KR20000055248A - Method of and apparatus for providing internet services using telephone network - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method for supplying an internet service by a telephone network is provided to retrieve information on an internet with a voice by use of a phone. CONSTITUTION: A method for supplying an internet service by a telephone network comprises the steps of: setting up a call with an access number of a voice portal service; selecting an internet retrieval or transaction process according to voice information; if the internet retrieval is selected, selecting a sub item according to the voice information and inputting a key word by the voice; shifting the key word into a text and retrieving via the internet; shifting a result of the retrieving into the voice and delivering to a service requester; if the transaction is selected, selecting a sub item according to the voice information and requesting for process contents by the voice; shifting the voice into a text or delivering the request to a site corresponded to the selected sub item, in the voice, according to conditions of the site; identifying a result of either the shifting or the delivering; delivering the identified result to the requester; and intercepting the call.

Description

Method and apparatus for providing internet service using telephone network

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for providing an Internet search service, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for providing an Internet search service by voice through a wired or wireless mobile telephone.

Recently, as the use of the Internet is generalized, many users can obtain necessary information through the Internet, and various commercial transactions using the Internet are actively performed.

1 is a diagram illustrating an existing communication network for obtaining necessary information using a personal computer. Referring to FIG. 1, a communication processing device (ICPS) 120 arbitrates a public telephone network (PSTN) 110, the Internet 130, and a packet network 140, and converts different protocols to enable connection between networks. . The public telephone network 110 is a telephone communication network including a switchboard and various transmission facilities. A personal computer (PC) 100 may be connected through a modem, and telephones of many telephone subscribers are connected by wire. A plurality of content providers (CP) 132 and sites are connected to the Internet 130, and the communication processing device 120 is connected in a TCP / IP manner. A plurality of information providers (IP: 142) are connected to the packet network (PSDN) 140 and provide a data communication function, and are connected to the communication processing device 120 according to the X.25 protocol.

In such a communication network, in order to obtain information through the Internet, a user runs an Internet-related application (eg, Netscape, Explorer) of a personal computer, accesses the Internet 130, and performs a direct search using a search tool provided by various applications. Should be.

However, when retrieving information or processing various transactions through the Internet according to the conventional method, the user should have at least a computer and be familiar with computer communication and Internet search. Therefore, there is a problem that it is difficult to perform various commercial transactions using the Internet search service or the Internet when there are no general people who do not use a computer or a computer.

Accordingly, the present invention solves the above problems, and the service that can search the Internet by voice using the most widely used telephone (wired or wireless mobile) (this is called 'Voice Portal Service') It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus.

In order to achieve the above object, the method of the present invention comprises the steps of: establishing a call with a predetermined voice portal service access number; A service requester selecting an internet search or a transaction processing according to the voice guidance; Inputting a search keyword by voice after selecting a sub-item according to the voice guidance when an internet search is selected; Changing the search keyword input by voice into a text, and then searching through the Internet; Changing the searched result into a voice and delivering the contents to the service requester; If the transaction processing is selected, selecting a sub-item according to the voice guidance and requesting the processing contents by voice; Changing a voice to a text or delivering a request to the site by voice according to a condition of a site corresponding to the selected sub-item; Delivering the processing result to the service requester; And cutting the call after transmitting the search result or the processing result to the service requester.

In addition, the apparatus of the present invention for achieving the above object, when requested Internet search through a wired or wireless mobile phone is requested to search the content providers connected to the Internet to inform the search results and when the transaction processing is requested In the voice portal service system for delivering a request to the service requester after delivering the request content,

Provides a predetermined sound to the service requester, changes the voice of the service requester input through the phone into ADPCM data, converts the inputted content into the voice data in the search result text, and requests the site for a transaction processing request. Voice response means for delivering the contents; Voice recognition means for voice recognition of the data received from the voice response means and converting the recognized result into a keyword text; And an internet server for performing a search on the Internet according to the keyword provided by the voice recognition means, providing a search result to the voice response means, and requesting a call through the wireless network if necessary.

