Application examples

Suppose that you are working on an application that callers use to report problems with telephone service. Part of your transaction involves asking callers for a telephone number. For a touchtone interaction, you could prompt "Enter your 10-digit telephone number." The caller can do one of three things: press 10 keys, press fewer than 10 keys, or do nothing.

• If the caller presses 10 keys, the application reads back the telephone number for confirmation: "Did you enter 614-860-4001?"
• If the caller presses fewer than 10 keys, the application detects this and reprompts the caller for a valid entry.
• If the caller does nothing, the application receives no touchtones. When this happens, the application can reprompt, providing more information.

For a similar speech recognition interaction, you could prompt, "Say your 10-digit telephone number." The caller can say anything at all in response (words or other sounds) or say nothing. The recognizer listens, then attempts to map the sounds to the appropriate grammar (US_DIG, with minimum and maximum digits set to 10), and come up with a series of digits. No matter what the caller says, the recognizer does the same thing: it listens to the sounds coming through the telephone, and attempts to map 10 digits, or using phrase screening, rejects the utterance.

• If the caller says 10 digits, the recognizer tries to map the speech to 10 digits, then reads back the result for confirmation: "Did you say 614-860-4001?"
• If the caller says fewer than 10 digits, the recognizer attempts to map the speech to 10 digits, then reads back the result for confirmation: "Did you say 618-604-0001?"
• If the caller remains silent and there is background or line noise, the recognizer rejects the utterance. The recognizer returns a null string to the application, and the application can reprompt, giving the caller more information. This is considered a "correct rejection."
• If the caller says "I do not have a phone number yet," the recognizer rejects the utterance.

What can be done to improve the application design in this example? What could increase the chance that callers will say what the recognizer is prepared to accept? Your application could first ask if the caller has the required information, by prompting: "Do you have your telephone number available?" Callers who say no can be transferred to the attendant, while callers who say yes can be prompted for the number.

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