WO2004036544A2 - Methods and apparatus for audio data analysis and data mining using speech recognition - Google Patents
Methods and apparatus for audio data analysis and data mining using speech recognition Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- WO2004036544A2 WO2004036544A2 PCT/US2003/033042 US0333042W WO2004036544A2 WO 2004036544 A2 WO2004036544 A2 WO 2004036544A2 US 0333042 W US0333042 W US 0333042W WO 2004036544 A2 WO2004036544 A2 WO 2004036544A2
- Authority
- WO
- WIPO (PCT)
- Prior art keywords
- phrases
- audio segments
- audio
- search
- searching
- Prior art date
Links
Classifications
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G10—MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; ACOUSTICS
- G10L—SPEECH ANALYSIS OR SYNTHESIS; SPEECH RECOGNITION; SPEECH OR VOICE PROCESSING; SPEECH OR AUDIO CODING OR DECODING
- G10L15/00—Speech recognition
- G10L15/26—Speech to text systems
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F16/00—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
- G06F16/40—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F16/00—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
- G06F16/60—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor of audio data
- G06F16/64—Browsing; Visualisation therefor
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F16/00—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
- G06F16/60—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor of audio data
- G06F16/68—Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F16/00—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
- G06F16/60—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor of audio data
- G06F16/68—Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
- G06F16/683—Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually using metadata automatically derived from the content
- G06F16/685—Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually using metadata automatically derived from the content using automatically derived transcript of audio data, e.g. lyrics
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
- H04M3/42221—Conversation recording systems
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
- H04M3/50—Centralised arrangements for answering calls; Centralised arrangements for recording messages for absent or busy subscribers ; Centralised arrangements for recording messages
- H04M3/51—Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention, e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
Definitions
- the present invention relates to the field of audio data monitoring, such as the monitoring of telephone calls and, more specifically, to leveraging voice recognition technology to provide new and improved features and functionality for use in audio data analysis and data mining.
- Such new and improved features and functionality include speech and data SQL integration for fast and efficient searches of audio data for spoken words, phrases, or sequences of words, as well as other features and functions described herein.
- Description of Related Art Prior art telephone call monitoring typically consisted of recording telephone calls and the manual monitoring of only a select few (e.g., 5%) of the recorded calls by a call center employee or supervisor. Searching for particular words or phrases must be performed manually by listening to segments of audio recordings. Such manual call monitoring is tedious, time consuming, laborious, and costly.
- CTI Computer Telephony Integration
- CTI middleware providing a software bridge between computers and telephone systems in contact centers.
- CTI functions to bringing together computer systems and telephone systems so that their functions can be coordinated.
- Functionality made possible by core CTI technology include: Interactive Voice Response (INR) integration, which transfers caller-entered INR information to Customer Support Representative (CSR) desktop PCs, Screen Pop and coordinated call- data transfer between CSRs.
- INR Interactive Voice Response
- CSR Customer Support Representative
- CTI applies computer-based intelligence to telecommunications devices, blending the functionality of computers and computer networks with the features and capabilities of sophisticated telephone systems over an intelligent data link to gain increases in CSR productivity, customer satisfaction and enterprise cost savings.
- CTI combines the functionality of programmable computing devices with the telephony network through the exchange of signaling and messaging data between the switching systems and a computer.
- CTI's principal undertaking is to integrate various call center systems and platforms, including PBXs, LANs, IVR/VRU systems, predictive dialers, the desktop PC and Internet-based applications.
- a common CTI function is the "screen pop" or "smart call handling".
- the screen pop uses telephony-supplied data typically A ⁇ I (automatic number identification), D ⁇ IS (dialed number identification service) and/or INR-entered data to automatically populate a CSR's desktop application screen with information related to the transaction, such as a customer's profile or account information, scripts or product information.
- a ⁇ I automated number identification
- D ⁇ IS dialed number identification service
- INR-entered data to automatically populate a CSR's desktop application screen with information related to the transaction, such as a customer's profile or account information, scripts or product information.
- Closely related to the screen pop application is an application often referred to as "coordinated call-data transfer."
- a typical scenario for this application might proceed as follows.
- a Tier 1 CSR receives a customer call.
- the Tier 1 CSR realizes that the customer will have to be transferred to a Tier 2 CSR to satisfy the customer inquiry.
- coordinated call-data transfer functionality allows the transferring CSR to send both the call and the updated screen data to the receiving CSR.
- the receiving CSR has more data and is able to more efficiently and effectively conduct the next customer interaction.
- INR integration typically rounds out most basic CTI implementations. With INR integration, information a customer enters into an INR system is automatically displayed on a CSR's desktop PC when the customer elects to speak directly to a CSR. At the same time, information collected by the IVR system can be used to trigger a screen pop. With this functionality, customers are relieved from having to repeat basic information when transferring to a live CSR. The customer is able to carry on with the live CSR where he or she left off with the INR system.
- CTI functionality has four principal benefits including (i) increased CSR productivity; (ii) more competent customer service; (iii) faster access to customer information; and (iv) long distance cost savings.
- CSR productivity increases significantly.
- CSRs are relieved from having to ask customers for routine information or for information the customer has already provided, either to another CSR or to another call center device. Time spent keying in database access information and waiting for resulting information is eliminated. With these process improvements, the overall call processing time is reduced, allowing CSRs to process more calls more efficiently in the course of a typical day.
