US20090067590A1 - System and method of utilizing a hybrid semantic model for speech recognition - Google Patents

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Classifications

• • 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
  • H04M3/42204—Arrangements at the exchange for service or number selection by voice
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G10—MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; ACOUSTICS
  • G10L—SPEECH ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES OR SPEECH SYNTHESIS; SPEECH RECOGNITION; SPEECH OR VOICE PROCESSING TECHNIQUES; SPEECH OR AUDIO CODING OR DECODING
  • G10L15/00—Speech recognition
  • G10L15/08—Speech classification or search
  • G10L15/18—Speech classification or search using natural language modelling
  • G10L15/1815—Semantic context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word meaning
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G10—MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; ACOUSTICS
  • G10L—SPEECH ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES OR SPEECH SYNTHESIS; SPEECH RECOGNITION; SPEECH OR VOICE PROCESSING TECHNIQUES; SPEECH OR AUDIO CODING OR DECODING
  • G10L15/00—Speech recognition
  • G10L15/08—Speech classification or search
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04M2201/00—Electronic components, circuits, software, systems or apparatus used in telephone systems
  • H04M2201/60—Medium conversion
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04M2203/00—Aspects of automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
  • H04M2203/20—Aspects of automatic or semi-automatic exchanges related to features of supplementary services
  • H04M2203/2011—Service processing based on information specified by a party before or during a call, e.g. information, tone or routing selection
• • 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 disclosure relates generally to speech recognition and, more particularly, to a system and method of utilizing a hybrid semantic model for speech recognition.
• Natural language call routing allows callers to state the purpose of the call “in their own words.”
• a goal of a typical ACR application is to accurately determine why a customer is calling and to quickly route the customer to an appropriate agent or destination for servicing.
• FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified configuration of a telecommunication system
• FIG. 2 is a general diagram that illustrates a method of routing calls
• FIG. 3 is a flow diagram that illustrates a method of processing and routing calls
• FIG. 4 is a table that depicts speech input and mapped synonym terms
• FIG. 5 is a table illustrating action-object pairs and call destinations relating to the action-object pairs.
• the present disclosure is directed generally to integrating speech enabled automated call routing with action-object technology.
• Traditional automatic call routing systems assign a correct destination for a call 50% to 80% of the time.
• Particular embodiments of the disclosed system and method using action-object tables may achieve a correct destination assignment 85 to 95% of the time.
• a semantic model may be used to create an action-object pair that further increases call routing accuracy while reducing costs.
• the correct call destination routing rate may approach the theoretical limit of 100%. Due to higher effective call placement rates, the number of abandoned calls (e.g., caller hang-ups prior to completing their task) may be significantly reduced, thereby reducing operating costs and enhancing customer satisfaction.
• a call may be routed based on a selectable action-object pair.
• a call is received from a caller and a received speech input is converted into text or “text configurations,” which may be the same as, similar to, or can be associated with, known actions and objects.
• objects are related to nouns and actions are related to verbs.
• the converted text may be compared to tables of known text configurations representing objects and actions.
• a confidence level may be assigned to the recognized actions and objects based on text similarities and other rules.
• An action-object list may be created that contains recognized actions and objects and their confidence levels. In some embodiments, the entry (action or object) in the list with the highest confidence level may be selected as a dominant item. If an action is dominant a system incorporating teachings disclosed herein may look for a complementary object. Likewise, if an object is dominant, the system may look for a complementary action.
• a call may be routed based on a dominant action and a complementary object or a dominant object and a complementary action.
• Communications system 100 includes a speech-enabled call routing system (SECRS) 118 , such as an interactive voice response system having a speech recognition module.
• Communications system 100 also includes a plurality of potential call destinations. Illustrative call destinations shown include service departments, such as billing department 120 , balance information 122 , technical support 124 , employee directory 126 , and new customer service departments 128 .
• service departments such as billing department 120 , balance information 122 , technical support 124 , employee directory 126 , and new customer service departments 128 .
