Speechworks International, Inc.

Mark Arthur Holthouse

Michael Stuart Phillips

John N Nguyen

Matthew T Marx

Stephen Richard Springer

Jerry K Carter

Brett D Phaneuf

Jose L Elizondo-Cecenas

Matthew D Crane

Stephen D Seabury

A speech recognition system plays prompts to a user in order to obtain information from the user. If the user begins to speak, the prompt should stop. However, the system may receive sounds other than speech from the user while playing a prompt, in which case the prompt should continue. The system temporarily stops a prompt when it detects a sound or when it preliminarily determines that a detected sound may be a target sound (such as words from the user). The system then determines whether the received sound is a target sound or some other sound (such as coughing or a door shutting). If the received sound is not determined to be a target sound, then the prompt is resumed. The prompt can be resumed at any appropriate point, such as the point where it was stopped, a prior phrase boundary, or the beginning of the prompt.

Non-target barge-in detection

A method and apparatus are disclosed for computing and reporting statistical information that describes the performance of an interactive speech application. The interactive speech application is developed and deployed for use by one or more callers. During execution, the interactive speech application stores, in a log, event information that describes each task carried out by the interactive speech application in response to interaction with the one or more callers. After the log is established, an analytical report is displayed. The report describes selective actions taken by the interactive speech application while executing, and selective actions taken by one or more callers while interacting with the interactive speech application. Information in the analytical report is selected so as to identify one or more potential performance problems in the interactive speech application. The analytical reports are generated based on the information stored in the event logs. Each line of the event log is associated with a particular call and is identified by a unique call number. Each line of the event log is then processed to calculate and extract data needed for the analytical reports.

Statistical computing and reporting for interactive speech applications

Dialogue modules are provided, with each dialogue module includes computer readable instructions for accomplishing a predefined interactive dialogue task in an interactive speech application. In response to user input, a subset of the plurality of dialogue modules are selected to accomplish their respective interactive dialogue tasks in the interactive speech application and are interconnected in an order defining the call flow of the application, and the application is generated. A graphical user interface represents the stored plurality of dialogue modules as icons in a graphical display in which icons for the subset of dialogue modules are selected in the graphical display in response to user input, the icons for the subset of dialogue modules are graphically interconnected into a graphical representation of the call flow of the interactive speech application, and the interactive speech application is generated based upon the graphical representation. Using the graphical display, the method further includes associating configuration parameters with specific dialogue modules. Each configuration parameter causes a change in operation of the dialogue module when the interactive speech program executes. A window is displayed for setting the value of the configuration parameter in response to user input, when an icon for a dialogue module having an associated configuration parameter is selected.

System and method for developing interactive speech applications

Growing community of inventors

Newtonville, MA, United States of America

Mark Arthur Holthouse