- screen pop functionality alone, the typical call center should be able to realize a 10 to 15 second reduction in average call processing times.
- the screen pop functionality offers a significant savings to a contact center when implementing "core" CTI functionality. When there are frequent transfers of customer's calls, either from an INR system or between CSRs, the reduction in average call processing times can be even greater.
- CTI Another benefit of CTI is the ability to deliver more competent customer service.
- customers are recognized by name as soon as they reach a live CSR.
- customers are relieved from having to repeat routine information every time they are transferred to a different call center location.
- CTI is transparent, as it provides the customer with a seamless interaction, and giving the customer a favorable impression of the organization as a competent, customer-focused operation.
- CTI further supports upselling and cross-selling existing customers. Having fast access to customer information is a critical requirement to being able to upsell and cross- sell effectively. By allowing CSRs to access customer information as they make voice contact with the customer, CSRs are better able to plan up-sale and cross-sale proposals.
- An additional benefit of CTI is reduced long distance charges per call. CTI allows the call center to process calls faster, the technology can result in considerable reductions of long distance charges.
- a typical call or Contact Center 100 may include a switch 102 such as an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) and/or Private Branch Exchange (PBX) connected to a communications network, such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) for receiving calls from and making calls to customer telephones 101.
- Switch 102 is connected to and cooperates with Interactive Voice Response system 103 for automatically handling calls (e.g., playing messages to and obtaining information from callers, etc.) and with CTI Server 104 for routing calls to CSRs.
- CTI Server 104 is also connected to Switch 102 for receiving call information such as DNIS and ANI, and to CSR Workstation 105 for providing information to a CSR.
- CSR Workstation 105 may connect to Database 106 directly and/or receive information form Database 106 through CTI Server 104 when an appropriate connection (not shown) is available.
- a CSR has access both to CSR Workstation 105 and to CSR Telephone 107 for conversing with customers and retrieving data from and inputting data into Database 106 and performing other call handling actions using CTI Server 104, IVR 103 and Switch 102.
- a typical call processing session may proceed as follows.
- a customer call from telephone 101 comes into ACD/PBX switch 102. 2.) The call gets routed to INR 103.
- Switch 102 sends A ⁇ I, D ⁇ IS to CTI Server 104.
- INR 103 requests call data from CTI Server 104.
- the call data is sent to TVR 103 from CTI Server 104.
- INR 103 and Caller exchange information. 5.) IVR 103 sends call data to the CTI Server 104.
- INR 103 transfers the call back to Switch 102.
- CSR Workstation 105 requests data and the CTI Server 104 sends it.
- the data from the caller data triggers a call to the Customer Database 106 to populate the CSR Screen 105 with the customer data as the voice arrives.
- a method of searching audio data comprises the steps of defining a phrase to use for searching; defining a minimum confidence level for searching; searching a set of audio segment for the phrase; and producing a set of results of all occurrences of the phrase within the audio segments and the confidence that a given occurrence is a match for the search phrase.
- the "target" phrase to be found in the audio segment may include one or some combination of phrases, e.g., utterances, words, phonemes, etc.
- the minimum confidence level may set forth a threshold value that may be statically or dynamically defined based on various criteria.
- the step of defining may include defining a plurality of phrases, with the step of searching including searching the set of audio segments for the plurality of phrases, while the step of producing includes producing a set of results of all occurrences of the plurality of phrases identified in a specified sequential order within the audio segments with the minimum confidence that a given occurrence within the audio segments is a match for a corresponding one of the plurality of search phrases.
- the step of defining may include defining a plurality of phrases, the step of searching including searching the set of audio segments for the plurality of phrases, and the step of producing including producing a set of results of all audio segments including (i) at least one occurrence of a selected required one of the plurality of phrases and (ii) non-occurrences of at least one selected forbidden one of the plurality of phrases to be excluded from within the audio segments, the occurrence and non-occurrence determined with respect to the minimum confidence that a given occurrence within the audio segments is a match for a corresponding one of the plurality of search phrases.
- the step of defining may include defining a plurality of phrases, the step of searching including searching the set of audio segments for the plurality of phrases, and the step of producing including producing a set of results of all occurrences of the plurality of phrases identified in a specified temporal relationship within the audio segments with the minimum confidence that a given occurrence within the audio segments is a match for a corresponding one of the plurality of search phrases.
- the step of defining may include defining a plurality of phrases, the step of searching including searching the set of audio segments for the plurality of phrases, and the step of producing including producing a set of results of all audio segments lacking occurrences of the plurality of phrases identified in a specified temporal relationship within the audio segments with the minimum confidence that a given occurrence within the audio segments is a match for a corresponding one of the plurality of search phrases.
- the temporal relationship may be with respect to the phrases (e.g., ⁇ phrase 1> within 5 second of ⁇ phrase 2.>) or with respect to the audio segment (e.g., ⁇ phrase 1> within 5 seconds of ⁇ segment end>).
- Hie a step of identifying the set of audio segments may be included. Identification may be performed response to CTI data which may include (i) called number (DNIS) and/or (ii) calling number (ANT), and/or (iii) Agent Id (a unique identifier of the agent that handled the call).
