System and method for data mining of contextual conversations

• US 7,191,129 B2
• Filed: 10/23/2002
• Issued: 03/13/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Winters, Scott Lee, Moore, Victor S., Paolini, Michael A., Brown, Michael Wayne, McIntyre, Joseph Herbert
• Primary Examiner(s): {hacek over (S)}mits; Talivaldis Ivars
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ng; Eunice
• Application Number:
  US10/279,438
• Publication Number:
  US 20040083101A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,602 Days
• Field of Search: 704/235, 704/251, 704/270.1
• US Class Current: 704/235
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1822 Parsing for meaning understanding
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence

Abstract

A system and method for mining data from stored telephone conversations is provided. Users request advanced data processing on the recorded data, either on the live data stream or the data in storage. Processes search the recorded data for keywords and phrases that the user provides the PTR. User can also request more sophisticated analysis of the recorded data for deeper contextual meaning of the conversations. Context information may include identifying the users, the locations and times referred to by the users during the conference, etc. Additional searches related to the obtained information are performed and the extracted information is compared to similar information obtained from previous meetings. Voice inflections and any emotional stress present in the voices of the users can also be detected and added to the collected information. Search terms can also be highlighted in the results.

Claims

1. A method of mining telephone call data, said method comprising:

storing voice data received during a plurality of telephone calls in a memory area, wherein one of the plurality of telephone calls is an ongoing telephone call;

receiving search criteria, the search criteria including one or more search words;

converting the stored voice data from each of the plurality of telephone calls to a plurality of textual forms, each of the textual forms corresponding to one of the telephone calls;

searching, during the ongoing telephone call, the textual forms of the voice data for the search criteria, the searching resulting in search results; and

returning, during the ongoing telephone call, the search results, wherein the returning includes displaying the search results on a display device and highlighting the search words that appear during the display of the search results.

2. The method as described in claim 1, further comprising:

storing the textual forms in a telephone call library, wherein the searching is performed by searching the textual forms of the telephone calls that are stored in the telephone call library.

3. The method as described in claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a report creation request;

retrieving report generation data, the report generation data including the search criteria, report heading data, and report layout information; and

generating a report based upon the retrieved report generation data and the searching the textual forms of the voice data.

4. The method as described in claim 1 further comprising:

identifying participants conversing during the telephone calls, wherein the stored voice data includes tracking information identifying the voice data that was received from each participant;

receiving a participant search identifier as part of the search criteria; and

searching for voice data corresponding to the participant search identifier.

5. The method as described in claim 1 further comprising:

identifying voice inflections included in the voice data;

receiving a voice inflection as part of the search criteria; and

searching for voice data corresponding to the specified voice inflection.

6. The method as described in claim 1 further comprising:

developing predetermined context for search;

storing the context; and

search criteria based on predetermined context.

7. An information handling system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory accessible by the processors for storing telephone call data;

a display device accessible by the processors;

a nonvolatile storage device accessible by the processors; and

a mining tool for mining telephone call data, the mining tool including;

means for storing voice data received during a plurality of telephone calls in the memory area, wherein one of the plurality of telephone calls is an ongoing telephone call;

means for receiving search criteria, the search criteria including one or more search words;

means for converting the stored voice data from each of the plurality of telephone calls to a plurality of textual forms, each of the textual forms corresponding to one of the telephone calls;

means for searching, during the ongoing telephone call, the textual forms of the voice data for the search criteria, the searching resulting in search results; and

means for returning, during the ongoing telephone call, the search results to a requestor, wherein the means for returning includes means for displaying the search results on the display device and means for highlighting the search words that appear during the display of the search results.

8. The information handling system as described in claim 7, further comprising:

means for storing the textual forms in a telephone call library residing on the nonvolatile storage device, wherein the means for searching is performed by searching the textual forms of the telephone calls that are stored in the telephone call library.

9. The information handling system as described in claim 7 further comprising:

means for receiving a report creation request;

means for retrieving report generation data, the report generation data including the search criteria, report heading data, and report layout information; and

means for generating a report based upon the retrieved report generation data and the searching the textual forms of the voice data.

10. The information handling system as described in claim 7 further comprising:

means for identifying participants conversing during the telephone calls, wherein the stored voice data includes tracking information identifying the voice data that was received from each participant;

means for receiving a participant search identifier as part of the search criteria; and

means for searching for voice data corresponding to the participant search identifier.

11. The information handling system as described in claim 7 further comprising:

means for identifying voice inflections included in the voice data;

means for receiving a voice inflection as part of the search criteria; and

means for searching for voice data corresponding to the specified voice inflection.

12. The information handling system as described in claim 7 further comprising:

means for developing predetermined context for search;

means for storing the context; and

means for search criteria based on predetermined context.

13. A computer program product stored on a computer operable media for mining telephone call data, said computer program product comprising:

means for storing voice data received during a plurality of telephone calls in a memory area, wherein one of the plurality of telephone calls is an ongoing telephone call;

means for receiving search criteria, the search criteria including one or more search words;

means for converting the stored voice data from each of the plurality of telephone calls to a of textual forms each of the textual forms corresponding to one of the telephone calls;

means for searching, during the ongoing telephone call, the textual forms of the voice data for the search criteria, the searching resulting in search results; and

means for returning, during the ongoing telephone call, the search results, wherein the means for return ing includes means for displaying the search results on a display device and means for highlighting the search words that appear during the display of the search results.

14. The computer program product as described in claim 13 further comprising:

means for storing the textual forms in a telephone call library, wherein the means for searching is performed by searching the textual forms of the telephone calls that are stored in the telephone call library.

15. The computer program product as described in claim 13 further comprising:

means for receiving a report creation request;

means for retrieving report generation data, the report generation data including the search criteria, report heading data, and report layout information; and

means for generating a report based upon the retrieved report generation data and the searching the textual forms of the voice data.

16. The computer program product as described in claim 13 further comprising:

means for identifying participants conversing during the telephone calls, wherein the stored voice data includes tracking information identifying the voice data that was received from each participant;

means for receiving a participant search identifier as part of the search criteria; and

means for searching for voice data corresponding to the participant search identifier.

17. The computer program product as described in claim 13 further comprising:

means for identifying voice inflections included in the voice data;

means for receiving a voice inflection as part of the search criteria; and

means for searching for voice data corresponding to the specified voice inflection.

18. The computer program product as described in claim 13 further comprising:

means for developing predetermined context for search;

means for storing the context; and

means for search criteria based on predetermined context.