Speaker Identification Or Verification (epo) Patents (Class 704/E17.001)
  • Publication number: 20090287475
    Abstract: A handheld electronic device includes a reduced QWERTY keyboard and is enabled with disambiguation software that is operable to disambiguate compound word text input. The device provides output in the form of a default output and a number of variants. The output is based largely upon the frequency, i.e., the likelihood that a user intended a particular output, but various features of the device provide additional variants that are not based solely on frequency and rather are provided by various logic structures resident on the device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 22, 2009
    Publication date: November 19, 2009
    Applicant: RESEARCH IN MOTION LIMITED
    Inventors: Vadim Fux, Michael Elizarov
  • Publication number: 20090275316
    Abstract: Real-time automatic capturing and storing is described for contact information such as a telephone number or other well-structured contact information spoken during a conversation over the mobile telephone. A user input is received to capture contact information contained in recent audio data processed by the mobile device. Speech in the recent audio data is identified that corresponds to the contact information. Then speech recognition is used to extract the contact information from the identified speech. The contact information is stored in mobile device memory storage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 4, 2009
    Publication date: November 5, 2009
    Applicant: NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
    Inventor: Stephen R. Springer
  • Publication number: 20090276217
    Abstract: There are provided methods and systems for authenticating a user. A method includes receiving a voice signature certificate corresponding to a setup portion of a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call. The VoIP call further has a voice conversation portion. The voice signature certificate includes a voice signature segment. The method further includes reproducing the voice signature segment to enable verification of voice continuity from the setup portion to the voice conversation portion. The verification is performing by comparing the voice signature segment to a user's voice during the voice conversation portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 2, 2008
    Publication date: November 5, 2009
    Inventors: Debanjan Saha, Zon-Yin Shae, Kunwadee Sripanidkulchai
  • Publication number: 20090259470
    Abstract: Systems and methods for bio-phonetic multi-phrase speaker identity verification are disclosed. Generally, a speaker identity verification engine generates a dynamic phrase including at least one dynamically-generated word. The speaker identity verification engine prompts a user to speak the dynamic phrase and receives a dynamic phrase utterance. The speaker identity verification engine extracts at least one voice characteristic from the dynamic phrase utterance and compares the at least one voice characteristic with a voice profile the generate a score. The speaker identity verification engine then determines whether to accept a speaker identity claim based on the score.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2009
    Publication date: October 15, 2009
    Inventor: Hisao M. Chang
  • Publication number: 20090259468
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and tangible computer readable-media for detecting synthetic speaker verification. The method comprises receiving a plurality of speech samples of the same word or phrase for verification, comparing each of the plurality of speech samples to each other, denying verification if the plurality of speech samples demonstrate little variance over time or are the same, and verifying the plurality of speech samples if the plurality of speech samples demonstrates sufficient variance over time. One embodiment further adds that each of the plurality of speech samples is collected at different times or in different contexts. In other embodiments, variance is based on a pre-determined threshold or the threshold for variance is adjusted based on a need for authentication certainty. In another embodiment, if the initial comparison is inconclusive, additional speech samples are received.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 11, 2008
    Publication date: October 15, 2009
    Applicant: AT&T Labs
    Inventor: Horst SCHROETER
  • Publication number: 20090254757
    Abstract: An operator recognition device is provided that eliminates the registration of data such as HMM data having a characteristic amount for which error in recognition occurs easily when recognizing an operator, and thus reduces the possibility of errors in recognition, and has stable recognition performance. When registering HMM data that is used when performing recognition processing, a speaker recognition device 100 eliminates the registration of HMM data of a password having a characteristic amount of the spoken voice component that is similar to a characteristic amount that is indicated by HMM data that is already registered, and does not allow the registration of HMM data for which it is estimated that error in recognition will occur easily during the recognition process.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2006
    Publication date: October 8, 2009
    Applicants: Pioneer Corporation, Tech Experts Incorporation
    Inventors: Soichi Toyama, Ikuo Fujita, Mitsuya Komamura
  • Publication number: 20090251541
