JP2001197207A - Device corresponding to multilanguage - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently cope with various language used by the customers in communication to terminal devices. SOLUTION: A requested language recognizing parts recognizes a language used by a customer in a terminal device through voice recognition or by referring to set information or the like, connection is switched to an operator who can cope with the language or the contents in the used language are distributed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multilingual response apparatus capable of responding to a plurality of terminals whose language to be used is not specified according to the language used in each terminal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In various support for sales and finance, medical services, and the like, a facility called a call center in which an operator who is on standby at all times performs various responses to customers by telephone is becoming common. CTI (Computer)
A technology called Telephony Integration) has become widespread.

[0003] As a specific example of CTI, in a call center of a credit card or the like, the user inputs his / her card number or personal identification number using a number button of a touch-tone telephone in accordance with automatic voice guidance. After that, by inputting a question or a service or support content that the customer wants to enjoy, the user is connected to the operator in charge who is already on standby, and a specific call is handled.

[0004] Alternatively, in a slightly simpler CTI, when calling a human operator serving as a counter, various kinds of customer information are transmitted to the operator through a dialogue, and the operator inputs various kinds of customer information at the center terminal. In accordance with the information and the contents of the customer request, the system is configured to simultaneously perform switching of a line connected to another specialized operator and transfer of customer information.

[0005] Further, with the recent spread of the Internet, an Internet terminal such as a personal computer of a customer is connected to a call center by electronic information or an Internet telephone (VoIP (VoIP)).
A mechanism has also been implemented in which voice information is mixed and superimposed on electronic information from an Internet terminal using ice over IP)) and transmitted to a call center.

In the future, for example, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 10-317704 filed by the present applicant, an AVI format and an M
Providing OV format or MPEG format video images, or transmitting / receiving information by fusing Internet videophone and HTML using VoIP (Voice Over IP) to a call center in a state where image information and audio information are mixed and superimposed. A form of connection has been proposed.

[0007]

By the way, remarkable internationalization is progressing in the field of information and communication. In particular, due to the spread of the Internet, not only Japanese but also English and other languages are required in the communication environment, market and communication equipment. Multilinguals such as European languages and Chinese languages.

However, in general, human resources who can speak and understand two or more languages sufficiently and can freely handle multiple languages are rare, and a receptionist or a full-time operator at a call center or the like responds in terms of conversation. In many cases, the burden on human resource selection and operational efficiency is large.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an attended or unattended call center including an Internet call center, which automatically or semi-automatically detects the language environment of a connected customer and connects to an operator who can handle the detected language, or connects to an operator who can handle the detected language. It is an object of the present invention to provide a multilingual response apparatus capable of performing a navigator, an automatic response answer, or a content return in an appropriate language while executing an appropriate language selection.

[0010]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems,
According to the first aspect of the present invention, for a plurality of terminals whose language to be used is not specified, a line previously associated with a plurality of operators waiting in advance according to the language used in each terminal. A multi-language response device for selecting one of the above and switching connection of a line related to communication, wherein a request language recognition unit for recognizing a language used in the terminal and a plurality of operators are associated in advance. A predetermined storage unit storing a corresponding language determination table that defines the correspondence between a line and an available language, and the request language recognition unit recognizes the predetermined language according to the correspondence between the corresponding language determination table in the storage unit. A line switching unit that selects a line associated with an operator corresponding to the language in advance and switches connection of a line related to communication.

In the invention according to a second aspect, the corresponding language determination table updates and records at a predetermined timing the availability data indicating whether or not a line previously associated with each operator is on standby. The line switching unit is configured to select only a line previously associated with an operator whose data on the availability in the corresponding language determination table is on standby.

[0012] According to a third aspect of the present invention, when contents corresponding to various languages are stored in a predetermined content storage device, the plurality of terminals for which a language to be used is not specified are used. What is claimed is: 1. A multi-language response device that adjusts distribution of content corresponding to a language used in each terminal from a content storage device, the request language recognition unit recognizing a language used in the terminal, and the request language. A control unit that selects content corresponding to the language recognized by the recognition unit from the plurality of contents in the content storage device and distributes the selected content to the terminal.

