Method and system for an automated departure strategy

• US 7,443,960 B2
• Filed: 05/08/2006
• Issued: 10/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chang, Hisao M., Martin, John M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gauthier; Gerald
• Application Number:
  US11/382,147
• Publication Number:
  US 20060193449A1
• Time in Patent Office: 904 Days
• Field of Search: 379/67.1, 379/218.01, 379/88.01, 379/88.02, 707/10, 707/3, 707/104.1, 704/257, 709/219
• US Class Current: 379/88.02
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/225 Feedback of the input speech
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4931 Directory assistance systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4933 with operator assistance

Abstract

A method and system for an automated departure strategy from an automated system includes a track engine and an error engine. The track engine allows for the tracking and storing of one or more utterances spoken by a caller in response to one or more prompts. In addition, the track engine classifies each of the utterances with a confidence level. The error engine determines when one of the utterances initiates an error condition and transfers the caller to an operator on the occurrence of the error condition. In addition to transferring the caller to the operator, the error engine plays to the operator an error utterance, causing the error condition, and a preceding utterance, preceding the error utterance. Furthermore, the error engine populates an operator screen with information provided by the caller in the utterances for utterances classified with a high level of confidence.

Claims

1. A method for providing automated directory assistance, comprising:

initiating a directory assistance dialog with a user;

prompting the user for a user utterance;

detecting a keyword in the user utterance;

querying a directory assistance database based at least in part on the keyword;

responsive to said querying retrieving multiple records from the database, determining hierarchical levels associated with the retrieved records; and

disambiguating the retrieved records based at least in part on the hierarchical levels including disambiguating a subset of the retrieved records, wherein the retrieved records in the subset share a common hierarchical level.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said disambiguating identifies a single parent record associated with a first hierarchical level and wherein said method further comprises disambiguating a plurality of child records of the parent record wherein the child records are associated with a second hierarchical level.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first hierarchical level is associated with an entity and wherein the second hierarchical level is associated with a department within the entity.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user utterance includes a name utterance and an address utterance.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying directory assistance search parameters on an operator terminal and forwarding one or more recorded user utterances to an operator for playback in response to a failure to obtain the directory assistance search parameters needed to form a user directory assistance query.

6. A computer program product comprising computer executable instructions, stored on a computer accessible medium, for providing automated directory assistance, said instructions comprising instructions for:

initiating a directory assistance dialog with a user;

prompting the user for a user utterance;

detecting a keyword in the user utterance;

querying a directory assistance database based at least in part on the keyword;

responsive to said querying retrieving multiple records from the database, determining hierarchical levels associated with the retrieved records; and

disambiguating the retrieved records based at least in part on the hierarchical levels including disambiguating a subset of the retrieved records, wherein the retrieved records in the subset share a common hierarchical level.

7. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the instructions for disambiguating comprise instructions for disambiguating a plurality of child records of the parent record wherein the child records are associated with a second hierarchical level.

8. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the first hierarchical level is associated with an entity and wherein the second hierarchical level is associated with a department within the entity.

9. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the user utterance includes a name field and an address field.

10. The computer program product of claim 6, further comprising instructions for displaying directory assistance search terms on an operator terminal and forwarding one or more recorded user utterances to an operator for playback in response to a failure to obtain the directory assistance search parameters needed to form a user directory assistance query.

11. A system including a processor and storage, the storage including processor executable instructions, embedded in the storage, for providing automated directory assistance, said instructions comprising instructions for:

initiating a directory assistance dialog with a user;

prompting the user for a directory assistance user utterance;

detecting the user utterance in response to the prompt;

identifying one or more directory assistance search terms from the user utterance;

querying a database based on the identified search terms;

responsive to said querying retrieving multiple records from the database, determining hierarchical levels associated with the retrieved records; and

disambiguating the multiple records based at least in part on the hierarchical levels including disambiguating among a plurality of the retrieved records associated with a first hierarchical level to select a first record, and, responsive to detecting a plurality of retrieved records being child records to the selected first record, disambiguating among the child records to identify a selected child record.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the user utterances include a name utterance and an address utterance.

13. The system of claim 11, further comprising, responsive to detecting a third plurality of retrieved records are child records of the selected child record, disambiguating among the third plurality of retrieved records.