KR980013219A - Method and apparatus for voice mail service in voicemail service through communication network - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a voicemail service for verifying a voice message recorded at a desired time by a service user after recording a matter to be transmitted to a service user by a third party through a public communication network or a matter to be memorized by a service user, In the case of selectively confirming recorded contents, if only a voice word (or a syllable) included in the content of the memo message is input as a voice through a terminal or the like, the characteristics of the inputted voice word are compared with the characteristics of the recorded voice message The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for a voice mail service in a voice mail service through a communication network, which enables quick and easy retrieval and confirmation of a desired voice by outputting voice messages with a word A network connection unit connected to a communication network; A signal conversion unit for converting voice from the network connection unit into digital data and converting the digital data into analog voice; A first speech signal processing unit for performing a signal processing such as removing a dormant section and normalizing a sound pressure to extract digital speech data; A storage device for storing a voice message of a user converted into a digital; A second audio signal processor for performing a signal process on a voice message stored in the storage device and extracting the feature; And comparing the characteristics of the voice data extracted by the first voice signal processor and the second voice signal processor to determine the identity of both data. And a controller for outputting or storing the voice message according to the determination or for comparing the voice message stored in the storage device with the next voice message.

Description

Method and apparatus for voice mail service in voicemail service through communication network

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a voice mail service method and apparatus for voice mail service in a voice mail service through a communication network, and more particularly, (Or syllables) included in the recorded message contents when the service user wishes to selectively check the recorded contents, the voice mail service for confirming the recorded voice message at a desired time of the service user, Only the terminal can voice-input the characteristics of the inputted voice word and compare the characteristics of the recorded voice message with the characteristics of the recorded voice message, thereby outputting the recorded messages having the matching word. Thus, the desired recording contents can be quickly and easily retrieved and confirmed , Voice mail service through the network It relates to a method of voice service handbook Come and apparatus.

The voicemail mailbox means that if a user of the mailbox records the necessary information directly by telephone or records voice to be transmitted by the other person who has contents to be delivered to the mailbox user, the mailbox user can access the mailbox service providing device A user of the mailbox in the conventional voice mail service providing apparatus and method, voice memorizes necessary information, and then, after voice mail, In order to selectively check the memorized contents, a series of messages recorded using DTMF (Dual Tone Multi-Ferquency) tone of a telephone set or the like according to a guidance message presented by the mailbox device by accessing the voice mailbox device by using a telephone or the like Selecting a few menus based on number or recording time And as a result, the desired voice message memorized by the user is searched and listened, thereby providing the voice memo service.

However, in the conventional voice mail service method and apparatus, a series of selection processes are required to listen to a desired voice message. Accordingly, not only a long search time is required but also a necessary memo item In the case where the number of voice messages to be searched for is large, the selection step is further increased, and accordingly, the time required for the search And the service of the practical voice book becomes impossible. In order to improve the retrieval speed in the case of a large number of voice messages, it is necessary to limit the number of voice messages to be retrieved to a mailbox user It is possible to assign a serial number or the like to a group according to the contents of a voice message at the time of recording so that the desired voice memo can be accessed using the corresponding number at the time of searching, It is not only troublesome but also the classification may be duplicated or confused according to the memory of the mailbox user. In this case, the access to the desired voice message becomes more difficult.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to eliminate the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a speech recognition system and a speech recognition method, Another object of the present invention is to provide a voice mail service method in a voice mail service through a communication network, which allows a user to selectively check the contents of voice mail, Another object of the present invention is to provide a voice memo service method through a communication network capable of statistically reducing the time required for voice communication, and it is also possible to perform a phased search without error when the voice of the user changes to an external factor or a physical factor A method of service of a voice memo via a communication network Another object of the present invention is to provide a voice book service method through a communication network that does not perform unnecessary re-searching by providing a highly probable search result in case the voice of the user changes to an external factor or a physical factor .

