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US 6,529,881 B2Granted
System and method for identifying an unidentified customer at the point of sale
AssigneesDistributed Software Development, Inc., Sanford J. Morganstein
InventorsSanford J. Morganstein, Sergey Zaks
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system (500) for identifying an unidentified customer (510) includes a database (42) that contains utterance data (162) corresponding to a known customer. A processing system (502) coupled to the database (42) receives utterance information corresponding to the unidentified customer (510) at the point of sale and compares the utterance information with the utterance data (162) to identify the unidentified customer (510) as the known customer. In response, the processing system (502) may automatically retrieve stored information (104, 132, 162) corresponding to the known customer.
Claims30
A system for identifying a customer at a point of sale to authorize a point of sale transaction, comprising:
- a database containing stored voiceprint data identified with a known customer and an identifier for the known customer;
- an input device operable to receive a new voice sample from a customer at the point of sale, the newly received voice sample comprising one or more words each having a meaning, the newly received voice sample having at least one characteristic that is independent of the meaning of the words in the newly received voice sample;
- and
- a processing system coupled to the database and to the input device, the processing system operable to:
- compare, according to at least the characteristic, newly generated voiceprint data for the customer, reflective of the newly received voice sample from the customer, with at least some of the stored voiceprint data identified with the known customer to identify the customer, identifying comprising determining an identity of the customer;
- access the identifier for the known customer reflecting the determined identity of the customer;
- provide the identifier for the known customer reflecting the determined identity of the customer to an agent at the point of sale to authorize the point of sale transaction;
- associate the identifier for the known customer reflecting the determined identity of the customer with the newly generated voiceprint data for the customer in response to identifying the customer;
- and
- store the newly generated voiceprint data for the customer in the database to increase the amount of stored voiceprint data for the customer that is available for subsequently identifying the customer to authorize subsequent point of sale transactions.
7 more elements
A system for identifying a customer at points of sale to authorize point of sale transactions, comprising:
- a database containing stored voiceprint data identified with a plurality of known customers and identifiers for the plurality of known customers;
- a first input device operable to receive a first new voice sample from a customer at a first point of sale, the first newly received voice sample comprising one or more words each having a meaning, the first newly received voice sample having at least one first characteristic that is independent of the meaning of the words in the first newly received voice sample;
- a first processing system coupled to the database and to the first input device, the first processing system operable to:
- compare, according to at least the first characteristic, newly generated voiceprint data for the customer, reflective of the first newly received voice sample from the customer, with at least some of the stored voiceprint data identified with the plurality of known customers to identify the customer as a particular one of the plurality of known customers, where identifying comprises determining an identity of the customer;
- access the identifier for the known customer reflecting the determined identity of the customer;
- provide the identifier for the known customer reflecting the determined identity of the customer to an agent at the first point of sale to authorize a first point of sale transaction;
- associate the identifier for the known customer reflecting the determined identity of the customer with the newly generated voiceprint data for the customer in response to identifying the customer;
- and
- store the newly generated voiceprint data for the customer in the database to increase the amount of stored voiceprint data for the customer that is available for subsequently identifying the customer to authorize subsequent point of sale transactions;
- a second input device operable to receive a second new voice sample from the customer at a second point of sale, the second newly received voice sample comprising one or more words each having a meaning, the second newly received voice sample having at least one second characteristic that is independent of the meaning of the words in the second newly received voice sample;
- and
- a second processing system coupled to the database and to the second input device, the second processing system operable to compare, according to at least the second characteristic, newly generated voiceprint data reflective of the second newly received voice sample with at least some of the stored voiceprint data identified with the plurality of known customers, including the newly generated voiceprint data stored in response to identifying the customer at the first point of sale, to identify the customer as the particular one of the plurality of known customers, where identifying comprises again determining the identity of the customer, the second processing system further operable to access the identifier for the known customer reflecting the again determined identity of the customer and to provide the identifier for the known customer reflecting the again determined identity of the customer to an agent at the second point of sale to authorize a second point of sale transaction.
9 more elements
A method for identifying a customer at a point of sale to authorize a point of sale transaction, comprising:
- storing voiceprint data identified with a known customer and an identifier for the known customer;
- receiving a new voice sample from a customer at the point of sale, the newly received voice sample comprising one or more words each having a meaning, the newly received voice sample having at least one characteristic that is independent of the meaning of the words in the newly received voice sample;
- comparing, according to at least the characteristic, newly generated voiceprint data for the customer, reflective of the newly received voice sample from the customer, with at least some of the stored voiceprint data identified with the known customer;
- identifying the customer according to the comparison, where identifying comprises determining an identity of the customer;
- accessing the identifier for the known customer reflecting the determined identity of the customer;
- providing the identifier for the known customer reflecting the determined identity of the customer to an agent at the point of sale to authorize the point of sale transaction;
- associating the identifier for the known customer reflecting the determined identity of the customer with the newly generated voiceprint data for the customer in response to identifying the customer;
- and
- storing the newly generated voiceprint data for the customer in the database to increase the amount of stored voiceprint data for the customer that is available for subsequently identifying the customer to authorize subsequent point of sale transactions.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.