System and method for the automated collection of data for grammar creation

• US 20050055216A1
• Filed: 09/04/2003
• Published: 03/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Inventors: Elliott, John T., Novak, Shannon D., Pasquale, Theodore B., Bushey, Robert R., Knott, Benjamin A.
• Application Number:
  US10/655,437
• Publication Number:
  US 20050055216A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/277
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/063 Training
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/193 Formal grammars, e.g. finite state automata, context free grammars or word networks

Abstract

A system and method for automatically collecting data for grammar creation includes one or more receiving devices, a collection module, a speech recognition engine, and a routing module. The receiving device receives a plurality of inbound inquiries from customers while the collection module queries the customers for an opening statement including a customer task. The speech recognition engine recognizes the speech of the customers in the opening statements and analyzes the one or more recognized words in the speech of the customer. The routing module identifies the customer task from the recognized speech of the opening statement, determines the correct routing destination for the inbound inquiry based on the analysis of the recognized words, and automatically routes the inbound inquiry to the correct routing destination. The system and method further includes a tuning module that creates and modifies grammars that enable more accurate speech recognition.

Claims

1. A method for automated grammar collection for the improvement of speech recognition, the method comprising:

receiving one or more inbound inquiries from one or more customers;

querying the customer for a customer task for the inbound inquiry by asking the customer an open-ended question;

receiving from the customer one or more opening statements, each opening statement including one or more customer tasks associated with the inbound inquiry;

storing the one or more opening statements in a database;

associating a plurality of routing destinations with one or more customer task slots with each routing destination having a unique customer task slot combination;

recognizing one or more of words in the opening statements utilizing speech recognition in order to determine the customer task;

storing the recognized words and one or more unrecognized words in a database;

determining a confidence value for the speech recognition of each of the recognized words in the opening statement;

asking the customer one or more directed dialog questions if the confidence value for one or more of the recognized words is below a threshold;

asking the customer one or more directed dialog questions if the there are one or more unrecognized words;

placing the recognized words having a confidence value above the threshold in one or more corresponding customer task slots until filling one of the unique customer task slot combinations with recognized words;

routing the inbound inquiry to the routing destination associated with the filled customer task slot combination;

creating an association between the routing destination associated with the filled customer task slot combination and the opening statement;

storing the routing destination for the inbound inquiry and the association between the routing destination and the opening statement in a database;

utilizing the recognized words in the opening statements to build one or more grammars to facilitate speech recognition;

analyzing the opening statements, the routing destinations, and the association between the routing destinations and the opening statements; and

tuning a plurality of speech recognition capabilities using the analysis of the opening statements, the routing destinations, and the association between the routing destinations and the opening statements.

2. A method for automatically collecting and utilizing a plurality of grammars, the method comprising

receiving one or more inbound inquiries from one or more customers;

querying the customer for an opening statement including a customer task for the inbound inquiry;

recognizing one or more words in the opening statement utilizing a speech recognition application;

analyzing the recognized words in the opening statement;

identifying the customer task from the opening statement;

determining a correct routing destination for the inbound inquiry based on the analysis of the opening statement and the customer task;

automatically routing the inbound inquiry to the correct routing destination;

analyzing each opening statement and each associated correct routing destination; and

tuning the speech recognition application using the analysis of the opening statements and each associated correct routing destination.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein querying the customer comprises asking the customer an open-ended question regarding a purpose for the inbound inquiry.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising utilizing the recognized words in the opening statements to build one or more grammars to facilitate speech recognition.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein analyzing the recognized words in the opening statement comprises associating a plurality of routing destinations with one of a plurality of customer task slot combinations where each customer task slot combination includes one or more customer task slots.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein determining the correct routing destination comprises placing the recognized words having a confidence value above a threshold in one or more of the customer task slots associated with the routing destinations until filling one of the customer task slot combinations with recognized words.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising routing the inbound inquiry to the routing destination associated with the filled customer task slot combination.

8. The method of claim 2 further comprising providing to the customer a directed dialog in response to receiving one or more unrecognized words in the opening statement.

9. The method of claim 2 further comprising storing the correct routing destination for the inbound inquiry and an association between the correct routing destination and the opening statement in a database.

10. The method of claim 2 wherein tuning the speech recognition application comprises training the speech recognition application to recognize one or more different combinations of the words in the opening statement based on an order of the words within the opening statement.

11. The method of claim 2 wherein tuning the speech recognition application comprises utilizing the words in the opening statement to increase the number of words recognized by the speech recognition application.

12. A automated grammar collection system, the system comprising:

one or more receiving devices operable to receive a plurality of inbound inquiries from one or more customers;

a collection module associated with the receiving device, the collection module operable to query the customers for one or more opening statements including one or more customer tasks;

a speech recognition engine associated with the collection module, the speech recognition engine operable to recognize one or more words in the opening statements and analyze the recognized words in the opening statements; and

a routing module associated with the speech recognition engine, the routing module operable to identify the customer task from the opening statement, determine a routing destination for the inbound inquiry based on the analysis of the opening statement, and automatically route the inbound inquiry to the routing destination.

13. The system of claim 12 further comprising one or more databases operable to store the opening statements, the recognized words, the routing destinations, and an association between the opening statements and the routing destinations.

14. A system of claim 12 further comprising the speech recognition engine operable to determine a confidence value for the speech recognition of each of the words in the opening statements.

15. The system of claim 14 further comprising the collection module operable to present to the customer a directed dialog if the confidence value for one or more of the words is below a threshold.

16. The system of claim 12 further comprising the collection module operable to ask the customer one or more direct dialog questions when the speech recognition engine recognizes no words in the opening statement.

17. The system of claim 12 further comprising the collection module operable to provide to the customer a directed dialog when there are one or more unrecognized words in the opening statement.

18. The system of claim 12 further comprising a tuning module associated with the speech recognition engine, the tuning module operable to analyze each opening statement and an associated routing destination.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the tuning module is further operable to train the speech recognition engine to recognize one or more different combinations of the words in the opening statement.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein the tuning module is further operable to utilize the words in the opening statements to increase the number of words recognized by the speech recognition engine.