Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US7599474B2/en
Timestamp: 2020-01-28 03:50:26
Document Index: 233079947

Matched Legal Cases: ['arty 14', 'arty 14', 'arty 14', 'arty 12', 'arty 14', 'arty 14']

US7599474B2 - Voice recognition for filtering and announcing message - Google Patents
US7599474B2
US7599474B2 US11/598,502 US59850206A US7599474B2 US 7599474 B2 US7599474 B2 US 7599474B2 US 59850206 A US59850206 A US 59850206A US 7599474 B2 US7599474 B2 US 7599474B2
US11/598,502
US20070127635A1 (en
1999-12-23 Priority to US09/471,315 priority Critical patent/US7136458B1/en
2006-11-13 Application filed by AT&T Intellectual Property II LP filed Critical AT&T Intellectual Property II LP
2006-11-13 Priority to US11/598,502 priority patent/US7599474B2/en
2007-06-07 Publication of US20070127635A1 publication Critical patent/US20070127635A1/en
2009-10-06 Publication of US7599474B2 publication Critical patent/US7599474B2/en
2016-06-07 Assigned to BELLSOUTH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CORPORATION reassignment BELLSOUTH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CORPORATION ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: ENZMANN, MARK J., MOTON, ROBERT J., JR., ZELLNER, SAMUEL N.
2016-06-07 Assigned to AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, INC. reassignment AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, INC. CHANGE OF NAME (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: BELLSOUTH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CORPORATION
2016-06-07 Assigned to AT&T BLS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, INC. reassignment AT&T BLS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, INC. CHANGE OF NAME (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, INC.
2016-06-07 Assigned to AT&T DELAWARE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, INC. reassignment AT&T DELAWARE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, INC. CHANGE OF NAME (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: AT&T BLS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, INC.
This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/471,315, filed Dec. 23, 1999, entitled “Voice Recognition for Filtering and Announcing Message,” which will issue on Nov. 14, 2006 as U.S. Pat. No. 7,136,458, which is incorporated herein by reference.
In the meantime (i.e., while the caller is on hold), at step 19, the digital call assistant 10 creates a digital sound file (also referred to as a ‘digital audio file’) from the spoken syllables received from the caller. The digital audio file may be a wave (“.WAV”) file. The .WAV file is then converted into a digital ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) text file at step 20. The ASCII text file is thus generated based on speech recognition of the speech uttered by the caller. Assuming that the caller's name is John Doe, the speech-to-text conversion at step 20 results in the ASCII text file sequentially containing (in hexadecimal notation) ASCII codes 4A, 4F, 48, 4E for letters “J”, “O”, “H” and ‘W” respectively; ASCII code 20 for the ‘blank’ between the words “John” and “Doe”; and ASCII codes 44, 4F and 45 for letter “D”, “O and “E” respectively. Thus, the caller's name is represented within the call assistant 10 as a string of binary 1's and 0's.
A message recording system 38 may be connected to or made p a. of the DCAS 25 in the event that the caller 12 is refused direct access to the called party 14 and the caller 12 wishes to leave a voice message for the called party 14, or in the event that the callee 14 is unavailable or does not wish to communicate with the caller 12 even when the caller 12 is not one of the proscribed callers refused direct access to the called party 14. The DCAS 25 may inform the caller 12 of the option to leave a voice message for the callee 14 and may request the caller 12 to enter a specific digit (between “0” to “9”) and/or a specific symbol (* or #) from the keypad 32 so as to enable the DCAS 25 to direct the call to the message recording system 38. In a large organization, the message recording system 38 may have mailboxes for each individual employee of the organization. The message recording system 38 may either store the messages in a digital form (e.g., on a RAM (random access memory) chip) or in an analog form (e.g., on an audio cassette tape or any other magnetic storage medium).
Referring now to FIG. 5, it is shown therein how the digital call assistant system 25 according to the present invention functions as a caller-screening interface between the calling party 12 and the called party 14. Initially, at step 62, the caller 12 places a call to the callee's telephone number. This call is received and processed by the VR module 40 in the DCAS 25. The VR module 40 establishes an off-hook condition and plays (in a synthesized voice) a greeting/announcement at step 64. The greeting/announcement may be similar to that described hereinbefore with reference to step 16 in FIG. 1. Immediately after the initial announcement/greeting, the VR module 40 prompts the caller 12, in a synthesized voice, to identify the called party 14 (e.g., “Who do you wish to speak to?’ or “Please clearly speak the name of the party you wish to speak to.”). In response, the caller 12 speaks, at step 66, the callee's name into the microphone (not shown) of the handset 31 (FIG. 2). The caller's speech is converted into electrical signals by the microphone (not shown) of the handset 31 and sent to the VR module 40 via the telephone line 27 (FIG. 2). The VR module 40 may optionally play a second announcement at step 68 (similar to the one mentioned hereinbefore with reference to step 18 in FIG. 1) while the VR module 40 performs voice recognition operation on the caller's speech signals.
Initially, at step 82, the voice recognition software (in the VR module 40) may wait for an indication by the callee 14 (FIG. 2) to collect voice samples of the caller 12. At step 84, the callee 14, via the keypad 34, may instruct the voice recognition (VR) software to create voice samples for the caller 12 with whom the callee 14 is presently conversing or for any future calls the callee 14 receives from different callers. If no call is received, the VR module 40 may wait for a call at step 85. Thus, the callee 14 may initiate the voice-sample creation process at any time during a current telephone conversation or prior to a telephone conversation so long as a predefined access code (e.g., “12 or #9) is entered by the callee 14 through the keypad 34. The DTMF (dual tone multi frequency) audio tones transmitted over the telephone line 29 by the entry of the access code may be suppressed in the CR module 42 so that the caller 12 may not hear them if a conversation is in progress.
US11/598,502 1999-12-23 2006-11-13 Voice recognition for filtering and announcing message Active 2021-01-12 US7599474B2 (en)
US09/471,315 US7136458B1 (en) 1999-12-23 1999-12-23 Voice recognition for filtering and announcing message
US11/598,502 US7599474B2 (en) 1999-12-23 2006-11-13 Voice recognition for filtering and announcing message
US09/471,315 Continuation US7136458B1 (en) 1999-12-23 1999-12-23 Voice recognition for filtering and announcing message
US13/025,207 Continuation US8663402B2 (en) 2004-03-01 2011-02-11 Sputtering target with few surface defects, and surface processing method thereof
US20070127635A1 US20070127635A1 (en) 2007-06-07
US7599474B2 true US7599474B2 (en) 2009-10-06
US09/471,315 Expired - Lifetime US7136458B1 (en) 1999-12-23 1999-12-23 Voice recognition for filtering and announcing message
US11/598,502 Active 2021-01-12 US7599474B2 (en) 1999-12-23 2006-11-13 Voice recognition for filtering and announcing message
1999-12-23 US US09/471,315 patent/US7136458B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
2006-11-13 US US11/598,502 patent/US7599474B2/en active Active
US7136458B1 (en) 2006-11-14
US20070127635A1 (en) 2007-06-07
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:ZELLNER, SAMUEL N.;ENZMANN, MARK J.;MOTON, ROBERT J., JR.;REEL/FRAME:038832/0332