Method and apparatus of processing user text input information

• US 9,195,641 B1
• Filed: 02/02/2015
• Issued: 11/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: West Technology Group LLC (West Corporation)
• Original Assignee: West Corporation
• Inventors: Fisher, Aaron Scott, Pollock, Bruce, Witt-ehsani, Silke
• Primary Examiner(s): Desir, Pierre-Louis
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sharma, Neeraj
• Application Number:
  US14/611,483
• Time in Patent Office: 295 Days
• Field of Search: 704/9, 704/8, 704/5, 704/235, 704/273, 705/5, 705/44, 705/347, 379/88.09, 455/466, 455/456.3, 348/14.08
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/10 Text processing natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30; processing or translation of natural language G06F40/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1822 Parsing for meaning understanding
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/088 Word spotting
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/63 for estimating an emotional state
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

A method and apparatus of processing communications with a mobile station are disclosed. One example method may include receiving a message from the mobile station and processing the message by parsing the message and performing a natural language interpretation of the message and processing the parsed message to determine the user'"'"'s requested objective. In response, the method may further provide generating a response to the message based on the user'"'"'s requested objective and sending the response to the mobile station acknowledging the user'"'"'s requested objective. Live agents may be notified to check the status of a message and continually override automated message responses to ensure the integrity of the responses.

Claims

1. A method of processing a text message from a mobile station at a third party provider via text messaging, the method comprising:

receiving the text message from the mobile station via a receiver of a computing device, wherein the text message comprises a transaction request from a user;

parsing the message, via a processor of the computing device, and performing a natural language interpretation of the message to identify at least one emotion related keyword or phrase included in the message;

processing the parsed message, via the processor, to determine the user'"'"'s requested objective from the transaction request;

assigning an emotion status to the message, via the processor, based on the identified at least one emotion related keyword or phrase;

generating a response to the message based on the user'"'"'s requested objective and the assigned emotion status, wherein the response comprises a pre-defined return text message acknowledging the user'"'"'s requested objective corresponding to the transaction and an incentive based on the assigned emotional status;

if a confidence of the generated response exceeds a threshold sending the response to the

mobile station, via a transmitter of the computing device, and

otherwise sending the response to a live agent for correction, sending the corrected response to the mobile station and storing the corrected response as the pre-defined return text message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the assigning the emotion status to the message is based on identifying a frequency of occurrences of the at least one emotion related keyword or phrase.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising confirming the user'"'"'s requested objective has been fulfilled in the response.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising authenticating the user by matching user specific information included in the message to pre-stored user specific information stored in a database.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the message includes an authorization portion and a free format text portion.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating the identified at least one keyword or phrase with the emotion status if a threshold predefined set number of occurrences of the at least one emotion related keyword or phrase is identified.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is normalized to determine words of interest prior to fulfilling the user'"'"'s requested objective.

8. An apparatus configured to process a text message from a mobile station at a third party provider via text messaging, the apparatus comprising:

a receiver configured to receive the text message from the mobile station, wherein the text message comprises a transaction request from a user;

a processor configured to parse the message, perform a natural language interpretation of the message to identify at least one emotion related keyword or phrase included in the message, process the parsed message to determine the user'"'"'s requested objective from the transaction request and to assign an emotion status to the message based on the identified at least one emotion related keyword or phrase, and generate a response to the message based on the user'"'"'s requested objective and the assigned emotion status, wherein the response comprises a pre-defined return text message acknowledging the user'"'"'s requested objective corresponding to the transaction and an incentive based on the assigned emotional status; and

a transmitter configured to send the response to the mobile station if a confidence of the generated response exceeds a threshold; and

otherwise send the response to a live agent for correction, send the corrected response to the mobile station and store the corrected response as the pre-defined return text message.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the assigned emotion status to the message is based on an identification of a frequency of occurrences of the at least one emotion related keyword or phrase.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to confirm the user'"'"'s requested objective has been fulfilled in the response.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to authenticate the user by matching user specific information included in the message to pre-stored user specific information stored in a database.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the message includes an authorization portion and a free format text portion.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to associate the identified at least one keyword or phrase with the emotion status if a threshold predefined set number of occurrences of the at least one emotion related keyword or phrase is identified.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the message is normalized to determine words of interest prior to fulfilling the user'"'"'s requested objective.

15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium configured to store instructions that when executed cause a processor to process a text message from a mobile station at a third party provider via text messaging, the processor being further configured to perform:

receiving the text message from the mobile station, wherein the text message comprises a transaction request from a user;

parsing the message and performing a natural language interpretation of the message to identify at least one emotion related keyword or phrase included in the message;

processing the parsed message to determine the user'"'"'s requested objective from the transaction request;

assigning an emotion status to the message based on the identified at least one emotion related keyword or phrase;

generating a response to the message based on the user'"'"'s requested objective and the assigned emotion status, wherein the response comprises a pre-defined return text message acknowledging the user'"'"'s requested objective corresponding to the transaction and an incentive based on the assigned emotional status;

if a confidence of the generated response exceeds a threshold sending the response to the mobile station, via a transmitter of the computing device, and

otherwise forwarding the response to a live agent for correction, sending the corrected response to the mobile station and storing the corrected response as the pre-defined return text message.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the assigning the emotion status to the message is based on identifying a frequency of occurrences of the at least one emotion related keyword or phrase.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the processor is further configured to perform confirming the user'"'"'s requested objective has been fulfilled in the response.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the processor is further configured to perform authenticating the user by matching user specific information included in the message to pre-stored user specific information stored in a database.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the message includes an authorization portion and a free format text portion.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the processor is further configured to perform associating the identified at least one keyword or phrase with the emotion status if a threshold predefined set number of occurrences of the at least one emotion related keyword or phrase is identified.