[0013] The invention according to claim 4 further comprises a translator for translating the content of a specific language in the content storage device into the language recognized by the required language recognition unit,
The control unit detects whether or not there is content in the language recognized by the request language recognition unit among a plurality of contents in the content storage device. If the detection result is positive, the control unit determines the language. And selecting a content in a language translated by the translator, and distributing the selected content to the terminal when the detection result is negative. .

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the requested language recognizing unit refers to setting information relating to a language used in each of the terminals, and refers to and determines a language used in each of the terminals. It includes at least a setting information reference section.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the requested language recognizing unit specifies a language to be used by performing voice recognition and voice matching of the voice information when voice information is given from each of the terminals. It includes at least a speech language determination unit.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the request language recognizing unit provides guidance on the operation to the operator who operates each of the terminals, and performs the operation based on the selection input by the operation of the operator. At least a desired language identification unit for identifying a desired language.

In the invention described in claim 8, the requested language recognizing unit recognizes customer address information set in advance in each of the terminals or in the multilingual responding apparatus itself, so that each of the terminals can recognize the requested language. It includes at least an address determination unit that determines a language to be used.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, the requested language recognizing unit, when the terminal location information where the terminal is present is obtained in each of the terminals, the request language recognizing unit in each of the terminals based on the terminal location information. It includes at least a terminal location specifying unit that determines a language to be used.

In this specification, "content"
The term “edited” refers to a compilation in which various information such as character information, still image information, moving image information, and / or audio information is edited in a predetermined layout arrangement with the intention of the creator.

[0020]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS << First Embodiment >><Structure> FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a multilingual response device 1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention. This multilingual response device 1
Is a manned operator system in which a clerk (operator) who can deal with each language responds to a customer. As shown in FIG. 1, there is a request from the terminal 2 to desire communication through a predetermined communication path L. When the request language recognition unit 3 recognizes the language used by the customer of the terminal 2, the request language recognition unit 3 based on the corresponding language determination table 5 stored in a predetermined storage unit 4 in advance. The line is automatically switched by the line switching unit 6 to the operators 7a to 7c corresponding to the language recognized in Step 3.

Here, the terminal device 2 includes a wired communication type analog voice telephone, a wireless communication type portable telephone, an analog type or digital type video telephone, and VoIP (VoP).
Any type of device may be used, such as an iceOver IP device, a personal computing device, or other various terminals including a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and a wearable computer. In these various types of terminals 2, analog voice information such as a normal telephone voice signal, VoIP (Voice Over IP)
Various types of information are transmitted and received, such as digital voice information used in, for example, digital character information used in electronic mail (E-mail), text documents, and the like. In the language response device 1, data of various protocols is allowed for information related to a voice language or a character language transmitted and received by these various types of terminals 2.

The requested language recognition unit 3 of the multilingual response device 1
It is a functional component that operates according to a predetermined software program in a general CPU to which a ROM, a RAM, and the like are connected. As shown in FIG. Each terminal 2
Setting information reference unit 1 for referring to and determining the language used by the customer according to
1, a voice language determining unit 12 that specifies a language to be used by voice recognition and language matching of voice information when voice information is given from each terminal 2, and a customer operating each terminal 2 A desired language identifying unit 13 for identifying a language desired by the customer based on a selection input by the operation of the customer while providing guidance on the operation, and is preset in each terminal 2 or the multilingual response device 1 itself. The customer address determination unit 14 that identifies the country or region where the customer lives by recognizing the address information of the customer, and determines the main language used in the country or region. When the latitude / longitude information (terminal position information) where the terminal 2 exists is obtained, the country or region where the customer lives is specified based on the latitude / longitude information, and the main language used in the country or region is determined. To and a terminal position determination unit 15.

