SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PHONETIC SEARCHING OF DATA

• US 20140067820A1
• Filed: 09/06/2012
• Published: 03/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arlington Technologies, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Wilkins, Malcolm Fintan, Wynn, Gareth Alan
• Granted Patent: US 9,405,828 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/741
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/61 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures

Abstract

A method of phonetically searching media information comprises receiving a plurality of search queries from one or more client systems and providing a phonetic representation of each search query. One or more search jobs are instantiated, each search job comprising a plurality of tasks, each task being arranged to sequentially read a block from an archive file. The archive file is stored within a distributed filing system (DFS) in which sequential blocks of data comprising the archive file are replicated to be locally available to one or more processors from a cluster of processors for executing the tasks. Each block stores index files corresponding to a plurality of source media files, each index file containing a phonetic stream corresponding to audio information for a given source media file. Each task obtains phonetic representations of outstanding search queries for a block and sequentially searches the block for each outstanding search query.

Claims

1. A method of indexing media information for phonetic searching comprising:

providing pointers to respective locations of source media files including audio information which is to be made searchable;

providing subsets of one or more pointers to respective ones of a plurality of parallel processing indexing jobs;

each indexing job, reading each media file from a pointer location of said subset of pointers, providing a phonetic stream corresponding to the audio information for said media file and generating an index file for said media file containing said phonetic stream; and

appending each index file to an archive file, said archive file stored within a distributed filing system (DFS) in which sequential blocks of data comprising said archive file are replicated to be locally available to one or more processors from a cluster of processors for sequential reading of said blocks, each block storing index files corresponding to a plurality of said source media files.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the DFS is Hadoop DFS.

3. The method according to claim 2 wherein each parallel processing indexing job comprises a Hadoop Map Reduce Framework (MR) job.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein each indexing job comprises one or more tasks.

5. The method according to claim 4 wherein each task is arranged to process at least one index file associated with said subset of pointers.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein each index file comprises a header indicating the start of an index file, an identifier linking said index file to an associated source media file, an indicator of the length of said index file and said phonetic stream.

7. The method according to claim 6 wherein each index file header further comprises offset indicators indicating start and end locations within said archive file of index information for a source media file.

8. The method according to claim 6 wherein each index file further comprises one of more of:

an indicator of the language of said source media file, number of audio channels, speech type of said source media file or sample rate of said source media.

9. The method according to claim 1 wherein each block is configured to store information for at least 10 index files.

10. The method according to claim 1 wherein block boundaries within said archive files do not correspond with index file boundaries.

11. The method according to claim 1 wherein said appending comprises appending respective index files to respective archive files in parallel.

12. The method according to claim 1 wherein said source media files comprise recordings of contacts processed by a contact center.

13. The method according to claim 1 wherein said source media files comprise one of television or radio broadcast programmes.

14. A computer program product stored on computer readable storage media which when executed on processors of a distributed multi-processor system is arranged to perform the steps of claim 1.

15. A distributed multi-processor system arranged to perform the steps of claim 1.

16. A method of phonetically searching media information comprising:

receiving a plurality of search queries from one or more client systems;

providing a phonetic representation of each search query;

instantiating one or more search jobs, each search job comprising a plurality of tasks, each task being arranged to sequentially read a block from an archive file, said archive file stored within a distributed filing system (DFS) in which sequential blocks of data comprising said archive file are replicated to be locally available to one or more processors from a cluster of processors for executing said tasks, each block storing index files corresponding to a plurality of said source media files, each index file containing a phonetic stream corresponding to audio information for a given source media file;

each task, obtaining phonetic representations of outstanding search queries for a block and sequentially searching said block for each outstanding search query; and

responsive to matching a search query with a location within said phonetic stream for an index file, returning said location and an identifier of said source media for responding to said search query.

17. A method according to claim 16 wherein said returning comprises writing said location and said identifier to a distributed database.

18. The method according to claim 16 wherein said source media files comprise either:

recordings of contacts processed by a contact center;

one of television or radio broadcast programmes;

recordings of video calls;

or video recorded events.

19. A computer program product stored on computer readable storage media which when executed on processors of a distributed multi-processor system is arranged to perform the steps of claim 16.

20. A distributed multi-processor system arranged to perform the steps of claim 16.