SE518098C2 - Intelligent network - Google Patents

Abstract

An intelligent network has connected telephone sets (1), line exchanges (3) and service switching points (7). The service switching points (7) are controlled by a service control point in order to provide automatic translation of conversation between two connected persons or telephone sets (1) using different languages so that a dialogue can be performed between the two telephone sets, a powerful computer (19) is connected to two pairs of ordinary input and output ports of a switching point (7). The computer (19) executes the translation and generates automatically synthetic, translated speech in both directions. A call wanting a translation service is in the switching point (7) routed through the computer (19), the service being called by making suitable dialling depressions on the telephone set (1).

Description

30 35 40 518 098 2 DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The term intelligent network (IN) was introduced to simplify access to and modification of services in a telephone network. The intelligence in an intelligent network is concentrated on a few central nodes in the network, the intelligence including necessary data circuits and logic circuits or programs for the network services. An intelligent network is shown schematically in fi g. 1 and its constituents are briefly described below.

The end users 1 of the network are shown as ordinary telephone sets but can also be, for example, modems for computers, which communicate over the network. Local exchanges (LE) 3 are directly connected to the end users 1. The local exchanges 3 can be connected to transit exchanges (TE) 5 or exchanges 7 with additional functions, the latter being called service switching points (SSPs). Coupling of telephone calls and other calls is performed in all these different exchanges. Each service switching point 7 belongs to and is controlled by a service control point 9 (SCP). A single service control point 9 can belong to tjän your service switching points 7. Furthermore, a service control point 9 can have access to a tar station data point 11 (SDP). A network administrator may have access to a service control point 9 and its associated service data point 11 via a computer, not shown.

The solid lines in Fig. 1 can transmit speech or be used for voice communication and the dashed lines can only transmit communication, which is not speech, and they are used for control and other signaling purposes.

In the physical "service points" 7, 9 described above, one or more of your service functions can be performed. In a service switching point 7, the service functions comprise a service switching function 13 (SSF) and a call control function 15 (CCF). A call control function 15 handles calls and connections that are to be established or terminated in the traditional sense.

It performs the normal call handling and monitoring function in a switchboard and provides the intelligent network with call and call information and executes commands sent from the service switching function 13 in the same service switching point 7.

A service control point 9 includes a service control function 17 (SCP). A service control function 17 contains the logical steps of a service, i.e. it is essentially the basic program, which is executed to actually perform the service. It has full responsibility for making decisions relating to a call. The service switching function SSF 13 in a service switching point 7 is an interface between a service switching function SCF 17 in a service control point 9 connected to this service switching point and the call control function 15 in the same service switching point 7 and thus sends information about calls or calls to subscribers. the service control function 17 and commands to be executed to the call control function 15 from the service control function 17.

Various intelligent network services are included in a service control function 17. A service is defined by a list for a service script (SS).

In it i fi g. 1, one of the service switching points 7 has been provided with at least one workstation 19 (WS), which may be a standard industrial computer operating at high speed and with generally high capacity. The workstation 19 is connected to the service switching point 7 via two bidirectional lines.

The workstation 19 performs automatic translation between at least two languages and receives a spoken message on one of its input lines and translates this into a voice division in an Amiat language on its respective output line. The processing performed by the workstation 19 comprises the following steps: - analog-to-digital conversion of incoming speech, - processing of the converted signal, - detection of continuous speech, - language analysis and parsing, both syntactic and semantic, to an interlingua, independent of languages, - text generation in a desired language from the interlinguan, - synthesis of digitized speech from the generated text.

All of these steps require computer power or software, which are well known in the art of speech recognition and speech synthesis and with machine translation. For machine translation, reference can be made to the projects, called JANUS at Ineractive Systems Laboratories, and the Verbmobil project. Today's technology allows a translation factor of between 90 and 95% for normal conversations.