The setting information reference unit 11 is a terminal for each customer.
When a communication request is received from each terminal 2, the setting information reference unit 11 responds to the request by a predetermined storage device (not shown) in each terminal 2. The setting information stored in advance in (No) is referred to, and the language used in each terminal 2 is recognized from the setting information. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, for example, when the terminal 2 requesting communication is a personal computer 2a, an operation system (OS) which is a basic operation software program and an Internet browser for content browsing include: The language environment normally used by the customer is set as a language code. For this reason,
When the terminal 2 requesting communication is the personal computer 2a, the setting information reference unit 11 determines that the personal computer 2a is based on a signal from the personal computer 2a. By referring to the language environment (language code) of the OS or the Internet browser stored in the hard disk drive (HDD) as the storage device 2a, it is possible to easily specify the language used by the customer. Alternatively, if the terminal 2 requesting communication is a mobile phone 2b with a display panel 2c, the display mode of the mobile phone 2b on the display panel 2c is set to Japanese, English, or another language. From that
When the terminal 2 requesting the communication is the mobile phone 2b with the display panel 2c, the setting information reference unit 1
After 1 has determined based on the signal from the mobile phone 2b,
By referring to the language environment set in the mobile phone by the setting information reference unit 11, it is possible to easily specify the language used by the customer.

The voice language determination unit 12 is a voice recognition unit 21 for recognizing voice information when voice information is given from each terminal 2, and the information after voice recognition by the voice recognition unit 21. A language matching unit 22 for specifying a language to be used by language matching. Specifically, the terminal 2 that has requested communication is an analog voice telephone of a wired communication type, a mobile phone of a wireless communication type, an analog or digital video phone, or a VoIP (Voice Over I
P) If the device handles audio information like a device,
After the speech language judging unit 12 judges that, the speech recognizing unit 21 converts the speech (conversation) into the speech (conversation) while referring to some of the built-in phoneme unit dictionary databases 21a to 21c for each language as shown in FIG. Executes comparison and comparison (voice pattern matching) of the used vocabulary, and executes the language matching unit 2
In step 2, the probability that a vocabulary matched as a result of the collation exists (collation hit rate) is calculated, and the language of the phoneme segment dictionary database having a high collation hit rate is determined to be the language used by the customer. .

Here, in the voice recognition unit 21, if the voice data supplied from the outside is analog voice data handled by a normal telephone, as shown in FIG. After receiving the audio data,
After digitizing analog voice data into digital voice data using a predetermined device such as a personal computer 21e, the voice recognition unit 21 of the multilingual response device 1 performs voice recognition.

The desired language identifying unit 13 is a guidance unit 23 for generating voice guidance for the customer on the terminal 2 side.
And an operation identification unit 24 that recognizes an operation performed by the customer on the terminal 2 in accordance with the voice guidance in the guidance unit 23 and identifies the language used by the customer.

[0027] The guidance unit 23 determines that the terminal 2 that has requested the communication is an analog voice telephone of a wired communication type, a portable telephone of a wireless communication type, a video phone of an analog or digital type, or a VoIP (Voice Over IP) device. When voice information can be output as described above, voice guidance in a general-purpose language such as predetermined English is transmitted to the terminal 2. The voice guidance urges the customer to select a desired language, and in particular, a message that guides what operation should be performed on each terminal 2 when the customer selects a language to be used. Is included.

The operation identification unit 24 receives a signal relating to an operation on the terminal 2 performed by the customer himself in accordance with the voice guidance in the guidance unit 23, and specifies the language used by the customer by identifying the signal relating to this operation. It is supposed to.

The customer address judging section 14 obtains information representing a location attribute of the terminal 2 such as a postal code, a telephone number or address information stored in a predetermined storage device in the terminal 2, and determines the location of the customer. This is to judge and specify the main language corresponding to the location as a customer's language in use, and when a communication request is received from each terminal 2, the customer address judgment unit 14 responds to this request. A selection table in a predetermined storage device is referred to by referring to information indicating a location attribute of the terminal 2 such as a postal code, a telephone number, or address information stored in a predetermined storage device (not shown) in each terminal 2 in advance. With reference to (not shown), a language corresponding to the location attribute of the terminal 2 is selected.