- CTI data may include (i) called number (DNIS) and/or (ii) calling number (ANT), and/or (iii) Agent Id (a unique identifier of the agent that handled the call).
- a system for searching audio data may include control logic operable to define a phrase to use for searching and define a minimum confidence level for searching; and a search engine operable to search a set of audio segment for the phrase and produce a set of results of all occurrences of the phrase within the audio segments and the confidence that a given occurrence is a match for the search phrase.
- the control logic and/or search engine may be implemented by software stored on and/or executed by a programmable processor such as a general purpose computer or a dedicated platform such as a CTI system.
- Figure 1 is a diagram of a Contact Center
- Figure 2 is a block diagram of system for processing, storing and searching speech
- FIG 3 is a block diagram of a computer integrated telephony (CTI) system incorporating audio processing according to an embodiment of the invention
- Figure 4 is a dataflow diagram of the embodiment depicted in Figure 3
- Figure 5 is a screen shot of a workstation display depicting an application manager used to access CTI system components including systems and functionalities according to embodiments of the invention
- Figure 6 is a screen shot of a workstation display depicting a speech browser main display used to browse and filter calls, playback audio, search for and retrieve audio associated with calls, and implement speech-processing of audio
- Figure 7 is a screen shot of a workstation display depicting a system control or commander feature used to start and stop system operations and to provide system status information;
- Figure 8 is a screen shot of a workstation display depicting a speech resources feature used to display system utilization information
- Figure 9 is a screen shot of a workstation display depicting a speech mining browser used to implement simplified searching of audio segments
- Figure 10 is a screen shot of a workstation display depicting a speech mining browser used to implement advanced searching of audio segments
- Figure 11 is a screen shot of a workstation display depicting a rules implemented by a rules engine defining action to be taken upon receipt of a call
- Figure 12 is a screen shot of a workstation display depicting speech processor functions used for the batch processing of audio files
- Figure 13 is a screen shot of a workstation display depicting a progress indicator showing batch processing of audio files
- Figure 14 is a screen shot of a workstation display depicting a speech statistics setup feature used to configure real-time graphic display of system statistics including statistics indicating the occurrence and or non-occurrence of particular target phrases in associated audio segments and/or associated with selected categories of calls;
- Figure 15 is a screen shot of a workstation display depicting a sample graph of system statistics including the counts of specified target phrases identified at or associated with particular agent workstations;
- Figure 16 is a screen shot of a workstation display depicting a speech reporting feature used to create selected reports
- Figure 17 is a screen shot of a workstation display depicting a sample report generated by the system including speech-related statistics
- Figure 18 is a block diagram of a contact center according to an embodiment of the invention.
- Figure 19 is a flow diagram depicting a method of collecting, processing, organizing, and searching speech segments according to an embodiment of the invention.
- DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The ensuing description provides exemplary embodiments only, and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the invention. Rather, the ensuing description of the exemplary embodiments will provide those skilled in the art with an enabling description for implementing an example embodiment of the invention. It should be understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
- an automated call monitoring system capable of automatically analyzing all telephone calls as they are recorded, which is also capable of reviewing and monitoring previously recorded calls. It would be further advantageous to be able to easily search for spoken words, phrases or word sequences in the recorded audio using speech recognition technology.
- a contact center In a modern contact center, there is more to voice logging than just recording audio. There are many reasons why a contact center has a voice, or call, logger: liability, training, and quality are some examples. To be useful, logged conversations must be located by some reasonable criteria in a timely manner.
- a contact center manager may receive a call from a caller who may be dissatisfied with service provided by a CSR during a recent call.
- the contact center manager may ask for the caller's name, time and date of the call, and the name of the agent they spoke to.
- the task of locating the call recording in any voice logger if daunting.
- it may be approximately known when the caller called (or at least when they think they called, given time zone differences) it may be difficult to identify the CSR handling the call.
- the manager must search for the recording, knowing that it will take hours to locate the right one, and that the correct recording may never be found.
- a voice logger is more than a simple tape recorder, with sufficient data recordings that can be quickly located and played back.
- the voice logger may be integrated into a contact center's infrastructure, preferably to the ACD/PBX switch.
- the voice logger may be integrated with the INR and CSR workstation software.
- One arrangement to integrate a call logger is to merge data from the billing output of the switch (SMDR) into the logged call records.
- SMDR billing output of the switch
- the SMDR (The term SMDR is used generically to encompass all billing outputs) output of a switch contains the time / day of the call, the phone number of the party in the PSTN, the extension of the party on the switch, and the involved trunk ID.
- SMDR integration is its relative ease of implementation and low cost.
- Many commercially available switches include a SMDR port by default.
- the SMDR port is usually an RS232 port that outputs billing records at the completion of calls.
- the SMDR port may already be in use by the billing system such that, to share the data, an RS232 splitter device may be employed.
- CSR ID may not be included as an output field such that, in a free seating environment, it may be difficult to directly identify and locate calls for a particular CSR. Further, recorded call segments that span conferences and transfers may be difficult to accurately be accounted for. Another problem sometimes encountered is caused by systems using some form of proprietary fixed data format. In such cases, it may be difficult to obtain assistance from the switch manufacturers to update its SMDR format to accommodate advanced voice logging features.
