System and method for identifying an unidentified person using an ambiguity-resolution criterion

• US 6,205,204 B1
• Filed: 12/17/1997
• Issued: 03/20/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Zarbana Digital Fund LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Distributed Software Development, Inc., Sanford J. Morganstein
• Inventors: Morganstein, Sanford J., Zaks, Sergey
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsang, Fan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hoosain, Allan
• Application Number:
  US08/982,190
• Time in Patent Office: 1,189 Days
• Field of Search: 379/67.1, 379/76, 379/88.02, 379/88.01, 379/88.05, 379/88.18, 379/93.12, 379/101.01, 379/80, 379/88.07, 379/88.25, 705/1, 705/26, 705/39, 705/50, 705/54, 709/312, 713/187, 713/164, 713/200, 380/4, 380/24, 235/379, 704/246, 704/251, 704/231, 704/244, 902/24
• US Class Current: 379/67.1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/22 Interactive procedures; Man-machine interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/41 using speaker recognition speaker recognition per se G10L17/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/22 Automatic class or number identification arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2281 Call monitoring, e.g. for law enforcement purposes; Call tracing; Detection or prevention of malicious calls
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/229 Wire identification arrangements; Number assignment determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/382 using authorisation codes or passwords
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/385 using speech signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/387 using subscriber identification cards
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42 Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers specially adapted for wireless communication networks H04W4/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42042 Notifying the called party of information on the calling party details within substation equipment H04M1/57, signalling details H04Q3/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/51 Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention , e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53358 Message preview
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53366 Message disposing or creating aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13003 Constructional details of switching devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/1305 Software aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13091 CLI, identification of calling line
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13093 Personal computer, PC
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13095 PIN / Access code, authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13103 : Memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13141 : Hunting for free outlet, circuit or channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13175 : Graphical user interface [GUI], WWW interface, visual indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13204 : Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13271 : Forced release
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13282 : Call forward, follow-me, call diversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13353 : Routing table, map memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/72 : Finding out and indicating number of calling subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/74 : Identification of subscriber calling from a party-line

Abstract

A system (8, 60, 500) for identifying an unidentified person (14, 510) includes a database (42) that contains utterance data (162) and an ambiguity-resolution criterion (114, 119, 121) corresponding to a known person. A processing system (10, 11, 502) is coupled to the database (42) and receives utterance information and an ambiguity-resolution identifier corresponding to the unidentified person (14, 510). The processing system (10, 11, 502) compares the utterance information with the utterance data (162) to identify the unidentified person (14, 510) as at least one known person. If the processing system (10, 11, 502) ambiguously identifies the unidentified person (14, 510) as more than one known person, the processing system (10, 11, 502) compares the ambiguity-resolution identifier with the ambiguity-resolution criterion (114, 119, 121) to identify the unidentified person (14, 510) as a particular known person. In response to identifying the person (14, 510), the processing system (10, 11, 502) may automatically retrieve stored information (104, 132, 162) corresponding to the known customer.

Claims

1. A system for automatically and unambiguously identifying a currently unidentified caller as a particular known person, comprising:

a database containing stored digital representations of speech and stored ambiguity-resolution criteria identified with a plurality of known persons, the digital representations of speech for the known persons being independent of account codes for the known persons, the ambiguity-resolution criteria for the known persons being stored in previous sessions and being independent of the digital representations of speech for the known persons; and

a processing system coupled to the database and operable to receive, in a current session and prior to identification of the currently unidentified caller, both a digital representation of speech for the caller and an ambiguity-resolution identifier for the caller, the digital representation of speech for the caller being independent of an account code for the caller, the ambiguity-resolution identifier for the caller being independent of the digital representation of speech for the caller, the processing system further operable to perform a first automatic comparison of the digital representation of speech for the still currently unidentified caller with at least some of the stored digital representations of speech for the known persons to identify the caller as at least one of the known persons and, if the caller is ambiguously identified as more than one of the known persons after the first automatic comparison, the processing system further operable to perform a second automatic comparison of the ambiguity-resolution identifier for the caller received in the current session prior to identification of the caller with at least one ambiguity-resolution criterion for a known person stored in a previous session to unambiguously identify the caller as a particular one of the known persons, the second automatic comparison being performed independent of human interaction between the first and second automatic comparisons.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the ambiguity-resolution criterion for the known person comprises at least a portion of a telephone number.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the portion of the telephone number is selected from the group consisting of:

an area code; and

an office code.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is operable to determine the ambiguity-resolution identifier for the caller according to a telephone number from which the caller is calling.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the ambiguity-resolution criterion for the known person comprises at least a portion of a network address.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the ambiguity-resolution criterion for the known person comprises a store identifier.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the system is operable to determine the store identifier at a point of sale.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the ambiguity-resolution criterion for the known person comprises historical purchasing information.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing system is further operable to automatically retrieve stored information corresponding to the particular known person in response to unambiguously identifying the caller as the particular known person.

