Method of identifying a caller with a telephone service operator

• US 6,973,168 B2
• Filed: 07/25/2001
• Issued: 12/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Orange S.A.
• Original Assignee: Orange S.A.
• Inventors: Morel, Thierry, Grimault, Jean-Luc, Charlet, Delphine, Feuillet, Thibaut
• Primary Examiner(s): BARNIE, REXFORD N
• Application Number:
  US10/344,312
• Publication Number:
  US 20040022374A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,595 Days
• Field of Search: 379 8801- 8805, 379/114.2, 379/114.15, 704/4, 704/251, 704/252, 704/263, 704/270.1, 704/257, 704/273, 704/246
• US Class Current: 379/88.02
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/382 using authorisation codes or passwords

Abstract

A method of identifying a caller with a telephone service operator. Of the invention, said method comprises the following steps: for the operator, drawing up a list of literal expressions and allocating the caller an identifier consisting of a combination of consecutive literal expressions taken from each of said lists, for the caller, connecting to said telephone service and speaking, in order, each literal expression of said combination, and for the operator, identifying the caller by using voice recognition to search for the combination of literal expressions allocated to the caller. Application to secure access to telephone services.

Claims

1. A method of identifying a caller with a telephone service operator, comprising the steps of:

for the operator, deriving at least one list of literal expressions and generating a database of callers authorized to use the telephone service, said database associating each of said authorized callers with a unique identifier consisting of a combination of consecutive literal expressions, each literal expression of the combination being respectively obtained from said at least one list of literal expressions;

for the caller, connecting to said telephone service and speaking, in order, each literal expression of said unique identifier associated therewith and of which said caller has prior knowledge;

for the operator, recognizing whether the literal expressions spoken by the caller belong to said at least one list of literal expressions and, if so, searching the database to compare the spoken combination of consecutive literal expressions to identifiers stored in the database; and

identifying the caller if the combination of literal expressions spoken by the caller and recognized by the operator matches an identifier in the database.

2. The method of identifying a caller according to claim 1, wherein an authentication key is associated with said identifier and the caller supplies said authentication key after speaking the combination of consecutive literal expressions associated with the caller.

3. The method of identifying a caller according to claim 2, wherein said authentication key comprises a plurality of digits entered in DTMF code.

4. The method of identifying a caller according to claim 2, wherein said authentication key comprises another literal expression recorded by the caller upon initially connecting to the telephone service.

5. The method of identifying a caller according to claim 2, wherein said authentication key comprises a voiceprint of the caller established when said combination of consecutive literal expressions is spoken.

6. The method of identifying a caller according to claim 1, wherein a double authentication key is associated with said identifier and comprises a main key including a voiceprint of the caller established when said combination of consecutive literal expressions is spoken and a back-up key including a plurality of digits entered in DTMF code.

7. The method of identifying a caller according to claim 1, wherein the list of literal expressions is established by associating a category with each literal expression of a specific list and associating with each category the list of literal expressions from which a next literal expression is obtained.

8. A prepaid telephone card which includes an identifier consisting of one or more literal expressions to be spoken by a caller to identify himself with a telephone service operator by the identification method according to claim 1.

9. The prepaid telephone card according to claim 8, wherein the card also contains an authentication key.