- CTI Computer Telephony Integration
- ACD/PBX Computer Telephony Integration
- CTI can include the use of CTI middleware.
- Commercially available ACD/PBX switches typically include such CTI capability.
- An advantage to the use of CTI is that almost any available data can be collected and stored with the recording. In its simplest form DNIS, ANI/CLID, collected digits, and agent ID can be obtained and stored. Additionally, more complicated integrations can be performed.
- CSR entered data, data from a CRM system, and data from an INR can be collected and attached to recordings. Contacts that span multiple agents can be retrieved together.
- PBX/ ACD features such as free seating are easily accommodated. As new sources of data become available, they can be integrated into the CTI solution.
- a CTI based system is not dependent on the clock settings of the switch.
- the CTI system receives the event messages in realtime and records the data in the call logger as the data becomes available. If there is no current CTI solution in a center, many of the other benefits of CTI (such as screen pop and cradle to grave reporting) can be realized at the same time. That is, the installed system becomes a base upon which other advanced contact center features can be built and provide for more efficient operations.
- a supervisor simply asks the caller for their account number (or for any other data used to uniquely identify callers) and executes a search in the call logging system. The supervisor is quickly given access to the call recording and can evaluate and handle the situation.
- audio segments always have intrinsic data such as the start and end time of the call and the recording channel which captured the call.
- embodiments of the present invention include audio data analysis and data mining using speech recognition technology.
- Embodiments of the present invention further provide an audio analysis intelligence tool that provides ad-hoc search capabilities using spoken words as an organized data form and an SQL like interface to process and search audio data and combine it with other traditional data forms.
- the present invention integrates a search for spoken words, phrases or sequences of words in an audio segment with a search for traditional SQL data.
- a speech repository 201 is provided which stores recorded audio (e.g., recorded telephone calls).
- a database 202 is provided which stores information regarding each call that is recorded and stored at repository 201.
- Call data stored at database 202 may include the start and end time of the call, the ANI (Automatic Number Identification) and DNIS (Dialed Number Identification Service) of the call, agent identification information, CTI (Computer Telephony Interface) information pertaining to the call (which may be accessed by integrating a CTI database 204 with the database 202), and any other information that may be pertinent to the call.
- the CTI database stores customer information .
- a search engine 205 is provided for searching both the database 202 and the speech repository 201.
- a search criteria is provided to the search engine 205 that includes Speech Criteria and SQL criteria inter-mixed. An example of such an inter-mixed search criteria is as follows.
- the search engine 205 executes the meta-SQL against the database 202. This yields a "search set".
- the search set will include all calls which start at 10:00 on October 31 , 2001 and end on 11 : 00 on October 31 , 2001 where the dialed number was 800-555-1212 and handled by agents in Group 1.
- the search set identifies a set of voice communications (e.g., telephone calls) within the speech repository 201. For each voice communication in the set identified by the meta-SQL search, a speech search is executed by the search engine 205 for each of the search expressions that were given in the original search criteria.
- Each result of the speech search is written into the database 202, thus bringing the speech domain to the database domain.
- the results of the speech search may be stored in a separate portion 203 of the database 202.
- the speech expressions in the search criteria are then replaced with references to the database table 203 where the speech results were written from the speech search.
- the new, replaced search criteria is executed against the database, providing a "final result" set.
- Embodiments of the present invention allow customer interaction center managers and executives to fully understand the dynamics of agent and customer communication through analysis of spoken word, without the need to invest in the tedious, time consuming, laborious, boring and very expensive process of having to expend cycles listening to live or recorded audio.
- Embodiments of the present invention provide for historical analysis without the need to reprocess speech and may be combined with speech recognition monitoring of audio data as described in the commonly assigned and concurrently filed provisional application entitled “Methods and Apparatus for Audio Data Monitoring Using Speech Recognition” to enable the desirable paradigm of "process once, search many” with a search capability that approaches 70,000 times faster than real time.
- Embodiments of the present invention may be incorporated into and invoked as part of a CTI system.
- An embodiment of the present invention for the retrieval of audio data is exemplified by a product designated of VorTecs, Inc. known as "Mine It! Mine It! may be used in connection with VorTecs, Inc.'s Spot It! Product, that latter incorporating features of embodiments of the invention which is the subject of the above- referenced concurrently filed provisional application.
- SER Solutions, Inc. is the successor in interest to VorTecs, Inc., and provides improved systems, Sertify providing a feature rich embodiment of Spot It! functions, and Sertify-Mining providing enhanced features to the Minelt! product.
- Spot It! As described therein, Spot It!
- a system configuration is shown in Figure 3 including a Server 301 connected to and receiving data from Data Sources 302, Voice Information Processor (VIP) 305, and Audio Source 307.
- VIP Voice Information Processor
- PBX 304 is connected to VIP 305 which, in turn, is connected to TagIT! 306 which, supplies its output to Audio Source 307.
- Server 301 includes both Core and Application Services,
- the Core Services include Configuration Manager 308, Node Manager 309 and State Manager 310.
- the Application Services include Voice Server 311, Speech Queue 312, Speech Worker 313, Rules Engine 314, Xml Database 315, and Report Server 316.
- FIG. 4 A dataflow for processing audio data is depicted in Figure 4.
- audio from Audio Source 401 and VIP 402 are supplied to Voice Server 403.
