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This application relates to an application by Douglas C. Dowden, Richard W.
Hemmeter, Diane E. Herr, W. K. McCormick, Robert Petrelli, Richard J.
Piereth, Samuel M. Salchenberger, Chander S. Sehgal, and Mahendra K. Verma
entitled "Automation Of Telephone Operator Assistance Calls", Ser. No.
07/675,779, concurrently filed herewith and assigned to the same assignee
as this application.
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to methods and apparatus for automating the
processing of operator assistance type telecommunications calls.
PROBLEM
Over the past several decades, a great deal of toll telephone traffic which
used to be handled by operators has been automated. The initial step of
automating what was originally operator assistance traffic was to offer
customer-dialed long distance call service. Then, customer-dialed operator
assistance calls were introduced to permit operators to process calls for
which the number had already been dialed. Automatic recording of telephone
charges was introduced also at that time. Today, the category of fully or
partially automated operator assistance telephone traffic includes coin
calls, calling card calls, automatic quotation of charges for hotel guest
originated calls, and partial automation of collect and person calls. In
spite of the intensive effort to automate operator assistance calls,
telephone companies annually spent over a billion dollars for operator
wages and accompanying overhead costs.
Operator assisted calls are processed from attended operator positions
attached to operator assistance switching systems or switches. These
switches are operated under the control of a complex program, generally
referred to as a generic program, which must be tested very carefully to
ensure that no program flaws remain that could cause a system to "crash"
or become non-functional. The switch communicates with operator positions
by data messages used to operate displays at the operator position, and to
transmit information keyed by the operator, in response to instructions
from the caller, to the switch. The generic program is designed carefully
to ensure that poor data received from an operator switch does not affect
more than one call. A problem in such switches is that it is difficult to
introduce new services and to automate operator functions because of the
difficulty of changing the generic program.
In A. N. Daudelin, U.S. Pat. No. 4,797,910, a speech recognition unit that
is a part of an operator assistance switch is used to determine a call
type, and cooperate in the automatic establishment of the call. When the
called party answers on a collect call, the speech recognition unit
determines whether the called customer accepts the call.
A further need exists with respect to the processing of spontaneous voice
messaging calls. An arrangement for handling such calls is described in
U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,042 which discloses arrangements for converting a call
to busy or to a customer who does not answer to a voice message call
without requiring the caller to reoriginate the call and preserving the
caller's number as previously identified and the caller's and called
numbers as previously identified for the voice message call. The
arrangement requires that the caller have a dual tone multifrequency
(DTMF) telephone in order to take advantage of the service and requires
connection of an announcement and a DTMF receiver to the call.
SOLUTION
The above problem is solved and an advance is made over the prior art in
accordance with the principles of our invention wherein an unattended
automated position is substituted for some of the operator positions
attached to an operator assistance switch; such an automated position
includes means for recognizing commands such as speech commands, for
making announcements to a connected telephone customer, and optionally,
for detecting DTMF digits, for recording speech, and for detecting a
switch-hook "flash" (i.e., a brief depression of the switch-hook). In one
preferred embodiment, the interface between the operator position and the
operator assistance switching system is maintained for the automated
position so that the existing data communications in both directions are
the same. The assistance switching system communicates with the positions
using the same messages for generating displays at the operator position
and the automated position. Similarly, the automated position communicates
with the switching system using the same messages used by the operator
position for controlling switching system operations. If an automated
position cannot process a particular call, either because the call type is
not anticipated in the program controlling the automated position, or
because the automated position cannot recognize the caller' s speech, the
automated position sends a data message to the switch asking that the call
be switched to an attended operator position. Advantageously, the
switching system has already been designed to react in a safe manner to
any combination of control signals from the operator position so that the
amount of damage inflicted on other calls as a result of improper
performance by an automated position is highly restricted.
The automated position can access a remote database in essentially the same
way that an operator position does. The automated position sends the same
kinds of messages and performs the same kind of data interpretation of the
return message as is performed by an operator at a conventional operator
position.
