Call distribution system inferring mental or physiological state

• US 6,363,346 B1
• Filed: 12/22/1999
• Issued: 03/26/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Teradata US, Inc. (Teradata Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NCR Corporation
• Inventors: Walters, T. Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Dorvil, Richemond
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nolan, Daniel A.
• Application Number:
  US09/469,650
• Time in Patent Office: 825 Days
• Field of Search: 704/270-273, 704/200.1, 704/231, 379/93.17, 379/112.05
• US Class Current: 704/231
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/22 Automatic class or number identification arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42221 Conversation recording systems at the subscriber's set H04M1/656
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5166 in combination with interactive voice response systems or voice portals, e.g. as front-ends
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 with call distribution or queueing

Abstract

A telephone call reception system which infers mental and/or physiological states of callers. Two types of analysis are available, and both types may be used upon the telephone calls. In one type, speech recognition is performed upon the call to generate a text file. Key words are sought in the text file. In the second type, the electrical signal itself is processed, as by a spectral analysis. Information obtained by the two analyses is used to predict the mental or physiological state of the caller.

Claims

1. Method of operating an automated call distribution center, ACD, comprising:

a) receiving a signal carrying an incoming telephone call from a caller;

b) making a histogram indicating number of times selected words are used by the caller;

c) selecting an agent from a group of agents, based on the histogram; and

d) routing the call to the selected agent.

2. Method according to claim 1, wherein the routing is done without resort to verbal content of the call.

3. A method of operating an automated call distribution center, ACD, comprising the following steps:

a) receiving a call from a human caller;

b) identifying verbal content of the call, without human intervention using speech-recognition apparatus; and

c) generating a comment about the call, using the verbal content, wherein the comment identifies at least one word used multiple times in the call, and the number of times used.

4. A method of operating an automated call distribution center, ACD, comprising the following steps:

a) receiving a call from a human caller;

b) identifying verbal content of the call, without human intervention using speech-recognition apparatus; and

c) generating a comment about the call, using the verbal content, wherein the comment identifies the word used most often in the call.