- the combined audio files from Voice Server 403 are made available to Rules Engine 404 which applies one or more Rules 405 to selectively provide appropriate audio segments to Xml Database 406 and Speech Queue 407.
- Xml Database 406 associates the audio segments with Call Data, CTI Data and Customer 410.
- Speech Queue 407 makes the audio segments available to Speech Worker(s) 408 which processes the audio segments to provide Searchable Audio Format 409.
- the searchable format may convert the audio into a series of symbols, such as phonemes, that represent the speech and can be searched and otherwise handled as discrete data.
- Figures 5 - 17 depict screen shots of a speech mining interface according to an embodiment of the present invention.
- an initial screen of an application manager provides a single, integrated interface for accessing all components of a suite of programs including those providing for the capture of audio and data and mining of the captured data.
- Figure 6 depicts a speech browser providing an interface for (i) browsing calls, (ii) filtering calls, (iii) audio playback and queuing to exact moments when phrases are detected, (iv) speech mining, and (v) speech-processor (batch processing). By selecting an item from any one viewport, all other may be configured to automatically filter their results to match the selection.
- Speech Results viewports may be configured to be constrained only to speech-results associated with the currently selected call.
- Toolbar buttons in the Speech Browser provide access to the Speech Mining and Speech-Processor functions (shown by themselves). All of the windows may be resizable to provide a familiar interface format.
- Figure 7 depicts a system control or system commander screen used to start and stop the systems, as well as provide system status information. Since the system may accommodate multiple servers, the system commander provides a single interface for starting, stopping, and viewing status across all servers.
- a speech resources component depicts in Figure 8 displays current system utilization. It may be used to observe the rate of requests and how fast the system is keeping up with the requests, together with other system information.
- the speech mining interface depicted in Figure 9 can be invoked from the Speech
- the speech mining interface includes a Simple ( Figure 9) and Advanced ( Figure 10) dialog for selecting the records of phrases that are to be located.
- a speech- query and data-base-query can be performed together and the unified result presented to a user in the main Alerts, Call History, and Speech viewports.
- the audio can then be navigated in the same way that regular historical data can be navigated.
- Figure 10 depicts the advance tab of the speech mining interface allowing users to build more complex queries against their data.
- the advanced tab allow users to create SQL and speech-queries that are integrated into a single query.
- the rules that the rules engine maintains determine what actions are to be taken when a call is presented to the system.
- the rules that the rules engine maintains determine what actions are to be taken when a call is presented to the system.
- two important functions have been implemented: StartCall() and Speech().
- the StartCall() rule determines if a call should be monitored by the system.
- the Speech() rules determined what actions to take when a piece of audio has been processed by the system and is ready to be searched. In this case, the rule displays a warning each time the user mentions the phrase "application”, "manager”, "engineer”, or "tabby cat".
- a dialog displayed upon start of the speech processor is depicted in Figure 12.
- the speech processor is a feature of the speech browser that is used for monitoring calls that have not yet been processed by the system.
- calls are automatically processed by the system as they take place.
- This feature allows users to process call that were purposely not processed automatically or to process old call that existed prior to system availability.
- the speech processor will process the set of calls that are currently being displayed in the speech browser.
- a typical use of the system is to first use the speech mining feature to constrain the calls to the one that have been selected for processing, and the invoke the speech processor for the calls that have been selected.
- Speech processor progress may be displayed by an appropriate progress indicator as depicted in Figure 13, showing calls as processed by the system. Once processed, the calls can be searched at high-speed. Processing may include conversion of the audio into a series of symbols representing the speech, e.g., phonetic information.
- Figure 14 depicts a speech statistics setup display.
- the speech statistics component is used for displaying real-time graphics of statistics that are maintained by the business-rules of the system. For instance, a statistic can be created to count the number of times that a specific phrase is heard, is missing, or to calculate statistics based on any other measures.
- a graph such as depicts in Figure 15 may displayed and updated in real-time. A user can watch as the graph dynamically changes over time to observe trends, not only with speech-related statistics, but with statistics than can be calculated by speech, CTI, system, and user-data.
- Reports may be defined using, for example, the speech reports setup screen depicted in Figure 16.
- the speech reports component is used to report on statistics that are maintained by the business-rules of the system. For instance, a statistics can be created to count the number of time that specific phrase is heard, found to be missing, or to calculate statistics based on any other measure. An example of a resulting report is shown in Figure 17. Once the speech reports are setup, such a report will be displayed. A user can examine the report to observe performance trends, not only with speech-related statistics, but with statistics that can be calculated by speech, CTI, systems and user-data.
- a speech mining interface is invoked from a speech browser tool bar within an application such as Sertify
- the interface offers a simple and advanced dialog box for implementing search criteria.
- the tool allows for analysis of words, phrases and the ability to combine audio searches with other available data collections (such as CTI data or call-related data).
- the interface accesses a database query tool that includes speech as data, as well as traditional data forms.
- the unified content is presented as an inventory of audio files that are indexed and point to the exact location in the dialogue where the target utterance resides.
- a contact center 1800 includes:
- Audio data monitoring (this component may be incorporated into various ones of the platforms depicted as appropriate ) - A system that uses speech processing and automated rules to analyze calls for quality monitoring purposes and order validation.