1 is a configuration diagram for accessing the Internet through a personal computer;

2 is a block diagram for searching the Internet according to the present invention;

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of providing an internet search service according to the present invention;

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for providing an Internet search service according to the present invention when real time processing is difficult.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

202: landline phone 204: wireless mobile phone

210: telephone network 220: voice portal service system

222: voice response unit 224: voice recognition unit

226: Internet server 230: Internet

240-1 ~ 240-n: Content Provider (CP) 250-1 ~ 250-m: Database

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a block diagram illustrating a voice portal service system for providing Internet search or transaction processing using a voice telephone according to the present invention. Voice portal service system 220 of the present invention, as shown in Figure 2, is composed of a voice response unit (VRU: 222), voice recognition unit (SRU: 224), the Internet server 226 is a public telephone network (PSTN: The wired telephone 202 or the wireless mobile telephone 204 may be connected through 210, connected to the Internet 230 to perform an Internet search, and connected to a wireless call network or a wireless communication network. It can be connected to each site for transaction processing. In FIG. 2, reference numerals 240-1 to 240-n denote content providers CP, and 250-1 to 250-m denote databases DB.

Referring to FIG. 2, a voice response unit (VRU) 222 is a system for providing voice information to a service requester requesting a service. The voice response unit (VRU) 222 listens to a service requester by selecting a previously recorded information selection menu. At this time, the service requester voice for the selected item is A / D converted through the DSP (Digital Signal Processing) voice board in the VRU. At this time, the A / D conversion is performed by 8KHz sampling by 8-bit u-law method, and converts the sampled data into 32-bit ADPCM data and transmits it to the SRU 224. In addition, the received text data is received from the Internet server 226 and converted into voice data (TTS: Text to Speech) to perform a function of being heard by the service requester.

The Speech Recognition Unit (SRU) 224 recognizes the data received from the VRU 222 in sentence units by an internal Speech Recognition Engine (SRE), and the database in the SRE is a communication environment (on a telephone line). It is composed of data including various characteristics of the to minimize misrecognition. When the misrecognized data is detected, the VRU 222 plays a guide sound to induce a recurrence to the service requester, and recognizes it again through the recurrence of the service requester. The recognized result is automatically converted into a keyword text and sent to the Internet server 226.

The internet server 226 receives the search keyword data received from the SRU 224 and searches for information through a search engine on the Internet. The information found on the Internet is delivered to the TTS (Text to Speech) unit in the VRU 222 through a predetermined process, and then to the service requester through the telephone network 210.

On the other hand, the VRU 222 automatically sends a call to the voice portal call center to the site when the service requester selects a service for which a transaction is desired, for example, when the caller wants to automatically forward the call to the retrieved telephone number after searching for the telephone number. Process to be routed. In the case of ticket booking and flower delivery, the site is accessed / processed in a similar manner. If the real-time processing of the data retrieved through the Internet server 226 is not smooth, it may be transmitted later to a wireless call (text) device or a short message service (SMS) of a mobile phone at the request of a service requester.

In this configuration, if any subscriber wants the service according to the present invention, he / she connects to a voice portal access number (e.g., No. 117) by a regular telephone or a mobile telephone. The connected call hears voice information to the service requester through a voice response unit (VRU) 222 provided by the voice portal center, and the service requester selects information to be searched. The selected item is transferred from the VRU 222 to a Speech Recognition Unit (SRU) 224, which is a speech recognition system, and undergoes a recognition process process of the SRU 224. The item recognized through this process is delivered to the Internet server 226, the Internet server 226 retrieves the data through the Internet 230 and then delivers the retrieved data to the VRU (222). The transmitted data is converted to voice through the Text to Speech (TTS) engine of the VRU 222, and then delivered to the subscriber. In this case, when the selected item is accompanied by a transaction (eg, ticket reservation, etc.), the VRU 222 goes to the corresponding site and a link is forwarded to generate a transaction.

Next, the operation of the present invention configured as described above will be described in detail with reference to the flows of FIGS. 3 and 4.

In order to receive the service according to the present invention, the service requester sets up a call by dialing a voice portal service access number (eg, number 117) to a wired or wireless telephone (202, 204) (301). Accordingly, the service requester's telephone is connected to the VRU 222 of the voice portal service system 220 of the present invention, and the VRU 222 is "Hello? Voice portal service. If desired, select '2' to provide a voice guidance (302). The service requester inputs a desired service number according to the guide sound (303).

When the service requester selects voice information search (ie, pressing '1'), the VRU 222 replies, "The phone number search is 1, the basic life search is 2, the local search is 3, and the shopping information. Search 4 times, Securities Information Search 5, Entertainment Information Search 6, Travel Information Search 7. Press the desired search number "provides a sound (304,305).

