Method and apparatus for voice message editing

• US 20060182238A1
• Filed: 12/29/2005
• Published: 08/17/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Groeger, Steven, Lister, Jamie, Hayton, Stuart John, Poultney, Timothy David
• Granted Patent: US 7,706,512 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/88.170
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/00 Speech recognition G10L17/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/00 Speech or voice signal processing techniques to produce another audible or non-audible signal, e.g. visual or tactile, in order to modify its quality or its intelligibility G10L19/00 takes precedence

Abstract

A method and apparatus for voice message editing, particularly a method and apparatus for splicing voicemails sections together. A system, method and computer program product are described for forming a voice message on an interactive voice response system (IVR) spoken by a user including recording a first voice message where the user speaks the first voice message but makes an error in a last portion of the first voice message. A second voice message is recorded where the user speaks the last portion again without the error. Splice points are determined in the first and second voice messages. The first and second voice messages are spliced at the splice points such that the spliced first and second voice message is a continuous voice message including the last portion but not including the error.

Claims

1. A method of forming a voice message spoken by a user on an interactive voice response system (IVR) comprising:

recording a first voice message wherein the user speaks the first voice message but makes an error in a last portion of the first voice message;

recording a second voice message wherein the user speaks the last portion again without the error;

determining splice points in the first and second voice messages; and

splicing the first and second voice messages at the splice points whereby the spliced first and second voice message is a continuous voice message including the last portion but not including the error.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein determination of the splice points comprises determining regions of common voice data in the first and second messages wherein the splice points are corresponding points within the regions of common voice data.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein determination of the common regions and the splice points comprises the following steps:

performing speech recognition on the first and second messages to acquire corresponding first and second recognition text;

determining regions of common text in the first and second recognition text; and

determining the corresponding regions in the first and second voice messages.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the recognition text comprises a phoneme string and not a language word so to reduce the amount of processing used to determine the splice point.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein determination of the common region and splice point is performed by comparing the signal energy over time of the first and second voice messages and determining the most similar energy patterns, the splice point is a low point in the signal which is assumed to be a space between two words.

6. A system of forming a voice message on an interactive voice response system (IVR) spoken by a user comprising:

means for recording a first voice message wherein the user speaks the first voice message but makes an error in a last portion of the first voice message;

means for recording a second voice message wherein the user speaks the last portion again without the error;

means for determining splice points in the first and second voice messages; and

means for splicing the first and second voice messages at the splice points whereby the spliced first and second voice message is a continuous voice message including the last portion but not including the error.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the means for determining the splice points comprises means for determining regions of common voice data in the first and second messages wherein the splice points are corresponding points within the regions of common voice data.

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein the means for determining the common regions and the splice points comprises:

means for performing speech recognition on the first and second messages to acquire corresponding first and second recognition text;

means for determining regions of common text in the first and second recognition text; and

means for determining the corresponding regions in the first and second voice messages.

9. The system according to claim 7, wherein the recognition text comprises a phoneme string and not a language word so to reduce the amount of processing used to determine the splice point.

10. The system according to claim 6, wherein the means for determination of the common region and splice point is performed by means for comparing the signal energy over time of the first and second voice messages and means for determining the most similar energy patterns, the splice point is a low point in the signal which is assumed to be a space between two words.

11. A computer program product for processing one or more sets of data processing tasks to construct a voice message on an interactive voice response system (IVR), said computer program product comprising computer program instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium for, when loaded into a computer and executed, causing a computer to carry out the steps of:

recording a first voice message wherein the user speaks the first voice message but makes an error in a last portion of the first voice message;

recording a second voice message wherein the user speaks the last portion again without the error;

determining splice points in the first and second voice messages; and

splicing the first and second voice messages at the splice points whereby the spliced first and second voice message is a continuous voice message including the last portion but not including the error.

12. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein determination of the splice points comprises determining regions of common voice data in the first and second messages wherein the splice points are corresponding points within the regions of common voice data.

13. The computer program product according to claim 12, wherein determination of the common regions and the splice points comprises the following steps:

performing speech recognition on the first and second messages to acquire corresponding first and second recognition text;

determining regions of common text in the first and second recognition text; and

determining the corresponding regions in the first and second voice messages.

14. The computer program product according to claim 13, wherein the recognition text comprises a phoneme string and not a language word so to reduce the amount of processing used to determine the splice point.

15. The computer program product according to claim 12, wherein determination of the common region and splice point is performed by comparing the signal energy over time of the first and second voice messages and determining the most similar energy patterns, the splice point is a low point in the signal which is assumed to be a space between two words.