# US 10,320,982 B2 · Speech recognition method of and system for determining the status of an answered telephone during the course of an outbound telephone call > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,320,982 B2 - Document ID: US10320982B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 15/816,442 - Filed: 2017-11-17 - Published: 2018-03-15 - Granted: 2019-06-11 - Earliest claimed: 2000-09-01 - Assignees: Eliza Corporation - Applicants: Eliza Corporation - Inventors: Lucas Merrow; Alexandra Drane; John Krocker; Oleg Boulanov; Nasreen R. Quibria; Michael R. Robinson - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10320982B2 ## CPC - H04M 3/5158: {in combination with automated outdialling systems (devices for signalling identity of wanted subscriber H04M1/26)} - G10L 17/06: Decision making techniques; Pattern matching strategies - G10L 25/51: for comparison or discrimination - G10L 25/87: Detection of discrete points within a voice signal - H04M 1/64: Automatic arrangements for answering calls; Automatic arrangements for recording messages for absent subscribers; Arrangements for recording conversations (centralised dictation systems H04M11/10) - H04M 1/82: Line monitoring circuits for call progress or status discrimination {(for detecting caller identity H04M1/573)} - H04M 3/46: Arrangements for calling a number of substations in a predetermined sequence until an answer is obtained - G10L 15/26: Speech to text systems (G10L15/08 takes precedence) - H04M 1/271: {controlled by voice recognition} - H04M 3/487: Arrangements for providing information services, e.g. recorded voice services or time announcements - H04M 2201/40: using speech recognition - H04M 2203/2016: Call initiation by network rather than by subscriber - H04M 2203/2027: Live party detection - H04M: TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION (circuits for controlling other apparatus via a telephone cable and not involving telephone switching apparatus G08) - G10L: SPEECH ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES OR SPEECH SYNTHESIS; SPEECH RECOGNITION; SPEECH OR VOICE PROCESSING TECHNIQUES; SPEECH OR AUDIO CODING OR DECODING ## Abstract A system for determining the status of an answered telephone during the course of an outbound telephone call includes an automated telephone calling device for placing a telephone call to a location having a telephone number at which a target person is listed, upon the telephone call being answered, initiating a prerecorded greeting which asks for the target person and receiving a spoken response from an answering person and a speech recognition device for performing a speech recognition analysis on the spoken response to determine a status of the spoken response. If the speech recognition device determines that the answering person is the target person, the speech recognition device initiates a speech recognition application with the target person. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method of determining the status of an answered telephone during the course of an outbound telephone call comprising: placing, with an automated calling system, a telephone call to a location having a telephone number at which a target person is listed; upon the telephone call being answered, initiating a prerecorded greeting which asks for the target person; determining the telephone call was not answered by an answering machine; receiving a spoken response from an answering person; performing a speech recognition analysis on the spoken response received from an answering person to determine a status of the spoken response; initiating, in response to the status of the spoken response, a prerecorded query selected from a plurality of prerecorded queries asking for the target person; wherein when the speech recognition analysis determines that the answering person is the target person, initiating a speech recognition application for interaction with the target person; and wherein the speech recognition application produces a series of acoustic outputs as prompts, which comprise queries about a particular topic, and are presented to the target person. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the speech recognition application includes an application file programmed into the automated calling system. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the speech recognition application records responses to the queries about the particular topic from the target person. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: eliminating a line noise that causes the speech recognition analysis to incorrectly detect the spoken response from the answering person. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the speech recognition analysis comprises using a web access application, an educational application, a learning and lesson application, or a compliance application. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the automated calling system includes a database of persons to whom the system is capable of initiating telephone calls. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining whether the spoken response during the prerecorded greeting is shorter than a predetermined time. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The method of claim 7, wherein the predetermined time is greater than 1600 milliseconds. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein determining the telephone call was not answered by the answering machine includes determining whether a beep occurs during the prerecorded greeting. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: playing an identification prompt in response to initiating the prerecorded query selected from the plurality of prerecorded queries asking for the target person. ### Claim 11 An automated calling system, comprising: a processor; a memory including instructions stored thereupon, the instructions upon execution by the processor causes the processor to: initiate an automated telephone call to a location having a telephone number at which a target person is listed; upon the telephone call being answered, initiate a prerecorded greeting which asks for the target person; determine the telephone call was not answered by an answering machine; receive a spoken response from an answering person; perform a speech recognition analysis on the spoken response received from an answering person to determine a status of the spoken response; and initiate, in response to the status of the spoken response, a prerecorded query selected from a plurality of prerecorded queries asking for the target person; wherein when the speech recognition analysis includes a determination that the answering person is the target person, and initiation of a speech recognition application with the target person; and wherein the speech recognition application is configured to produce a series of acoustic outputs as prompts, which comprise queries about a particular topic for presentation to the target person. ### Claim 12 (depends on 11) The automated calling system of claim 11, wherein the speech recognition application includes an application file programmed into the automated calling system. ### Claim 13 (depends on 11) The automated calling system of claim 11, wherein the speech recognition application records responses to the queries about the particular topic from the target person. ### Claim 14 (depends on 11) The automated calling system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: eliminate a line noise that causes the speech recognition analysis to incorrectly detect the spoken response from the answering person. ### Claim 15 (depends on 11) The automated calling system of claim 11, wherein the speech recognition analysis comprises using a web access application, an educational application, a learning and lesson application, or a compliance application. ### Claim 16 (depends on 11) The automated calling system of claim 11, including a database of persons to whom the system is capable of initiating telephone calls. ### Claim 17 (depends on 11) The automated calling system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: determine whether the spoken response during the prerecorded greeting is shorter than a predetermined time. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The automated calling system of claim 17, wherein the predetermined time is greater than 1600 milliseconds. ### Claim 19 (depends on 11) The automated calling system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: determine whether a beep occurs during the prerecorded greeting. ### Claim 20 (depends on 11) The automated calling system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: play an identification prompt in response to initiating the prerecorded query selected from the plurality of prerecorded queries asking for the target person.