- Public Switched Network 1801 - This is the public switched telephone network that provides a high quality voice connection between a customer and a call center.
- Workforce scheduling 1802- This is a system that uses historical call data to create a staffing forecast in order to meet a specified service level for how long it will take before a call is answered.
- ACD 1803 - Automatic Call Distributor is a voice switching platform that connects to PSTN 180 land to local extensions. Call center agents log in to ACD 1803 which associates a set of skills with each agent. When calls come in for a given skill, normally determined by the dialed number, ACD 1803 will distribute the calls to the set of agents that have the appropriate skill, normally in a round robin fashion.
- Agent reports contain agent specific information such as time on the system, calls handled, avg talk time, longest talk time, etc.
- Dialer 1805- A system for predictive dialing. In predictive dialing calls are launched on behalf of a group of agents. Because not all calls may result in a live connect, the number of calls dialed is normally higher than the number of available agents. This system enhances productivity because the system only connects live answers and agents do not have to dial calls or listen to call progress such as ringing or busy signals.
- IP 1806 - This is an IP gateway so that VOIP calls can be handled by
- ACD 1803 in the same fashion as calls that arrive over PSTN 1801 IVR 1807 - Interactive Voice Response (aka VRU or voice response unit)
- SR 1808- Speech Recognition is an add on to IVR 1807 that allows IVR
- CTI 1807 to accept voice input in addition to touch tone input.
- CTI 1809 - A computer telephony interface middleware server that interfaces to the proprietary CTI interface of ACD 1803 and allows CTI clients to receive events and exert control over contacts.
- Router 1810 - An add on application to the CTI middleware for intelligent call routing. When a call arrives, CTI data from the call is used to access information and route the call appropriately, for example putting a high value customer at the head of the queue.
- Call Recording 1811- A system that makes digital recordings of calls within the contact center.
- Agent Groups 1812 The human employees of the contact center that handle voice calls.
- Agent Desktop 1813 A computer interface that runs programs which support the agent interactions with callers.
- Legacy Apps and Data 1814 Computer systems that contain data about the callers and the business. Used for routing decisions and to provide information to the callers.
- Email 1815 A server for processing email messages. Properly skilled agents can handle email interactions as well as voice interactions.
- WWW 1816 A web server that can host self service applications. Self service web applications can be used to offload work from contact center agents by providing information.
- Audio Processor 1817 An audio server according to an embodiment of the invention, providing for the processing of audio from Call Recording 1811, generation of searchable audio segments, and supporting data mining.
- a method for capturing and searching audio associated with respective calls is depicted in the flow chart of Figure 19.
- a telephone conversation occurs at step 1901.
- This conversation may be carried over the public switched telephone network, or it may be over a data network using Voice over IP technology, or it may be a hybrid where some of the voice transmission is over the PSTN and some uses VOIP.
- audio is captured from the conversation of step 1901 and a digital representation is made and stored within a computer system. If the recording is done through a digital PBX or a VOIP switch, then the capture may be accomplished through a direct data stream.
- Another option is an analog tap of a phone, in which case the voice is digitized as part of the process of making the recording. It is common for devices which record audio to compress the digital representation to conserve computer storage.
- Step 1903 includes functionality provided by a CTI middleware product that can connect to a digital PBX or ACD and receive information associated with a call from the digital PBX or ACD. Although not a required component, it provides additional functionality. Examples of information that can be associated with a call are the callers number (CLID/ANI) the number dialed (DNIS) the local extension that received the call, and in the case of an ACD, the agent id of the person that handled the call.
- CLID/ANI the callers number
- DNIS number dialed
- ACD agent id of the person that handled the call.
- Speech processing 1905 is alerted when a reference to an audio segment is added to the queue, it invokes the speech engine to pre process the audio into an intermediate format.
- the intermediate format is a representation of the audio that is optimized for rapid searching. Some representations that are suitable for rapid searches are a statistical model of the phonemes or a text representation of the contents of the audio.
- Data entry occurs at 1909.
- agents often enter data about a call into a computer system during the call.
- An example could be the length of a subscription. This is also not a required element.
- this data is also associated with an audio file and can be used to create dynamic rules at 1906.
- a process for offline rules creation is provided at 1910.
- Such rules can be static or dynamic. Static rules are fully defined at rule creation time and do not involve any data elements that are only known at run time. An example of a static rule would be "generate an alert if at any time on the call there is at least a 70% confidence that the audio contains Take your business elsewhere". Dynamic rules contain some template information and the rule can only be fully formed when the audio and it's associated data is known. An example of a dynamic rule would be "Generate an alert if the audio does not contain "Thank you for calling my name is ⁇ agentid ⁇ how may I help you" where the name of the agent that is handling the call is substituted for ⁇ agentid ⁇ .
- rules are then gathered into a rule set, and further logic is defined for a rule set to control when that set is applied.
- This logic can use any information that is known about an audio segment.
- rules may contain some phrase that is to be used to search the audio, and this phrase is entered by typing into an interface. It should be noted that other methods of entering phrases, such as speaking them into the system may be employed in the future.
- the logic processing according to 1906 is executed when an intermediate file is created.