• communication network 116 may receive calls from a variety of callers, such as the illustrated callers 110 , 112 , and 114 .
• communication network 116 may be a public telephone network, a wireless telephone network, a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) type network, or some other network capable of supporting communication.
• SECRS 118 may include components, such as a processor 142 , memory 143 , a synonym table 144 , and a routing module 140 .
• SECRS 118 may be coupled to and may route calls to various destinations across a LAN, an Intranet, an extranet, the Public Internet, and/or some other communication link or network, as shown.
• SECRS 118 may route calls to an agent, such as the illustrated live operator 130 .
• SECRS 118 may be a call center having a plurality of agent terminals attached. Thus, while only a single operator 130 is shown in FIG. 1 , it should be understood that a plurality of different agent terminals or types of terminals may be coupled to SECRS 118 , such that a variety of agents may service incoming calls. Moreover, and as indicated above, SECRS 118 may be operable as an automated call routing system.
• action-object routing module 140 includes an action-object lookup table for matching action-object pairs to desired call routing destinations. This process may be better understood through consideration of FIG. 2 .
• processor 142 in SECR 118 includes an acoustic processing model 210 , semantic processing model 220 , and action-object routing table 230 .
• acoustic model 210 may receive speech input 202 and provide text as its output 204 .
• Semantic model 220 may receive text 204 directly or indirectly from acoustic model 210 and produce an action-object table.
• the action(s) and object(s) in the action-object table may be ordered or ranked according to a confidence level. The confidence level may be used to indicate how likely a given action or object reflects a correct and useable customer instruction.
• a system like SECRS 118 of FIG. 1 may initiate a secondary conversion that creates an object list from the initial speech input.
• the call may then be routed based on several criteria, such as the overall highest confidence level in the action-object list (a dominant list entry) and the highest confidence level complimentary term from the secondary conversion (a complement to the dominant entry).
• the secondary conversion or a second list can be generated that may take the initial speech received from the caller and processes the initial speech a second time.
• the semantic model 220 may look specifically for consistent objects while ignoring actions if an action had the highest overall confidence level. In such a case, the high scoring action may have been selected, the actions may have been masked, and objects that are inconsistent with the selected action may be tagged as invalid. Examples of invalid action-object combinations can be understood by referring to FIG. 5 , where objects are listed on the left of the chart, and actions are listed across the top of the chart.
• objects such as “bill,” “payment,” “other providers,” “coupon specials” “name/number” and “store locations” may be masked or tagged as invalid selections.
• a secondary conversion may be initiated to create an action list to assist in selecting a complementary action.
• the secondary conversion may take the initial speech received from the caller and processes the initial speech a second time. It may also rely on an output from the processing performed in connection with the earlier conversion.
• semantic model 220 may look specifically for actions while ignoring objects. The confidence levels of actions may also be adjusted based on actions that are inconsistent with the selected object. Thus, in either case a call may be routed based on a dominant entry and a valid complement to the dominant entry.
• the results of a reiterative speech recognition process may be provided to action-object routing table 230 .
• Routing table 230 may receive action-object pairs 206 and produce a call routing destination 208 . Based on the call routing destination 208 , a call received at a call routing network like SECRS 118 may be routed to a final destination, such as the billing department 120 or the technical support service destination 124 depicted in FIG. 1 .
• the action-object routing table 230 may be a look up table or a spreadsheet, such as a Microsoft ExcelTM spreadsheet.
• a speech input signal such as a received utterance
• the received speech input may be converted into a plurality of word strings or text in accordance with an acoustic model, as shown at steps 304 and 306 .
• probability values may be assigned to word strings based on established rules and the content and coherency of the word string.
• the word strings may be parsed into objects and actions.
• Objects generally represent nouns and adjective-noun combinations, while actions generally represent verbs and adverb-verb combinations.
• the actions and objects are assigned confidence values or probability values based on how likely they are to reflect the intent of the caller.
• a probability value or confidence level for the detected action and the detected object is determined utilizing a priority value of the word string used to create the selected action and the selected object.
