Interactive voice controlled project management system

• US 8,296,147 B2
• Filed: 08/07/2006
• Issued: 10/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Sharma, Rajesh
• Primary Examiner(s): Dorvil, Richemond
• Assistant Examiner(s): ADESANYA, OLUJIMI A
• Application Number:
  US11/462,899
• Publication Number:
  US 20080033994A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,269 Days
• Field of Search: 704/9, 704/270, 704/273
• US Class Current: 704/270.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1815 Semantic context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word meaning
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML

Abstract

A method for facilitating project management includes identifying a user, identifying a project management access level for the user, dynamically generating a voice dialog based on the identified project management access level, dynamically generating grammars associated with the voice dialog based on the identified project management access level, and serving the voice dialog to the user. The method further includes receiving a voice request from the user corresponding to a generated grammar; retrieving project management information associated with the received voice request; dynamically generating a responsive voice dialog including the retrieved project management information; dynamically generating responsive grammars associated with the responsive voice dialog; and serving the responsive voice dialog to the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying, by one or more devices, a user;

identifying, by the one or more devices and based on identifying the user, a plurality of project management access levels for the user,

each of the identified plurality of project management access levels being associated with information that the user is permitted to access for each of a plurality of projects associated with the user;

dynamically generating, by the one or more devices and based on the information associated with at least one of the identified plurality of project management access levels, a first Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) document and a first grammar associated with the dynamically generated first VoiceXML document;

dynamically generating, by the one or more devices, a voice dialog based on the dynamically generated first VoiceXML document;

providing, by the one or more devices, the generated voice dialog to the user;

receiving, by the one or more devices, a voice request from the user corresponding to the generated first grammar,

the received voice request being associated with a particular project of the plurality of projects;

retrieving, by the one or more devices and based on the received voice request, project management information associated with the particular project;

dynamically generating, by the one or more devices and based on the retrieved project management information, a second Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) document and a second grammar associated with the second VoiceXML document;

dynamically generating, using one or more devices and based on the dynamically generated second VoiceXML document, a responsive voice dialog including the retrieved project management information; and

providing, by the one or more devices, the responsive voice dialog to the user,

the provided responsive voice dialog including a phrase identifying a role of an individual associated with the particular project and a phase of the particular project.

2. The method of claim 1,

where identifying the user further comprises:

receiving a spoken utterance from the user;

determining whether the spoken utterance matches information included in a database; and

authenticating the user when the spoken utterance matches the information included in the database,

where generating the first VoiceXML document includes;

identifying a proficiency associated with the authenticated user;

generating, based on the proficiency associated with the authenticated user, the first VoiceXML document to include first VoiceXML information associated with an experienced user when the proficiency corresponds to the experienced user; and

generating, based on the proficiency associated with the authenticated user, the first VoiceXML document, to include second VoiceXML information associated with an inexperienced user when the proficiency corresponds to the inexperienced user, and

where the second VoiceXML information is different than the first VoiceXML information.

3. The method of claim 2,

where the information, included in the database, comprises biometric information associated with the user, and

where determining whether the spoken utterance matches information included in the database includes:

determining whether biometric information associated with the spoken utterance matches the biometric information associated with the user.

4. The method of claim 2, where the information, included in the database, includes a personal identification number associated with the user, and

where determining whether the spoken utterance matches information included in the database includes:

recognizing a content of the spoken utterance; and

determining whether the recognized content matches the personal identification number associated with the user.

5. The method of claim 2,

where the information, included in the database, includes a personal identification number associated with the user,

where the method further includes:

recognizing a user keypad entry; and

determining whether the recognized user keypad entry matches the personal

identification number associated with the user, and

where authenticating the user includes;

authenticating the user when the spoken utterance matches the information included in the database and the recognized user keypad entry matches the personal identification number associated with the user.

6. The method of claim 1,

further comprising:

determining, based on the role, a type of information that the user is permitted to access for the particular project,

where dynamically generating the second VoiceXML document and the second grammar associated with the second VoiceXML document further based on the determined type of information that the user is permitted to access for the particular project.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a voice request from the user to call the individual associated with the particular project;

retrieving contact information associated with the individual associated with the particular project; and

initiating a call between the user and the individual associated with the particular project.