Another object of the present invention is to provide a voice memo management system and a voice memo management system, which are capable of quickly and easily searching for desired voice messages using voice words by eliminating selection steps at the time of retrieval, To provide a voice mail service device in a voice mail service through a communication network,

It is another object of the present invention to provide a voice messenger service device via a communication network which can further shorten the search time of a voice message by excluding a feature extraction process of a voice signal with respect to a voice message stored at the time of searching,

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a voice recognition service device through a communication network which can statistically reduce a time required for a user to listen to a desired voice message.

1 is a conceptual diagram showing a path through which a mailbox user accesses the present apparatus through a communication network,

2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a voice mail service device via a communication network according to the present invention,

3 is a block diagram of another embodiment of a voice mail service device via a communication network according to the present invention,

4 is a general control flowchart of a voice mail service apparatus through a communication network according to the present invention,

5 is a detailed control flowchart for searching a voice word input by the user.

DESCRIPTION OF THE REFERENCE NUMERALS

10: User communication terminal (mobile phone) 20 ₁ -20n:

20 _u , 20 _{12 ..-} 20 _{N 1} , 20 _{N 2 ...} : base station 30:

100: control unit 110: network connection unit

120: signal conversion unit 121: digital / analog converter

122: analog / digital converter 130: first audio signal processor

131: first preprocessing unit 132: first speech feature extraction unit

140: memory device 141: voice feature memory device

150: second audio signal processor 151: second pre-

152: second voice feature extracting unit 160: voice feature comparison.

161: Speech feature comparing unit 162:

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a voice mail service method in a voice mail service through a communication network, the voice mail service method comprising: a voice digital conversion step of sampling voice of a user input through a public switching network and converting the sampled voice into digital data; A voice preprocessing step of compressing and normalizing the digital voice data; Extracting speech parameters of the preprocessed speech data; A voice message retrieving step of sequentially reading voice messages pre-stored in a predetermined area and comparing the data (A) of a predetermined section of the read message with the extracted input data (B) to determine the identity of the two data; And outputting a message containing the compared interval data A as a voice if there is a match between the two data. If there is no message in which the two data are identical, A voice message search step of determining the identity of the two data among the voice mail service methods through the communication network according to the present invention, And temporarily storing all the previously stored voice messages in the predetermined area, if the similarity with the extracted input data exceeds the set reference value and the message of the same identity is determined, The step of outputting a message includes the steps of: And a step of outputting voice data in order from the latest recorded date to the recorded voice data. In the voice mail service method through the communication network according to the present invention, A waiting step of waiting for a user input after asking whether to try to search again by mitigating a set reference value used as a reference of the identity; And returning to the voice message retrieval step when the re-retrieval attempt command is input from the user. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of: And terminating the service. In addition, the guidance / standby step notifies the user that there is no matching message, and transmits a message having the highest similarity to the input voice data as voice Outputting; And a waiting step of waiting for the next command of the user.

In addition, the voice mail service device in the voice mailbox service through the communication network according to the present invention includes: network connection means for transmitting and receiving voice signals and signals to and from a public switched telephone network; Analog / digital converting means for converting a voice signal input from the network connecting means into digital; and digital / analog converting means for converting the voice signal inputted from the network connecting means into an analog signal for outputting voice through the network connecting means; First speech signal processing means for compressing and normalizing the voice message converted into digital in the analog / digital conversion means and extracting voice parameters; Storage means for storing a digital voice message from the analog / digital conversion means; Second voice signal processing means for compressing and normalizing the specific voice message stored in the storage means and extracting voice variables; Voice characteristic comparison / determination means for comparing features of the voice message from the first and second voice signal processing means and determining whether or not they are identical; And control means for receiving a determination value from the voice feature comparison / determination means and reading out a specific voice message stored in the storage means and outputting it to the digital / analog conversion means or the second voice signal processing means; The voice mail service apparatus according to the present invention is characterized by comprising: the network connection means; The analog / digital conversion means and the digital / analog conversion means; A first audio signal processing means; And voice characteristic storage means for storing the characteristics of the voice message extracted from the first voice signal processing means and the index value of the voice message together with the storage means; Voice characteristic comparison / judgment means for comparing the characteristics of the voice message from the first voice signal processing means with the characteristics of the specific voice message from the voice characteristic storage means and judging whether or not they are identical; And a determination unit that receives a determination value from the voice feature comparison / determination unit, reads a specific voice message stored in the storage unit, and outputs the voice message to the digital / analog conversion unit or reads the voice feature from the voice feature storage unit, And a control means for outputting the voice recognition information to the feature comparison / determination means. The voice recognition service device through the communication network according to the present invention is characterized by comprising: And a temporary message storing means for temporarily storing the data, wherein when the control means has retrieved all of the voice messages stored in the storing means, the control means reads the contents stored in the temporary message storing means, The recorded date is the latest digital / It will have a second output which is characterized in that the conversion means.

