The present invention relates to the use of voice recognition technology to effect transactions. More specifically, the present invention provides systems and methods for effecting computer transactions using natural human speech as the primary input.
Currently available systems by which consumers engage in remote telephone transactions with companies are typically of two types, each of which have significant limitations. The first type of system employs traditional live telephone interactions between the consumer and a human operator an example of which will be described with reference to FIG. 1.
The consumer initiates contact by making a telephone call and is typically placed in a queue, remaining on hold until the next available operator can take the call (102). When the call is finally answered, the operator collects the consumer's identifying or contact information (104) and then together the consumer and the operator frame the consumer's need which may, for example, be a request for information, a complaint, or an order for products or services (106). The consumer and operator continue to interact thereby establishing the parameters of the transaction (108). The operator transcribes the transaction parameters into a computer readable form thereby generating a computer transaction (110). The operator then submits the transaction for processing (112).
This traditional approach potentially presents a variety of undesirable barriers to the consumer. These barriers include, for example, the inconvenience of waiting on hold and the often challenging communications with operators. Even more significantly, this approach can be prohibitively expensive for most applications. This is especially the case where the number of transactions for a given system is anticipated to be high.
The second type of system by which consumers engage in remote telephone transactions addresses some of these problems. Automated systems employ everything from recorded messages and user prompts for touch-tone input to sophisticated voice recognition technology. An example of such a system will now be described with reference to FIG. 2.
The consumer initiates contact by making a telephone call (202) in response to which the consumer is typically presented with a series of prompts (204). The consumer interacts with the system providing input in response to the prompts (206) until the transaction is complete (208) at which point the transaction is submitted for processing (210). The input provided by the consumer may take the form of spoken responses or touch-tone input via the consumer's telephone key pad. The input may correspond, for example, to information identifying the consumer, the transaction type, and the specifics of the transaction (e.g., order information).
If the consumer encounters any problem navigating the automated process at (212), he may elect to interact with a live operator (213) in which case the process proceeds as described above with reference to FIG. 1. This may occur at any point in the automated process as indicated by the dashed lines. When the consumer is eventually connected to an operator, the operator collects the consumer's identifying or contact information (214) and then together the consumer and the operator frame the consumer's need which may, for example, be a request for information, a complaint, or an order for products or services (216). The consumer and operator continue to interact thereby establishing the parameters of the transaction (218). The operator transcribes the transaction parameters into a computer readable form thereby generating a computer transaction (220). The operator then submits the transaction for processing (222).
Automated systems such as the one described above with reference to FIG. 2 eliminate the need for human operators which is the single most costly feature of traditional live operator system. In addition, if they work effectively (and thus largely avoid the use of live operators), such systems virtually eliminate the inconvenience of being put on hold and the frustration of dealing with surly or uncommunicative operators.
Unfortunately, there are a number of drawbacks associated with automated systems. For example, significant consumer frustration is reported which relates to navigating through systems using automated prompts. The time penalty associated with this system navigation is doubly problematic from a company's perspective in that not only does is it present a potential deterrent to customers, it also presents a bottleneck to order processing.
In addition, systems which rely on voice recognition technology have their own limitations. That is, voice recognition systems, especially speaker independent systems, are not accurate enough to reliably process non-trivial transactions, especially where some means for allowing the consumer to provide immediate corrections is not available. This is due, in part, to the fact that, for the foreseeable future, voice recognition technology will not be able to accommodate all possible nouns in all possible languages. This is further exacerbated by inaccuracies caused by a variety of signal impairments including, for example, low gain, poor signal-to-noise ratio, spurious noise, and ambient noise. The fact of the matter is that current voice recognition technology, by itself, simply cannot be relied upon in automated systems for the processing of complex transactions, especially where the scale of such transactions is millions per day.
In view of the foregoing, it is desirable to provide a transaction processing system which uses natural human speech as its primary input and which avoids the disadvantages of currently available systems.