    Abstract: An apparatus for the automatic inspection of a motor vehicle has an identification and psychological profiling zone, an automatic inspection zone and a manual inspection zone. A biometric and heart rate detection station and an attached console are located in zone one. Undercarriage scanning equipment and an explosives detection portal are located in zone two. The apparatus also has one or more fixed cameras, an alarm or other alerting mechanisms and a physical barrier. A vehicle detection mechanism detects the entry of a vehicle into zone two and captures an image of the vehicle number plate. When the captured biometric data and number plate data indicate that the driver is authorized to drive the particular vehicle into the secured zone, and if no abnormalities or foreign objects in the undercarriage image are detected, the driver is allowed to proceed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 16, 2008
    Publication date: October 8, 2009
    Applicant: Stratech Systems Limited
    Inventor: Khien Meow David Chew
  • Publication number: 20090248412
    Abstract: There is provided an association apparatus for associating a plurality of voice data converted from voices produced by speakers, comprising: a word/phrase similarity deriving section which derives an appearance ratio of a common word/phrase that is common among the voice data based on a result of speech recognition processing on the voice data, as a word/phrase similarity; a speaker similarity deriving section which derives a result of comparing characteristics of voices extracted from the voice data, as a speaker similarity; an association degree deriving section which derives a possibility of the plurality of the voice data, which are associated with one another, based on the derived word/phrase similarity and the speaker similarity, as an association degree; and an association section which associates the plurality of the voice data with one another, the derived association degree of which is equal to or more than a preset threshold.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2008
    Publication date: October 1, 2009
    Applicant: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventor: Nobuyuki Washio
  • Publication number: 20090228276
    Abstract: A voice recognition apparatus 10, which performs voice recognition of an input voice by referring to a voice recognition dictionary and outputs a voice recognition result, has an external information acquiring section 14 for acquiring from externally connected devices 20-1-20-N connected thereto a type of each externally connected device, and for acquiring data recorded in each externally connected device; a vocabulary extracting analyzing section 15 and 16 for extracting a vocabulary item from the data as an extracted vocabulary item, and for producing analysis data by analyzing the extracted vocabulary item and by providing the extracted vocabulary item with reading; and a dictionary generating section 17 for storing the analysis data in the voice recognition dictionary corresponding to the type. For each type of the externally connected devices, one of the voice recognition dictionaries 13-1-13-N is assigned.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 18, 2006
    Publication date: September 10, 2009
    Inventors: Masanobu Osawa, Reiko Okada, Takashi Ebihara
  • Publication number: 20090228272
    Abstract: A system distinguishes a primary audio source and background noise to improve the quality of an audio signal. A speech signal from a microphone may be improved by identifying and dampening background noise to enhance speech. Stochastic models may be used to model speech and to model background noise. The models may determine which portions of the signal are speech and which portions are noise. The distinction may be used to improve the signal's quality, and for speaker identification or verification.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 12, 2008
    Publication date: September 10, 2009
    Inventors: Tobias Herbig, Oliver Gaupp, Franz Gerl
  • Publication number: 20090228277
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for incorporating voice recognition into a search engine is provided. The phonetic voice recognition system lacking grammar and spell checking is used. The output of the phonetic voice recognition system is forwarded to a search engine. The search engine performs disambiguation and relevancy analysis based on past similar queries. Search engine user behavior is recorded to improve the accuracy. Recorded statistics are used to rank results pages.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2008
    Publication date: September 10, 2009
    Inventors: Jeffrey Bonforte, Gary Clayton, Victor Chen
  • Publication number: 20090198495
    Abstract: A voice situation data creating device for providing the user with data with a good convenience for the user when the user uses voice data collected from sound sources and recorded with time. A direction/talker identifying section (3) of a control unit (1) observes a variation of direction data acquired from voice communication data and sets single-direction data and combination direction data on a combination of directions in talker identification data if no variation of the direction data indicating a single direction or direction data indicating directions over a predetermined time occurs.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 21, 2007
    Publication date: August 6, 2009
    Applicant: YAMAHA CORPORATION
    Inventor: Toshiyuki Hata
  • Publication number: 20090198587