In the voice mail service method in the voice mailbox service through the communication network as described above and the voice mail service apparatus in which the method is implemented, a user who wants to use the function of the voice mail handler first sees the voice mail through the terminal The contents to be memorized are recorded without special index or classification, and this message is stored in the memory means as digital data through the analog / digital conversion means. In the case of searching only a specific message among a plurality of stored messages, the user inputs a voice word that is a keyword of the search in a specific menu state provided by the present apparatus. This voice word is compressed by the first voice signal processing means (such as a pause section is removed), normalized and then the voice characteristic is extracted. In the voice characteristic comparison / determination means, the voice word is read from the storage means, The extracted speech words are compared with the features. If there is a section in the voice message that has a high similarity and exceeds a preset reference value, it is determined that the comparison data is identical between two comparison data, and the voice message including the section is outputted through the digital / analog conversion means, To output all the messages temporarily stored after the retrieval of all the messages. If a message exceeding the preset reference value does not exist in the storage means, the voice message having the highest similarity is output after outputting the recorded voice message, or the voice message having the highest similarity is reset or the reference value is reset and a new search is performed do.

In addition, in order to eliminate the burden of signal processing on the stored voice message at the time of retrieval, the voice characteristic is extracted at the time of recording the user's message, and the voice characteristic storage means stores the voice characteristic data together with the data that can index the message, And the voice characteristic comparison / determination means directly compares and judges the voice characteristic.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an operation of a voice mail service method and a device for implementing the method in a voice mail service through a communication network according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 shows an example of a path through which a mailbox user connects to the present apparatus through a communication network. A user connects to the exchange 201 using the mobile phone 10 within a specific base station 2011, 201 analyzes the call request number input by the user and transmits a call establishment signal to the call destination station 20N and the call reception station 20N performs a call confirmation operation with the present device 30 and then calls the call requested by the user . When the call is established, the user can use the voice mail service according to the present invention in addition to the conventional voice mail service using the present apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a voice mail service apparatus in a voice mail service through a communication network according to the present invention, which includes: a network connection port 110 connected to a communication network; An analog / digital converter 122 for converting voice from the network connection unit 110 into digital data, and a digital / analog converter 121 for converting digital data into analog voice and outputting the analog voice to the network connection unit 110. [ (120); A first preprocessing unit 131 for performing signal processing such as normalization of the sound pressure by removing a dormant section from the digital data from the analog / digital conversion unit 122, A first speech signal processor 130 comprising a first feature extractor 132 for extracting features; A storage device 140 for storing a voice message of a user converted into a digital signal; A second preprocessing unit 151 for performing a signal process such as the first preprocessing unit 131 on the voice message stored in the storage unit 140 and a second feature extraction unit 152 for extracting the feature A second audio signal processor 150; A voice feature comparison unit 161 for comparing features of the voice data extracted by the first voice signal processor 130 and the second voice signal processor 150, And a speech characteristic comparison / determination unit 160 comprising a speech recognition unit 162 and a speech recognition unit 162. And a control unit (100) for outputting or storing the voice message according to the determination, or for comparing the voice message stored in the storage unit (140).

