The present disclosure generally relates to the field of remote interaction between at least one user and at least one operator of the automated type and of the human type.
Authentication procedures are well known wherein the identity of a human subject (indicated hereinafter also as “user”) who has been identified in a previous identification step is verified online: in the authentication step it is verified in real time that the user (for example, a user of a smartphone or of a personal computer) who wants to use a particular service is actually the subject he/she has claimed to be in the previous identification step.
The service can be for example the release of a digital certificate associated with the user, the remote subscription of a contract, the opening of a bank account, the activation of a SIM card of a mobile phone, the access to a bank account.
The known procedures for identification and authentication of a subject are mainly carried out in real time, i.e. a user is connected (by means of a local electronic device and through a telecommunications network) to a remote human operator (also provided with an electronic device) and executes an online procedure which requires a real-time interaction between the user and the remote operator.
An example of a guided procedure for remote interaction between at least one user and at least one operator is described in the Italian patent application n. 102017000022073 filed on Feb. 27, 2017 in the name of the same Applicant, which is considered to be incorporated for reference in the present description.
US 2009/0086957 A1 discloses a real-time collaboration centre in which a user 125 interacts with a human operator 130 of a call centre.
US 2009/0086957 A1 further discloses that the user 125 can communicate with an automated agent 150 while waiting for the operator 130 to actually be available to communicate with the user 125; during this waiting time in which the user 125 communicates with the automated agent 150, it is possible to retrieve useful information from the user 125 by means of the communication between the user 125 and the automated agent 150, such as for example upload documents, exchange text messages, carry out voice conversations and/or video.
The Applicant has observed that the known procedures for identification and authentication of the identity of a subject have the following disadvantages:
Furthermore, the known strong authentication procedures of the identity of a subject are not sufficiently reliable, i.e. do not guarantee with sufficient certainty that the subject to be identified is actually who he/she claims to be.
One embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a computer-implemented method and a system for remote interaction between at least one user and a human operator and between the at least one user and at least one automated agent as defined in the enclosed independent claims 1 and 9 and from their preferred embodiments described in the dependent claims 2 to 7, 10 and 11-17.
The Applicant has perceived that the remote interaction method and system in accordance with the present disclosure can significantly reduce the time spent waiting for the availability of a remote human operator, maintaining at the same time a reduced number of remote human operators, and also reduces the number of procedures for identification and authentication that do not conclude correctly the first time.
Furthermore the Applicant has perceived that the remote interaction method and system in accordance with the present disclosure can increase the reliability of the strong-type authentication procedures.
One embodiment of the present disclosure is a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as defined in the enclosed claim 8, said storage medium having a program comprising software code portions adapted to execute the steps of the method according to any of claims 1-7, when said program is run on at least one computer.
One embodiment of the present disclosure a computer program comprising software code portions adapted to perform the steps of the method according to any of claims 1-7, when said program is run on at least one computer.
Said computer program that performs the remote interaction method of claims 1-7 is a software program running partially on a user's electronic device, partially on an automated agent, partially on an electronic operator device and partially on a server device.
Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will become more apparent from the description which follows of a preferred embodiment and the variants thereof, provided by way of example with reference to the appended drawings, in which:
It should be observed that in the following description, identical or analogous blocks, components or modules are indicated in the figures with the same numerical references, even where they are illustrated in different embodiments of the disclosure.
With reference to
The electronic system for remote interaction 1 comprises:
It should be noted that for the sake of simplicity that
The telecommunications network 4 has the function of bidirectionally connecting the user's electronic device 10 with the electronic operator device 3 and the user's electronic device 10 with the automated agent 5, by means of a data communication channel and by means of the server device 2.
The telecommunications network 4 can be of the fixed type, mobile or a combination of fixed and mobile.
The server device 2 is an electronic device (for example, a computer or a working station) having the function of bidirectionally connecting the user's electronic device 10 with the electronic operator device 3 and bidirectionally connecting the user's electronic device 10 with the automated agent 5.
Furthermore, the server device 2 comprises a processing unit having the function of controlling the execution of the remote interaction processes on the user's electronic device 10, on the electronic operator device 3 and on the automated agent 5, by means of a client-server type architecture.
The electronic system 1 is configured to execute a remote interaction process implemented by means of a plurality of steps (or actions) executed by means of the remote interaction between the user's electronic device 10 and the electronic operator device 3 and by means of the remote interaction between the user's electronic device 10 and the automated agent 5, through the data communication channel and the server device 2.
The term “interaction process” means a procedure comprising a defined sequence of steps (or actions)—i.e. a plurality of predefined steps (or actions)—aimed at delivering a particular good or service for the user 7.