The spontaneous voice messaging problem is solved by connecting the caller
to an automated position and using that automated position to detect
called number busy and called number don't answer, and to make
announcements to the caller, if necessary, for stimulating a spontaneous
voice message request, and to detect speech commands requesting
spontaneous voice message service. Advantageously, such an arrangement
allows spontaneous voice message service to be offered to customers who
are calling from rotary dial telephone stations or push button dial pulse
telephone stations.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram of an operator assistance switch and a
connected operator position and automated position group;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an automated position group; and
FIGS. 3-6 are flow diagrams of a method for offering spontaneous voice
messaging service and a simplified arrangement for dialing frequently
called numbers in conformance with the principles of this invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The principles of the present invention may be understood by examining an
exemplary embodiment. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system arranged to
incorporate the present invention. The novel portion of FIG. 1 is an
automated position group, block 50, shown in heavy outline and expanded in
FIG. 2. Block 1 represents a telecommunications switch operating under
stored program control and having within it the elements necessary for
practicing the invention. Switch 1 is a switch such as the 5 ESS switch
manufactured by AT&T Technologies, Inc., arranged to offer the Operator
Services Position System (OSPS) features. The 5 ESS switch is described,
for example, in AT&T Technical Journal, v. 64, no. 6, part 2, pp.
1305-1564, and the OSPS feature is described, for example, in Paper 3,
Session 22 C presented at the International Switching Symposium in May,
1984.
Within switch 1 are various blocks for carrying out the functions of a
telecommunications switch. Control 10 is a distributed control system
operating under the control of a group of data and call processing
programs to control various blocks of the switch. In order to practice the
present invention, the operator services control programs must be
augmented by programs described in the flow charts of FIGS. 3-6. Control
10 is used to control operations of switch 1. Block 12 is a voice and data
switching network capable of switching voice and/or data between inputs
connected to the switching network.
In this embodiment, network 12 has integrated voice/data outputs in the
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) format. The switch communicates
with operator positions over an ISDN connection with a Basic Rate
Interface (BRI) for communicating two B-channels (64 kbit/second (kb/s))
and one D-channel (16 kb/s). The B-Channels are used for voice signals in
this embodiment. Connected to the switch are a conventional operator
position 24, attended by a human operator, and automated position group
50, shown in detail in FIG. 2. The automated position group 50 serves four
simultaneous calls and includes facilities for performing voice
processing. The voice processing arrangement receives an input signal
which may be either voice or a dual tone multifrequency (DTMF) signal and
has the capability for analyzing that signal to distinguish among the
various allowable DTMF signals and among the individual elements of a
predetermined list of spoken responses. The voice processing arrangement
also generates tones and voice messages to prompt a customer to speak or
key information into the system for subsequent recognition by the voice
processing unit. In addition, the voice processing unit has the capability
for recording a short customer response, typically, a name, for subsequent
playback to a called terminal. These recordings may also be saved for
subsequent use in fraud detection. For example, evidence can be
accumulated for stations with a high propensity for fraud. Within the
automated position group, the voice processing arrangement generates an
output data message, representing the result of the voice processing; this
output message is used as an input to a program in the automated position
group for controlling the generation of position messages to the switch
10. In response, the switch controls the establishment of connections in
switching network 12 and generates display data for the automated position
50. The Conversant.RTM. Voice Information System, manufactured by AT&T
Technologies, Inc., is one unit which can be used to carry out the
functions of the voice processing arrangement.
Two types of data base systems are used by switch 1 in order to set up
operator assistance calls in conformance with the principles of this
invention. Local data base system 16 is directly accessible by control 10
of switch 1 via switching network 12. Remote data base system 20 is
accessible to control 10 of switch 1 via switching network 12 and an
interconnecting data network 18. A remote data base system is typically
used for storing data that is shared by many switches. For example, a
remote data base system might store data pertaining to customers for a
region; the particular remote data base system that is accessed via data
network 18 would be selected to be the remote data base system associated
with the region of the called terminal. Interconnecting data network 18
can be any well known data network and specifically could be a common
channel signaling system such as the the international standard
telecommunications signaling system CCS 7.
Transaction recorder 22 is used for recording data about calls for
subsequent processing. This data typically is billing data which is
subsequently sent over a data link to be processed by a billing processor
in order to prepare customer bills. The transaction recorder is also used
for recording traffic data in order to engineer additions properly and in
order to control traffic dynamically.