As shown in FIG. 5, the terminal position specifying unit 15 is a terminal specifying device 25 (for example, a car navigation device or the like) in which the terminal 2 used can obtain a position specifying signal used in a GPS signal from a GPS satellite. Or the terminal 2 itself is a PHS (Personal Handy P
In the case of a device such as a hone system (simplified mobile phone) that can obtain a position specifying signal based on the unique characteristics of the terminal 2, each device is based on a GPS signal from these GPS satellites or a position specifying signal such as a PHS. The system recognizes the latitude and longitude where the terminal device 2 is located, and specifies the main language used in the country where the terminal 2 is located as the language used by the customer. For example, in FIG. 5, when the terminal 2 is located in Australia, the position specifying device 25 recognizes the latitude and longitude where the terminal 2 is located, and based on this, the terminal 2 sends the multilingual response device 1 The terminal 2 transmits information indicating that the country where the terminal 2 is located is Australia.

The request language recognizing unit 3 uses a plurality of elements such as a setting information reference unit 11, a voice language judging unit 12, a desired language identifying unit 13, a customer address judging unit 14, and a terminal position specifying unit 15 to send a request to the customer. The language to be used is individually identified and determined, and it is not efficient for each of the elements 11 to 15 to individually and individually determine the language to be used at the same time. Therefore, for example, priorities are determined in advance for these elements 11 to 15, and elements 11 to 15 having relatively higher priorities are determined.
May first attempt to specify the language, and if this language cannot be specified, the language may be specified using the next priority elements 11 to 15. For example, when the priority is set higher in the order of the setting information reference unit 11, the voice language determination unit 12, the desired language identification unit 13, the customer address determination unit 14, and the terminal position identification unit 15, first, the setting information reference unit If the unit 11 attempts to specify the language, and if the setting information reference unit 11 fails to specify the language, the next audio language determination unit 12 attempts to specify the language, and the audio language determination unit 12 specifies the language. If this fails, the next desired language identification unit 13 attempts to specify the language. If the desired language identification unit 13 fails to specify the language, the next customer address determination unit 14 attempts to specify the language. If the customer address determining unit 14 fails to specify the language, the next terminal location specifying unit 15 may specify the language. However, all elements 11 to
In some cases, it may not be possible to finally specify the language used by the customer despite the attempt to specify the language in step 15, and in this case, a predetermined language (for example, English or Japanese) is used. It should be specified.

The language used by each customer specified in this manner is stored as customer information in a predetermined storage device 26 connected to the multilingual response device 1 as shown in FIG. When a communication request is received from each terminal 2 after the first time, the language used by the customer may be specified based on the customer information in the storage device 26. Alternatively, in a case where the information providing service for the customer on each terminal 2 side is performed by a membership system, the customer information as each member is stored in advance in the storage device 26 shown in FIG.
The language used by the customer may be specified based on the customer information in the storage device 26.

As the corresponding language determination table 5 stored in advance in the storage unit 4 of the multilingual response device 1, for example, a table set as shown in Table 1 below is used.

[0034]

[Table 1]

Since the multilingual response apparatus 1 is of a manned operator system in which the line is switched to a plurality of operators 7a to 7c (see FIG. 1) which are always on standby, the corresponding language shown in Table 1 is used. In the determination table 5, for each of the plurality of operators A to E, the operators A to E
Are associated with each other, such as Japanese, English, Spanish, and Chinese. Specifically, in the example of Table 1, the operator A can use Japanese, English, and Chinese, the operators B and C can use Japanese and Spanish, The operator D can use English, Spanish, and Chinese, and the operator E can use Japanese and English.

Further, in the corresponding language determination table 5 of the multilingual response apparatus 1, based on the information of the line switching status from the line switching unit 6 described later, the availability status of each of the operators A to E is kept for a certain period of time (for example, The update is recorded every second), or the line switching status information of the corresponding language determination table 5 is updated and recorded each time a communication request is received from each terminal 2. In the example of Table 1,
Operators B and C are on call, and operators A, D,
E is waiting.