3 is a block diagram of another embodiment of a voice mail service apparatus in a voice mail service through a communication network according to the present invention, which is almost the same as the configuration of the embodiment of FIG. 2, A voice feature storage device 141 is further constructed in which the second voice signal processor 150 for performing voice signal processing on a message is removed and voice signal processing is performed in advance at the time of recording to store the voice feature value This is different.

The general control flow of the apparatus configured as shown in FIG. 2 is as shown in FIG. 4, and the searching step S43 of FIG. 4 is performed according to the detailed procedure as shown in FIG. Hereinafter, the operation of the present apparatus will be described in detail with reference to the control flow of FIG. 4 and FIG.

The control unit 100 recognizes this fact through the network connection unit 110 and the control unit 100 controls the storage unit 140 so that the control unit 100 recognizes this fact through the network connection unit 110. [ (S12), and waits for a response from the user (S20). The service-selection-guidance message is stored in the service-waiting state (S20). The above-mentioned whole service selection guidance message may be the following voice guidance.

"Please press the number of the desired service among the following services:

Listen to mailbox 2,

3 Fax transmission, ..................

6 voice memo record,

Search for 7th voice notebook "

When the user selects 'Record voice note' in the above service (S21), the control unit 100 outputs a recording guidance message again (S22) and waits for a voice message input from the user (S30) . When a voice message is input from the user (S31), the voice message is converted to digital in the analog / digital converter 122 and stored in the storage device 140 under the control of the control unit 100. (S32) At this time, And the time of day is also stored. When one voice message is recorded from the user, the entire service guidance message is output again (S12) and the service standby state (S20) is established. If the user selects 'search for a handbook' in the service waiting state (S20) (S23), the control unit 100 outputs a guide message for inputting a word to be searched (S24) do. In this state, if the user inputs a search word (S41), the voice characteristic of the search word is extracted by the first preprocessing unit 131 and the second feature extraction unit 132 (S42) The control unit 100 inquires of the user whether to perform a new search (S44). Then, the controller 100 determines whether a new search standby state (S44) S50). In this state, if the user selects a new search (S51), a guidance message is output as described above (S24)

5, the control unit 100 reads the first voice message from the storage device 140 (S43-1), and transmits the first voice message to the second preprocessing unit 151 The second preprocessing unit 151 removes the idle period from the read voice message and normalizes the sound pressure, and then inputs the processed voice message to the second feature extracting unit 152. The second feature extracting unit 152 extracts a voice feature such as a voice pattern from the input voice message at step S43-2 and inputs the voice feature to the voice feature comparing unit 161. The voice feature comparing unit 161 The similarity of both feature values is calculated within the interval by comparing the features of the previously input search word with the features of the speech message. If the value proportional to the similarity is transmitted to the determination section 162, the determination section 162 compares the similarity value with a predetermined reference value to determine whether or not the voice message is the same (S43-3 ). If it is determined that the voice message is not identical, the control unit 100 reads the voice message of the next order from the storage device 140 (S43-15) and inputs the voice message to the second preprocessing unit 151 The above comparison and determination are repeatedly performed. If the compared data are identical, the corresponding voice message is stored in a predetermined area (S43-4), and it is determined whether or not the voice message determined immediately before is the last message stored in the storage device 140. (S43-5 ) Instead of storing the same voice message, the storing process S43-4 may store the index data that can index the voice message in the storage device 140 instead. If it is not the last voice message, the next message is likewise read (S43-15), and the feature extraction (S43-2) of the read message and the comparison are made (S43-3)

If the voice message read immediately before is the last message, it is determined whether there is a voice message of the same identity stored in the predetermined area (S43-6). If there is a voice message of the same identity, And outputs the voice to the user through the converter 121. (S43-7)

For example, if the voicebook user inputs the word 'Hong Sung' as a search word, the following voice message already recorded in the dictionary will be delivered to the user in step S43-7.