Operator position 24 connected to switch 1 comprises a terminal for use by
an operator in order to control operator assistance calls. Data displays
for the terminal of operator position 24 are generated by control 10.
Operator position 24 is connected to the voice and data switching network
12 by operator access facility 26 which may include carrier facilities in
order to allow the operator position to be located remotely from switching
network 12. Alternatively, operator access facility 26 may be a simple
voice and data access facility if the operator positions are located in
close physical proximity to the switching network. Only one operator
position is shown in FIG. 1 but it is understood that a typical switch,
arranged to offer operator assistance services, has access to a large
number of such operator positions.
It is often desirable that certain kinds of operator functions be assigned
to specialized teams. One example is Spanish-speaking operators who could
be accessed by customers with English language difficulties whose native
language is Spanish. Another example is operators who have access to the
special facilities required for setting up conference calls. Still another
example is operators from a customer credit and service bureau who have
access to customer billing records who can handle customer requests for
billing information and for credit in case a customer reached a wrong
number. In order to access the proper one of these operator teams, a
customer's spoken command, or, in the case of a customer with a DTMF
terminal, a keyed command code is used. In some cases (not shown in FIG.
1) specialized teams may be attached to a different switch in which case
an interconnecting network is used to connect the originating customer to
that switch for connection to an operator from an appropriate operator
team.
Connected to switch 1 are interconnecting networks 30 and 32. These are
networks which may include one or more switches and which are used for
interconnecting voice and data signals between customer terminals and
switch 1. Also connected to switch 1 are customer lines, including
customer line 44, for connecting a calling terminal 42 to switch 1. The
word "terminal" as used herein includes a simple customer telephone
station, a customer station with more elaborate features such as magnetic
stripe card readers, or a customer voice/data terminal. Calling terminal
40 is connected through interconnecting network 30 to switch 1. In this
specific example, calling terminal 40 is connected by a customer line to a
1AESS switch and that switch is connected to trunk 31 which is connected
to switch 1. For the sake of clarity, a separate interconnecting network
32 is shown as being interposed between switch 1 and called terminal 46.
In practice, interconnecting networks 30 and 32 are parts of a much larger
common carrier network. In the example call described below,
interconnecting network 32 contains different switches from
interconnecting network 30. Called terminal 46 is connected to
interconnecting network 32 and via that network can be accessed by switch
1. If the calling terminal is not directly connected to switch 1, the
directory number of the calling terminal, identified, for example, by
automatic number identification, is transmitted from the switch connected
to the calling terminal to switch 1.
The term "operator assistance call" as used herein also refers to calls
some of which are already automated. For example, Automated Calling Card
Service (ACCS) has made it possible for customers having a DTMF terminal
to place a calling card call without requiring the services of an
operator. As discussed hereinafter, other classes of operator assistance
calls may also no longer require the service of an operator according to
the principles of this invention. Thus, the term "operator assistance
call" refers to those classes of calls which have in the past usually
required the service of an operator, such as those which are dialed with
an initial digit 0.
In order to illustrate the basic principles of the invention, a simple
collect call from calling terminal 42 to called terminal 46 will be
described. The customer at a calling terminal is referred to as a calling
customer or caller. In this example, the called customer at terminal 46
has agreed ahead of time to accept collect calls but wishes to be informed
when an incoming call is a collect call. The caller at terminal 42 dials
or keys 0, followed by the directory number of called terminal 46. This
number which is dialed over customer line 44 is received in voice and data
switching network 12 and passed to control 10 via control access 11.
