METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR INTERACTIVELY SYNTHESIZING CALL CENTER RESPONSES USING MULTI-LANGUAGE TEXT-TO-SPEECH SYNTHESIZERS

• US 20080084974A1
• Filed: 09/25/2006
• Published: 04/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dhanakshirur, Girish
• Application Number:
  US11/534,865
• Publication Number:
  US 20080084974A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/88.18
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/39 using speech synthesis speech synthesis per se G10L13/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2061 Language aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4936 Speech interaction details speech recognition per se G10L15/00

Abstract

A method and system for interactively synthesizing responses to a caller'"'"'s queries includes using a text to speech synthesizer in a call center environment. A telephone network capable of receiving one or more telephone calls distributes calls to at least one or more call handlers. An interactive voice recognition platform having at least one database identifies an phone number associated with an incoming call and matches the phone number with the local language of the caller and provides this information in a signal to a media splitter. The call handler responds to the caller'"'"'s queries by typing response information to the caller through a graphical unit interface at a workstation. A voice server receives the response information sends a signal to a text to speech synthesizer for conversion into speech. The produced speech from the text to speech synthesizer is sent back to the caller via the network and the caller is able to hear the answer to the caller'"'"'s queries in the caller'"'"'s local language.

Claims

1. A system for interactively synthesizing call center responses using multi-language text-to-speech synthesizers, the system comprising:

an interactive voice response platform, wherein the interactive voice response platform comprises;

a number-to-language lookup database; and

at least one multi language test-to-speech synthesizer connectable to the interactive voice response platform.

2. The system as in claim 1, further comprising a media splitter connectable to the interactive voice response platform.

3. The system as in claim 2, further comprising a voice extensible markup language browser connectable to the media splitter.

4. The system as in claim 3, further comprising a voice server connectable to the voice extensible markup language browser connectable to the media splitter.

5. The system as in claim 4, wherein the voice server is a Web Sphere voice server.

6. The system as in claim 4, farther comprising at least one multi-language text-to-speech synthesizer connectable to the voice server.

7. The system as in claim 1, further comprising a call handler node, wherein the call handler node comprises:

a telephone adapter;

a speaker connectable to the telephone adapter; and

a workstation for inputting call responses derived from the speaker.

8. A method for interactively synthesizing call center responses using multi-language text-to-speech synthesizers, the method comprising;

connecting a call to an interactive voice response platform

determining the call origination language;

splitting an output signal from the interactive voice response platform into a plurality of output signals, wherein splitting the output signal from the interactive voice response platform further comprises;

providing a first one of the plurality of output signals as an input to a call handler node, wherein the first one of the plurality of output signals contains audio information; and

providing a second one of the plurality of output signals as an input into a voice extensible markup language browser, wherein the second one of the plurality of output signals contains information associated with the caller'"'"'s language;

providing a text response from the call handler node in response to the audio information; and

converting the text response to an audio signal in accordance with the call origination language.

9. The method as in claim 8 wherein connecting the call to the interactive voice response platform telephone network further comprises connecting the call via a public switched telephone network.

10. The method as in claim 8, wherein determining the call origination language further comprises indexing a caller identification phone number to language database

11. The method as in claim 8, wherein providing the first one of the plurality of output signals as an input to the call handler node further comprises adapting the first one of the plurality of output signals to an audio output.

12. The method as in claim 8, wherein converting the text response to audio speech in accordance with the call origination language further comprises providing a voice server for rendering an audio response of the audio signal.

13. The method as in claim 12, wherein providing the voice server for rendering the audio response of the audio signal further comprises providing a Websphere voice server.

14. The method as in claim 13, wherein providing the text response from the call handler node in response to the audio information further comprises providing the text response from the call handler node to the voice extensible markup language browser.

15. The method as in claim 13, further comprising providing the text response from the voice extensible markup language browser to the voice server.

16. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method for interactively synthesizing call center responses using multi-language text-to-speech synthesizers, the method comprising;

connecting a call to an interactive voice response platform, wherein connecting the call to the interactive voice response platform telephone network further comprises connecting the call via a public switched telephone network;

determining the call origination language, wherein determining the call origination language further comprises indexing a caller identification phone number to language database;

splitting an output signal from the interactive voice response platform into a plurality of output signals, wherein splitting the output signal from the interactive voice response platform further comprises;

providing a first one of the plurality of output signals as an input to a call handler node, wherein the first one of the plurality of output signals contains audio information and wherein providing the first one of the plurality of output signals as an input to the call handler node further comprises adapting the first one of the plurality of output signals to an audio output;

providing a second one of the plurality of output signals as an input into a voice extensible markup language browser, wherein the second one of the plurality of output signals contains information associated with the caller'"'"'s language;

providing a text response from the call handler node in response to the audio information; and

converting the text response to an audio signal in accordance with the call origination language, wherein converting the text response to audio speech in accordance with the call origination language further comprises providing a voice server for rendering an audio response of the audio signal.