    Abstract: This disclosure describes, generally, methods and systems for authenticating the identities of customers. For example, a method comprising receiving a service request from a customer and retrieving customer profile information related to the customer is described. The method further comprises generating questions based on the customer profile information and receiving answers to the questions from the customer. Furthermore, the method comprises analyzing the answers by comparing the answers with the customer profile information and calculating an authentication score based on the analysis of the answers. The method further authenticates the customer based on the authentication score being greater than a threshold score level.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 31, 2008
    Publication date: August 6, 2009
    Applicant: First Data Corporation
    Inventors: Theresa Wagner, Peggy Pinkerton
  • Publication number: 20090175506
    Abstract: A method for identifying persons based on biometric data achieves enhanced security and increased accuracy compared with other systems by distorting one or more biometrics prior to detection and recognition. The method includes detecting a distorted biometric for input into an identification system, comparing the distorted biometric to one or more distortion patterns, and determining an identity of the person based on results of the comparison. The biometric may be an eye pattern, a fingerprint or palm print, a voice print, a handwriting sample, a DNA sample, a facial image, or any other type of characteristic or behavioral attribute of a person. The biometric may be distorted in any one of a variety of ways for comparison to previously enrolled biometrics which have been distorted using the same or similar element. A system and program embodied within a computer-readable medium performs the steps of the method.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 19, 2007
    Publication date: July 9, 2009
    Inventors: Andrew J. Polcha, Michael P. Polcha
  • Publication number: 20090171653
    Abstract: A method and apparatus is disclosed for generating and distributing multilingual documents. The multilingual documents are comprised of primary information consisting of human-readable text and secondary information consisting of machine-readable data such that a translation of the text is accomplished by converting the human-readable text into a second language through the use of the decoded machine-readable data. The machine-readable data is comprised of a code that describes a set of editing operations that can be applied to the human-readable text to convert it into at least a second language. In a preferred embodiment, the machine-readable data is embedded in the image using an unobtrusive code on the document such as Xerox DATAGLYPH codes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 11, 2009
    Publication date: July 2, 2009
    Applicant: XEROX CORPORATION
    Inventors: David L. Hecht, Glen W. Petrie, Ronald M. Kaplan, Colin Luckman
  • Publication number: 20090171660
    Abstract: A method for verification of speaker authentication comprises inputting a test utterance containing a password that is spoken by a speaker, extracting an acoustic feature vector sequence from the inputted test utterance, obtaining a matching path between the extracted acoustic feature vector sequence and a speaker template enrolled by an enrolled speaker, calculating a matching score of the obtained matching path upon considering spectral change of the test utterance and/or spectral change of the speaker template, and comparing the matching score with a predefined discriminating threshold to determine whether the inputted test utterance is an utterance containing a password spoken by the enrolled speaker.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 18, 2008
    Publication date: July 2, 2009
    Inventors: Luan JIAN, Hao Jie
  • Publication number: 20090164215
    Abstract: A device with a voice-assisted system is provided by using a voice command to adjust operations. The voice-assisted system includes a voice recognition engine and a control device. The voice recognition engine receives a voice command and outputting a voice signal based on the voice command to the control unit. The control unit based on the voice signal adjusts the operations. A user is only required to input the voice command. The voice recognition engine performs a series of actions to adjust the operations. Therefore, the voice-assisted system can enhance convenience of adjusting the operations of the device and reduce operation complexity for the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2009
    Publication date: June 25, 2009
    Applicant: DELTA ELECTRONICS, INC.
    Inventors: Yuan-Chia Lu, Liang-Sheng Huang, Jia-Lin Shen
  • Publication number: 20090150150
    Abstract: A method for controlling access to a handheld device (10) by validating voice sounds includes: setting voice characteristics acceptable error margin; storing voice characteristics of the original voice sounds of a user in a memory (12) of the handheld; recording validation voice sounds of the user through a microphone (11) in the handheld device; detecting voice characteristics of the validation voice sounds; determining whether the voice characteristics of the validation voice sounds matches the voice characteristics of the original voice sounds in the memory by comparing a difference between the voice characteristics of the validation voice sounds and the voice characteristics of the original voice sounds is within the voice characteristics acceptable error margin; and allowing the user to access the handheld device if the voice characteristics of the validation voice sounds matches the voice characteristics of the original voice sounds.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 5, 2008
    Publication date: June 11, 2009
    Applicant: CHI MEI COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, INC.
