ACTIVITY RECORDING OF CONTACT HANDLING SYSTEM AGENTS

• US 20130016115A1
• Filed: 07/13/2011
• Published: 01/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: inContact Incorporated (Nice Ltd)
• Original Assignee: inContact Incorporated (Nice Ltd)
• Inventors: Minert, Brian D., Peterson, David
• Granted Patent: US 9,111,239 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/589
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0021 Image watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/167 Systems rendering the television signal unintelligible and subsequently intelligible

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for recording agent activity and display information optionally redacting sensitive information from the recorded imagery prior to review by the agent'"'"'s supervisor in a contact handling system are disclosed. The method can include recording image data displayed to the agent on a visual display during interaction by the agent with the contact media. The method can include audio recordings of what the agent heard and spoke that are combined with the recorded image data to simultaneously display the video and audio to a supervisor for quality assurance in the contact handling system. The method can further include modifying one or more selected pixels of the recorded image data to automatically exclude information from the recorded image data thereby creating redacted image data.

Claims

1. In a contact handling system, a method for redacting selected image data that is later used for monitoring the activity of an agent responding to contact media, comprising:

recording image data displayed to the agent on a visual display during interaction by the agent with the contact media; and

modifying one or more selected pixels of the recorded image data to automatically exclude information from the recorded image data thereby creating redacted image data.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the contact handling system includes:

a media server, which handles connection paths for contact media;

an automatic contact distributor, which tracks the state of each contact and agent, supplying idle agents with waiting contact media;

an interactive voice response unit, which provides pre-recorded audio prompts to incoming voice contact media;

storage for storing redacted data received from the agent workstation along with other electronic files; and

a contact handling network connected to telephony and/or outside packet-based network.

3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising displaying the redacted image data to a supervisor of the agent in the contact handling system.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more selected pixels of the recorded image are modified based on a predetermined color value of the one or more selected pixels.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein each selected pixel of the predetermined color value is automatically modified to have a color value of an adjacent different colored pixel.

6. A method according to claim 5, wherein the predetermined color value is a near-color of pixels that are excluded as compared to a text-color of other pixels that are not excluded.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the near-color is a 0x000100 or 0x000001 color and the text-color is black 0x000000 or other similarly spaced pair of color so as not to distract the agent from the slight variation of color but to enable the identification of the one or more near-color selected pixels for exclusion.

8. A method according to claim 5, wherein each of the one or more selected pixels of the predetermined color value, as well as an adjacent pixel that is adjacent to the one or more selected pixels of the predetermined color value, are automatically modified to have a color value of a designated color.

9. A method according to claim 8, wherein a 3 by 3 pixel square surrounding each selected pixel of the predetermined color value are automatically modified to have a color value of a designated color.

10. A method according to claim 8, wherein pixels forming the shape of a rectangle, predetermined pattern or predefined shape and dimensions surrounding each selected pixel of the predetermined color value are automatically modified to have a color value of a designated color.

11. A method according to claim 8, wherein the adjacent pixel is automatically modified to have a color value of a designated color in addition to each selected pixel of the predetermined color value to compensate for anti-aliased fonts.

12. A method according to claim 1, wherein pixels in an identified area including the one or more selected pixels of the recorded image are modified to automatically exclude information within the identified area from the recorded image data thereby creating the redacted image data.

13. A method according to claim 12, wherein the identified area includes a field where particular information is displayed to the agent while the agent is responding to the contact media.

14. A method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more selected pixels are part of character, the method further comprising recognizing the character and modifying the one or more selected pixels to exclude information from the recorded image data thereby creating the redacted image data.

15. A method according to claim 14, wherein the one or more selected pixels are defined by a predetermined color value of the one or more selected pixels, the method further comprising recognizing the character along with other adjacent characters, a line of characters, or a block of characters and replacing a text area based on the recognized characters.

16. A method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more selected pixels are modified at a workstation of the agent when the image data is recorded.

17. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

compressing the redacted image data; and

encrypting the redacted image data.

18. A method according to claim 1, wherein the redacted image data is transmitted to a media server in the contact handling system as a redacted video stream, the media server receiving the redacted video stream and combining the redacted video stream with other auto streams based on dynamic events including on/off hold, conferencing, and transfers.

19. A method according to claim 18, wherein the other audio streams include telephony audio.

20. A method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more selected pixels of a first recorded image data for exclusion is used to identify one or more selected of a second recorded image data for exclusion.

21. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon for performing the method of claim 1.

22. A contact handling system comprising:

an agent workstation comprising;

an electronic processor;

a computer readable medium having executable instructions stored thereon for performing the following method;

recording image data displayed to the agent on a visual display during interaction by an agent with contact media; and

modifying one or more selected pixels of the recorded image data to automatically exclude information from the recorded image data thereby creating redacted image data.

23. A contact handling system according to claim 22, further comprising:

a media server, which handles connection paths for contact media;

an automatic contact distributor, which tracks the state of each contact and agent, supplying idle agents with waiting contact media;

an interactive voice response unit, which provides pre-recorded audio prompts to incoming voice contact media;

storage for storing redacted data received from the agent workstation along with other files; and

a contact handling network connected to telephony and/or outside packet-based network.

24. A contact handling system according to claim 23, wherein the at least one of the media server, automatic contact distributor and interactive voice response unit is hosted by a cloud network remote from the agent work station.

25. In a media server of a contact handling system, a method for monitoring the activity of an agent responding to contact media, comprising:

tracking a contact status of a telephony contact in the contact handling system;

recording image data displayed to the agent on a visual display during interaction by the agent with the telephony contact;

recording audio of the agent and the telephony contact during the interaction;

combining the recorded image data and the recorded audio into a video stream file for review by a supervisor of the agent.

26. A method according to claim 25, further comprising modifying one or more selected pixels of the recorded image data to automatically exclude information from the recorded image data thereby creating redacted image data.