Presently, telecommunications users encounter an increasing amount of automated interaction with information providers. Voicemail systems, banking and financial services, news services and other similar sources frequently employ a strategy where a user responds to an automated voice using a telecommunications device. Often, users connect with one of the aforementioned providers and only interact with an automated voice. The automated voice prompts the user to generate commands either using the user's voice or by pressing switches on their telecommunications device to generate a dual-tone multiple frequency (DTMF) signal thereby conveying the user's intent to the information provider.
Many times, responding to automated voice prompts is a repetitious chore and users prefer to minimize their input. Nametag storage reduces some of the burdensome aspects of accessing voicemail. Nametags are mnemonics for phone numbers and other data used to access remote systems. Users create a nametag in a separate session, recording data such as phone numbers and associating the data with the nametag. When a user wants to make a call, the user utters the nametag, an automatic speech recognition program recognizes the nametag and associates the nametag with the recorded data, such as a telephone number, and dials the number.
Often, DTMF-controlled systems require a degree of interaction with the user, making nametag storage for such systems more complex. For instance, a voicemail system requires several fields, such as the phone number of the voicemail system, the mailbox number, and a passcode identifying the individual, authorized user. If a user knows the duration and timing of particular voice prompts generated by a particular voicemail system the user is accessing, the user can input DTMF key sequences interspersed with fixed pauses to automatically interact with the particular system. The fixed pauses pass time between DTMF signals and coincide with the automatically generated voice prompt provided by the information provider.
But coordinating number strings or DTMF key sequences and pauses for automated interaction with DTMF-controlled systems presents some problems. Stored number strings or DTMF key sequences interspersed with fixed pauses cannot anticipate the wide variety of DTMF-controlled systems, which are unable to respond to varying automated inquiries. Additionally, the varying time duration of prompts from DTMF-controlled systems further complicates accurately placing pauses for automated interaction. Users have used experimentation to determine the position required for fixed pauses and the pause duration. While fixed pauses have been used in the past, these pauses must be precisely positioned, and even if precisely positioned the pauses will only function with specific systems.