in claim 1 wherein each user record includes a spoken voice identification field.

3. The arrangement as defined in claim 2 wherein each user record further includes a spoken voice password field.

4. The arrangement as defined in claim 1 wherein each user record comprises a plurality of different fields for each DTMF-controlled system associated with that user.

5. The arrangement as defined in claim 4 wherein the plurality of different fields for a DTMF-controlled system in a user record comprises a dial-out access number for the DTMF-controlled system and a mapping of a plurality of voice commands to an associated plurality of DTMF tone sequences.

6. The arrangement as defined in claim 5 wherein the plurality of different fields further comprises a series of DTMF tones for accessing the proper DTMF-controlled system within the user'"'"'s plurality of such systems.

7. The arrangement as defined in claim 1 wherein at least one DMTF-controlled system is a voice messaging system.

8. A method for interacting with at least one DTMF-controlled telecommunications system, the method comprising the steps of:

a) accessing, by a user, a speech-to-DTMF tone application;

b) retrieving a proper user record for the user identified in step a);

c) dialing out, by the application, to a DTMF-controlled system included in the user record retrieved in step b);

d) bridging together the call between the user and the application and the call between the application and the DTMF-controlled system;

e) in response to predefined voice commands uttered by the user and received by the speech-to-DTMF tone application, translating said voice commands into one or more DTMF tones accepted as commands by the DTMF-controlled system; and

f) transmitting said translated DTMF tone commands from the speech-to-DTMF tone application to the DTMF-controlled system.

9. The method as defined in claim 8 wherein in performing step a), the method comprises the additional step of authorizing a user by requesting and validating a spoken user password.

10. The method as defined in claim 8 wherein the method is used for retrieving messages from a plurality of different messaging systems associated with a single user, the method comprising the further steps of

g) querying the user record for additional DTMF-controlled system fields;

and

h) repeating steps c)-f) for each additional DTMF-controlled system.