    Inventor: KWANG-CHUNG YANG
  • Publication number: 20090150151
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is an audio processing apparatus for processing a plurality of pieces of audio data of sounds picked up by a plurality of microphones. The apparatus includes: a speaker identification section configured to identify a speaker based on the audio data; a simultaneous speech section identification section configured to, when at least first and second speakers have been identified, identify speech sections during which the first and second speakers have made speeches, and identify a section during which the first and second speakers have made the speeches at the same time as a simultaneous speech section; and an arranging section configured to separate audio data of the first speaker and audio data of the second speaker from the simultaneous speech section, and allow the audio data of the first speaker and the audio data of the second speaker to be outputted at mutually different timings.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 19, 2008
    Publication date: June 11, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yohei Sakuraba, Yasuhiko Kato
  • Publication number: 20090125307
    Abstract: A system and a method for providing each user at multiple devices with speaker-dependent speech recognition engines via networks according to the pre-stored speech sounds and characteristics of devices, by which each user can use speaker-dependent speech recognition engines in different devices without the need of repeating the same procedure of recording speech to train speech recognition engines for newly utilized devices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 9, 2007
    Publication date: May 14, 2009
    Inventor: Jui-Chang Wang
  • Publication number: 20090119106
    Abstract: According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a method, comprising collecting voiceprints of callers; identifying which of the collected voiceprints are associated with fraud; and generating a whitelist comprising voiceprints corresponding to the collected voiceprints not identified as associated with fraud.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 12, 2009
    Publication date: May 7, 2009
    Inventors: Anthony Rajakumar, Richard Gutierrez, Lisa M. Guerra
  • Publication number: 20090119095
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method to generate at least one new set of concepts to be used to perform natural language processing (NLP) on data. The method includes receiving one or more sources of input data, and determining, based on the one or more sources of input data and on at least one initial set of concepts, at least one attribute representative of a type of information detail to be included in the at least one new set of concepts.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 4, 2008
    Publication date: May 7, 2009
    Applicant: Enhanced Medical Decisions. Inc.
    Inventors: Marlene Beggelman, Yuri Smychkovich
  • Publication number: 20090112602
    Abstract: A system, method and computer-readable medium for controlling devices connected to a network. The method includes receiving an utterance from a user for remotely controlling a device in a network; converting the received utterance to text using an automatic speech recognition module; accessing a user profile in the network that governs access to a plurality of devices on the network and identifiers which control a conversion of the text to a device specific control language; identifying based on the text a device to be controlled; converting at least a portion of the text to the device control language; and transmitting the device control language to the identified device, wherein the identified device implements a function based on the transmitted device control language.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 30, 2007
    Publication date: April 30, 2009
    Applicant: AT&T Corp.
    Inventors: Joseph A. ALFRED, Joseph M. SOMMER
  • Publication number: 20090110168
    Abstract: A method of providing a telephony service can include creating a database of subscriber identities and subscriber voice prints and telephony services associated with the subscriber identities and receiving a spoken utterance from a subscriber. A subscriber identity can be determined according to voice print identification of the spoken utterance and a telephony service associated with the subscriber can be activated according to the determined subscriber identity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 31, 2008
    Publication date: April 30, 2009
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Vicki L. Colson, Brent L. Davis, Peeyush Jaiswal, Victor S. Moore
  • Publication number: 20090100454
    Abstract: Methods, devices, systems and tools are presented that allow the summarization of text, audio, and audiovisual presentations, such as movies, into less lengthy forms. High-content media files are shortened in a manner that preserves important details, by splitting the files into segments, rating the segments, and reassembling preferred segments into a final abridged piece. Summarization of media can be customized by user selection of criteria, and opens new possibilities for delivering entertainment, news, and information in the form of dense, information-rich content that can be viewed by means of broadcast or cable distribution, “on-demand” distribution, internet and cell phone digital video streaming, or can be downloaded onto an iPod™ and other portable video playback devices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 23, 2007
    Publication date: April 16, 2009
    Inventor: Frank Elmo Weber
  • Publication number: 20090094030
