Intelligent Artificial Voice Systems

A new generation of interactive voice systems is set to simplify getting flight information by telephone

AviaVox has launched a new system to inform passengers about the actual status of flights and about other important information at an airport. The new device, known as the AviaVox Information System (AVIS) is a combination of an interactive voice system (IVR) and a system that dynamically generates automatic announcements of actual flight information in multiple languages. The system interfaces with the airport’s operational database and retrieves real-time flight data and other information for passengers and meeters/greeters.

Interactive voice systems are well-known within the industry. Some of them do a fair job and others are simply very poor because of the quality of the voice, the way the routing is done or a combination of both.

Good or bad, they predominantly all share a similar way of working: someone who requires certain information telephones a special number. Once the call has been answered, the caller is offered a choice by application software that raises a number of questions and tells the listener which button to press.

Once the caller has struggled through this so-called ‘tree-structure’, he can listen to a pre-recorded message. These messages are often in a limited number of languages and the audibility – because the message is built by pre-recorded blocks of data – is often very poor and sounds mechanical and robotic. It isn’t very attractive.

If the required information cannot be provided – perhaps because the information is frequently changing, as is the case with flight information – then the listener has no choice but to wait to speak with an operator who will personally assist in answering the question. In most cases this is done only in the country’s native language or in English.

AviaVox has filled the gap in the process of informing passengers by automating the last part of the IVR system that is handled by an operator. The AVIS system combines both, because the software interfaces either directly with the AODB or indirectly through an interface broker (IB). AviaVox uses the application software from its existing intelligent announcement system and state-of-the-art synthetic speech technology that actually makes a computer speak. The synthetic voices are so realistic that it is almost impossible to distinguish them from actual human speech.

The AVIS system can currently handle 15 different languages and can be tuned to meet the specific requirements of an individual airport. Callers to the AVIS system will spend less time in queues because they will quickly be routed to the sections from where information can be retrieved. Callers will have the same service as if they were actually at the airport and yet they are remotely retrieving the required information by either landline or mobile phone.

For passengers who do not want to phone back to the system for updates, there is an option for them to leave their phone number so that they can be called back by the system if the status of the flight changes.

Alternatively they can be notified by text message. It seems that a new generation of intelligent IVR has been born with the introduction of AVIS.