• a method incorporating teachings of the present disclosure may attempt to determine and select a most probable action and object from a list of preferred objects and actions.
• a synonym table such as the synonym table of FIG. 4 may be utilized to convert detected actions and objects into actions and objects that the system expects and/or is configured to “listen for.”
• detected objects and actions may be converted to expected actions and objects and assigned a confidence level.
• the process may also utilize the synonym table, for example, to adjust confidence levels of the actions and objects.
• the synonym table may store natural language phrases and their relationship with a set of actions and objects. In practice, natural language spoken by the caller may be compared to the natural language phrases in the table.
• the system and method may map portions of the natural phrases to detected objects and maps portions of the natural spoken phrase to detected actions.
• the word strings can be converted into expected objects and actions, at step 308 .
• multiple actions and multiple objects can be detected and provided with a confidence level according to the likelihood that a particular action or object identifies a customer's intent and thus will lead to a successful routing of the call.
• the confidence level may be assigned to an action and/or an object based on many criteria, such as the textual similarities, business rules, etc., in step 310 . Confidence levels may also be assigned based on a combination of factors, and some of these factors may not involved speech recognition. For example, in a particular example, if a caller does not currently have service, a caller's number (caller ID) may be utilized to assign a high confidence level to the action “acquire” and a low confidence value the actions “change” or “cancel.” In the event that a confidence level for an action-object pair is below a predetermined level, the call may be routed to a human operator or agent terminal.
• caller ID a caller's number
• An action-object list may be utilized at step 312 to select a dominant entry. If an action is selected as the dominant entry at step 334 , other actions in the action-object list may be masked and objects that are inconsistent with the selected action may be tagged as invalid at step 336 .
• the process of invalidating objects based on a dominant action can be further explained by referring to FIG. 5 where objects are listed on the left side of the chart and actions are listed across the top of the chart.
• the object described as “bill,” “payment,” “other providers,” “coupon specials” “name/number” and “store locations” may be masked or tagged as invalid selections because a caller would not likely want to, for example, “cancel-store locations.”
• the method may ignore objects and invalid actions when a dominant object has been selected.
• the entries at the intersection of valid action-object illustrate routing destinations or phone extension where a call is routed when the system determines a dominant entry and it's complement.
• the confidence level of the objects can be adjusted at step 338 .
• the caller's input of the utterance may be sent through the acoustic model, again in step 340 , and the acoustic model may create and store word strings, as shown in step 342 .
• Word strings may be parsed into objects using the semantic model in step 344 , and an object list may be formed where each object in the list is assigned a confidence level in step 346 .
• the object having the highest confidence level may be selected to complement the dominant action and an action-object pair may be created at step 330 .
• a search for a complementary action may be conducted. Objects remaining in the action-object list and action that are inconsistent with the selected object may be masked or tagged as invalid, as shown in step 316 . Thus such a method may ignore objects and invalid actions in the search for a complementary action when a dominant object has been elected.
• the confidence level of listed actions may be adjusted at step 318 .
• the original caller input may be sent through the acoustic model, again in step 320 and the acoustic model may create and store word strings as in step 322 .
• Words strings may then be parsed into objects using the semantic model in step 324 and an actions list may be formed where actions in the list is assigned a confidence level at step 326 .
• the action having the highest confidence level (at step 328 ) may be selected to complement the dominant object and an action-object pair may be passed at step 330 .
• the call may then be routed at step 331 , the process ending at 332 .

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Artificial Intelligence (AREA)
• Computational Linguistics (AREA)
• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology (AREA)
• Human Computer Interaction (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Acoustics & Sound (AREA)
• Multimedia (AREA)
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Abstract

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• 2005
  • 2005-01-14 US US11/036,204 patent/US7450698B2/en active Active
• 2008
  • 2008-11-11 US US12/268,894 patent/US20090067590A1/en not_active Abandoned

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