Voice activated automated telephone call routing

The authors describe a speaker-independent voice activated automated telephone call routing system that allows callers to ask for a person by name, and then be transferred to that person's extension. The system utilizes the BBN HARK Recognizer, a commercially available speech recognition system which runs in real-time on a UNIX workstation and does not require a digital signal processing (DSP) microprocessor for performing front-end signal processing. The system has been operational since August 1992. It deals with over 500 calls daily and many users have come to rely on it as an easy to use and reliable tool. Currently, it is configured to recognize the 1847 names representing all BBN personnel based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. New names are easily added to the recognition system by simply entering the phonetic transcription of the names to the vocabulary.<
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