    Abstract: A method, system and computer program product for receiving a spoken request to obtain indexed results from a database. Like result types are assigned to categories, and within each category is a plurality of result entries. The result indices are hexadecimal encoded, and each hexadecimal encoding is preceded by an initial character representing the result category. A speech recognition system is engaged, which processes the spoken request. When a item is requested, the respective category is implicitly known by the index returned, and the index provides direct access within a database to the corresponding result based on the phonetics of the request.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 5, 2007
    Publication date: April 9, 2009
    Inventor: KENNETH D. WHITE
  • Publication number: 20090089043
    Abstract: A system and method of providing a response with different language options for a data communication protocol, such as Session Initiation Protocol, are disclosed. For example, data communication is controlled between at least two endpoints. A response code indicative of a condition of the data communication is transmitted to one of the at least two endpoints. The response code is associated with a reason phrase operable to be displayed at the one of the at least two endpoints in a language selected from an option of a plurality of languages.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 27, 2007
    Publication date: April 2, 2009
    Inventors: Mallikarjuna Samayamantry Rao, Dennis Kucmerowski
  • Publication number: 20090063146
    Abstract: In a voice processing device, a male voice index calculator calculates a male voice index indicating a similarity of the input sound relative to a male speaker sound model. A female voice index calculator calculates a female voice index indicating a similarity of the input sound relative to a female speaker sound model. A first discriminator discriminates the input sound between a non-human-voice sound and a human voice sound which may be either of the male voice sound or the female voice sound. A second discriminator discriminates the input sound between the male voice sound and the female voice sound based on the male voice index and the female voice index in case that the first discriminator discriminates the human voice sound.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 26, 2008
    Publication date: March 5, 2009
    Applicant: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventor: Yasuo Yoshioka
  • Publication number: 20080312926
    Abstract: An automatic dual-step, text independent, language-independent speaker voice-print creation and speaker recognition method, wherein a neural network-based technique is used in a first step and a Markov model-based technique is used in a second step. In particular, the first step uses a neural network-based technique for decoding the content of what is uttered by the speaker in terms of language independent acoustic-phonetic classes, wherein the second step uses the sequence of language-independent acoustic-phonetic classes from the first step and employs a Markov model-based technique for creating the speaker voice-print and for recognizing the speaker. The combination of the two steps enables improvement in the accuracy and efficiency of the speaker voice-print creation and of the speaker recognition, without setting any constraints on the lexical content of the speaker utterance and on the language thereof.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 24, 2005
    Publication date: December 18, 2008
    Inventors: Claudio Vair, Daniele Colibro, Luciano Fissore
  • Publication number: 20080294435
    Abstract: A system and method for remote speech recognition includes one or more customer premise equipment, a speech engine, and a communication engine. The customer premise equipment interfaces with a host from which the customer premise equipment is remotely located. The speech engine, remotely located from the host, recognizes a plurality of speech spoken by a user of the customer premise equipment and translates the speech into the language of the host. The speech engine further converts the recognized speech into one or more text data packets where the text data packets include the recognized speech as data instead of voice. The communication engine encrypts the text data packets and transmits the text data packets to the host. Transmitting data instead of voice to the host reduces the computational demands on the host. Additionally, the communication engine receives a plurality of information from the host.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 4, 2008
    Publication date: November 27, 2008
    Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Douglas F. Reynolds, Benjamin Anthony Knott, Robert Randal Bushey
  • Publication number: 20080270132
    Abstract: A system and method for identifying an individual includes collecting biometric information for an individual attempting to gain access to a system. The biometric information for the individual is scored against pre-trained imposter models. If a score is greater than a threshold, the individual as an imposter is identified as an imposter. Other systems and methods are also disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 3, 2008
    Publication date: October 30, 2008
    Inventors: Jari Navratil, Ganesh N. Ramaswamy, Ran D. Zilca
  • Publication number: 20080270141
    Abstract: The illustrative embodiments described herein provide a computer implemented method and computer program product for providing context in an electronic text communication. A biometric gathering input device is associated with a sending data processing system. A first set of metrics is identified based on a sender interacting with the biometric gathering input device. A sending communications process on the sending data processing system is calibrated based on the first set of metrics. During the generation of the electronic text communication, a portion of the first set of metrics is identified based on the sender interacting with the biometric gathering input device to form a second set of metrics. The second set of metrics and the electronic text communication are sent from the sending data processing system to a recipient data processing system. The second set of metrics is represented at the recipient data processing system using criteria selected by a recipient of the electronic text communication.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 30, 2007
