DETAILED ACTION
Introduction
1. This office action is in response to Applicant’s submission filed on 5/24/2024. Claims 1-20 are pending in the application and have been examined.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
2. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statement
3. The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 5/30/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
4. Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as unpatentable over U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 20250118298 (Muntasir et al., hereinafter “Mun”) in view of U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 20220189466 (Sharifi et al., hereinafter “Sha”).
With regard to Claim 1, Mun describes:
“A system, comprising:
a [[memory]] configured to store a plurality of user profiles associated with a plurality of users and an interactive voice response (IVR) system configured to service calls with respect to the plurality of user profiles (Paragraph 20, user profile database 110); and
one or more [[processors]] (Paragraph 20, speech and audio processing unit 104) operably coupled to the memory and configured to:
receive a call from a first user of the plurality of users, wherein the call comprises a potential request to initiate an execution of one or more interactions with a first user profile associated with the first user, (Paragraph 24 describes that the user calls the IV system.) and, in response:
generate, based at least in part on the call from the first user, a first voice interaction configured to prompt the first user to perform an utterance of a second voice interaction; (Paragraph 26 describes that the system generates a response to the user request to fulfill the user request.)
detect, based at least in part on the first voice interaction, the utterance of the second voice interaction performed by the first user; (Paragraph 37 describes that the device can detect “Please speed up” as said by the user.)
in response to detecting the utterance of the second voice interaction, execute a machine-learning model trained to identify one or more speech characteristics and one or more voice characteristics of the first user and to generate a third voice interaction based at least in part on the identified one or more speech characteristics or the identified one or more voice characteristics; (Paragraph 26 describes that audio features based on the user utterances are calculated. Paragraph 37 describes that the model is invoked to change the speed of the output speech.)
dynamically adjust one or more IVR response features associated with the third voice interaction based at least in part on the identified one or more speech characteristics or the identified one or more voice characteristics; (Paragraph 37 describes that the speed can be changed based on the speech features detected. Paragraph 60 describes that the response can be modified based on language type, voice gender, voice age, voice speed, volume, tone, pronunciation for special words, break, accentuation, and intonation. These characteristics can be used to modify the speaking rate, pitch, volume, intonation, and preferred responses corresponding to the user interaction session.) and
output the third voice interaction in accordance with the dynamically adjusted one or more IVR response features. (Paragraph 37 describes that the speech with the modified speed is output.)
Mun does not explicitly describe “memory” or “processors.” However, paragraph 7 of Sha describes that an IVR system can be realized using a memory and processor.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the memory and processors as described by Sha into the invention of Mun to create the hardware system for a IVR system, as described in paragraph 7 of Sha.
With regard to Claim 2, Mun describes “the machine-learning model comprises a natural language processing (NLP) model trained or fine-tuned based on the identified one or more speech characteristics and the identified one or more voice characteristics.” Paragraph 98 describes that the model is retrained after each encounter using the audio data features of the collection of user speech audio from the corresponding user interaction session.
With regard to Claim 3, Mun describes “the one or more processors are further configured to dynamically adjust the one or more IVR response features by dynamically adjusting one or more of a silence duration, a number of voice interactions to attempt, a speech confidence level, or a timeout duration.” Paragraph 33 describes that the user timeout duration may be modified by the system.
With regard to Claim 4, Mun describes “the one or more processors are further configured to dynamically adjust the one or more IVR response features to efficiently manage a conversation flow with respect to one or more prompts or a dialogue between the IVR system and the first user.” Paragraph 20 describes that the dialogue engine 105 manages the dialogue with the user.
With regard to Claim 5, Mun describes “the one or more processors are further configured to apply the dynamically adjusted one or more IVR response features to each voice interaction subsequent to the third voice interaction.” Paragraph 37 describes that the rate change is applied to the subsequent interactions.
With regard to Claim 6, Mun describes “the identified one or more speech characteristics comprises one or more of a language, an accent, a dialect, a speech context, a speech complexity, a pause rate, a word length, a word frequency, a syntactic depth, a use of particles, a use of nouns, or a use of pronouns, and wherein the identified one or more voice characteristics comprises one or more of a tone, a pitch, a volume, a tempo, a timbre, a rate, a voice type, or a voice register.” Paragraph 60 describes that the response can be modified based on language type, voice gender, voice age, voice speed, volume, tone, pronunciation for special words, break, accentuation, and intonation. These characteristics can be used to modify the speaking rate, pitch, volume, intonation, and preferred responses corresponding to the user interaction session.
With regard to Claim 7, Mun describes “the one or more processors are further configured to utilize a centralized dialogue manager to apply the dynamically adjusted one or more IVR response features to one or more voice interaction flows of a plurality of interaction flows, and wherein the one or more voice interaction flows is selected based at least in part on an intent and one or more named entities identified in the request.” Paragraph 20 describes that the dialogue engine 105 manages the dialogue with the user. It manages the interaction based on the user profile and the responses of the user (intent).
With respect to Claims 8-14, system Claim 1 and method Claim 8 are related as a system programmed to perform the same method, with each claimed system function corresponding to each claimed method step. Accordingly, Claims 8-14 are similarly rejected under the same rationale as applied above with respect to Claims 1-7.
With respect to Claims 15-20, computer readable medium Claim 15 and system Claim 1 are related as a medium programmed to perform as the system, with each claimed medium function corresponding to each claimed system function. Accordingly, Claims 15-20 are similarly rejected under the same rationale as applied above with respect to Claims 1-3 and 5-7.
Conclusion
5. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 20190348038 (Hori et al.) describes a device that manages user call interactions.
6. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to EDWARD TRACY whose telephone number is (571)272-8332. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9 AM- 5PM.
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/EDWARD TRACY JR./Examiner, Art Unit 2656
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