Thus, the workstation 19 receives continuous speech independently of two different input languages. It produces synthetic speech, which is output in real time, with typical delays being of the order of half a second. A separate workstation 19 can be used for each call for which the call is to be translated, depending on the large amount of processing that must be performed with minimal delay. The workstation can have different input and output ports for each pair of languages, between which it can translate. In one embodiment, it may receive a signal, such as a code transmitted with DTMF signals, which provides information about the selected languages.

I fi g. 2 shows schematically the construction of a service switching point 7. Point 7 has, as shown, six bidirectional connections or output / input ports, which can be connected to other services, such as local switches 3, transit switches 5, other service switching points 7. For each input / output port there is a call handling block 21 having a module 23 for detecting events on the input line, such as dialing to establish a new call, hang up, the appearance of DTMF signals or tones, and another module 25 for sending voice messages and DTMF tones on the output line included in the considered input / output port. The call handling blocks 21 are connected to a switch 27, which performs the actual switching of calls.

The call handling blocks 21 and the exchange 27 constitute the call control function 15 and are controlled by the service switching function 13. Two of the bidirectional ports of the service switching point 7 are connected to the workstation 19. The workstation 19 may in the simplest case, as shown, include only two language modules 29, one to translate from one language L1 to another language L2 and one to translate from language L2 to language L1. In addition, the workstation 19 may have some means for receiving a control signal from the service switching point 7, such as a DTMF detector, not shown, when it contains more than two language modules.

I fi g. 3 shows the basic design of a service control point 9 and its service control function 17. The various services that can be performed by the service switching function are administered by a service administrator 31, which receives signals concerning detecting events, such as a telephone having dialed a number and then receiving also the connection number of the telephone which dials the number, dialed numbers and other keystrokes, from the service switching functions 13 in the service switching points 7.

For a detected event, the service administrator block 13 starts a script interpreter 33, which uses a service script (SS) 35, the service script 35 being selected depending on the type of detected event. Each service script 35 consists of calls to one or more of your control types or service-independent building blocks (SIBs) 37. The service-independent building blocks 37 can be regarded as computer procedures, each of which performs a specialized function. A service-independent building block 33 then always contains a logic module 39 and it may also contain one or more of your data modules (DM) 41. Data on ongoing, unfinished calls is stored in call data block 43, one for each call or call. Data about subscribers is stored in subscriber data blocks 45. Some of these data blocks can in fact be stored in a service data point 11, see fi g. 1, which is connected to the considered service control point 9.

In particular, the following service script 35 is noticed when starting a translation service: NRANALYSIS, CONNECTION, INITIATE TRANSLATION.

For a telephone call to be translated, the following general sequence of steps is performed: - 1. In the case of a calling telephone 1, the service is initiated by, for example, pressing the * 123 # keys. - 2. The translation service sends a voice message to the calling telephone and asks the customer to influence the telephone 1 to select the language by pressing the appropriate keys. - 3. With the calling telephone 1, the telephone number of the telephone to which a call is to be made is dialed. The connection or call is established. - 4. The workstation 19 starts analyzing incoming signals with respect to language and delivers a translation to the called resp. calling the telephone. - 5. The service is terminated when the calling telephone 1 hangs up.

During a normal, untranslated call, it is also possible to start the translation service by pressing the * 123 # keys. In this case, steps 1. and 2. come after step 3.

