If you have ever lost a phone number, Duke computer scientists may be able to help you out.
Researchers have developed a voice-recognition system that allows a caller to be forwarded to the person they are trying to reach—even if they don’t have the person’s phone number. By dialing 668-3070 and just saying a name, people can access any member of the Duke community at no charge.
The system uses error-correction technology developed by Professor of Computer Science Alan Biermann, research associate Ashley McKenzie and computer science graduate student Bryce Inouye.
Typical voice recognition systems work accurately two-thirds of the time. But when the software is combined with error-correction technology, the number of misplaced calls and unrecognized names drops to less than 10 percent.
“The vision is that you won’t have to use phone numbers—call forwarding is in the near future,” Inouye said. “Say I want to talk to my friend, Joe Boggs. I say the name and two seconds later, the phone is ringing. You don’t have to know the phone numbers. Just know the name.”
To use the system, callers are asked to say the name of the person who they wish to contact. If the name is not recognized by the system, the caller is asked to spell the name.
“We use a Nuance speech recognizer. It’s an excellent speech recognizer within the industry,” Biermann said. “If it works, then our system does little. If the speech recognizer fails, then our system uses a complex statistical method to compute the most probable name. It is essentially error correction.”
The new service draws from Duke’s online directory, which contains 35,000 names and phone numbers.
Although the service does not include the phone numbers of undergraduate students, it does provide call forwarding to all faculty and staff within the Duke community.
In experimental tests, the average caller took 76.6 seconds to reach a person using the Duke telephone operator.
When using the automated voice recognition system, however, the average caller was able get connected within 48.8 seconds.
The call-forwarding system is in the middle of a 60-day trial phase. Though Sept. 15 is the last day of the trial, the service may return if it proves popular and effective.“User responses have been very positive,” Biermann noted
If successful, the system could be extended to public use. The researchers noted that the technology may soon be marketed as a commercial product.
“We are currently talking with companies. Now, it depends on whether the economy and society will support it,” Biermann said. “If the system can support the names and numbers of 35,000 people, then it can be developed to support the identities of people within 35,000 cities.”
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