Voice-controlled account access over a telephone network

• US 5,517,558 A
• Filed: 09/21/1993
• Issued: 05/14/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Voice Control Systems, Inc. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Schalk, Thomas B.
• Primary Examiner(s): BROWN, THOMAS
• Application Number:
  US08/125,072
• Time in Patent Office: 966 Days
• Field of Search: 379/88, 379/91, 379/89, 379/188, 379/189, 379/199, 379/95, 381/42, 381/43
• US Class Current: 379/88.02
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/40 by quorum, i.e. whereby two or more security principals are required
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/83 input devices, e.g. keyboards, mice or controllers thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2105 Dual mode as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2113 Multi-level security, e.g. mandatory access control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2117 User registration
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/33 by means of a password
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/37 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/00 Speaker identification or verification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/22 Interactive procedures; Man-machine interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/24 the user being prompted to utter a password or a predefined phrase
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/382 using authorisation codes or passwords

Abstract

The present invention describes a system and method for enabling a caller to obtain access to services via a telephone network by entering a spoken first character string having a plurality of digits. Preferably, the method includes the steps of prompting the caller to speak the first character string beginning with a first digit and ending with a last digit thereof, recognizing each spoken digit of the first character string using a speaker-independent voice recognition algorithm, and then following entry of the last digit of the first string, initially verifying the caller'"'"'s identity using a voice verification algorithm. After initial verification, the caller is again prompted to enter a second character string, which must also be recognized before access is effected.

Claims

1. A method for enabling a caller to obtain access to one or more services via a telephone network by speaking first and second character strings each having a plurality of characters, comprising the steps of:

(a) prompting the caller to speak the first character string beginning with a first character and ending with a last character thereof;

(b) generating speech feature data for each spoken character of the first character string;

(c) applying the speech feature data and voice recognition feature transformation data to a voice recognition feature transformation to generate a first set of parameters for each spoken character of the first character string, the first set of parameters for use in a voice recognition system;

(d) applying the speech feature data and voice verification feature transformation data to a voice verification feature transformation to generate a second set of parameters for each spoken character of the first character string, the second set of parameters for use in a voice verification system;

(e) recognizing the first character string using the first set of parameters;

(f) initially verifying the caller'"'"'s identify using the second set of parameters generated for the first character string; and

(g) repeating steps (a)-(c) and (e) using the second character string instead of the first character string to confirm the caller'"'"'s identity.

2. The method as described in claim 1 wherein the second character string confirms the caller'"'"'s identity only during a predetermined time period.

3. A method for enabling a caller to obtain access to one or more services via a telephone network by speaking first and second character strings each having one or more characters, comprising the steps of:

(a) prompting the caller to speak the first character string beginning with a first character and ending with a last character thereof;

(b) generating speech feature data for each spoken character of the first character string;

(c) applying the speech feature data of the first character string and voice recognition feature transformation data to a voice recognition feature transformation to generate a first set of parameters for each spoken character of the first character string, the first set of parameters for use in a voice recognition system;

(d) applying the speech feature data and voice verification feature transformation data to a voice verification feature transformation to generate a second set of parameters for each spoken character of the first character string, the second set of parameters for use in a voice verification system;

(e) recognizing the first character string using the first set of parameters of the first character string;

(f) initially verifying the caller'"'"'s identify using the second set of parameters generated for the first character string;

(g) prompting the caller to enter the second character string beginning with a first character and ending with a last character thereof;

(h) generating speech feature data for each spoken character of the second character string;

(i) applying the speech feature data of the second character string and voice recognition feature transformation data to a voice recognition feature transformation to generate a first set of parameters for each spoken character of the second character string, the first set of parameters of the second character string for use in a voice recognition system; and

(j) recognizing the second character string using the first set of parameters of the second character string.

4. The method of claim 3 further including the step of determining if the recognized second character string is a password associated with the caller verified in step (f).

5. The method as described in claim 3 further including the step of periodically changing the second character string for confirming the identity of the caller.