The line switching unit 6 of the multilingual response device 1 is a so-called telephone exchange, and the above-described language determination table 5
Automatically switches the lines to the operators 7a to 7c corresponding to the working language recognized by the request language recognition unit 3 based on the request language, and stores information on the line switching status of the switched connection in a predetermined internal memory. After storing the information, the line switching status information is output to the corresponding language determination table 5 at a predetermined timing, and the data on the availability status of each of the operators A to E in the corresponding language determination table 5 is updated and recorded. I have. Here, the timing of outputting the line switching status information from the line switching unit 6 to the corresponding language determination table 5 is such that a predetermined clock signal is counted to output the information at regular intervals (for example, every three seconds). Alternatively, each time a request for communication is received from each terminal 2, the communication request may be output to the corresponding language determination table 5.

<Operation> The operation of the multilingual response device 1 having the above configuration will be described. Here, as an operation example, a case where the priority is set higher in the order of the setting information reference unit 11, the voice language determination unit 12, the desired language identification unit 13, the customer address determination unit 14, and the terminal position identification unit 15 will be described. I decided to.

First, as shown in FIG. 7, when there is a request from the terminal 2 to request communication, the requested language recognition unit 3
The language used by the customer of the terminal 2 is specified.

In the requested language recognizing unit 3 of the multilingual responding apparatus 1, first, the setting information reference unit 11 attempts to specify a language in accordance with the above-mentioned priorities (see FIG. 2).

In the setting information reference section 11, each terminal 2
When a communication request is received from the terminal 2, the setting information reference unit 11 refers to setting information stored in advance in a predetermined storage device (not shown) in each terminal 2 in response to the request, and from among the setting information, The language used in each terminal 2 is recognized. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, when the terminal 2 requesting the communication is the personal computer 2a, the setting information reference unit 11 determines the fact based on the signal from the personal computer 2a, The reference unit 11 stores O stored in a hard disk drive (HDD) as a storage device of the personal computer 2a.
The language used by the customer is specified by referring to S or the language environment (language code) of the Internet browser. Alternatively, if the terminal 2 that has requested the communication is the mobile phone 2b with the display panel 2c, the setting information reference unit 11 determines the fact based on the signal from the mobile phone 2b, and then performs this setting. The language is specified by referring to the language environment set in the mobile phone by the information reference unit 11.

However, if the setting information reference unit 11 fails to specify the language, the next speech language determination unit 1
2. Attempt language identification.

In the voice language determination unit 12, each terminal 2
When the speech information is given from the user, the speech information is speech-recognized by the speech recognition unit 21, and the information after the speech recognition by the speech recognition unit 21 is language-matched by the language matching unit 22 to specify the language to be used. I do. For example, the terminal 2 that has requested communication is a wired communication type analog voice telephone,
If the device is a device that handles voice information such as a wireless communication type mobile phone, an analog or digital video phone, or a VoIP (Voice Over IP) device, after the voice language determination unit 12 determines that, Referring to FIG. 4, the speech recognition unit 21 compares and compares vocabularies used in speech (conversation) (speech pattern matching) with reference to several speech element dictionary databases 21a to 21c for each language stored in advance. The language matching unit 22 calculates the probability (matching hit rate) of a vocabulary that matches as a result of the matching, and determines that the language of the phoneme segment dictionary database having the high matching hit rate is the language used by the customer. I do.

Here, in the voice recognition section 21, if the voice data supplied from the outside is analog voice data handled by a normal telephone, as shown in FIG. After receiving the audio data,
After using a predetermined device such as a personal computer 21e to digitize analog voice data into digital voice data, the voice recognition unit 21 of the multilingual response device 1 may perform voice recognition.

However, if the speech language determination unit 12 fails to specify the language, the next desired language identification unit 1
3. Attempt to specify the language.

The desired language identification unit 13 generates voice guidance for the customer on the guidance unit 23 terminal 2 side, and performs the operation performed by the customer on the terminal 2 according to the voice guidance on the guidance unit 23. At this point, the operation identification unit 24 recognizes the operation based on the transmitted signal,
The language used by the customer is identified accordingly.

However, if the desired language identification unit 13 fails to specify the language, the next customer address determination unit 1
4. Attempt language identification.

In the customer address judging section 14, each terminal 2
In response to the request for communication from the customer, the customer address determination unit 14 responds to the request by a terminal such as a postal code, telephone number, or address information stored in a predetermined storage device (not shown) in each terminal 2 in advance. With reference to the information indicating the location attribute of the device 2,
A language corresponding to the location attribute of the terminal 2 is selected with reference to a selection table (not shown) in a predetermined storage device.

