Abstract: A method of updating an application in a processing system, the processing system including a plurality of computing resource units wherein at least two of the resource units are initially allocated to a first application, and wherein the processing system has insufficient resources to simultaneously run both of the first application and a second application at full capacity, the method including de-allocating fewer than all of the resource units allocated to the first application, then allocating at least one resource unit to the second application, and then de-allocating at least one resource unit from the first application.

Abstract: An automated agent system and method includes an action classifier which scores a representation of a portion of a user inquiry based on a knowledge bank. A comparing device compares a running score of the representation to a threshold to determine if enough information has been collected to respond early to the inquiry. An action mechanism provides an early response to the user prior to the user completing the inquiry if the threshold has been exceeded.

Abstract: A call routing system is created by receiving a set of initial target classes and a corresponding set of topic descriptions. Non-overlapping semantic tokens in the set of topic descriptions are identified. A set of clear target classes from the non-overlapping semantic tokens and the initial target classes is identified. Overlapping semantic tokens from the set of topic descriptions are identified. A set of vague classes is identified from the overlapping semantic tokens and the initial target classes. A set of disambiguation dialogues and a set of grammar prompts is generated according to the overlapping and non-overlapping semantic tokens. The call routing system is then created based on the set of clear target classes, the set of vague target classes, and the set of disambiguation dialogues.

Abstract: A method includes applying at least one tag to at least one data element stored in a database the tag having at least one associated rule, utilizing the at least one associated rule to generate at least one variant of the data element, and storing the at least one variant in the database.

Abstract: A method of updating an application in a processing system, the aforesaid method comprising the steps of: (a) starting operation of a first version of an application in the aforesaid processing system; (b) starting operation of a second version of the aforesaid application in the aforesaid processing system; and (c) incrementally reallocating processing system resources from the aforesaid first version of the aforesaid application to a second version of the aforesaid application, such that at most one application selected from the aforesaid first version and the aforesaid second version of the aforesaid application operates at full capacity at any time, and such that at least one of the aforesaid first version and the aforesaid second version of the aforesaid application is operating at all times.

Abstract: A method for speech recognition includes: prompting a user with a first query to input speech into a speech recognition engine; determining if the inputted speech is correctly recognized; wherein in the event the inputted speech is correctly recognized proceeding to a new task; wherein in the event the inputted speech is not correctly recognized, prompting the user repeatedly with the first query to input speech into the speech recognition engine, and determining if the inputted speech is correctly recognized until a predefined limit on repetitions has been met; wherein in the event the predefined limit has been met without correctly recognizing the inputted user speech, prompting speech input from the user with a secondary query for redundant information; and cross-referencing the user's n-best result from the first query with the n-best result from the second query to obtain a top hypothesis.

Abstract: In one example, this invention presents a method of providing the same self-service content that is available on the web interface to users contacting by telephone, knowing that the web and telephone are fundamentally different user interfaces. In one embodiment, this patent seeks to protect the general idea of how to playback web data in real-time to the user over the speech interface. For this purpose, a method is presented comprising of the general steps through which the web data is initially sent to an automatic transformation module. Then, that transformation module refines or re-structures the web data to make it suitable for the speech interface. The algorithm in the module is predicated on the user interface principles of cognitive complexity and limitations on short term memory based on which FAQ types are classified into one of the following four classes: simple, medium, complex, and complex-complex.

Abstract: In one example, this invention presents a method of providing the same self-service content that is available on the web interface to users contacting by telephone, knowing that the web and telephone are fundamentally different user interfaces. In one embodiment, this seeks to protect the general idea of how to playback web data in real-time to the user over the speech interface. For this purpose, a method is presented comprising of the general steps through which the web data is initially sent to an automatic transformation module. Then, that transformation module refines or re-structures the web data to make it suitable for the speech interface. The algorithm in the module is predicated on the user interface principles of cognitive complexity and limitations on short term memory based on which FAQ types are classified into one of the following four classes: simple, medium, complex, and complex-complex.

Abstract: A method (and system) of handling out-of-grammar utterances includes building a statistical language model for a dialog state using, generating sentences and semantic interpretations for the sentences using finite state grammar, building a statistical action classifier, receiving user input, carrying out recognition with the finite state grammar, carrying out recognition with the statistical language model, using the statistical action classifier to find semantic interpretations, comparing an output from the finite state grammar and an output from the statistical language model, deciding which output of the output from the finite state grammar and the output from the statistical language model to keep as a final recognition output, selecting the final recognition output, and outputting the final recognition result, wherein the statistical action classifier, the finite state grammar and the statistical language model are used in conjunction to carry out speech recognition and interpretation.