    Publication date: October 30, 2008
    Inventors: Rhonda L. Childress, David Bruce Kumhyr, Pamela Ann Nesbitt, Amy Delphine Travis
  • Publication number: 20080255841
    Abstract: A text data search using a voice is conventionally a full-text search using a word as an index word for a part recognized as a word in an input voice. Therefore, if any of the parts recognized as the words is falsely recognized, a search precision is lowered. In the present invention, referring to a language model generated by a language model generating part from text data to be subjected to a search which is divided by a learning data dividing part into a linguistic part and an acoustic model obtained by modeling voice features, a voice recognition part performs voice recognition for the input voice to output a phonemic representation. A matching unit converting part divides the phonemic representation into the same units as those of a text search dictionary, which is obtained by dividing the text data to be subjected to the search into the units smaller than those of the language model. A text search part uses the result of division to make a search on the text search dictionary.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 1, 2008
    Publication date: October 16, 2008
    Applicant: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Toshiyuki HANAZAWA, Youhei OKATO
  • Publication number: 20080221886
    Abstract: A system of assistance in the entry of flight data for an aircraft transmitted between a crew on board the aircraft and a ground staff including, a radiofrequency communications link to transmit flight data between the crew and the ground staff. At least one means of sending and one means of receiving data on board the aircraft, wherein the system includes a voice recognition means capable of detecting a piece of data of a predefined type emitted, during the communications call, by the crew or the ground staff and a means of analysis and transcription of this piece of data in digital or alphanumeric form.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 28, 2008
    Publication date: September 11, 2008
    Applicant: AIRBUS FRANCE
    Inventors: Michel Colin, Daniel Ferro
  • Publication number: 20080221887
    Abstract: Speech recognition models are dynamically re-configurable based on user information, background information such as background noise and transducer information such as transducer response characteristics to provide users with alternate input modes to keyboard text entry. The techniques of dynamic re-configurable speech recognition provide for deployment of speech recognition on small devices such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants as well environments such as office, home or vehicle while maintaining the accuracy of the speech recognition.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 15, 2008
    Publication date: September 11, 2008
    Applicant: AT&T Corp.
    Inventors: Richard C. Rose, Bojana Gajic
  • Publication number: 20080215324
    Abstract: Acoustic models to provide features to a speech signal are created based on speech features included in regions where similarities of acoustic models created based on speech features in a certain time length are equal to or greater than a predetermined value. Feature vectors acquired by using the acoustic models of the regions and the speech features to provide features to speech signals of second segments are grouped by speaker.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 9, 2008
    Publication date: September 4, 2008
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventor: Makoto Hirohata
  • Publication number: 20080205624
    Abstract: The present invention discloses a contact center with speaker identification and verification (SIV) capabilities. In the invention, a set of contact center components can provide automated interactive communications with callers, can provide queue management for callers waiting to communicate with live agents, and can provide skills based routing for assigning live agents to callers. The SIV component can analyze speech utterances to determine a speaker identify based upon biometric characteristics of the analyzed speech utterances. Additionally, the SIV component can process speech from contact center sessions. In one embodiment, the SIV component can prevent agent substitutions from occurring of which the call center is unaware. The SIV component can also be used to distinguish whether communication session content was spoken by a contact center agent or a caller.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 1, 2007
    Publication date: August 28, 2008
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: BAIJU D. MANDALIA, VICTOR S. MOORE, WENDI L. NUSBICKEL
  • Publication number: 20080208581
    Abstract: A system and method for speaker recognition speaker modelling whereby prior speaker information is incorporated into the modelling process, utilising the maximum a posteriori (MAP) algorithm and extending it to contain prior Gaussian component correlation information. Firstly a background model (10) is estimated. Pooled acoustic reference data (11) relating to a specific demographic of speakers (population of interest) from a given total population is then trained via the Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm (12) to produce a background model (13). The background model (13) is adapted utilising information from a plurality of reference speakers (21) in accordance with the Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) criterion (22). Utilizing MAP estimation technique, the reference speaker data and prior information obtained from the background model parameters are combined to produce a library of adapted speaker models, namely Gaussian Mixture Models (23).