Control 10 analyzes this dialed (using a dial terminal) or keyed (using a
DTMF terminal) number and recognizes that calling terminal 42 has placed
some kind of operator assistance call. In order to determine whether this
is a calling card, third number (third), person-to-person (person),
collect, Spanish-speaking (Spanish), conference, billing or other operator
assistance call, it is necessary to connect the calling customer at
terminal 42 to a port of automated position group 50. After this
connection has been established, automated position group 50 returns a
(prompting) tone to calling terminal 42. In response to this tone, if the
calling customer at terminal 42 has a DTMF telecommunications terminal,
the customer will dial a two-digit command code identifying the class of
the call to be placed as a collect call. If the calling customer does not
have a DTMF terminal or chooses to speak, then the customer can speak one
of the allowed call type phrases such as: collect, calling card, person,
third number, operator, Espanol (to request a Spanish-speaking operator),
conference, or billing, and, in this case, will say "Collect". If the
calling customer fails to key in the command code or to speak the command,
he or she will be prompted by an announcement which says: "Please say
collect, calling card, person, third number, Espanol, conference, billing,
or operator now." The keyed command code, or the spoken command is
analyzed by automated position group 50 which determines that a collect
call is to be set up. The tone or announcement is used to prompt the
calling customer to give the request response. After a time, only the tone
may be required since customers will learn to interpret the tone as a
prompting signal. To reassure the calling customer, that customer receives
an announcement from voice processing unit 1405 (FIG. 2) of automated
position group 50, while the call is being set up, to indicate that a
collect call is being set up from his terminal to the called customer.
A connection is then set up through interconnecting network 32 to called
terminal 46. The characteristics of called customers, with respect to what
kinds of collect calls they will accept, are stored in regional data base
systems such as remote data base system 20 which contains data for called
terminal 46. Other kinds of originating and terminating customer data are
stored in local or remote data base systems as convenient. System 20 is
queried before the connection to the called customer is being established.
For this example call, the query indicates that the called customer will
accept all collect calls but wishes to be informed that an incoming call
is collect.
When called terminal 46 answers, the answer signal is transmitted back to
switching network 12 and is passed to control 10 via control access 11.
When control 10 receives this answer signal, control 10 sets up a
connection in switching network 12 from automated position group 50
through interconnecting network 32 to called terminal 46 to announce to
the called customer that this is a collect call. Since called customer 46
has agreed in advance to accept all collect calls, the call between
calling terminal 42 and called terminal 46 may be set up through switching
network 12 after this announcement has been received by the called
customer. Note that this exemplary call has been established without
requiring the services of an operator.
Customers may specify that they will accept all collect calls, that they
wish to decide without further data whether or not to accept each collect
call, that they want to know the name of the calling party and wish to
decide for each call, or that they will accept no collect calls.
Alternatively, an announcement to the called customer announcing a collect
call could include the area code, the geographic locality, or the full
directory number of the calling customer in order to supply the called
customer with further call data that he can use in order to decide whether
to accept the call, or could include a recording, made in the automated
position group by the caller, of the caller's name.
In this specific embodiment, automated credit card calls are detected in
parallel with other types of automated operator calls. This is in contrast
with the present arrangements wherein card calls are detected first when a
customer keys a calling card number in response to an initial "bong" tone.
A disadvantage of this arrangement is that ACCS calls must be routed to an
automated position thus utilizing the more expensive resources of an
automated position instead of being connected to a DTMF detector. The
advantage of the operation disclosed herein is that there is no need to
wait for a timeout following ACCS tone before attaching the automated
position thereby providing faster service to customers for calls other
than ACCS. An additional advantage is that the switch owner can modify the
treatment of ACCS calls within the automated position without changing the
control program of the switch.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an automated position group 50. The automated
position group is connected via four ISDN digital subscriber lines grouped
into entity 49 to corresponding ISDN T-interface line cards 1417 in
switching network 12 of the operator assistance switch. Each of these
digital subscriber lines is terminated to an ISDN Personal computer
Interface Board (IPIB) 1401. This personal computer interface board 1401
has as outputs both a D-channel output 1421 for conveying data messages
between the switching network and the control equipment of the automated
position group and a voice-channel output 1423 for communicating with an
automated position TIP/RING (T/R) interface module 1403. The interface
module 1403 includes common circuits 1404 for interfacing to the time
division multiplex bus 1415 and to four individual voice interface
circuits 1402 for interfacing with the B-channels of the four ISDN
