Recordal service for voice communications

• US 6,766,000 B2
• Filed: 12/04/2001
• Issued: 07/20/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: HTC Corporation
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Lloyd, Richard Graham, Squibbs, Robert Francis
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsang, Fan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chow, Ming
• Application Number:
  US10/005,903
• Publication Number:
  US 20020094065A1
• Time in Patent Office: 959 Days
• Field of Search: 379/67.1, 379/75, 379/81, 379/88.04, 379/88.26, 379/88.22, 379/88.23, 346/24, 346/34, 346/44, 346/45, 346/47, 346/65, 360/5, 360/13, 360/55, 369/7, 369/17, 369/25.01, 369/26.01, 455/416, 364/401, 364/408
• US Class Current: 379/88.23
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/258 Service state indications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/12 intelligent networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/382 using authorisation codes or passwords
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42221 Conversation recording systems at the subscriber's set H04M1/656

Abstract

A service system is provided for recording spoken passages exchanged between parties, for example, via the public telephone system. The service system is called into action preferably by the agreement of the parties and is used to make a recording of the spoken exchanges between the parties. At the termination of recording, each party is preferably provided with the opportunity to review the recording and asked to confirm their acceptance of the recording. The service system then provides a reference copy of the recording. Where a digital copy of the recording is made, the parties are preferably required to indicate their acceptance by digitally signing and returning the recording to the service system.

Claims

1. A method of memorializing a conversation between multiple parties, comprising:

at the start of, or during the course of, voice communication between the parties over a communications infrastructure, routing voice streams from each party to a recordal service, which thereupon;

(a) makes a recording of the voice streams;

(b) provides each party with at least the opportunity to review the recording;

(c) asks each party to independently indicate their individual acceptance of the recording; and

(d) provides a reference copy of the recording as a copy accepted by all parties only if all parties have indicated their individual acceptance to the recordal service.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the recording is digital in form and said indicating individual acceptance of the recording by a said party further comprises:

receiving from that party an unaltered copy of the digital recording, the received recording digitally signed by the party using a party-specific private key; and

confirming that the copy of the digital recording received from said party has not been altered by checking that it corresponds to the recording sent for signing.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein providing the reference copy comprises:

the service digitally signing a copy of the recording with its private key to form the reference copy of the recording; and

then

providing the reference copy to each party and/or storing the reference copy at the service.

4. A method according to claim 2, wherein providing the reference copy comprises:

the service passing on the signed copies it has received to the parties and/or storing the signed recordings, the signed recordings each constituting a said reference copy.

5. A method according to claim 2, further comprising:

processing the voice streams for speech recognition to form a transcript text file of the conversation; and

wherein

asking the parties to indicate acceptance comprises asking the parties to indicate individual acceptance of the transcript text file.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the voice circuits of the parties are routed to a service node of a public telephone system for provision of the recordal service, the method further comprising:

providing the recording for review by each party from the recordal service through voice playback of the recording; and

storing a copy of the recording as the reference copy.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the playback of the recording comprises:

a continuity sound signal played simultaneously with the recording for facilitating identification by a party of incompleteness of receipt of the playback.

8. A method according to claim 6, further comprising:

confirming the identity of each party with calling line identification and/or a party-specific unique identifier previously issued by the service.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein providing each party with the opportunity to review and asking each party to individually indicate acceptance are performed independently of said voice communication between the parties.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein the voice communication between the parties is effected by digitized voice data packets transmitted and received by the parties.

11. A method according to claim 1, further comprising prior to making the recording:

independently asking each party to indicate their acceptance of the use of the recordal service.

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

prior to terminating the recording, asking each party to independently indicate their acceptance of termination of the recording.

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

asking each party to indicate their acceptance of each of commencement of recording and termination of recording.

14. A method according to claim 1, wherein the voice streams pass between the parties via the recordal service.

15. A method according to claim 1, wherein the reference copy of the recording is stored by the service and the method further comprises:

providing each party with a code or codes for enabling subsequent read access by the party to the stored reference copy of the recording.

16. A system for recording a conversation between multiple parties, comprising:

a communications interface for receiving voice streams from each party;

recording means for making a recording of the voice streams; and

control means for commencing and terminating the recording, for asking each party to individually indicate acceptance of the recording made by providing each party with at least the opportunity to review the recording, and for making a reference copy of the recording available to the parties only when each party has individually indicated acceptance.

17. A system according to claim 16, wherein the recording means comprises means to make said recording in digital form, and wherein the control means comprise:

means for sending a copy of the recording to each party;

means for receiving back from each party wishing to indicate their acceptance of the recording, a copy of the recording digitally signed by the party with a party-specific private key; and

means for checking that a digitally-signed copy of the recording returned from a said party corresponds to the recording sent for signing to that party.

18. A system according to claim 17, wherein the control means is arranged to generate the reference copy by digitally signing a copy of the recording with a private key of a public-key/private-key cryptographic pair.

19. A system according to claim 17, wherein the control means is arranged to use the digitally-signed copies of the recording returned from the parties as said reference copy.

20. A system according to claim 17, wherein the recording means includes a speech recognition system for converting the voice streams into a transcript text file, the control means being arranged to use this file as the copy of the recording sent to the parties for signing.

21. A system according to claim 16 configured for use at a service node of a public telephone network, the control means being arranged to ask for acceptance of the recording by playing back the recording over a voice circuit of the telephone network.

22. A system according to claim 21, wherein the control means further comprise:

means for playing an on-going continuity sound signal simultaneously with the recording to facilitate the identification by a party of the incompleteness of receipt of the playback.

23. A system according to claim 16, wherein the control means is arranged to ask each party independently of said voice communication between the parties to indicate acceptance of the recording.

24. A system according to claim 16, wherein the voice communication between the parties is effected by digitized voice data packets transmitted and received by the parties, and wherein the communications interface is arranged to receive the voice streams in the form of digitized voice data packets.

25. A system according to claim 16, wherein the control means further comprises:

means to independently ask each party to indicate their acceptance of the use of the system prior to recording the voice streams.

26. A system according to claim 16, wherein the control means further comprises:

means to independently ask each party to indicate their acceptance of termination of the recording prior to terminating the recording.

27. A system according to claim 16, wherein the control means further comprises:

means to ask each party to indicate their acceptance of each of commencement of recording and termination of recording.

28. A system according to claim 16, wherein the voice streams pass between the parties via the recordal service and the communications interface is arranged to forward the voice stream received from each party to the other parties.

29. A system according to claim 16, further comprising:

storage means for storing the reference copy of the recording;

means for providing each party with a code or codes for enabling subsequent read access by the party to the stored copy; and

means for providing code-restricted read access to the reference copy of the recording.