Method and apparatus for effectively receiving voice input to a voice recognition system

An apparatus for processing verbal information from a customer to complete a task comprising:

• means for prompting a verbal response from a human customer as an input sources;
• a speech recognizer including means for recognizing information in the verbal response and means for determining if the information was reliably recognized;
• recording means for recording the verbal response;
• means for enabling information to be manually input into the speech recognition system;
• and
• means for completing the task automatically if the information was reliably recognized by said speech recognizer, said means for completing the task completes the task with the recognized information, and including means for manually completing the task if the information was not reliably recognized by said speech recognizer, said means for completing the task completes the task with the information inputted by a human attendant other than the human customer after reviewing the recorded verbal response.

A method of processing verbal information received by an automated voice recognition system to complete a task, said method comprising the steps of:

• prompting a verbal response from a human customer source, said verbal response including information for carrying out a specific task;
• receiving said information in said verbal response from said human customer source;
• recording said verbal response;
• attempting to recognize said information via said voice recognition system;
• determining if said information is either recognizable or unrecognizable by said voice recognition system;
• and
• carrying out said specific task directly if said information is recognizable on the one hand, or on the other hand, transmitting said recorded verbal response to a human attendant other than the human customer if said information is unrecognizable, to allow said human attendant to provide the information corresponding to said specific task to enable completion of said specific task.

An apparatus for processing verbal information for completing a task comprising:

• means for prompting a verbal response from a human customer as an input source;
• speech recognizing means for attempting to recognize information in said verbal response and including means for determining if said information is recognizable or unrecognizable;
• recording means for recording the verbal response;
• means for completing said task;
• means for enabling said information to be manually input by a human attendant other than the human customer to trigger said means for completing the task to complete the task if said information is unrecognizable, on the one hand, or on the other hand, for triggering directly said means for completing the task to complete the task if said information is recognizable.