# US 2014/0207464 A1 · Systems and Techniques for Producing Spoken Voice Prompts > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2014/0207464 A1 - Document ID: US20140207464A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 14/222,172 - Filed: 2014-03-21 - Published: 2014-07-24 - Earliest claimed: 2007-01-25 - Assignees: Eliza Corporation - Inventors: Lisa Lavoie; Lucas Merrow; Alexandra Drane; Frank Rizzo; Ivy Krull - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140207464A1 ## CPC - G10L 13/0335: {Pitch control} - G10L 13/033: Voice editing, e.g. manipulating the voice of the synthesiser - G10L 13/10: Prosody rules derived from text; Stress or intonation - G10L 15/1822: {Parsing for meaning understanding} - G10L 15/22: Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue - G10L 15/28: Constructional details of speech recognition systems - G10L 17/22: Interactive procedures; Man-machine interfaces - G10L 17/24: the user being prompted to utter a password or a predefined phrase - H04M 3/4936: {Speech interaction details (speech recognition per se G10L15/00)} - H04M 3/4938: {comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML} - G06F 40/30: Semantic analysis - G10L 13/04: Details of speech synthesis systems, e.g. synthesiser structure or memory management - G10L 2015/228: {of application context} - H04M 2201/39: using speech synthesis - G10L: SPEECH ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES OR SPEECH SYNTHESIS; SPEECH RECOGNITION; SPEECH OR VOICE PROCESSING TECHNIQUES; SPEECH OR AUDIO CODING OR DECODING - H04M: TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION (circuits for controlling other apparatus via a telephone cable and not involving telephone switching apparatus G08) - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) ## Abstract Methods and systems are described in which spoken voice prompts can be produced in a manner such that they will most likely have the desired effect, for example to indicate empathy, or produce a desired follow-up action from a call recipient. The prompts can be produced with specific optimized speech parameters, including duration, gender of speaker, and pitch, so as to encourage participation and promote comprehension among a wide range of patients or listeners. Upon hearing such voice prompts, patients/listeners can know immediately when they are being asked questions that they are expected to answer, and when they are being given information, as well as the information that considered sensitive. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method of producing spoken voice prompts for telephony-based informational interaction, the method comprising: for one or more voice prompts, determining words that receive an optimized speech parameter, based on context and/or meaning of the text of the one or more voice prompts; recording the one or more voice prompts, producing one or more spoken voice prompts; and conveying the one or more spoken voice prompts to a listener over a telephone system. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the number of words that receive an optimized speech parameter based on context and/or meaning of the one or more voice prompts; ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the optimized speech parameter comprises one or more pitch accents. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more pitch accents yield a pause lengthening pattern. ### Claim 5 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more pitch accents comprise a phrase-final lengthening pattern. ### Claim 6 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, further comprising one or more boundary tones, wherein the one or more pitch accents and boundary tones comprise a defined intonation pattern. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The method of claim 6, wherein the defined intonation pattern comprises specific rises or falls of the fundamental frequency of a spoken prompt. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The method of claim 7, wherein the intonation pattern corresponds to a defined type of the information conveyed by the spoken prompts. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, wherein the intonation pattern is determined based on responses of a population of participants in a computer-based exchange to specific types of voice prompts. ### Claim 10 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, wherein the words receiving the one or more pitch accents are determined based on a desired behavior that is desired of a person receiving a telephony call. ### Claim 11 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, wherein the words receiving the one or more pitch accents are determined based on a desired behavior change that is desired of a person receiving a telephony call. ### Claim 12 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, further comprising using high pitch accents to indicate new information. ### Claim 13 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, further comprising using high pitch accents to indicate important information. ### Claim 14 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, further comprising using low pitch accents to indicate disturbing new information. ### Claim 15 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, further comprising using low pitch accents to indicate sensitive information. ### Claim 16 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more pitch accents comprise a syllable bearing primary lexical stress approximately triple its usual length. ### Claim 17 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, further comprising using syllable lengthening to convey phrasal sentential punctuation. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The method of claim 17, wherein a phrase final syllable is approximately doubled in length compared to an unaccented same syllable to indicate a comma in the spoken prompt. ### Claim 19 A system for directing optimized voice prompts to a telephone during the course of an outbound telephone call, the system comprising: a recording system configured and arranged to record one or more spoken voice prompts including one or more optimized speech parameters; an automated calling system configured and arranged to place an automated outbound telephone call including the one or more spoken voice prompts to a target person at called party telephone; an automated speech recognition system configured and arranged to process auditory responses of the target person as made in response to the one or more voice prompts.