"Hong Sung-woo Korea Mobile Communications 3461-0000"

"Lee Hong Sung 1234-5678"

"Kim Seo-gap Hong Sung Computer 012-111-1111 Diskette 5,000 won first bank transfer by morning tomorrow"

"The promise to climb 6 o'clock this Sunday at the entrance of Seoul National University ..."

Preferably, the output order is output from the latest contents based on the date and time at which the voice message was recorded in order to statistically reduce the listening time of the user.

After the contents of the search are delivered to the user, the user is inquired of whether to perform a new search (S44) and a new search waiting state (S50).

If it is determined in step S43-6 that there is no voice message of the same name, the control unit 100 outputs a message indicating that there is no voice message including the search word (S43-8) (S43-9) This step (S43-9) is necessary in order to make the contents of the memoed voice memo searchable even when the user's voice is changed. In addition, for the case where the voice of the user is changed as described above, the voice message having the highest similarity is also output together with the voice message having the similarity by using the similarity value of the voice message obtained in the search process of the voice feature comparison / (S43-8 '), it is possible to statistically reduce the case where the user has to rediscover the same voice word. When the user selects 'reference value circularization' (S43-11) in the state of waiting for the user to decide whether to re-search the reference value, the control unit 100 determines whether the reference value (S43-14), the first voice message is read from the storage device 140 (S43-1), and the above search is performed again. If the user does not select the relaxation of the reference value (S43-12), the user is prompted to inquire whether to perform a new search (S44) and a new search waiting state (S50) is reached.

In the above control flow, if the user hangs up the call in all the waiting states (S20, S30, S40, S50, S43-10) except for the connection waiting state S10 (S25, S33, S45, S52, 43-13 ), And the control unit 100 switches to the dial-up standby state (S10) of the user.

As shown in FIG. 3, when the user records a voice message to be recorded, the control unit 100 extracts the voice feature from the first voice signal processor 130, The index values for correlating the voice messages are stored together in the voice feature storage unit 141 and the feature values are read from the voice feature storage unit 141 when compared with the input search words, And the characteristic comparison unit 161 compares them. When the control unit 100 outputs the corresponding voice message from the comparison result, it reads from the storage device 140 using the index value, and outputs it through the digital-to-analog converter 121. In this case, the control flow further includes a voice feature extraction step and a step of storing the extracted features before or after the message recording step S32 in FIG. 4, and in the message reading step S43-1 in FIG. 5, The next reading step S43-15 is replaced with the next voice characteristic reading step, the feature extracting step S43-2 is eliminated, and the remaining control flow becomes the same as the control flow of the configuration of Fig. 2 .

It is also possible to apply the voice recognition technology to the voice recognition service method and apparatus according to the present invention and to transmit the contents retrieved by the above operation and procedure by fax or e-mail according to the needs of the user.

The voice mail service method and apparatus according to the present invention functioning as described above are convenient because it is possible to replace the function of a notebook with a mobile phone or the like without carrying a separate paper notebook or an electronic notebook, Is a very convenient invention that can easily and simply listen to a desired voice message in a short time and because it is not a top-down method by a menu, it does not have a large effect on the time used for searching, It is a very useful invention that can accommodate the voice message of the user as much as the memory space allows without a search procedure being added.

Claims (9)