- Rules determination considers the information known about the audio and determines which rules sets to apply to the audio. More than one rule set may be applied to a single instance of audio. If any of the applicable rules sets contain dynamic rules, then, at 1906, the data substitutions are made to create a rule applicable to the audio segment. There is a loop between steps 1906, 1907 and 1908. Since rules execution contains branching logic, the rules are executed in step 1906, but as part of that execution searches may be performed (step 1907) and corresponding actions may be initiated (step 1908). A speech queue is used to allow search requests (step 1907) to be performed by any available speech worker. At step 1907 any searches required to support the rules execution are performed.
- Searches are performed against the intermediate file created at step 1905. If the intermediate format is a statistical model of the phonemes, then the search string must be represented as a set of probable phonemic representations of each word in the search string. If the search string was entered as text, a mapping of the text to a plurality of possible phoneme strings is performed in this step. (Note that a single text phrase may map to more than one symbolic representation.) If the intermediate file is text, then no format conversion is required. Once the intermediate file and search string are in a common format, a pattern match is performed, and a confidence is returned that the search pattern exists within the processed audio.
- a list of result hypotheses are returned from the speech recognition engine.
- Each result in the list is given an associated "confidence score" that indicates the probability that the result is, in fact, a correct result.
- the distribution of confidence scores is typically not uniform across all search phrases and therefore a "confidence threshold" value is determined for each search phrase that indicates what the lowest acceptable confidence threshold for a search result may be in order to be considered by the system to be a correct result.
- the process of threshold determination is performed by first determining a set of calls that represent a test or training set. A specific phrase is selected, a search is performed, and the resulting list of result hypotheses will be returned. A human listener is then used to listen to the list of result hypotheses and to determine at what point in the result distribution that the confidence scores fail to be accurate. As the listener inspects search results, they are queued to the exact point in each call that the candidate result was located and allows the listener to only listen to a small portion of each call in order to determine the appropriate threshold.
- alerts and statistics may be stored in a relational database.
- the present invention provides advantageous methods and apparatus for audio data analysis and data mining using speech recognition.
- this disclosure there is shown and described only the preferred embodiments of the invention and but a few examples of its versatility. It is to be understood that the invention is capable of use in various other combinations and environments and is capable of changes or modifications within the scope of the inventive concept as expressed herein.
- embodiments of the invention have been described in connection with contact centers, CTI and other telephony based application, embodiments of the invention are equally applicable to other environments wherein speech, audio, and other real-time information may be collected, stored and processed for rapid searching.
Abstract
Description
Claims
Priority Applications (3)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
AU2003301373A AU2003301373B9 (en) | 2002-10-18 | 2003-10-20 | Methods and apparatus for audio data analysis and data mining using speech recognition |
CA2502543A CA2502543C (en) | 2002-10-18 | 2003-10-20 | Methods and apparatus for audio data analysis and data mining using speech recognition |
EP03809142A EP1554719A4 (en) | 2002-10-18 | 2003-10-20 | Methods and apparatus for audio data analysis and data mining using speech recognition |
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
US41973802P | 2002-10-18 | 2002-10-18 | |
US60/419,738 | 2002-10-18 |
Publications (2)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
WO2004036544A2 true WO2004036544A2 (en) | 2004-04-29 |
WO2004036544A3 WO2004036544A3 (en) | 2004-07-15 |
Family
ID=32108133
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/US2003/033042 WO2004036544A2 (en) | 2002-10-18 | 2003-10-20 | Methods and apparatus for audio data analysis and data mining using speech recognition |
Country Status (4)
Country | Link |
---|---|
EP (1) | EP1554719A4 (en) |
AU (1) | AU2003301373B9 (en) |
CA (1) | CA2502543C (en) |
WO (1) | WO2004036544A2 (en) |
Citations (5)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US5535256A (en) | 1993-09-22 | 1996-07-09 | Teknekron Infoswitch Corporation | Method and system for automatically monitoring the performance quality of call center service representatives |
US6263049B1 (en) | 1996-10-10 | 2001-07-17 | Envision Telephony, Inc. | Non-random call center supervisory method and apparatus |
US20010040942A1 (en) | 1999-06-08 | 2001-11-15 | Dictaphone Corporation | System and method for recording and storing telephone call information |
US6408064B1 (en) | 1998-02-20 | 2002-06-18 | Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc. | Method and apparatus for enabling full interactive monitoring of calls to and from a call-in center |
US6542602B1 (en) | 2000-02-14 | 2003-04-01 | Nice Systems Ltd. | Telephone call monitoring system |
Family Cites Families (3)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
GB9620082D0 (en) * | 1996-09-26 | 1996-11-13 | Eyretel Ltd | Signal monitoring apparatus |
