PROVIDING CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION FOR SPOKEN INFORMATION

• US 20080064371A1
• Filed: 08/16/2007
• Published: 03/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Pollard, John, Madhavapeddi, Shreedhar
• Granted Patent: US 7,970,608 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/412.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/353 where the information comprises non-audio but is provided over voice channels protocols for multimedia information services per se H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4518 Attachments to voicemail messages including annexed information, e.g. Attachments, in packet switching networks H04L51/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/18 wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53366 Message disposing or creating aspects

Abstract

Techniques are described for providing relevant information to users (e.g., information that is at least potentially of interest to the users). Relevant information for a user may be automatically determined based on a determined context of the user and/or on a request for that information from the user. For example, voice-based information may be obtained from a user in one or more ways, and then analyzed to identify requests or other indications of information of interest and/or to otherwise determine a context of the user that corresponds to potential information of interest. Relevant information for a user may be provided to the user in various ways, such as via a voice-based response during a telephone call and/or via one or more electronic messages sent to the user (e.g., via emails, instant messages, paging messages, SMS or other text messages, etc.).

Claims

1. A method for a computing device to provide relevant information based on spoken information, the method comprising:

receiving a spoken voice message intended for one or more recipients that is provided by a user during a telephone call;

analyzing the received voice message to identify one or more spoken expressions in the received voice message to which one or more pieces of promotional material have previously been associated; and

automatically associating at least one of the one or more pieces of promotional material with the received voice message in such a manner that the associated at least one promotional material pieces are provided to at least one of the recipients of the voice message.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the computing device is part of a voice-based service that provides functionality to multiple users, and wherein the receiving of the spoken voice message provided by the user during the telephone call includes receiving the telephone call from the user using one of one or more telephone connections of the voice-based service and recording the spoken voice message during the telephone call.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the associating of the at least one promotional material pieces with the received voice message includes, for each of the at least one recipients, sending one or more electronic messages to the recipient that include the at least one promotional material pieces.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the one or more electronic messages sent to each of the at least one recipients include content from the voice message.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the at least one recipient is the user, and wherein the user has previously registered with the voice-based service so as to provide the voice-based service with one or more electronic message addresses for the user to which the one or more electronic messages are sent.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the one or more electronic messages include at least one of an email message, an instant message, and a text message.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein the associating of the at least one promotional material pieces with the received voice message includes, for each of the at least one recipients, storing the at least one promotional material pieces together with content from the voice message in such a manner that the at least one promotional material pieces are provided together with the voice message content to a recipient who retrieves the stored voice message content.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the at least one recipient is the user, wherein the user has not previously registered with the voice-based service, and wherein the stored at least one promotional material pieces are provided to the user only after the user provides validation information to the voice-based service.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the stored at least one promotional material pieces are associated with a telephone number from which the user placed the telephone call to the voice-based service, and wherein the validation information includes an indication that the telephone number is assigned to the user.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the stored at least one promotional material pieces are provided to the at least one recipients after termination of the telephone call.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing the associated at least one promotional material pieces to the user in spoken form during the telephone call.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing the received voice message and the at least one associated promotional material pieces to the at least one recipients.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more pieces of promotional material include information for use by the user in obtaining a discount or other benefit from a provider of one or more goods and/or services, and wherein the one or more pieces of promotional material are associated with the one or more spoken expressions by the provider.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the one or more spoken expressions include at least one word associated with the provider and/or with at least one of the one or more goods and/or services.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the information for use by the user in obtaining the discount or other benefit from the provider includes a coupon and/or a promotional code.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the information for use by the user in obtaining the discount or other benefit from the provider is for use when the user presents an indication of the information at a physical retail location of the provider.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more pieces of promotional material include marketing information regarding a provider of one or more products, and wherein the one or more pieces of promotional material are associated with the one or more spoken expressions by the provider.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more pieces of promotional material include one or more advertisements for a product, wherein the one or more spoken expressions include a name associated with the product and/or a type of the product, and wherein the one or more advertisements are associated with the one or more spoken expressions by a provider of the product.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein indications of the one or more spoken expressions are provided to the user and to numerous other users using one or more broadcast mediums.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein an indication of a telephone number to use in placing the telephone call is provided to the user and to the numerous other users using the one or more broadcast mediums.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the user is prompted to place the telephone call and/or to speak the one or more spoken works based at least in part on information provided to the user via mass-market print media.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein the user is prompted to place the telephone call and/or to speak the one or more spoken works based at least in part on information provided to the user via audio and/or video information provided to numerous users via one or more broadcast mediums.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the user is prompted to place the telephone call and/or to speak the one or more spoken works based at least in part on information provided to the user via one or more billboards.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein the analyzing of the received voice message to identify the one or more spoken expressions in the received voice message is performed in an automatic manner based at least in part on automated speech recognition.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein the computing device is part of a voice-based service that provides information other than promotional information to multiple users, and wherein the method further comprises providing one or more other pieces of non-promotional information to the user based at least in part on receiving the spoken voice message.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the voice-based service provides information related to directory services, and wherein the one or more other pieces of non-promotional information include directory services information related to one or more types of goods and/or services.