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 3, 2004
    Publication date: August 28, 2008
    Inventors: Jason Pelecanos, Subramanian Sridharan, Robert Vogt
  • Publication number: 20080208580
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method of authenticating a user (N). In a dialog between the user (N) to be authenticated and a dialog system (1; D), a plurality of security queries is performed by the dialog system (1; D). A security query is taken from one of a plurality of predetermined categories of questions and/or corresponds to one of a plurality of predetermined types of questions. The user (N) supplies answers to the security queries in the form of speech to the dialog system (1; D) and the user's (N) answers are evaluated. A user (N) is authenticated or not authenticated in dependence upon the result of the evaluation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 25, 2005
    Publication date: August 28, 2008
    Applicant: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS ELECTRONICS, N.V.
    Inventor: Holger Scholl
  • Publication number: 20080201141
    Abstract: Utterances by a speaker are analyzed by an appropriate computational system. The spoken words are recognized and indexed to their respective analogs which are used to tailor the speech sequence to conform to a pre-determined standard of speech characteristics which could be fixed for a given language or chosen based on the regional characteristics of the said common language target for a communication session. Thusly selected audio sequences are then tailored or synthesized into the normalized characteristics and inserted into the outgoing speech stream such that the resulting audio sequence exhibits reduced speech characteristics deemed undesirable.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 15, 2008
    Publication date: August 21, 2008
    Inventors: Igor Abramov, Patrick O. Nunally
  • Publication number: 20080177661
    Abstract: This specification describes technologies relating to a phone-based payment system for transferring funds between payers and payees, and methods of providing such a system. In general, one aspect is implemented as a method of electronic payment that includes receiving a payer identifier from a payer, and the payer identifier is selected from a group of a registered phone number and a registered business server identifier. The method also includes identifying the payer as an authorized user based on the received payer identifier. The method further includes authorizing a payment transfer from a bank account of the payer to a bank account of a payee if the identified payer is an authorized user. Other implementations of this aspect include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer program products.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2007
    Publication date: July 24, 2008
    Inventor: Divya Mehra
  • Publication number: 20080172230
    Abstract: A text-dependent voice authentication system that performs authentication by urging a user to input a keyword by voice includes: an input part (11) that receives a voice input of a keyword divided into a plurality of portions with an utterable unit being a minimum unit over a plurality of times at a time interval for each of the portions; registered speaker-specific syllable model DB (20) that previously stores a registered keyword of a user as a speaker model created in the utterable unit; a feature value conversion part (12) that obtains a feature value of a voice contained in a portion of the keyword received by the first voice input in the input part (11) from the portion; a similarity calculation part (13) that obtains a similarity between the feature value and the speaker model; a keyword checking part (17) that determines whether or not voice inputs of all the syllables or phonemes configuring an entire registered keyword by the plurality of times of voice inputs, based on the similarity obtained in th
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 17, 2007
    Publication date: July 17, 2008
    Applicant: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventor: Shoji Hayakawa
  • Publication number: 20080120104
    Abstract: A method of transmitting end-of-speech marks in a distributed speech recognition system operating in a discontinuous transmission mode, in which system speech segments (30, 40) are transmitted, followed by periods (34) of silence, each speech segment (30, 40) terminating with an end-of-speech mark (31, 41). The end-of-speech mark (31) is retransmitted continually (31a, 31b, 31c, 31d) throughout the duration of the period of silence (34) following said speech segment (30).
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2005
    Publication date: May 22, 2008
    Inventor: Alexandre Ferrieux
  • Publication number: 20080094170
    Abstract: This invention relates to a method and a system for introducing and converting a new user (103) to a known user of a system (109), where a known user is a user whose characteristics are pre-stored in said system (109) and who, based on a match between detected characteristics and said pre-stored characteristics, is identified as a known user. This is done by initializing the introduction of the new user when receiving an introduction action by a known user (101), detecting characteristics of the new user and converting the new user (103) to a known user by adding the detected characteristics to the pre-stored characteristics in the system (109).
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 4, 2005
    Publication date: April 24, 2008
    Applicant: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS ELECTRONICS, N.V.