10. A system for automatically and unambiguously identifying a currently unidentified caller as a particular known person, comprising:

a database containing a stored digital representation of speech and a stored ambiguity-resolution criterion identified with a known person, the digital representation of speech for the known person being independent of an account code for the known person, the ambiguity-resolution criterion for the known person being stored in a previous session and being independent of the digital representation of speech for the known person; and

a processing system coupled to the database and operable to receive, in a current session and prior to identification of the currently unidentified caller, a digital representation of speech for the caller and an ambiguity-resolution identifier for the caller, the digital representation of speech for the caller being independent of an account code for the caller, the ambiguity-resolution identifier for the caller being independent of the digital representation of speech for the caller, the processing system further operable to perform a first automatic comparison of the digital representation of speech for the still currently unidentified caller with the stored digital representation of speech for the known person to identify the caller as the particular known person, the processing system further operable to perform a second automatic comparison of the ambiguity-resolution identifier for the caller received in the current session prior to identification of the caller with the ambiguity-resolution criterion for the known person stored in the previous session to verify the identification of the caller as the particular known person made as a result of the first automatic comparison, the second automatic comparison being performed independent of human interaction between the first and second automatic comparisons.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the ambiguity-resolution criterion for the known person is selected from the group consisting of:

at least a portion of a telephone number;

at least a portion of a network address;

a store identifier; and

historical purchasing information.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the ambiguity-resolution identifier for the caller comprises at least a portion of a telephone number that the system is operable to determine according to a telephone number from which the caller is calling.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the ambiguity-resolution identifier for the caller comprises a store identifier that the system is operable to determine at a point of sale, wherein the store identifier is selected from the group consisting of:

a store number; and

a store location.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the processing system is further operable to automatically retrieve stored information corresponding to the known person in response to verifying the identification of the caller as the particular known person.

15. A method for automatically and unambiguously identifying a currently unidentified caller as a particular known person, comprising:

storing, in previous sessions, both digital representations of speech and ambiguity-resolution criteria identified with a plurality of known persons, the digital representations of speech for the known persons being independent of account codes for the known persons, the ambiguity-resolution criteria for the known persons being independent of the digital representations of speech for the known persons;

receiving, in a current session prior to identification of the currently unidentified person, both a digital representation of speech for the caller and an ambiguity-resolution identifier for the caller, the digital representation of speech for the caller being independent of an account code for the caller, the ambiguity-resolution identifier for the caller being independent of the digital representation of speech for the caller;

performing a first automatic comparison of the digital representation of speech for the still currently unidentified caller with at least some of the stored digital representations of speech for the known persons;

identifying the caller as at least one of the known persons; and

if the caller is ambiguously identified as more than one of the known persons as a result of the first automatic comparison, performing a second automatic comparison of the ambiguity-resolution identifier for the caller received in the current session prior to identification of the caller with at least one ambiguity-resolution criterion for a known person stored in a previous session to unambiguously identify the caller as a particular one of the known persons, the second automatic comparison being performed independent of human interaction between the first and second automatic comparisons.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the ambiguity-resolution criterion for the known person comprises at least a portion of a telephone number.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the portion of the telephone number is selected from the group consisting of:

an area code; and

an office code.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising determining the ambiguity-resolution identifier for the caller according to a telephone number from which the caller is calling.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the ambiguity-resolution criterion for the known person comprises at least a portion of a network address.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the ambiguity-resolution criterion for the known person comprises a store identifier.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising determining the store identifier at a point of sale.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the ambiguity-resolution criterion for the known person comprises historical purchasing information.

23. The method of claim 15, further comprising automatically retrieving information corresponding to the particular known person in response to unambiguously identifying the caller as the particular known person.