Restoring automated assistant sessions

• US 10,824,520 B2
• Filed: 08/08/2018
• Issued: 11/03/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Vaughn, Garfield, Sivakumar, Gandhi, Gopal, Vasanthi M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ehne, Charles
• Application Number:
  US16/058,047
• Publication Number:
  US 20200050519A1
• Time in Patent Office: 818 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/805 Real-time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/82 Solving problems relating to consistency ensuring consistency in mirrored systems G06F11/2064
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/006 based on simulated virtual individual or collective life forms, e.g. social simulations or particle swarm optimisation [PSO]
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation

Abstract

Disclosed embodiments provide techniques for restoring an interrupted automated assistance session. Session contexts including pertinent metadata are periodically saved for each session, including a session reentry point. When a user calls an automated response system, metadata is collected from the user and compared with metadata from saved session contexts. If the user is determined to be associated with a saved session context, the user is connected to a conversation starting at the session reentry point, thereby eliminating the need to repeat the entirety of previously provided information.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for restoring an interrupted automated assistance session, comprising:

saving a session context for the interrupted automated assistance session, wherein the session context includes an average voice frequency;

determining that a user is associated with the saved session context, wherein the determining includes determining an average voice frequency for a caller, and comparing the average voice frequency of the caller to the average voice frequency of the saved session context; and

identifying a session reentry point for the interrupted automated assistance session; and

resuming the interrupted automated assistance session from the session reentry point.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein saving a session context includes saving a user telephone number associated with the interrupted automated assistance session.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein saving a session context includes saving an IP address associated with the interrupted automated assistance session.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein saving a session context includes saving a topic associated with the interrupted automated assistance session.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein saving a session context includes saving a user location associated with the interrupted automated assistance session.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein saving a session context includes saving user voice data associated with the interrupted automated assistance session.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the user is associated with the saved session context includes comparing a user telephone number with a saved telephone number stored in the saved session context.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the user is associated with the saved session context includes comparing a user IP address with a saved IP address stored in the saved session context.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising, deleting the saved session context after a predetermined duration.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting a verification test to the user prior to resuming the automated assistance session.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the verification test comprises presenting a topic verification question to the user.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the verification test comprises presenting a location verification question to the user.

13. An electronic communication device comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory containing instructions, that when executed by the processor, perform the steps of;

saving a session context for an interrupted automated assistance session, wherein the session context includes an average voice frequency;

determining that a user is associated with the saved session context, wherein the determining includes determining an average voice frequency for a caller, and comparing the average voice frequency of the caller to the average voice frequency of the saved session context;

identifying a session reentry point for the interrupted automated assistance session; and

resuming the interrupted automated assistance session from the session reentry point.

14. The electronic communication device of claim 13, wherein the memory further comprises instructions, that when executed by the processor, perform the step of saving a user telephone number associated with the interrupted automated assistance session.

15. The electronic communication device of claim 13, wherein the memory further comprises instructions, that when executed by the processor, perform the step of saving an IP address associated with the interrupted automated assistance session.

16. The electronic communication device of claim 13, wherein the memory further comprises instructions, that when executed by the processor, perform the step of saving a user location associated with the interrupted automated assistance session.

17. The electronic communication device of claim 13, wherein the memory further comprises instructions, that when executed by the processor, perform the step of presenting a verification test to the user prior to resuming the automated assistance session.

18. A computer program product for an electronic communication device comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the electronic communication device to perform the steps of:

saving a session context for an interrupted automated assistance session, wherein the session context includes an average voice frequency;

determining that a user is associated with the saved session context, wherein the determining includes determining an average voice frequency for a caller, and comparing the average voice frequency of the caller to the average voice frequency of the saved session context;

identifying a session reentry point for the interrupted automated assistance session; and

resuming the interrupted automated assistance session from the session reentry point.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the computer readable storage medium includes program instructions executable by the processor to cause the electronic communication device to perform the step of saving a topic associated with the interrupted automated assistance session.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the computer readable storage medium includes program instructions executable by the processor to cause the electronic communication device to perform the steps of:

presenting a topic verification question to the user; and

wherein resuming the automated assistance session from the session reentry point is performed in response to an affirmative response to the topic verification question.