    Inventors: Thomas Portele, Vasanth Philomin
  • Publication number: 20080082331
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for enrollment and evaluation of speaker authentication. The method for enrollment of speaker authentication, comprising: generating a plurality of acoustic feature vector sequences respectively based on a plurality of utterances of the same content spoken by a speaker; generating a reference template from said plurality of acoustic feature vector sequences; generating a corresponding pseudo-impostor feature vector sequence for each of said plurality of acoustic feature vector sequences based on a code book that includes a plurality of codes and their corresponding feature vectors; and selecting an optimal acoustic feature subset based on said plurality of acoustic feature vector sequences, said reference template and said plurality of pseudo-impostor feature vector sequences.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 21, 2007
    Publication date: April 3, 2008
    Applicant: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Jian Luan, Jie Hao
  • Publication number: 20080071538
    Abstract: A speaker verification method consist of the following steps: (1) generating a code book (42) covering a number of speakers having a number of training utterances for each of the speakers; (2) receiving a number of test utterances (44) from a speaker; (3) comparing (46) each of the test utterances to each of the training utterances for the speaker to form a number of decisions, one decision for each of the number of test utterances; (4) weighting each of the decisions (48) to form a number of weighted decisions; and (5) combining (50) the plurality of weighted decision to form a verification decision (52).
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 20, 2007
    Publication date: March 20, 2008
    Inventors: Robert Bossemeyer Jr., Rapeepat Ratasuk
  • Publication number: 20080071545
    Abstract: A communications system obtains verification of an expected identity of a party from a remote centralized biometric system over a communications network. A forwarder forwards, over the communications network to the remote centralized biometric system when the party attempts to obtain a service using the communications system, a biometric sample from the party and information characterizing the expected identity of the party. A receiver receives, over the communications network from the remote centralized biometric system, verification that the biometric sample matches biometric information obtained by the remote centralized biometric system from a storage such that the expected identity of the party is verified as the identity of the party. The service is provided contingent on verification of the expected identity of the party as the identity of the party.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 30, 2007
    Publication date: March 20, 2008
    Applicant: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
    Inventors: Brian NOVACK, Daniel MADSEN, Timothy THOMPSON
  • Publication number: 20080059176
    Abstract: A voice based multimodal speaker authentication method and telecommunications application thereof employing a speaker adaptive method for training phenome specific Gaussian mixture models. Applied to telecommunications services, the method may advantageously be implemented in contemporary wireless terminals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 13, 2007
    Publication date: March 6, 2008
    Applicant: NEC LABORATORIES AMERICA
    Inventors: Srivaths RAVI, Anand RAGHUNATHAN, Srimat CHAKRADHAR, Karthik NANDAKUMAR
  • Publication number: 20080033722
    Abstract: The present invention discloses a system and methods for biometric security using hand geometry recognition biometrics in a transponder-reader system. The biometric security system also includes a hand geometry scan sensor that detects biometric samples and a device for verifying biometric samples. In one embodiment, the biometric security system includes a transponder configured with a hand geometry scan sensor. In another embodiment, the system includes a reader configured with a hand geometry scan sensor. In yet another embodiment, the present invention discloses methods for proffering and processing hand geometry scan samples to facilitate authorization of transactions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 20, 2007
    Publication date: February 7, 2008
    Applicant: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.
    Inventors: Blayn Beenau, David Bonalle, Seth Fields, William Gray, Carl Larkin, Joshua Montgomery, Peter Saunders
  • Publication number: 20080004839
    Abstract: Autonomous remaining useful life estimation equipment interacts with the operator through natural speech, voice and sound and provides active failure prevention through automatic and/or continuous remaining useful life estimation of a material under evaluation. The equipment comprises at least one computer and a material features acquisition system operable to detect a plurality of material features. The features are then evaluated according to rules that capture the multidiscipline knowledge of experts and are already inputted into the computer. The computer iterations are processed until an acceptable conclusion is made regarding the condition of the material under evaluation, thus alleviating the need for multidiscipline experts to examine and analyze all the material data manually, a very slow and expensive process.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 2, 2007
    Publication date: January 3, 2008
    Inventors: Wanda Papadimitriou, Stylianos Papadimitriou