Subsequently, when the service requester selects a search item according to the guide sound, a guide sound of “pronounce the desired search keywords up to xx correctly” is provided, and the search keyword is pronounced as a voice (306 and 307).

Subsequently, the Internet server 226 receives voice-recognized keyword text data from the SRU 224 to execute a search on the Internet, and provides the search result as a voice to the service requester through the VRU 222 (308 and 309).

On the other hand, if the service requester selects transaction processing (i.e., presses '2') in step 303, the VRU 222 replies " 1 for various ticket reservations, 2 for flower delivery services and 3 for courier and transportation. , Schedule management is 4, taxi call is 5, food order is 6. Press the desired processing number "(310,311).

Subsequently, when the service requester selects a processing item according to the guide sound, the user may provide a guide sound of "pronounce the desired service contents correctly", and thus the service requester voices the processing requirement (312,313).

Then, the VRU 222 transfers a processing request by connecting a call to a corresponding site according to the selected detailed processing item, checks the processing result, and then transfers the processing result to the service requester (314, 315). At this time, if the commerce on the Internet, the service requester performs the desired Internet commerce through the SRU 224 and the Internet server 226, and if the reservation on the packet network, etc., the VRU 222 connects to the corresponding site of the packet network, and the Voice Mailing System ), The VRU 222 connects to the VMS system.

Subsequently, after the search or the processing result is transmitted to the service requester, the processing cost is guided, the connected call is disconnected, and the billing is processed (316).

As described above, the procedure of FIG. 3 is a case where real-time processing is possible and a service requester can obtain a result with one connection. If a time is required for searching or processing a transaction, the VRU 222 receives a call number or a phone number to be contacted through a guide sound, as shown in FIG. 4, and calls the number when the processing is completed. It can be set and delivered by text or voice of VRU.

Referring to Figure 4, if the real-time processing is difficult to inform this through a guide sound, if the service requester wants to contact, enter the call number or phone number to be contacted (401, 402). The telephone number and the call number input in this way are stored in the voice portal service system 220 (403).

Subsequently, the service requester requests a keyword or a transaction processing by selecting a desired service as shown in the procedure of FIG. The result or the processing result is notified (404, 405). In this case, a text message of a pager or a short message service (SMS) of a mobile phone (PCS) may be used to inform the result in a text or a voice message through a VMS (Voice Mailing System).

As described above, according to the present invention, ordinary people who do not have a computer or who do not use a computer can be provided with an Internet search service by using an existing telephone (wired or wireless mobile), which is very convenient and makes various reservations necessary for daily life. And services such as delivery and the like there is an effect that can easily perform commerce on the Internet.

Claims (3)

Establishing a call with a predetermined voice portal service access number; A service requester selecting an internet search or a transaction processing according to the voice guidance; Inputting a search keyword by voice after selecting a sub-item according to the voice guidance when an internet search is selected; Changing the search keyword input by voice into a text, and then searching through the Internet; Changing the searched result into a voice and delivering the contents to the service requester; If the transaction processing is selected, selecting a sub-item according to the voice guidance and requesting the processing contents by voice; Changing a voice to a text or delivering a request to the site by voice according to a condition of a site corresponding to the selected sub-item, and confirming a processing result; Delivering the processing result to a service requester; And And transmitting a search result or a processing result to a service requester, and disconnecting a call. According to claim 1, The service providing method, If the search and transaction processing takes a predetermined time or more, the Internet service using the telephone network, characterized in that the phone number or call number to be contacted to receive and store the input, and after completion of the process to call the stored number and deliver the results by text or voice How to Provide. Providing a predetermined tone to the service requester, changing the voice of the service requester inputted through the phone into ADPCM data, converting the input content into the search result text into voice data, and requesting the transaction to the site when requesting transaction processing. Voice response means for transmitting; Voice recognition means for voice recognition of the data received from the voice response means and converting the recognized result into a keyword text; And Including an Internet server for performing a search on the Internet according to the keywords provided by the voice recognition means and providing a search result to the voice response means, and if necessary transmits the processing result in a text over a wireless network; When internet search is requested through a wired or wireless mobile phone, Internet search is conducted by searching content providers connected to the Internet, and the search results are informed. When a transaction processing is requested, the Internet search is performed using a telephone network that transmits the request contents to the site. Service Provider.