The detailed sequence of events, which corresponds to steps 1. - 5. above, will now be described in connection with fi g. 4, which shows some steps in some of the service scripts included in the service control functions 17. - 1. For a telephone 1, press the * 123 # keys. Corresponding DTMF signals are received and decoded by the detection module 23 in the call handling block 21 of the service switching point 7, which is connected closest to the telephone set in question 1. 15 20 25 30 35 40 518 098 5 - 3. The service switching point 7 transmits via its service switching function 13 corresponding codes to the service control point 9, which is connected to the switching point 7, together with the telephone number of the telephone set 1, at which the dialing takes place. - 4. The service switching function 17 in this service switching point 9 starts the service administrator 31 and receives the codes and the number. The service administrator starts the script interpreter 33 to start a NRANALYSIS service, which is defined by a corresponding script 51, as outlined in fi g. First, in this script, a SIB 53 performs a search for whether there is any service associated with the received codes, by comparing the codes in a comparison module 55 with the care in a service table 57. The SIB 53 detects the codes associated with the language translation and in particular with an "INITIATE TRANSLATION" service, see script 59, and initiates this (jumps to this) via a jump SIB 61. If the codes were entered incorrectly on the telephone 1, a SIB 63 is executed, in which a voice message to the telephone set 1 on which the codes were entered. - 5. The INITIATE TRANSLATION service in script 59 conducts in the usual way a dialogue with the calling telephone 1 for selection among options, here to choose from languages, from and to which translations are to be made. Thus, a SIB 65 (similar to the SIB 63) is first performed to order a suitable voice message. In the next SIB 67, entered characters are received and in the SIB 69, the received characters are analyzed by making a comparison in a comparison module 71 with a table 73 of language codes. If the language codes were entered incorrectly, the first SIB 65 is executed again. Here it is assumed instead that they are started to match a record in the language code table 73. - see script 75, in the service switching function 17.

Thus, in a SIB 77 in the script 59, it is tested whether the received codes are entered during an ongoing call, by comparing the telephone number at which the received codes were entered with the call data blocks 43, see Fig. 3. In this case, no call has been made. and then a jump SIB 79 is performed, similar to the SIB 61. The jump SIB 79 makes a jump to the correct SIB 81 in the script INITIATE T RANSLATION 75 to have it written in a data block 45 in the subscriber's database, that when a new connection has been established from the telephone set 1 with the received telephone number, it will start (jump to) a service INITIATE TRANSLATION. A delay can be used, so that this condition is removed after eg 5 minutes. - 8. A valid telephone number is dialed into the considered telephone set 1. - 9. The telephone number is received by the service switching point 7. - 10. The telephone number is sent to the service control point 9 via the service switching function 13 in the service switching point 7. - 11. The service control function 17 in the service control point receives the telephone number, at which the dialing takes place, and the dialed telephone number.

The service administrator starts the script interpreter to start executing the SIBs in script 75 for the CONNECTION service. 10 20 25 30 35 40 518 098 6 - 12. The CONNECTION service searches a SIB 83 in the subscriber data blocks 45 to determine special conditions, which relate to calls or calls from the telephone set 1 or the subscriber number at which the dialing has taken place. - 13. In SIB 83 it is observed that the data block for the telephone number where the number dialing takes place has been marked with the start of a translation service. - 14. In the next SIB 85, the CONNECTION service prepares a CALL SETUP FOR TRANSLATION command, the command being a modified version of the CALL SET-UP command, which is used to establish only a standard connection, whereby the CALL SETUP FOR TRANSLATION command announces that the connection can is set up through the service switching point 7 and is routed via the workstation 19. The same SIB 85 removes the translation condition from the corresponding subscriber data block 45 and sends the command CALL SETUP FOR TRANSLATION to the service switching point 7. - 15. The service switching point 7 receives the command. - 16. The service switching point 7 establishes the connection via the workstation 19. - 17. The service switching point 7 detects that the handset is on in either of the telephone sets 1, between which the call was established. - 18. The service switching point 7 removes the connection.

When the * 123 # key is pressed during an ongoing call, the sequence of events is as follows: - l. A valid telephone number is dialed into a telephone 1. - 2. The telephone number is received by the service switching point 7, which is connected closest to this telephone 1 The dialed telephone number together with the telephone number at which the dialing was performed is sent to the service control point 9 via the service switching function 13 in the service switching point 7. - 4. The service control function 17 in the service control point 7 receives the telephone number where the dialing has taken place, and it dialed the phone number and starts its service administrator 31.

