Telecommunication call management and monitoring system with voiceprint verification

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9686402-B2
Application number	US-201514865779-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 25, 2015
Priority date	Aug 8, 2002
Publication date	Jun 20, 2017
Grant date	Jun 20, 2017

Abstract

A secure telephone call management system is provided for authenticating users of a telephone system in an institutional facility. Authentication of the users of the telephone call management system is accomplished by using a personal identification number, biometric means, and/or radio frequency means. The secure telephone call management system includes accounting software capable of limiting access to the system based on funds in a user's account, and includes management software capable of implementing widespread or local changes to the system. The system monitors a conversation in the telephone call to detect a presence of a first characteristic in audio of the conversation, and terminates the telephone call if the first characteristic does not match a second characteristic of biometric information of a user or a called party.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A call management system for detecting an unauthorized party to a telephone conversation between a local user and a remote user, the system comprising:
a voiceprint database; and
a control platform configured to:
store voiceprints of authorized local users in the voiceprint database;
monitor audio information of the telephone conversation;
detect a first characteristic of the local user in the audio information;
search the stored voiceprints for a first matching voiceprint based on the first characteristic;
identify the local user based on the first characteristic;
detect a second characteristic in the audio information;
identify the second characteristic as belonging to a second local user based on a comparison of the second characteristic to the first matching voiceprint;
search the stored voiceprints for a second matching voiceprint based on the second characteristic; and
determine whether the second local user is authorized to participate in the telephone conversation based on results of the search.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein each of the first characteristic and the second characteristic is at least one of a pitch, a loudness, a frequency or a timbre.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control platform is further configured to terminate the telephone conversation in response to determining that the second local user is not authorized.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control platform is further configured to:
adjust a stored voiceprint using a sample of the audio information; and
store the adjusted voiceprint.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein, to adjust the stored voiceprint, the control platform is configured to extract a current voiceprint from the audio information and compute an average value of the current voiceprint and the stored voiceprint.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control platform is further configured to monitor the audio information for predetermined keywords.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the monitored audio information is only a local side of the telephone conversation.

8. A call management system for detecting an unauthorized party to a telephone conversation between a local user and a remote user, the system comprising:
a voiceprint database; and
a control platform configured to:
store voiceprints of authorized remote users in the voiceprint database;
monitor audio information of the telephone conversation;
detect a first characteristic of the remote user in the audio information;
search the stored voiceprints for a first matching voiceprint based on the first characteristic;
identify the remote user based on the first characteristic;
detect a second characteristic in the audio information;
identify the second characteristic as belonging to a second remote user based on a comparison of the second characteristic to the first matching voiceprint;
search the stored voiceprints for a second matching voiceprint based on the second characteristic; and
determine whether the second remote user is authorized to participate in the telephone conversation based on results of the search.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein each of the first characteristic and the second characteristic is at least one of a pitch, a loudness, a frequency or a timbre.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the control platform is further configured to terminate the telephone conversation in response to determining that the second remote user is not authorized.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the control platform is further configured to:
adjust a stored voiceprint using a sample of the audio information; and
store the adjusted voiceprint.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein, to adjust the stored voiceprint, the control platform is configured to extract a current voiceprint from the audio information and compute an average value of the current voiceprint and the stored voiceprint.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the control platform is further configured to monitor the audio information for predetermined keywords.

14. The system of claim 8 , wherein the monitored audio information is only a remote side of the telephone conversation.

15. A method of call management to detect an unauthorized party to a telephone conversation, the method comprising:
storing voiceprints including voiceprints of users authorized to participate in the telephone conversation;
monitoring audio information of the telephone conversation;
detecting a first characteristic of a first user in the audio information;
searching the stored voiceprints for a first matching voiceprint based on the first characteristic;
identifying the first user based on the first characteristic;
detecting a second characteristic in the audio information;
identifying the second characteristic as belonging to a second user based on a comparison of the second characteristic to the first matching voiceprint;
searching the stored voiceprints for a second matching voiceprint based on the second characteristic; and
determining whether the second user is authorized to participate in the telephone conversation based on results of the search.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the monitored audio information is only a local side.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the monitored audio information is only a remote side.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein each of the first characteristic and the second characteristic is at least one of a pitch, a loudness, a frequency or a timbre.

19. The method of claim 15 , further comprising terminating the telephone conversation in response to determining that the second user is not authorized.

20. The method of claim 15 , further comprising monitoring the audio information for predetermined keywords.

Assignees

• Global Tel Link Corp

Inventors

• Hodge Stephen Lee

Classifications

• H04M1/677

  Preventing the dialling or sending of predetermined telephone numbers or selected types of telephone numbers, e.g. long distance numbers · CPC title

• H04L63/083

  using passwords (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226) · CPC title

• H04M7/1295

  Details of dual tone multiple frequency signalling · CPC title

• H04M1/673

  the user being required to key in a code · CPC title

• H04M3/2218

  Call detail recording · CPC title