A voice digital conversion step of sampling a user's voice inputted through a public switching network and converting the sampled voice into digital data; A voice preprocessing step of compressing and normalizing the digital voice data; Extracting speech parameters of the preprocessed speech data; A voice message retrieving step of sequentially reading voice messages pre-stored in a predetermined area and comparing the data (A) of a predetermined section of the read message with the extracted input data (B) to determine the identity of the two data; And outputting a message containing the compared interval data A as a voice if there is a match between the two data. If there is no message in which the two data are identical, And a guidance and waiting step of waiting for a command of a user by guiding the user to a voice mail service in a voice mail service through a communication network. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of searching for a voice message to determine the identity of the two pieces of data comprises sequentially reading and comparing all the voice messages previously stored in a predetermined area and comparing the similarity with the extracted input data, And temporarily storing the message when it is determined that the voice message is a voice message, the step of outputting a message in the presence of the identity comprises: The method of claim 1, wherein the voice mail service is a voice mail service. The method of claim 1, wherein the voice message retrieving step comprises the steps of: (3-1) reading a digital voice message stored in a predetermined area; (3-2) a speech preprocessing step of compressing and normalizing the digital voice message; (3-3) extracting speech parameters of the preprocessed speech message; (3-4) comparing and comparing the selected section and the extracted input data while selecting the message in which the feature is extracted by a predetermined section, and determining the identity; And (3 - 5) reading out another voice message stored in a predetermined area and returning to the voice preprocessing step (3 - 2) if there is no section judged to have the same identity. Method of voice note service in a mailbox service. The method according to claim 1, 2, or 3, wherein the guidance / standby step informs the user that there is no matching message, alleviates a set reference value used as a basis for the identity, And waiting for user input; And returning to the voice message retrieval step when the re-retrieval attempt command is input from the user. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of: And terminating the service. A voice mail service method in a voice mail service through a communication network. The method of claim 1, 2, or 3, further comprising the steps of: guiding the absence of a matching message by voice and outputting a voice having the highest similarity to the inputted voice data; And a waiting step of waiting for a next command of the user. The voice mail service method in the voice mail service through the communication network. A network connection means for transmitting and receiving signals and voice to / from a public switching network; Analog / digital converting means for converting a voice signal input from the network connecting means into digital; and digital / analog converting means for converting the voice signal inputted from the network connecting means into an analog signal for outputting voice through the network connecting means; First speech signal processing means for compressing and normalizing a voice message converted into a digital signal by the analog / digital conversion means and extracting a voice characteristic; Storage means for storing a digital voice message from the analog / digital conversion means; Second voice signal processing means for compressing and normalizing a specific message stored in the storage means and extracting voice characteristics; Voice feature comparison / determination means for comparing features of the voice message from the first and second voice signal processing means to determine whether or not they are the same; And control means for receiving a judgment value from the voice characteristic comparing / judging means and reading out a specific voice message stored in the storing means and outputting it to the digital / analog converting means or outputting it to the second voice signal processing means The voice mail service providing apparatus in the voice mail service through the communication network. 7. The apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising temporary message storing means for temporarily storing an index value of the stored voice message having the determination value and the determination value or the message itself, Means for reading the contents stored in said temporary message storing means and outputting the message to said digital / analog converting means in order from the latest one when the recorded date is the latest one; Wherein the voice mail service is provided to the voice mail service through the communication network. A network connection means for transmitting and receiving signals and voice to / from a public switching network; Analog / digital converting means for converting a voice signal input from the network connecting means into digital; and digital / analog converting means for converting the voice signal inputted from the network connecting means into an analog signal for outputting voice through the network connecting means; First speech signal processing means for compressing and normalizing the speech data converted into digital in the analog / digital conversion means and extracting speech features; Characterized by comprising: storage means for storing digital voice messages from the analog / digital conversion means; voice characteristic storage means for storing the characteristics of the voice messages extracted from the first voice signal processing means and the index values of the voice messages; A voice feature comparison / determination means for comparing features of a voice message from the first voice signal processing means with features of a specific voice message from the voice feature storage means and determining whether or not they are the same; And a determination unit that receives a determination value from the voice feature comparison / determination unit, reads a specific voice message stored in the storage unit, and outputs the voice message to the digital / analog conversion unit, or reads the voice feature from the voice feature storage unit, And outputting the comparison result to the feature comparing / judging means. The voice mail service providing apparatus in the voice mail service is a communication network. 9. The apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising temporary message storage means for temporarily storing the identity value and the index value of the stored voice message having the determination value, When the stored voice feature data is output to the voice feature comparing / judging means, the contents stored in the temporary message storing means are read out and the corresponding message is output to the digital / analog converting means in order from the latest one Wherein the voice mail service is provided to a voice mail service through a communication network. ※ Note: It is disclosed by the contents of the first application.