However, if the customer address judging unit 14 fails to specify the language, the next terminal location specifying unit 1
In step 5, language identification is performed.

In the terminal position specifying unit 15, as shown in FIG. 5, the terminal 2 used is a position specifying device 2 capable of obtaining a position specifying signal used in a GPS signal from a GPS satellite.
5 (for example, a car navigation device) or the terminal 2 itself is a PHS (Personal H
terminal 2 such as andy Phone System (simple mobile phone)
In the case of a device that can obtain a position specifying signal due to the unique characteristics of GPS, GPS signals from these GPS satellites and PHS
Based on the position identification signal such as the above, the latitude and longitude where each terminal 2 is located are recognized, and the main language used in the country where the terminal 2 is located is identified as the language used by the customer based on this. For example, in FIG. 5, when the terminal 2 is located in Australia, the position specifying device 25 recognizes the latitude and longitude where the terminal 2 is located,
On the basis of this, the terminal location specifying unit 15 receives information indicating that the country where the terminal 2 is located in Australia as a signal from the terminal 2 from the terminal 2 to the multilingual response device 1, To identify the customer's language.

In some cases, however, it may not be possible to finally specify the language used by the customer despite the fact that all the elements 11 to 15 are used to specify the language. Specify the language (for example, English or Japanese).

After the requested language recognizing unit 3 specifies the language used by the customer in this manner, based on the corresponding language determination table 5 (see Table 1) stored in a predetermined storage unit 4 in advance, The operator A to E corresponding to the language recognized by the language recognition unit 3 is selected. In this case, referring to the data on the availability of each of the operators A to E in the corresponding language determination table 5, only the waiting operator D is selected. For example, in the setting of Table 1, when the request language recognition unit 3 specifies Spanish as the language used by the customer at the time of receiving the communication request from the customer, it is possible to use Spanish and to wait. Operator D is selected. However, as a result of the selection in Table 1, if there are a plurality of corresponding operators A to E, any one of them may be selected based on a certain standard. For example, although not shown in Table 1, priorities are assigned to the operators A to E for each language, and the operator A to E that is on standby selects the one with the higher priority for that language. What should I do?

Thereafter, one of the operators 7a selected in the corresponding language determination table 5 by the line switching unit 6
7c is automatically switched. As a result, the line can be efficiently switched to the operator who can correspond to the language used by the customer, and it is not necessary to dedicate a reception receptionist who can correspond to all languages in advance, which requires human resource selection and operation efficiency. The burden can be reduced.

Second Embodiment <Construction> FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a multilingual response device 1 according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 8, the same reference numerals are given to elements having the same functions as those in the first embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 8, the multilingual response apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, when distributing various contents requested by the customer on the terminal 2 side from the unattended type content storage device 31, The content (edited material) is delivered in a state where the language of the content (edited material) matches the language used by the customer on the side.

Here, a plurality of contents including character information in a plurality of languages are prepared in the database 32 in the content storage device 31 in advance, and the contents in the language corresponding to the language used by the customer exist in the database 32. In this case, the content in the language corresponding to the language used is selected and distributed. If the content in the language corresponding to the language used by the customer does not exist in the database 32, any of the languages (for example, The character information in the English (English) content is translated by a predetermined translator 33, and the content including the translated character information is distributed.

Here, the character information in the content is stored and prepared in the database 32 as, for example, text data or HTML format data.

The required language recognition unit 3 of the multilingual response device 1 used in this embodiment is the same as that in the first embodiment shown in FIG. Since the details of the requested language recognition unit 3 are as described in the first embodiment, a detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

Further, after translating the character information in the content, the translator 33 checks the word models while referring to a predetermined translation dictionary database (not shown), and calculates the degree of coincidence between the two. After selecting a word having a high degree of matching and recognizing the word, translating the language into the language recognized by the request language recognizing unit 3 while referring to the translation dictionary database, and then including this in the data in the content, To the machine 2.