The service administrator 31 in turn starts the script interpreter 33 to execute the script 75 for the CONNECTION service. - 5. The CONNECTION service in the SIB 83 searches through the subscriber data blocks 45 to determine special conditions, which relate to calls from the telephone set at which the dialing took place, or other corresponding subscriber identification and in the case in question no special condition is found. . - 6. A SIB 87 is then executed to prepare or sort and send the CALL SETUP command for switching and establishing by default the call. - 7. The service control point 7 receives this command. - 8. The service switching point 7 establishes the required connection in the standard way and thus not through the workstation 19. - 9. In the telephone 1 the keys * l23 # are pressed. Corresponding DTMF signals are received and decoded by the service switching point 7. The service switching point 7 sends corresponding codes to the service control point 9, which is connected thereto, together with the telephone number of the telephone set 1 from which The DT MF signals were received. - The service control function 17 in this service control point 9 receives the codes and starts the service administrator 31, which in turn starts the script interpreter 33. The script interpreter starts executing the script 51, which defines the service NRANALYSIS, in which as above the SIB 53 searches for any service associated with the codes. It determines that these are associated with language translation and in particular with an INITIATE TRANSLATION service and executes the jump SIB 61 to execute the jump to the script 59 for this service. - 13. The INITIATE TRANSLATION service in script 59 performs in the usual way a dialogue with the calling telephone to select from alternatives, here to select from languages, from and to which translations are to be made, thus the SIBs 65, 67, 69 performed as above. 14. - 15. Next, a jump SIB 89 is then performed to jump to the CONNECTION service defined in the script 75. - 16. In the CONNECTION service, a SIB 91 is executed, in which a future TRANSLATION is produced, which announces that the connection must be redirected to pass through the workstation 19. The same SIB 91 removes the translation condition from the corresponding subscriber data block 45 and sends the TRANSLATION command to the service switching point 7 via the service switching function 13 this. - 17. The service switching point 7 receives the TRANSLATION command. - 18. The service switching point 7 reroutes the already established connection, so that from the current time it passes through the workstation 19. - 19. The service switching point 7 detects the "handset on" of one of the telephones 1 between which the connection was established. - The service switching point 7 terminates the connection.

Thus, an intelligent network with extended services including translation of speech present in conversations has been described. It is obvious to a person skilled in the art that such translation services can easily be provided in networks or for nodes in networks which function in substantially the same way as described above, such as in nodes which are used in mobile communication systems.

Claims (4)

15 20 25 30 518 098 8 PATENT REQUIREMENTS An intelligent network comprising end-users, in particular terminals or telephones, and switching points, which are connected to the end-users and to each other, the connections of switching points being via wires transmitting speech in a two-way direction, gateway connected to the wires, characterized by a computer connected to a switching point via two input ports and two output ports of the switching point, the switching point being arranged to direct a call through the computer in response to a command, signals coming in one direction being sent to a first output port of the computer and from this is received at a first input port and then forwarded in the same direction, whereby signals coming in the opposite direction are sent to a second output port separate from the first port of the computer and from this is received at a second entrance gate, which is separate from the first entrance gate and then forwarded in the same direction, the computer operating according to a program to perform a translation of a first language into a second language for spoken signals or voice signals received from the first output port, and sending translated speech or voice signals to the first input port, and a translation from the second language into the first language of voice or voice signals received from the second output port and sends translated voice or voice signals to the second input port. Intelligent network according to claim 1, characterized in that the switching point comprises means for detecting and decoding dialing signals, in particular DTMF signals, on an input line to the switching point, the command means being arranged to receive decoded dialing signals, comparing them with a predetermined code and issue a command to direct a call, which arrives on the same input line, so that it passes through the computer. Intelligent network according to claim 2, characterized by a control point connected to the switching point, the control point comprising the command means, and the command means comprising a logic module for performing the comparison and a data module, which contains the predetermined code and other codes. for other services. Intelligent network according to claim 3, characterized in that the switching point comprises means for generating voice messages, which means are connected to each output port of the switching point, and that the command means comprises means for giving command that voice messages are generated, for performing a dialogue with an end user, from which dialing signals have been received, the decoded equivalent of which corresponds to the predetermined code, to determine the language between which translations are to be made.