System and method for handling information in a voice recognition automated conversation

1 . A method, comprising:

storing a characteristic of an utterance to be received by a speech recognition engine;

receiving the utterance from a user, the utterance being received in response to a prompt of an automated conversation;

analyzing the received utterance to determine if the utterance conforms to the characteristic; and

indicating to the user that the utterance conformed to the characteristic.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic is indicative that the utterance is unrecognizable by the speech engine.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic is a length of the utterance.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the length is determined by one of a word content of the utterance and a length of a speech signal corresponding to the utterance.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic includes a plurality of characteristics.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the indication to the user is providing a re-prompt to the user.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the re-prompt corresponds to the characteristic.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic includes one of a duration of the utterance, an amount of noise in a speech signal corresponding to the utterance, an amplitude of the speech signal, a number of unrecognized words in the utterance and a spectral parameter of the speech signal.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the automated conversation is an automated phone call.

10 . A speech engine, comprising:

a storage module to store a characteristic of an utterance to be received from a user;

a receiving module to receive the utterance from the user, the utterance being received in response to a prompt;

an analyzing module to analyze the received utterance to determine if the utterance conforms to the characteristic; and

an indication module to indicate to the user that the utterance conformed to the characteristic.

11 . The speech engine of claim 10 , wherein the characteristic is indicative that the utterance is unrecognizable by the speech engine.

12 . The speech engine of claim 10 , wherein the analyzing module includes a recognition processing module receiving the utterance and identifying a content of the utterance.

13 . The speech engine of claim 10 , wherein the analyzing module includes an attribute processing module receiving the utterance and identifying an attribute in the utterance.

14 . The speech engine of claim 10 , wherein the indication module provides a re-prompt to the user as an indication that the utterance conformed to the characteristic.

15 . The speech engine of claim 14 , wherein the re-prompt corresponds to the characteristic.

16 . The speech engine of claim 10 , wherein the characteristic includes one of a duration of the utterance, an amount of noise in a speech signal corresponding to the utterance, an amplitude of the speech signal, a number of unrecognized words in the utterance and a spectral parameter of the speech signal.

17 . The speech engine of claim 10 , wherein the prompt is part of an automated phone call.

18 . The speech engine of claim 10 , further comprising:

a pre-processing module to pre-process the utterance.

19 . The speech engine of claim 10 , wherein the prompt is part of a directory assistance service.

20 . A system comprising a memory to store a set of instructions and a processor to execute the set of instructions, the set of instructions being operable to:

store a characteristic of an utterance to be received by a speech recognition engine;

receive the utterance from a user, the utterance being received in response to a prompt of an automated conversation;

analyze the received utterance to determine if the utterance conforms to the characteristic; and

indicate to the user that the utterance conformed to the characteristic.