Abstract: An automated agent system and method includes an action classifier which scores a representation of a portion of a user inquiry based on a knowledge bank. A comparing device compares a running score of the representation to a threshold to determine if enough information has been collected to respond early to the inquiry. An action mechanism provides an early response to the user prior to the user completing the inquiry if the threshold has been exceeded.

Abstract: A method includes applying at least one tag to at least one data element stored in a database the tag having at least one associated rule, utilizing the at least one associated rule to generate at least one variant of the data element, and storing the at least one variant in the database.

Abstract: A method of processing limited natural language data to automatically develop an optimal feature set, bypassing the standard Wizard of OZ (WOZ) approach is provided. The method provides for building natural language understanding models or for processing existing data from other domains, such as the Internet, for domain-specific adaptation through the use of an optimal feature set. Consequently, when the optimal feature set is passed on to any engine, the optimal feature set produces robust models that can be used for natural language call routing.

Abstract: A method of updating an application in a processing system, the aforesaid method comprising the steps of: (a) starting operation of a first version of an application in the aforesaid processing system; (b) starting operation of a second version of the aforesaid application in the aforesaid processing system; and (c) incrementally reallocating processing system resources from the aforesaid first version of the aforesaid application to a second version of the aforesaid application, such that at most one application selected from the aforesaid first version and the aforesaid second version of the aforesaid application operates at full capacity at any time, and such that at least one of the aforesaid first version and the aforesaid second version of the aforesaid application is operating at all times.

Abstract: A method of processing limited natural language data to automatically develop an optimal feature set, bypassing the standard Wizard of OZ (WOZ) approach is provided. The method provides for building natural language understanding models or for processing existing data from other domains, such as the Internet, for domain-specific adaptation through the use of an optimal feature set. Consequently, when the optimal feature set is passed on to any engine, the optimal feature set produces robust models that can be used for natural language call routing.

Abstract: A method of updating an application in a processing system, the aforesaid method comprising the steps of: (a) starting operation of a first version of an application in the aforesaid processing system; (b) starting operation of a second version of the aforesaid application in the aforesaid processing system; and (c) incrementally reallocating processing system resources from the aforesaid first version of the aforesaid application to a second version of the aforesaid application, such that at most one application selected from the aforesaid first version and the aforesaid second version of the aforesaid application operates at full capacity at any time, and such that at least one of the aforesaid first version and the aforesaid second version of the aforesaid application is operating at all times.

Abstract: A method includes applying at least one tag to at least one data element stored in a database the tag having at least one associated rule, utilizing the at least one associated rule to generate at least one variant of the data element, and storing the at least one variant in the database.

Abstract: A voice processing system is provided in which sets of engines running on a plurality of servers are configured differently from one another. The sets of engines may be configured to achieve different trade-offs between performance of a task and resources required to perform the task. In the voice processing system, a task routing server is provided that assigns different sets of sub-tasks to different sets of task engines. The number of engines used to perform a task and the number of engines in each set are adjusted. By adjusting the parameters settings for the set of engines based on the type of application, the particular requirements of the application, or the nature and importance of the subtasks, for example, advantages such as improvement of resource utilization and the hardware and software costs reduction may be obtained.

Abstract: An automated agent system and method includes an action classifier which scores a representation of a portion of a user inquiry based on a knowledge bank. A comparing device compares a running score of the representation to a threshold to determine if enough information has been collected to respond early to the inquiry. An action mechanism provides an early response to the user prior to the user completing the inquiry if the threshold has been exceeded.

Abstract: A voice processing system is provided in which sets of engines running on a plurality of servers are configured differently from one another. The sets of engines may be configured to achieve different trade-offs between performance of a task and resources required to perform the task. In the voice processing system, a task routing server is provided that assigns different sets of sub-tasks to different sets of task engines. The number of engines used to perform a task and the number of engines in each set are adjusted. By adjusting the parameters settings for the set of engines based on the type of application, the particular requirements of the application, or the nature and importance of the subtasks, for example, advantages such as improvement of resource utilization and the hardware and software costs reduction may be obtained.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed for robust, text-independent (and text-dependent) speaker recognition in which identification of a speaker is based on selected spectral information from the speaker's voice. Traditionally, speaker recognition systems (i) render a speech sample in the frequency domain to produce a spectrum, (ii) produce cepstrum coefficients from the spectrum, (iii) produce a codebook from the cepstrum coefficients, and (iv) use the codebook as the feature measure for comparing training speech samples with testing speech samples. The present invention, on the other hand, introduces the important and previously unknown step of truncating the spectrum prior to producing the cepstrum coefficients. Through the use of selected spectra as the feature measure for speaker recognition, the present invention has been shown to yield significant improvements in performance over prior art systems.