US6185527B1 (en) * | 1999-01-19 | 2001-02-06 | International Business Machines Corporation | System and method for automatic audio content analysis for word spotting, indexing, classification and retrieval |
US6434520B1 (en) * | 1999-04-16 | 2002-08-13 | International Business Machines Corporation | System and method for indexing and querying audio archives |
-
2003
- 2003-10-20 AU AU2003301373A patent/AU2003301373B9/en not_active Ceased
- 2003-10-20 EP EP03809142A patent/EP1554719A4/en not_active Withdrawn
- 2003-10-20 WO PCT/US2003/033042 patent/WO2004036544A2/en not_active Application Discontinuation
- 2003-10-20 CA CA2502543A patent/CA2502543C/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
Patent Citations (5)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US5535256A (en) | 1993-09-22 | 1996-07-09 | Teknekron Infoswitch Corporation | Method and system for automatically monitoring the performance quality of call center service representatives |
US6263049B1 (en) | 1996-10-10 | 2001-07-17 | Envision Telephony, Inc. | Non-random call center supervisory method and apparatus |
US6408064B1 (en) | 1998-02-20 | 2002-06-18 | Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc. | Method and apparatus for enabling full interactive monitoring of calls to and from a call-in center |
US20010040942A1 (en) | 1999-06-08 | 2001-11-15 | Dictaphone Corporation | System and method for recording and storing telephone call information |
US6542602B1 (en) | 2000-02-14 | 2003-04-01 | Nice Systems Ltd. | Telephone call monitoring system |
Non-Patent Citations (2)
Title |
---|
CLEMENTS M. ET AL.: "Phonetic searching applied to on-line distance learning modules", DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING WORKSHOP, 2002 AND THE 2ND SIGNAL PROCESSING EDUCATION WORKSHOP. PROCEEDINGS OF 2002 IEEE 10TH 13-16 OCT. 2002, 13 October 2002 (2002-10-13), pages 186 - 191, XP010657794 |
See also references of EP1554719A4 |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
CA2502543A1 (en) | 2004-04-29 |
CA2502543C (en) | 2014-08-05 |
EP1554719A2 (en) | 2005-07-20 |
AU2003301373A1 (en) | 2004-05-04 |
AU2003301373B9 (en) | 2009-07-23 |
EP1554719A4 (en) | 2006-01-18 |
AU2003301373B2 (en) | 2009-03-12 |
WO2004036544A3 (en) | 2004-07-15 |
Similar Documents
Publication | Publication Date | Title |
---|---|---|
US7133828B2 (en) | Methods and apparatus for audio data analysis and data mining using speech recognition | |
US8055503B2 (en) | Methods and apparatus for audio data analysis and data mining using speech recognition | |
US7076427B2 (en) | Methods and apparatus for audio data monitoring and evaluation using speech recognition | |
US6603854B1 (en) | System and method for evaluating agents in call center | |
US9565310B2 (en) | System and method for message-based call communication | |
US9992336B2 (en) | System for analyzing interactions and reporting analytic results to human operated and system interfaces in real time | |
US7068774B1 (en) | Integrated acd and ivr scripting for call center tracking of calls | |
US6587556B1 (en) | Skills based routing method and system for call center | |
US6707904B1 (en) | Method and system for collecting reports for call center monitoring by supervisor | |
US6763104B1 (en) | Call center IVR and ACD scripting method and graphical user interface | |
US7321298B2 (en) | Skills based routing method and system for call center | |
US7426268B2 (en) | System and method for call routing and enabling interaction between callers with calls positioned in a queue | |
CN113992803A (en) | Intelligent customer service call center system | |
US20230362301A1 (en) | Intelligent speech-enabled scripting | |
CA2502533C (en) | Methods and apparatus for audio data monitoring and evaluation using speech recognition | |
AU2003301373B9 (en) | Methods and apparatus for audio data analysis and data mining using speech recognition | |
CA2340491A1 (en) | Selection of communications for service observing based on real-time dynamic parameters |
Legal Events
Date | Code | Title | Description |
---|---|---|---|
AK | Designated states |
Kind code of ref document: A2 Designated state(s): AE AG AL AM AT AU AZ BA BB BG BR BY BZ CA CH CN CO CR CU CZ DE DK DM DZ EC EE ES FI GB GD GE GH GM HR HU ID IL IN IS JP KE KG KP KR KZ LC LK LR LS LT LU LV MA MD MG MK MN MW MX MZ NI NO NZ OM PG PH PL PT RO RU SC SD SE SG SK SL SY TJ TM TN TR TT TZ UA UG US UZ VC VN YU ZA ZM ZW |
|
AL | Designated countries for regional patents |
Kind code of ref document: A2 Designated state(s): GH GM KE LS MW MZ SD SL SZ TZ UG ZM ZW AM AZ BY KG KZ MD RU TJ TM AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EE ES FI FR GB GR HU IE IT LU MC NL PT RO SE SI SK TR BF BJ CF CG CI CM GA GN GQ GW ML MR NE SN TD TG |
|
121 | Ep: the epo has been informed by wipo that ep was designated in this application | ||
DFPE | Request for preliminary examination filed prior to expiration of 19th month from priority date (pct application filed before 20040101) | ||
WWE | Wipo information: entry into national phase |
Ref document number: 2003301373 Country of ref document: AU |
|
WWE | Wipo information: entry into national phase |
Ref document number: 1-2005-500697 Country of ref document: PH |
|
WWE | Wipo information: entry into national phase |
Ref document number: 2502543 Country of ref document: CA Ref document number: 283/MUMNP/2005 Country of ref document: IN |
|
WWE | Wipo information: entry into national phase |
Ref document number: 2003809142 Country of ref document: EP |
|
WWP | Wipo information: published in national office |
Ref document number: 2003809142 Country of ref document: EP |
|
NENP | Non-entry into the national phase |
Ref country code: JP |
|
WWW | Wipo information: withdrawn in national office |
Ref document number: JP |