Here, a content in an appropriate language is selected in the database 32 of the content storage device 31,
Alternatively, when there is no content in an appropriate language in the database 32, the operation of selecting the content translated by the translator 33 is all performed by the control unit 34 of the multilingual response device 1.
Is executed by

The requested language recognition unit 3, translator 33, and control unit 34 are all functional components that operate according to a predetermined software program in a general CPU to which a ROM, a RAM, and the like are connected.

In this embodiment, contents appropriately corresponding to the language used by each customer can be efficiently delivered to each customer, and the reception reception staff capable of handling all languages can be allocated in advance as compared to a case where dedicated staff members are assigned in advance. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the burden on human resource selection and operation efficiency.

[Modification] In each of the above-described embodiments, the request language recognizing unit 3 includes the setting information reference unit 11, the voice language determining unit 12, the desired language identifying unit 13, the customer address determining unit 14, and the terminal position specifying unit. Although the configuration is such that all 15 are provided, it may be configured by one or some combination of them.

In the above-described embodiment, the setting information reference unit 11, the voice language determination unit 12, the desired language identification unit 13, and the customer address determination are used as priorities of the elements 11 to 15 in the request language recognition unit 3. Although the priority order is determined in the order of the unit 14 and the terminal location specifying unit 15, the present invention is not limited to this.

[0065]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a corresponding language determination table that defines correspondence between a plurality of operators and usable languages is stored in a predetermined storage unit, and is stored in a terminal. The language to be used is recognized by the request language recognition unit, and the line switching unit selects an operator corresponding to the language recognized by the request language recognition unit according to the correspondence of the corresponding language determination table in the storage unit and performs communication. Since the line connection is switched, there is no need to assign a receptionist who is familiar with all languages, so there is no need to place a heavy burden on personnel selection and operation efficiency for it, and at the same time, to various customers Language problems can easily be resolved.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, data on the availability indicating whether each operator is on standby is updated and recorded in the corresponding language determination table at a predetermined timing. In this case, only the operator whose waiting status data in the corresponding language determination table is in a standby state is selected, so that an attempt to connect to the corresponding operator can be prevented, and efficient connection switching can be performed. be able to.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the language used in the terminal is recognized by the request language recognition unit, and the content corresponding to the language recognized by the request language recognition unit is transmitted to the content by the control unit. Since a plurality of contents in the storage device are selected and distributed to the terminal device, it is possible to eliminate the trouble of, for example, selecting a content after a professional person determines the language used by the customer, and therefore, This will not place a great burden on human resource selection and management efficiency, and will allow efficient distribution of content according to the language used by various customers.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the control unit detects whether or not there is a content in the language recognized by the request language recognition unit among a plurality of contents in the content storage device. If the result is affirmative, the content of the language is selected, while if the detection result is negative, the content of the language translated by the translator is selected, and the selected content is transmitted to the terminal. Since the content is distributed, even if there is no content prepared in advance that corresponds to the language of the customer, it is easy to generate and distribute the content corresponding to the language of the customer. Becomes possible.

Here, as a method for the request language recognizing section to recognize the language used by the customer, the setting information reference section refers to the setting information relating to the language used in each terminal set in advance by the setting information reference section. In such a case, the language used in each of the terminals is referred to and determined.
8. The request language recognizing unit according to claim 7, wherein a voice language judging unit of the request language recognizing unit recognizes the voice information given from each terminal by voice and performs language matching to specify a language to be used. The preferred language identification unit provides guidance on the operation to the operator operating each terminal while identifying the desired language of the operator based on the selection input by the operation of the operator. As shown in 8, the language used in each terminal is determined by recognizing address information preset in each terminal or inside the multilingual response device itself by the customer address determination unit of the request language recognition unit. Or as in claim 9
When the terminal location information where the terminal exists can be obtained in each terminal, the language used in each terminal is determined based on the terminal location information, so that the language used by the customer can be easily changed. It becomes possible to recognize.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram showing a multilingual response device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a required language recognition unit of the multilingual response device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a terminal and a multilingual response device are performing communication;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a speech language determination unit specifies a language used by a customer by speech recognition.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a state where a terminal position specifying unit specifies a position of a terminal.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state where customer information is recorded in a predetermined storage device.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a state where a connection is made to an operator through a multilingual response device.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a multilingual response device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Multilingual response device 2 Terminal 3 Request language recognition part 4 Storage part 5 Correspondence language judgment table 6 Line switching part 7a-7c, A-E operator 11 Setting information reference part 12 Speech language judgment part 13 Desired language identification part 14 Customer Address determination unit 15 Terminal location identification unit 21 Voice recognition unit 22 Language matching unit 23 Guidance unit 24 Operation identification unit 25 Location identification device 31 Content storage device 32 Database 33 Translator 34 Control unit