27. The method of claim 25 wherein the at least one recipient is the user, wherein the user has previously registered with the voice-based service so as to previously provide the voice-based service with demographic and/or location information specific to the user, and wherein the one or more other pieces of non-promotional information are automatically provided to the user based at least in part on the previously provided demographic and/or location information specific to the user.

28. The method of claim 25 wherein the received voice message includes a request from the user for the one or more other pieces of non-provisional information.

29. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one recipient is the user, and wherein the received voice message includes a reminder to the user to perform an action at a later time.

30. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one recipient is the user, wherein the one or more pieces of promotional material are supplied by a provider of one or more goods and services, and wherein the one or more pieces of promotional material are provided to the user without supplying information about an identity of the user to the provider, so as to allow users to anonymously obtain promotional information from one or more providers of goods and services.

31. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one recipient is the user, wherein the one or more pieces of promotional material are supplied by a provider of one or more goods and services, and wherein the method further comprises charging a fee to the provider for providing the one or more pieces of promotional material to the user.

32. A computer-readable medium whose contents enable a computing device to provide relevant information based on spoken information, by performing a method comprising:

for each of multiple users, receiving spoken information provided by the user during a telephone call, the spoken information from each user including an expression previously indicated to that user by an advertiser for use in obtaining information about an advertised product associated with the indicated expression; and

responding to each of the multiple users by, after analyzing the received spoken information from that user to identify the included indicated expression, providing to the user the information about the advertised product associated with the indicated expression.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 32 wherein the spoken information provided by one of the multiple users is a spoken voice message for later retrieval by the one user, and wherein the providing to the one user of the information about the advertised product associated with the indicated expression included by the one user in the spoken voice message occurs after the telephone call with the one user has ended.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 32 wherein the computing device is part of a voice-based service that provides functionality to multiple users and to multiple advertisers, the multiple advertisers each specifying one or more of multiple distinct expressions and providing distinct associated promotional information for each specified expression, so that the multiple users may include the multiple expressions in spoken information provided to the voice-based service and receive the associated promotional material for those expressions.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 32 wherein the computer-readable medium is at least one of a memory of a computing device and a data transmission medium that transmits a generated data signal containing the contents.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 32 wherein the contents are instructions that when executed cause the computing device to perform the method.

37. A computing system configured to provide relevant information based on spoken information, comprising:

one or more memories; and

one or more components configured to provide functionality to multiple users registered with a voice-based service based on spoken information from the users, each registered user having at least one associated electronic message address to which electronic messages may be sent, the providing of the functionality including;

receiving spoken information from each of multiple registered users during telephone calls with the voice-based service; and

responding to each of the multiple registered users by,

analyzing the received spoken information from the user to identify one or more spoken expressions in the received spoken information with which one or more pieces of relevant information are associated; and

providing at least one of the one or more associated pieces of relevant information to the user by sending one or more electronic messages to the user using the at least one associated electronic message address for the user.

38. The computing system of claim 37 wherein the one or more components are further configured to provide functionality to multiple unregistered users based on spoken information from the unregistered users, the providing of the functionality to the multiple unregistered users including:

receiving spoken information from each of multiple unregistered users during telephone calls with the voice-based service; and

responding to each of the multiple unregistered users by,

analyzing the received spoken information from the user to identify one or more spoken expressions in the received spoken information with which one or more pieces of relevant information are associated; and

providing at least one of the one or more associated pieces of relevant information to the user by at least one of sending one or more electronic messages to the user using at least one electronic message address for the user that is indicated by the user in the received spoken information from the user, storing information from later retrieval by the user after the user provides validation information, and interactively providing information to the user during the telephone call in which the spoken information from the user is received.

39. The computing system of claim 37 wherein, for each of at least one of the users, the spoken information received from the user is a voice message intended for later retrieval by the user and/or one or more recipients other than the user.

40. The computing system of claim 37 wherein, for each of at least one of the users, the identified one or more spoken expressions in the spoken information received from the user include at least one expression previously indicated to that user by an advertiser for use in obtaining information about an advertised product associated with the indicated expression, and wherein at least one of the one or more associated pieces of relevant information includes information about the advertised product.

41. The computing system of claim 37 wherein the one or more components include software instructions for execution by the computing system.

42. The computing system of claim 37 wherein the one or more components consist of a means for providing functionality to multiple users registered with a voice-based service based on spoken information from the users, each registered user having at least one associated electronic message address to which electronic messages may be sent, the providing of the functionality including:

receiving spoken information from each of multiple registered users during telephone calls with the voice-based service; and

responding to each of the multiple registered users by,

analyzing the received spoken information from the user to identify one or more spoken expressions in the received spoken information with which one or more pieces of relevant information are associated; and

providing at least one of the one or more associated pieces of relevant information to the user by sending one or more electronic messages to the user using the at least one associated electronic message address for the user.