AGE DETERMINATION USING SPEECH

• US 20080235019A1
• Filed: 03/23/2007
• Published: 09/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Business Network Services, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: WITZMAN, Kevin R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,881,933 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/251
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/26 Recognition of special voice characteristics, e.g. for use in lie detectors; Recognition of animal voices

Abstract

A device may include logic configured to receive voice data from a user, identify a result from the voice data, calculate a confidence score associated with the result, and determine a likely age range associated with the user based on the confidence score.

Claims

1. A device, comprising:

logic configured to;

receive voice data from a user,

identify a result from the voice data,

calculate a confidence score associated with the result, and

determine a likely age range associated with the user based on the confidence score.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the logic configured to identify a result from the voice data, comprises:

logic configured to perform speech recognition on the voice data to generate the result.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the confidence score comprises a scaled confidence score.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein the scaled confidence score is scaled with respect to an average confidence score.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the confidence score comprises a weighted confidence score.

6. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

logic configured to identify a response time associated with the voice data; and

logic configured to determine the likely age range associated with the user based on the confidence score and the response time associated with the voice data.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the response time comprises a scaled response time.

8. The device of claim 7, wherein the scaled response time is scaled with respect to an expected response time.

9. The device of claim 6, wherein the response time comprises a weighted response time.

10. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

logic configured to determine a correctness score relating to a correctness of the result with respect to a provided query; and

logic configured to determine the likely age range associated with the user based on the confidence score and the correctness score.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the correctness score comprises a weighted correctness score.

12. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

logic configured to receive a request for age verification from a service provider, the request including one of a telephone number associated with the user, or a voice over internet protocol address associated with the user.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein the service provider comprises a web server associated with an age-restricted service.

14. The device of claim 12, wherein the service provider comprises a telephony server associated with an age-restricted telephony service.

15. The device of claim 12, further comprising:

logic configured to place an outbound call to the user based on the received request.

16. The device of claim 15, further comprising:

logic configured to determine whether the user answered the outbound call; and

logic configured to determine that the user is in a predetermined age group when it is determined that the user did not answer the outbound call.

17. The device of claim 15, further comprising:

logic configured to provide a query in the outbound call for eliciting the voice data.

18. The device of claim 12, further comprising:

logic configured to transmit the likely age range associated with the user to the service provider.

19. A method, comprising:

providing a query to a user;

receiving voice data responsive to the query;

performing speech recognition on the voice data to identify a query answer;

identifying a confidence score associated with the query answer; and

calculating an age verification score associated with the user based on the identified confidence score.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the voice data response to the query is indicative of an age category of the user.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

identifying a response time associated with the received voice data; and

calculating the age verification score based on the confidence score and the response time.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

identifying a correctness of the query answer based on the provided query; and

calculating the age verification score based on the confidence score, the response time, and the correctness of the query.

23. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

determining whether the caller is an adult based on the age verification score.

24. An age verification device, comprising:

a dialog processing engine configured to;

receive voice data from a user,

identify a query answer from the voice data, and

calculate a confidence score associated with the query answer; and

logic configured to;

identify a response time associated with the voice data,

determine a correctness of the query answer, and

generate a score indicative of whether the user is an adult based on at least one of the confidence score, the response time, or the correctness of the query answer.