Continued on the front page F-term (reference) 5C064 BA01 BB10 BC14 BD01 BD09 5D015 AA02 AA05 BB02 KK01 5K015 AA00 AA06 AA07 AB00 AF02 AF05 AF08 GA00 GA07 5K024 AA02 AA71 AA76 BB00 BB01 BB02 BB04 CC01 CC09 GG01 DD01 GG10 9A001 DD15 HH17 JJ25 JJ72

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A method according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of terminals for which a language to be used is not specified are selected from among lines previously associated with a plurality of operators waiting in advance according to the language used in each terminal. A multi-language response device for selecting a connection and switching connection of a line for communication, comprising: a request language recognition unit for recognizing a language used in the terminal; and a line previously associated with a plurality of operators. A predetermined storage unit storing a corresponding language determination table defining correspondence with possible languages; and a language corresponding to the language recognized by the request language recognition unit in accordance with the correspondence of the corresponding language determination table in the storage unit. A line switching unit for selecting a line previously associated with an operator to perform connection switching of a line related to communication. 2. The multilingual response device according to claim 1, wherein the corresponding language determination table stores data on a vacancy status indicating whether a line previously associated with each operator is on standby. The line switching unit is configured to update and record at a predetermined timing, and the line switching unit is configured to select only a line previously associated with an operator whose data on the availability in the corresponding language determination table is on standby. Multilingual reception device. 3. When a content corresponding to various languages is stored in a predetermined content storage device, a plurality of terminals whose language to be used is not specified are transmitted from the content storage device to each terminal. A multi-language response device that adjusts to deliver content corresponding to a language used in a terminal, a request language recognizing unit that recognizes a language used in the terminal, and a language recognized by the request language recognizing unit. And a controller for selecting a content corresponding to the content from a plurality of contents in the content storage device and delivering the selected content to the terminal. 4. The multilingual response device according to claim 3, further comprising: a translator for translating a content in a specific language in the content storage device into a language recognized by the request language recognition unit. The control unit detects whether or not there is content in the language recognized by the request language recognition unit among a plurality of contents in the content storage device. If the detection result is positive, the control unit determines the language. If the detection result is negative while selecting the content of the multilingual response, the content of the language translated by the translator is selected, and the selected content is distributed to the terminal. apparatus. 5. The multilingual response device according to claim 1, wherein the request language recognizing unit refers to setting information about a language used in each of the terminals. A multi-language response device including at least a setting information reference unit for referring to and determining a language used in each terminal. 6. The multilingual response device according to claim 1, wherein the request language recognition unit is configured to, when given voice information from each of the terminals, transmit the voice information. A multilingual response device including at least a voice language determination unit that specifies a language to be used by performing voice recognition and language matching. 7. The multilingual response device according to claim 1, wherein the request language recognition unit provides guidance regarding operation to an operator who operates each of the terminals. And a multilingual response device including at least a desired language identification unit for identifying a language desired by the operator based on a selection input by an operation of the operator. 8. The multilingual response device according to claim 1, wherein the requested language recognition unit is preset in each of the terminals or in the multilingual response device itself. A multilingual response device including at least an address determination unit that determines a language used in each of the terminals by recognizing customer address information. 9. The multilingual response device according to claim 1, wherein the request language recognition unit obtains information on a terminal location where the terminal exists in each of the terminals. A multilingual response device including at least a terminal location specifying unit that determines a language used in each terminal based on the terminal location information.