8. The method of claim 7,

where the voice request to call the individual associated with the particular project designates an identity of the individual associated with the particular project based on the role of the individual associated with the particular project.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the user, a voice request to modify the project management information;

determining whether a project management access level, of the identified plurality of project management access levels, associated with the particular project permits the requested modification; and

updating the project management information when the project management access level permits the requested modification.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, based on the responsive voice dialog, a voice request from the user to contact the individual associated with the particular project,

the project management information including information associated with the individual associated with the particular project, and

the information associated with the individual associated with the particular project including contact information of the individual associated with the particular project; and

initiating, based on the voice request and based on the contact information, a telephone call between the user and the individual associated with the particular project.

11. A system comprising:

one or more data structures to store project management information; and

a project management interactive voice response (IVR) system connected to a plurality of user telephony devices, via a telephony network,

the project management IVR system comprising;

a voice dialog service to;

dynamically generate Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) documents and grammars associated with the VoiceXML documents, based on one or more requests received from a user and via the telephony network, and the stored project management information,

where the stored project management information includes information identifying a function that the user is permitted to perform with respect to a particular project associated with the received one or more requests,

dynamically generate interactive voice dialogs based on the dynamically generated VoiceXML documents and the dynamically generated grammars, and

provide the interactive voice dialogs to the user via the telephony network,

at least one of the interactive voice dialogs including a phrase that identifies a role of an individual associated with the particular project and a phase of the particular project.

12. The system of claim 11,

where project management information is managed by the project management tools, and

where the project management tools comprise at least one of project management web-based applications, project management client/server applications, project management stand alone applications, or project management query-based applications.

13. The system of claim 11,

where the project management IVR system further comprises:

a user verification service to authenticate an identity of the user; and

a user role and accessibility service to identify, based on the identity of the user,

at least one project management access level for the authenticated user,

where the identified at least one project management access level includes a plurality of types of information that the authenticated user is permitted to access for one or more projects, and

where the voice dialog service is further to dynamically generate the VoiceXML documents and the grammars, based on the plurality of types of information included in the identified at least one project management access level for the authenticated user.

14. The system of claim 11, where the voice dialog service is further to:

publish the generated VoiceXML documents, and

provide the published VoiceXML documents to the user.

15. The system of claim 11, where the project management IVR system further comprises:

a speech recognition service to receive and recognize user responses to the provided interactive voice dialogs.

16. The system of claim 15,

where the project management IVR system is to:

identify, based on a role associated with the user, a type of information, that the user is permitted to access for the particular project, and

where the speech recognition service is further to;

determine whether a voice response, received from the user, includes a request for project management information modification;

determine, based on the determined type of information and the information identifying the function that the user is permitted to perform with respect to the particular project, whether the user is authorized to perform the requested project management information modification; and

modify the project management information, associated with the request and stored in the one or more data structures, when the user is authorized to perform the requested project management information modification.

17. The system of claim 15, where the speech recognition service is further to:

determine whether a voice response includes a request for additional project management information; and

forward the request to the voice dialog service to dynamically generate another interactive voice dialog based on the request.

18. The system of claim 15, where the speech recognition service is further to:

determine whether a voice response includes a request for a telephone call to another individual associated with the particular project; and

initiate the telephone call between the user and the other individual associated with the particular project.

19. A method comprising:

monitoring, by one or more devices, project management information for notification triggering events;

identifying, by the one or more devices and based on monitoring the project management information, a notification triggering event of the notification triggering events;

retrieving, by the one or more devices, project management information from a database in response to identifying the notification triggering,

the retrieved project management information including contact information for notifying a user, when the notification triggering event is identified, and information identifying the notification triggering event;

generating, by the one or more devices, a Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) document and one or more grammars associated with the VoiceXML document, based on the retrieved project management information,

the generated VoiceXML document including the information identifying the notification triggering event;

generating, using one or more devices, at least one voice dialog, based on the generated VoiceXML document and the generated one or more grammars;

initiating, by the one or more devices and based on the contact information included in the retrieved project management information, a telephone call to the user to notify the user of the identified notification triggering event; and

providing, by the one or more devices, the generated at least one voice dialog to the user during the telephone call,

the generated at least one voice dialog including a phrase that identifies a particular project associated with the identified notification triggering event, a role of an individual associated with the particular project, and a state of the particular project.

20. The method of claim 19, where the notification triggering event includes information identifying the state of the particular project and that the state is a critical state.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

authenticating, before providing the generated at least one voice dialog, the user after the user picks up the telephone call.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

receiving a request, from the user and during the telephone call, for additional project management information;

retrieving the additional project management information from the database based on the request;

generating a second VoiceXML document and one or more additional grammars associated with the second VoiceXML document, based on the retrieved additional project management information;

generating a second voice dialog based on the generated second VoiceXML document and the generated one or more additional grammars; and

providing the second voice dialog to the user.