For example, the remote interaction process comprises a procedure for identification and authentication of the identity of the user 7 (in other words, a certification of the identity of the user 7) to deliver one of the following services:
In particular, the electronic system 1 is configured to execute the remote interaction process of hybrid type according to twophases:
By means of the first phase it is possible to perform all the steps (actions) that do not require the presence of the human operator 6, thus avoiding engaging the operator 6 in automated actions; therefore during the first phase the operator 6 can interact with another user other than the user 10 and thus it is possible to manage for example a high number of video identifications with a lower number of human operators.
For example, the interaction process comprises a verification of the identity of the user 7 (i.e., verification that the user 7 is really who he/she declares to be) and in the first automatic phase information representative of (or associated with) the identity of the user 7 is automatically acquired by means of actions that can be performed in an automatic manner, such as the following:
Furthermore, in the first phase it is possible to execute the same automated action more than once, in the case wherein a step (action) of the remote interaction procedure between the user 7 and the automated agent 5 has not been executed correctly.
For example, the remote interaction procedure comprises the remote certification of the identity of a subject and the step (action) executed in the first phase is the presentation of a document (such as an identity card) of the subject in front of a camera that it is supposed to occur in insufficient lighting conditions: in this case the automated agent 5 verifies that the quality of the acquired image of the document is inadequate and it does not proceed to the subsequent step (action) of the certification procedure of the identity of the user 7, but the automated agent 5 asks the user 7 to repeat the display of his identity document in front of the camera of the user's electronic device 10 in better lighting conditions.
Therefore in the first phase the automatic verifications are executed to determine whether it is or is not possible to continue with the next step (action) of the remote interaction procedure.
In the second phase, instead, the remaining steps (or actions) of the remote interaction process that require the presence of a human are executed, wherein said steps of the second phase can be one or more than one.
For example, the remote interaction procedure comprises the certification of the identity of a subject and in the second phase, the necessary steps (actions) are executed to validate the identity of the user 7, such as for example:
Therefore in the example of certification of the identity of a subject, in the second phase the human operator 8 receives the documents already verified in an optimum manner by means of the automated agent 5 and thus the operator 8 has only to check the documents in a few seconds and execute a real time video connection with the user 7.
The electronic operator device 3 is controlled by a human operator 6 and it is configured to run a software program (hereinafter indicated as “operator software application”) that allows interacting with the user's electronic device 10, in order to execute the second phase of the remote interaction process between the user's electronic device 10 and the electronic operator device 3.
The electronic operator device 3 comprises a processing unit, a transceiver, a graphic user interface (for example, an LCD or LED screen), a camera and a headset.
The electronic operator device 3 can be for example one of the following devices:
Similarly, the user's electronic device 10 is controlled by a user 7 and it is configured to run a software program that allows to:
The user's electronic device 10 is configured to exchange text messages with the automated agent 5 in the first phase and with the electronic operator device 3 in the second phase by means of respective chats, wherein the text messages are carried through the telecommunications network 4 and server device 2.
Alternatively or in combination with the chat, the user's electronic device 10 is configured to exchange audio messages with the automated agent 5 in the first phase and with the electronic operator device 3 in the second phase by means of respective audio chats, wherein the text and/or audio messages are carried through the telecommunications network 4 and the server device 2.
Alternatively or in combination with the chat, the user's electronic device 10 is configured to exchange audio-video messages with the automated agent 5 in the first phase and with the electronic operator device 3 in the second phase by means of respective audio-video chats, wherein the text and/or audio-video messages are carried through the telecommunications network 4 and the server device 2.
The user's electronic device 10 comprises a processing unit, a transceiver, a graphic user interface (for example, an LCD or LED screen), a camera and a headset.
The user's electronic device 10 can be for example one of the following devices:
The automated agent 5 is a software program running on the server 2 and it has the function of interacting with the user's electronic device 10 of the user 7, in order to execute the first automated step of the remote interaction process.
The automated agent 5 is configured to execute all the steps of the remote interaction process that can be performed in an automatic manner, i.e. without requiring the intervention of the human operator 6, as described above.
In one embodiment, the software program that implements the automated agent 5 runs artificial intelligence algorithms that are able to emulate the behaviour of a human being.
According to a preferred embodiment, the processing unit of the server device 2 is configured to calculate a digital identity reference profile associated with the user 7, as a function of the personal and/or biometric information of the user 10 collected during the first automated phase of the remote interaction process.
The term “identify reference profile” of the user means a collection of personal information identifying the user 7, such as for example an encoded text file that comprises one or more of the following:
In this case the memory 8 is configured to permanently store the digital identity reference profile of the user 10.
In other words, at the end of the first automatic phase the digital identity reference profile of the user 10 is calculated, which can advantageously be used subsequently, both in the second phase of the remote interaction process, and in the case of procedures for verifying the identity of the user 7 using a strong authentication, and for other applications outside of the interaction process considered.
