Granted Patent B2

US 12,626,706 · App. 17/216,037 · Granted May 12, 2026

Inventors: Eric Saund (Washington, DC); Kyle Dent (San Carlos, CA); John T. Maxwell, III (Santa Clara, CA); Jesse Vig (Los Altos, CA); Daniel G. Bobrow (Palo Alto, CA)

Assignee: Genesee Valley Innovations, LLC

G10L17/24G06F21/32

Abstract

Claims (62)

1 . A method comprising:

receiving an open credential from a user;

determining, based on the open credential, an address of a personal communication device of the user;

sending a one-time passphrase transmitted from an authentication system to the address of the personal communication device;

prompting the user to verbalize the one-time passphrase via utterances to a processor-implemented, conversational user interface;

determining, by the authentication system using speech recognition, presence or non-presence of the one-time passphrase within the utterances;

in response to detecting the presence of the one-time passphrase within the utterances, authenticating the user to a session; and

during the session, re-authenticating the user by:

prompting the user to provide subsequent utterances, which include a subsequent one-time passphrase different from the one-time passphrase; and

determining presence or non-presence of the subsequent one-time passphrase within the subsequent utterances.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the personal communication device communicates the one-time passphrase to the user via a non-textual, graphical representation of common but incongruous words.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the session provides the user access to a protected resource, wherein the re-authenticating further comprises:

determining an initial voiceprint of the user based on the utterance;

determining subsequent voiceprints of the user based on the subsequent utterances;

determining a match between the subsequent and initial voiceprints exceeding a predetermined confidence threshold; and

revoking access rights of the user to the protected resources in response to a mismatch between the subsequent and initial voiceprints.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving via the conversational user interface, a command from the user to terminate the session.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising, during the session:

storing change commands involving protected resources in response to verbal input by the user;

and executing the stored change commands in response to the re-authenticating of the user.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the utterances from the user include common but incongruous words that are selected to be easily pronounced and detected with high confidence by a voice recognition system.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the utterances from the user include common but incongruous words embedded with other conversational verbiage generated by the user.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the personal communication device communicates the one-time passphrase to the user via a tactile representation of common but incongruous words.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the open credential is received via the conversational user interface.

10 . A method comprising:

receiving an open credential from a user;

determining, based on the open credential, an address of a personal communication device of the user;

sending a one-time passphrase transmitted from an authentication system to the address of the personal communication device, the one-time passphrase comprising common but incongruous words;

prompting the user to verbalize the one-time passphrase to a processor-implemented, conversational user interface;

receiving, by the conversational user interface, utterances from the user and communicating the utterances from the conversational user interface to the authentication system via a trusted communication channel;

determining, by the authentication system using speech recognition, the presence or non-presence of the one-time passphrase within the received utterances;

authenticating, by the authentication system, the user in response to detecting the presence of the one-time passphrase within the received utterances;

after authenticating the user, storing change commands involving protected resources in response to verbal input by the user;

prior to executing the stored change commands:

prompting the user to verbalize a second one-time passphrase to the conversational user interface via the personal communication device;

determining, by the authentication system using speech recognition, presence or non-presence of the second one-time passphrase within second utterances communicated from the conversational user interface to the authentication system; and

re-authenticating the user in response to detecting presence of the second one-time passphrase within the second utterances; and

executing the stored change commands in response to successfully re-authenticating the user.

11 . A system comprising:

an authentication system operable to:

receive an open credential from a user of the system;

determine, based on the open credential, an address of a personal communication device of the user;

transmit a one-time passphrase to the address of the personal communication device, the personal communication device prompting the user to verbalize the one-time passphrase; and

a processor-implemented, conversational user interface operable to:

receive utterances from the user in response to the prompting; and

communicate the received utterances to the authentication system;

wherein the authentication system is operable to:

determine, using speech recognition, presence or non-presence of the one-time passphrase within the received utterances;

authenticate the user to a session in response to detecting presence of the one-time passphrase within the received utterances; and

during the session, re-authenticate the user by:

prompting the user to provide subsequent utterances, which include a subsequent one-time passphrase different from the one-time passphrase; and

determining presence or non-presence of the subsequent one-time passphrase within the subsequent utterances.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the personal communication device communicates the one-time passphrase to the user via a non-textual, graphical representation of common but incongruous words.

13 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the session provides the user access to a protected resource and, wherein the re-authenticating further comprises:

determining initial voiceprints of the user based on the utterances;

determining subsequent voiceprints of the user based on the subsequent utterances;

determining a match between the subsequent and initial voiceprints exceeding a predetermined threshold; and

revoking access rights of the user to the protected resource in response to a mismatch between the subsequent and initial voiceprints.

14 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the system is further operable to receive a command from the user via the conversational user interface to terminate the session.

15 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the utterances from the user include common but incongruous words that are selected to be easily pronounced and detected with high confidence by a voice recognition system.

16 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the utterances from the user include common but incongruous words embedded with other conversational verbiage generated by the user.

17 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the personal communication device communicates the one-time passphrase to the user via a tactile representation of common but incongruous words.

Assignments (9)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (24)