Methods and apparatus for activating telephone services in response to speech

A method of responding to speech from a caller, the method comprising the steps of:

• performing a speaker dependent speech recognition operation on the speech to detect a presence of a name in the speech;
• performing a speaker independent speech recognition operation on the speech in order to detect a presence of an explicit command in the speech, the speaker dependent and speaker independent speech recognition operations being performed in parallel;
• upon detecting the presence of a name and failing to detect the presence of an explicit command in the speech;
• dialing a telephone number corresponding to the name whose presence is detected;
• and
• upon detecting the presence of a name and the presence of an explicit command, performing an arbitration step to determine whether to respond to the detected command or to dial the telephone number corresponding to the name whose presence is detected if the explicit command whose presence was detected is of a first type which does not require a name to be performed.

A device for responding to a caller's speech, comprising:

• means for performing speaker dependent speech recognition on the speech to detect the presence of a name in the speech;
• means for performing speaker independent speech recognition on the speech to detect the presence of an explicit command in the speech, the means for performing speaker dependent and speaker independent speech recognition being coupled in parallel;
• and
• means for dialing a telephone number corresponding to the name whose presence is detected, upon detecting the presence of a name and failing to detect the presence of an explicit command in the speech, coupled to the means for performing speaker independent and speaker dependent speech recognition.

A method of providing a telephone service in response to speech from a caller, the method comprising the steps of:

• identifying the caller;
• accessing a database including speaker dependent speech recognition templates of names;
• performing speaker dependent speech recognition on the speech using the speaker dependent speech recognition templates to detect a name in the speech and a first time interval in which the name was spoken;
• performing speech recognition on the speech in order to detect an explicit command in the speech and a second time interval in which the explicit command was spoken;
• and
• upon detecting the name and the explicit command determining if the explicit command is of a type which requires a name to be performed and determining if there is a significant overlap between the first and second time intervals;
• if it is determined that the command is of the type which requires a name to be performed and if the first and second time intervals significantly overlap, performing an arbitration step to determine whether to respond to the detected command or to dial a telephone number in response to the detected name.