In-band signaling in interactive communications
First Claim
1. An interactive voice response system for conducting voice response communications, the interactive voice response system comprising:
- at least one processor; and
a computer readable medium having executable instructions stored thereupon which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor toinitiate a marker mode at the interactive voice response system;
begin playing of a message prompt;
receive, at the interactive voice response system, a first marker signal, a second marker signal, and voice signals;
interrupt the playing of the message prompt in response to receiving the first marker signal;
identify, based upon the first marker signal, a beginning of a voice command represented by the voice signals;
identify, based upon the second marker signal, at least one of a beginning of a voice command;
ignore at least a portion of audio signals received at the interactive voice response system before the first marker signal and after the second marker signal; and
take an action, in response to the voice command.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Architecture that employs a combination of in-band signaling (e.g., DTMF) with speech recognition to deliver usability improvements. The in-band signaling allows the user to indicate to the system when a barge-in operation is occurring and/or when to start listening to subsequent speech input and optionally, when to stop listening for further speech input. The in-band signaling can be utilized during a telephone call and using wireline and wireless telephones. Moreover, the architecture can be incorporated at the platform level requiring little, if any, application changes to support the new mode of operation.
-
Citations
19 Claims
-
1. An interactive voice response system for conducting voice response communications, the interactive voice response system comprising:
-
at least one processor; and a computer readable medium having executable instructions stored thereupon which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to initiate a marker mode at the interactive voice response system; begin playing of a message prompt; receive, at the interactive voice response system, a first marker signal, a second marker signal, and voice signals; interrupt the playing of the message prompt in response to receiving the first marker signal; identify, based upon the first marker signal, a beginning of a voice command represented by the voice signals; identify, based upon the second marker signal, at least one of a beginning of a voice command; ignore at least a portion of audio signals received at the interactive voice response system before the first marker signal and after the second marker signal; and
take an action, in response to the voice command. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 18, 19)
-
-
8. A computer-implemented method for conducting voice response communications, the method comprising:
-
initiating a marker mode at an interactive voice response system; beginning playing of a message prompt; receiving, at the interactive voice response system, a first marker signal, voice signals, and a second marker signal; interrupting the playing of the message prompt in response to receiving the first marker signal; identifying, based upon the first marker signal, a beginning of a voice command represented by the voice signals; identifying, based upon the second marker signal, an end of the voice command; ignoring at least a portion of audio signals received at the interactive voice response system before the first marker signal and after the second marker signal; and taking an action, in response to the voice command. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A tangible computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:
-
initiate a marker mode at an interactive voice response system; receive, at the interactive voice response system, a first marker signal, a voice signal, and a second marker signal; identify, based upon the first marker signal, a beginning of a voice command represented by the voice signal; identify, based upon the second marker signal, an end of the voice command; ignore at least a portion of audio signals received at the interactive voice response system before the first marker signal and after the second marker signal; playing a message prompt, in response to the voice command; and interrupting the playing of the message prompt in response to receiving a third marker signal. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17)
-
Specification