A multi-party conversation analyzer and logger uses a variety of techniques including spectrographic
voice analysis, absolute
loudness measurements, directional microphones, and telephonic directional separation to determine the number of parties who take part in a conversation, and segment the conversation by speaking party. In one aspect, the invention monitors telephone conversations in real time to detect conditions of interest (for instance, calls to non-allowed parties or calls of a prohibited nature from prison inmates). In another aspect, automated
prosody measurement algorithms are used in conjunction with speaker segmentation to extract emotional content of the speech of participants within a particular conversation, and speaker interactions and emotions are displayed in graphical form. A conversation
database is generated which contains conversation recordings, and
derived data such as transcription text, derived emotions, alert conditions, and
correctness probabilities associated with
derived data. Investigative tools allow flexible queries of the conversation
database.