In one embodiment, the biometric parameters of the digital identity reference profile are generated by means of the acquisition of a plurality of biometric parameters of the face of the subject 7 obtained by means of the movement of the head of the subject 7, as disclosed in the Italian patent application n. 102017000145528 filed on Dec. 18, 2017 in the name of the same Applicant, which is included for reference in the present description.
In particular, the digital identity reference profile is of an anonymous type.
For example, the remote interaction process comprises a verification and authentication procedure of the identity of the user 7: in this case in the first automated step (by means of the communication between the user's electronic device 7 and the automated agent 5 through the network 4 and the server 2) the personal information of the user 7 is acquired, such as name, surname, date and place of birth, residence address, fiscal code and a photograph.
The processing unit of the server device 2 processes the personal information acquired from the user 7 and generates, as a function therefrom, an anonymous hash code, i.e. by means of a suitable function a pseudo-random code is generated that provides in output the same result in the case of a same input.
According to a preferred embodiment, the digital identity reference profile of the user 10 is stored into a blockchain.
According to a first variant of the disclosure, the digital identity reference profile of the user 10 (calculated at the end of the first phase and stored permanently into the memory 8) is used to increase the security level in the procedures for verifying the identity of the user 7 in the case of use of a strong authentication, i.e. which use a combination of at least two authentication factors of a different type to increase the security level with which the subject is identified.
Therefore in case wherein the user 7 requests a good or service in telematics mode, it is possible to reuse the digital identity reference profile of the user 10 previously calculated and stored into the memory 8. In this case the user 10 carries out for the second time an identity verification procedure by means of the collection of personal and/or biometric-type data and a new digital identity profile of the user 7 is calculated in real time (hereinafter indicated as “sample profile of digital identity”, to distinguish it from the digital identity reference profile), which is compared (before or after another authentication factor) with repect to the digital identity reference profile stored into the memory 8:
in case wherein the comparison between the sample profile of digital identity of the user 7 (calculated in real time) and the digital identity reference profile of the user 7 (previously stored) is positive, this means that the authentication factor has been positive and thus it continues with the comparison of the other authentication factor (if subsequent to that of the digital identity profile) or the verification of the identity of the user 7 concludes successfully (in case wherein the factor of the digital identity profile is the last);
in case wherein the comparison between the sample profile of digital identity (calculated in real time) and the reference identity profile (previously stored) is negative, this means that the authentication of the user 7 has not been successful (i.e. the user 7 is not really who declares to be) and thus the verification of the identity of the user 7 terminates unsuccessfully.
For example, the digital identity reference profile (previously stored) is used to allow or deny access to the user 7 to a bank account, in case wherein it is used a strong authentication composed of a verification of the credentials of the user 7 followed by the verification of the digital identity profile of the user 7.
In this example the user 7 opens the bank's web page with a browser, enters his credentials with a positive outcome and then it is executed (by means of the processing unit in the server device 2) the comparison between the sample profile of digital identity of the user 7 (calculated in real time) and the digital identity reference profile of the user 7 (previously stored), in order to allow or deny the user 7 access to the requested bank account.
The above considerations relating to the digital identity reference profile of the user 7 are applicable in a similar way to the sample profile of digital identity of the user 7, i.e. the term “sample profile of identity” of the user means a collection of personal information identifying the user 7, such as for example one or more of the following:
In one embodiment, the biometric parameters of the sample profile of digital identity are generated by means of the acquisition of a plurality of biometric parameters of the face of the subject 7 obtained by means of the movement of the head of the subject 7, as disclosed in the Italian patent application n. 102017000145528 filed on Dec. 18, 2017 in the name of the same Applicant, which is included for reference in the present description.
According to a second variant of the disclosure, the digital identity reference profile of the user 10 (calculated at the end of the first phase and permanently stored into the memory 8) is used for access to third-party applications that require an acquisition of data identifying the identity of the user 10, for example by banks, telephone companies and insurance companies.
Therefore in the case in which the user 7 tries to log on for the first time to a software application by means of the user's electronic device 10 (after the user 7 has already carried out the remote interaction process a first time in order to generate his digital identity reference profile as illustrated above, in particular only the first automated phase), it is possible to reuse the digital identity reference profile of the user 7 (previously calculated and stored into the memory 8) to quickly provide data identifying the identity of the user 7 (i.e. sensitive and/or biometric data of the user 7) without again requesting the insertion of all his data (for example by means of a simple “click” with the mouse), thus creating a “digital passport” of the user 7.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
102018000010774 | Dec 2018 | IT | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/IB2019/060399 | 12/3/2019 | WO | 00 |