Speech recognition method of and system for determining the status of an answered telephone during the course of an outbound telephone call
First Claim
1. A method of determining the status of an answered telephone during the course of an outbound telephone call comprising:
- A. placing, with an automated calling system, a telephone call to a location having a telephone number at which a target person is listed;
B. upon said telephone call being answered, as determined by an initial response, initiating a prerecorded greeting which asks for the target person;
C. receiving said initial response and determining if said initial response is being provided by an answering machine, wherein said step of determining if said initial response is being provided by an answering machine includes distinguishing between a live person and a machine according to whether the initial response is longer than a predetermined time or whether a beep tone is detected;
D. upon determining that the initial response is not provide by an answering machine and that the initial response is a spoken response, performing a speaker-independent speech recognition analysis on said spoken response, wherein performing said speaker-independent speech recognition analysis includes initiating a speaker-independent speech recognition application with said target person, wherein the speaker-independent speech recognition application is an interactive speech application operative to provide a series of acoustic prompts to the answering person by telephonic interaction, to determine the meaning of said spoken response, and wherein the speech recognition analysis comprises using a Web access application, an educational application, a learning and lesson application, or a compliance application; and
E. providing conditional responses based on the meaning of the subsequent spoken response as determined by the speaker-independent speech recognition analysis in accordance with one or more speaker-independent speech recognition enabled states of conversation.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for determining the status of an answered telephone during the course of an outbound telephone call includes an automated telephone calling device for placing a telephone call to a location having a telephone number at which a target person is listed, upon the telephone call being answered, initiating a prerecorded greeting which asks for the target person and receiving a spoken response from an answering person and a speech recognition device for performing a speech recognition analysis on the spoken response to determine a status of the spoken response. If the speech recognition device determines that the answering person is the target person, the speech recognition device initiates a speech recognition application with the target person.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method of determining the status of an answered telephone during the course of an outbound telephone call comprising:
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A. placing, with an automated calling system, a telephone call to a location having a telephone number at which a target person is listed; B. upon said telephone call being answered, as determined by an initial response, initiating a prerecorded greeting which asks for the target person; C. receiving said initial response and determining if said initial response is being provided by an answering machine, wherein said step of determining if said initial response is being provided by an answering machine includes distinguishing between a live person and a machine according to whether the initial response is longer than a predetermined time or whether a beep tone is detected; D. upon determining that the initial response is not provide by an answering machine and that the initial response is a spoken response, performing a speaker-independent speech recognition analysis on said spoken response, wherein performing said speaker-independent speech recognition analysis includes initiating a speaker-independent speech recognition application with said target person, wherein the speaker-independent speech recognition application is an interactive speech application operative to provide a series of acoustic prompts to the answering person by telephonic interaction, to determine the meaning of said spoken response, and wherein the speech recognition analysis comprises using a Web access application, an educational application, a learning and lesson application, or a compliance application; and E. providing conditional responses based on the meaning of the subsequent spoken response as determined by the speaker-independent speech recognition analysis in accordance with one or more speaker-independent speech recognition enabled states of conversation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A system for determining the status of an answered telephone during the course of an outbound telephone call comprising:
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an automated telephone calling device for placing a telephone call to a location having a telephone number at which a target person is listed; and a speaker-independent speech recognition system which, upon said telephone call being answered, initiates a prerecorded greeting which asks for the target person, receives an initial response, determines whether said initial response is being provided by an answering machine by distinguishing between a live person and a machine according to whether the initial response is longer than a predetermined time or whether a beep tone is detected, determine that a spoken response from has been received by an answering person, and performs a speech recognition analysis on said spoken response to determine the meaning of said spoken response; wherein, if said speaker-independent speech recognition system determines that said answering person is said target person, said speaker-independent speech recognition system initiates a speaker-independent speech recognition application with said target person, wherein the speaker-independent speech recognition application is an interactive speech application configured and arranged to provide a series of acoustic prompts to the answering person by telephonic interaction, wherein the speech recognition application comprises a Web access application, an educational application, a learning and lesson application, or a compliance application, and wherein the speaker-independent speech recognition system is configured to provide conditional responses based on the meaning of the spoken response as determined by the speaker-independent speech recognition analysis in accordance with a speaker-independent speech recognition enabled state of conversation selected from the group consisting of (1) the answering person indicates that he or she is the target person, (2) the answering person indicates that he or she is not the target person, (3) the answering person indicates that the target person is not present at the location, (4) the answering person indicates a hold request, (5) the answering person requests the identity of the caller, (6) the answering person indicates that the telephone number is not the correct number for the target person, and (7) the speaker-independent speech recognition analysis cannot determine the meaning of the spoken response from the answering person. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification