Patents by Inventor Don Hornback

Don Hornback has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 6643622
    Abstract: A method and apparatus utilizes a personal speech recognition system to enable data retrieval assistance operators to retrieve customer requested information from an information database based upon a voiced inquiry by the operator. Instead of requiring an operator to interpret a calling customer's request and communicate the same to a computer via a number of keyboard strokes, the live operator may submit the same or equivalent inquiry via a voice utterance that is recognized by the searching computer as a searchable inquiry by a speech recognition system, which is preferably trained to recognize the particular voice of the live operator. Only the voice of the live operator needs to be identified by the voice recognition unit, and the incorporation of the voice recognition technology into the system is thus transparent to the requesting customer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2001
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2003
    Inventors: Robert O. Stuart, Scott P. Stuart, Don Hornback
  • Publication number: 20020019737
    Abstract: A method and apparatus utilizes a personal speech recognition system to enable data retrieval assistance operators to retrieve customer requested information from an information database based upon a voiced inquiry by the operator. Instead of requiring an operator to interpret a calling customer's request and communicate the same to a computer via a number of keyboard strokes, the live operator may submit the same or equivalent inquiry via a voice utterance that is recognized by the searching computer as a searchable inquiry by a speech recognition system, which is preferably trained to recognize the particular voice of the live operator. Only the voice of the live operator needs to be identified by the voice recognition unit, and the incorporation of the voice recognition technology into the system is thus transparent to the requesting customer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 4, 2001
    Publication date: February 14, 2002
    Inventors: Robert O. Stuart, Scott P. Stuart, Don Hornback
  • Patent number: 6243684
    Abstract: A method and apparatus utilizes a personal speech recognition system to enable directory assistance operators to retrieve customer requested information from a listing database based upon a voiced inquiry by the operator. Instead of requiring an operator to interpret a calling customer's request and communicate the same to a computer via a number of keyboard strokes, the live operator may submit the same or equivalent inquiry via a voice utterance that is recognized by the searching computer as a searchable inquiry by a speech recognition system, which is preferably trained to recognize the particular voice of the live operator. Only the voice of the live operator needs to be identified by the voice recognition unit, and the incorporation of the voice recognition technology into the system is thus transparent to the calling customer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 1999
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2001
    Assignee: USADA, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert O. Stuart, Scott P. Stuart, Don Hornback