interface boards 1401. The T/R interface module 1403 reconverts the analog
voice-channel output of the IPIB to a digital signal; provides a
line-equivalent balancing network (in contrast to the IPIB which provides
an operator position equivalent balancing network); and provides the
equivalent of DTMF receivers for detecting DTMF. The B-channel carries
voice signals and DTMF tones from the calling or called customers
connected to the line card 1417. The TIP/RING interface module 1403
conveys voice signals to time division multiplex bus 1415 for
communication to the speech processing board 1405. The speech processing
(SP) board processes speech signals and communicates with personal
computer 1407 over an Advanced Technology (a common PC state of the art)
bus 1413. The SP provides announcements and prompts, and receives spoken
input which it processes to recognize the words of that input. It is also
used for recording a spoken name (for example, for collect calls) and
applies speech recognition grammar rules. Bus 1413 is a 32 bit PC bus for
communicating among the blocks connected thereto. Local Area Network (LAN)
interface 1419 is used to control bus 1413. The speech processor board
identifies the spoken input and passes this data to PC 1407 which applies
additional grammar checks using a software data interface process. Memory
1409 is a PC expansion memory, a random access memory (RAM) to provide
adequate RAM for the PC. The disk 1411 is a standard PC disk used for
storing system software, drivers, program, office data, and digitized
announcement and prompting phrases. The PC communicates data messages over
one of the D-channels 1421 to one of the line cards 1417 and receives
messages from the operator assistance switch over the same D-channel. A
particular call is associated with a particular D-channel and line card
while being served. The messages that are exchanged over this D-channel
are exactly the same messages as are used in communicating with an
operator position staffed by a human being and used for controlling the
display of that operator position and for sending data representing
information keyed by the operator to the operator assistance switch.
The arrangements of FIGS. 1 and 2 can also be used to offer spontaneous
voice message service. If these arrangements are used for this purpose
then the call completion action blocks are augmented by the sequence of
the actions shown in the flow diagram of FIGS. 3-4. The augmentation is to
offer spontaneous voice messaging service in case the call cannot be
completed because the called party is busy or does not answer.
Test 1502 is used to represent a test to check whether the switch offers
spontaneous voice message service. In practice, such a test would not be
required since if the switch did not offer spontaneous voice message
service, the details of FIGS. 3-4 simply would not be implemented.
However, to show the flow of actions, if the switch does not offer
spontaneous voice message service, then the automated position is released
(action block 1504) and the call is set up in the conventional way (action
block 1506). If, however, the switch does offer spontaneous voice message
service, then the call is set up but the connection to the automated
position is maintained (action block 1508). The call being set up is
monitored from the automated position (action block 1510). If a disconnect
is detected the call is disconnected (action block 1512). If an answer is
detected, the call is completed conventionally (action block 1514). If a
busy signal is detected or a timed no-answer is detected, then an offer to
set up a VMS call is announced to the caller (action block 1516) from the
automated position (action block 1516). During the announcement, if an
answer is detected then the call is completed conventionally (action block
1514). If a spoken "no" is detected, the spoken "no" is ignored (action
block 1517) in order to allow the caller to wait for a possible answer and
to detect a disconnect leading to the disconnection of the call (action
block 1512) after the customer stops waiting. However, if the customer,
after responding "no" to the VMS prompt, continues to wait for a possible
answer and exceeds a specified time-out period, the caller will be
prompted for a final time (i.e., 1516), if a "no" is detected, the call
will be disconnected (i.e., 1512). If a spoken "yes", a keyed 9 (for y or
yes) or a keyed *867 (equals *VMS) is detected, then the forward
connection to the called customer is released (action block 1518). The
same action is performed if the calling customer keys *867 prior to the
time of a timed no-answer. Following action block 1518, a test is made to
see if the call is a collect call (test 1520). It would be against
telephone company policy to allow collect calls for voice message calls
since the voice message recipient has no opportunity to deny the collect
call. It is, of course, possible in the future that a check can be made to
see if the called number accepts collect voice message calls in which case
a positive result of such a test would be treated in this flow chart as
the equivalent of a "no" on the collect call test. At any rate, if the
output of test 1520 is positive, then an announcement is made to the
caller to offer a calling card option (1522). If this offer is refused (as
detected by a disconnect or the absence of a spoken "yes" or keyed 9) then
the call is disconnected. If the offer is accepted, then the call is
completed as a VMS calling card call including obtaining the customer's
calling card number. Further, details of special call types are entered in
the record of the voice message call to prepare for the special call
delivery option described with respect to FIG. 5. If the call was not a
collect call, a test is made whether the call was a calling card call
(test 1526). If so, then the actions of block 1524 excluding the actions
of obtaining the calling card number are performed to complete this as a
VMS calling card call.
