System and method for capturing, matching and linking information in a global communications network

• US 20020107918A1
• Filed: 12/20/2001
• Published: 08/08/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Targus Information Corporation (Neustar Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Targus Information Corporation (Neustar Incorporated)
• Inventors: Moore, George G., Shaffer, James D., Gallagher, Daniel E.
• Application Number:
  US10/029,539
• Publication Number:
  US 20020107918A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/30 Distributed recognition, e.g. in client-server systems, for mobile phones or network applications
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context

Abstract

A system that flexibly, retrieves, processes and distributes data across a global computer network is disclosed. Within the system, a first party identifier is captured and converted into a Linkage Key, such as a United States Postal Service Delivery point code (11-digit zip code). The Linkage Key is then used to retrieve Linkage Key indexed data from various network nodes that house components of a virtual Linkage Key indexed database. A Voice Recognition Server uses dynamic grammars built using a captured identifier of a communicating party to efficiently translate speech in a network configuration.

Claims

1. A method of recognizing speech in a communication network based on captured information related to the speaker, the method comprising:

capturing an identifier related to a speaker provided over a communication network;

capturing a vocal expression of the speaker;

selecting a subset of records from a plurality of records based on the captured identifier; and

determining information related to the vocal expression based on the captured vocal expression and information determined from the subset of records.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing an identifier related to a speaker comprises automatically capturing information provided without input from the speaker.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the identifier related to a speaker comprises spatial information.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein selecting a subset of records based on the captured identifier comprises selecting a subset of records spatially related to the captured identifier.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the meaning of the vocal expression comprises verifying an identification of the speaker.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the capturing step is performed by a first server and the determining step is performed by a second server different from the first server.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a linkage key based on the captured identifier.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a linkage key based on the meaning of the vocal expression.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the linkage key is a spatial key that defines a geographic location.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising using the linkage key to obtain information related to the speaker.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifier comprises a telephone number.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifier comprises address information.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the address information includes one or more of a street address, mailing address, zip code, electronic mail address, Internet address, and Web address.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifier comprises location information.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the location information is one of a V&

H coordinate pair, latitude/longitude information, street address, and spatial key.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the vocal expression is a name.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the name includes one or more of a first name, last name, street name, city name, state name, country name.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the vocal expression is a number.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the number is one of a telephone number, zip code, social security number, or database index.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step comprises indexing, based on the identifier, to a record containing information related to the vocal expression.

21. A method of recognizing speech in a communication network based on captured information related to the speaker, the method comprising:

selecting a record from a first subset of records, wherein the record represents multiple items;

determining from the selected record that a second subset of records is required to identify a specific item from the multiple items represented by the selected record;

prompting a speaker to provide information to identify the specific item from the second subset of records;

capturing speech that represents the specific item; and

comparing the captured speech a dynamic grammar based on the second subset of records.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the first subset of records comprises street address information and the second subset of records comprises secondary address information related to a particular street address.