If this was not a calling card call, then alternate billing is offered for
this VMS call (test 1528). If the offer is accepted by the customer saying
"yes" or keying a DTMF 9, then action block 1531 is executed. Otherwise,
action block 1530 is executed and the VMS call is completed using the
present type of billing. This action includes recording special call type
details if necessary. Action block 1531 is an announcement asking how the
calling party would like to pay for the call. If the calling party says
"station paid" or keys DTMF 1, then test 1532 is executed. If the calling
party says "calling card" or keys DTMF 2, then action block 1524,
previously described, is executed. If the calling party says "bill to
third" or keys DTMF 3, then action block 1539 is executed. Otherwise the
call is disconnected (action block 1512). Action block 1539 requests the
third party number and checks for acceptance. If the charge is accepted,
then the SVMS call is completed as a bill to third party call (action
block 1540). Otherwise, if the charge is rejected, the call is simply
disconnected (action block 1512).
If, in response to the announcement of action block 1531, the customer
stated "station paid" or keyed DTMF 1, then test 1532 is performed to
check whether the call is from a coin station. If not, test 1533 is
performed to check whether the call is from a hotel having individual room
billing. If not, then the spontaneous VMS call is completed and billed as
a sent paid call (action block 1536). If the call is from a hotel, then an
announcement is made to request the hotel room number from the caller
(action block 1534). If the room number is successfully obtained, then the
SVMS call is completed as a bill to hotel room call (action block 1535).
If the caller fails to supply the hotel room number, the call is simply
disconnected (action block 1512).
If test 1532 determines that the call is from a coin station, then the
amount of the charge for an SVMS is determined and the required deposit is
requested. If the customer fails to deposit this amount of money then the
call is disconnected (action block 1512). Otherwise, the call is completed
as an SVMS coin call (action block 1538).
The calls which are established using the methods of this specification are
voice calls, data calls and facsimile calls.
An additional service which can be offered using the facilities of an
automated operator is the following. Customers are assigned a specific
individual telephone number which may be a number in the 1-700, 1-800, or
1-900 block which will be routed to a switching system containing
prerecorded phrases in the voice of that customer. These phrases might be
phrases such as: "Mom," "Broker," "Office," "Home," "Secretary," "Bob,"
"Betty," etc. The customer would dial his or her personal number, would be
connected to this switching system and the switching system would select
the prerecorded phrases based on that customer's specific number. Then,
when the customer speaks, one of the prerecorded phrases, the automated
operator system would match that phrase against one of the prerecorded
phrases to determine the destination desired by the customer. Once that
destination has been determined, the directory number of that destination
is found and the call is completed to that directory number. Subsequently,
if the call is to a busy telephone or is not answered spontaneous voice
message service can be invoked. These actions are described with respect
to blocks 1550, 1552, and 1554. Block 1550 indicates that when the
customer dials this personal number, that caller is connected to a system
having an automatic operator that contains the stored phrases of that
customer and the customer is connected to such an automated operator
(action block 1550). The customer speaks the phrase identifying the
destination (action block 1552) and the automated operator identifies the
number associated with that phrase (action block 1554. Thereafter, the
call is set up and monitored for a possible SVMS request (action block
1508 et seq.).
FIG. 5 is a description of call delivery from a voice message system or
from an automated position for providing voice message service as
described herein. A previously recorded message is considered for delivery
to the called customer by first setting up a connection to the called
customer (action block 1602). Such attempts are made according to
scheduling algorithms which are well known in the art and are described,
for example, in Phoneplus (magazine), June 1990, pages 35-39. If there is
a time out with no answer, the call is disconnected (action block 1604)
and another attempt will be made according to the previous history of
delivery for that call as amended by the fact that there has been no
answer detected (action block 1606). If a busy signal is detected, then
the call is disconnected (action block 1608) and another attempt based on
the schedule of having encountered a busy signal is tried later (action
block 1610). If an answer is detected, then a test 1620 is performed to
detect whether this is a special s | | |
