1. A discharging device (10) comprising
an external housing (20), a discharge port (66), a liquid container (80),
an outlet passage (58, 56, 70, 74), by means of which said liquid container (80) communicates with said discharge port (66), and
a manual actuator (82) capable of being moved relatively to said external housing (20),
said manual actuator (82) being mechanically coupled to said liquid container (80) such that displacement of said manual actuator (82) causes a reduction in volume of said liquid container (80),
characterized in that
to said outlet passage (58, 56, 70, 74) there is assigned a valve unit (54, 72), which, when open, permits communication between said liquid container (80) and said discharge port (66) and, when closed, blocks communication between said liquid container (88) and said discharge port (66), and
said valve unit (54, 72) has a valve manipulator (68) which is accessible from outside and by means of which said valve unit (54, 72) can be transferred, from outside, from the open state to the closed state.
2. The discharging device (10) as defined in claim 1,
characterized in that
said liquid container (80) is integrally configured with said manual actuator (82), and
a plunger portion (46) is provided which is immovable relatively to said external housing (20) and which moves into said liquid container (80) when a displacement of said liquid container (80) is caused by means of said manual actuator (82).
3. The discharging device as defined in claim 1,
characterized in that
said valve unit (54, 72) comprises two mutually displaceable valve components (54, 72), which in the closed state of said valve unit (54, 72) bear against each other to block said outlet passage (58, 56, 70, 74), said valve manipulator (68) being preferably configured integrally with, and more particularly as a single unit with, one of said valve components (72).
4. The discharging device as defined in claim 3, characterized in that
said valve components (54, 72) are capable of being moved relatively to each other in a displacement direction (6a, 6b),
a first valve component (54) is in the form of a cylindrical or conical valve pin (54) extending in said displacement direction (6a, 6b), and a second valve component (72) is in the form of a cylindrical or conical valve sleeve (72) which at least in the closed state surrounds and bears against said valve pin (54) and extends in said displacement direction (6a, 6b), and said valve sleeve (72) has radially extending vortexing orifices (74).
5. The discharging device as defined in claim 1
characterized in that
said discharge port (66) is provided with a valve body (60) that is movable relatively to said external housing (20).
6. The discharging device as defined in claim 1
characterized in that
said valve unit (54, 72) is in the form of a bistable valve unit (54, 72) capable of maintaining the closed state and the open state without application of external force or pressure.
7. The discharging device as defined in claim 1,
characterized in that
said valve unit (54, 72) is adapted to respond to the application of force on said manual actuator (82) by moving from the closed state to the open state.
8. The discharging device as defined in claim 1,
characterized in that
said valve manipulator (68) is configured andor disposed such that it is not possible to transfer said valve unit (54, 72) from its closed state to the open state from outside by means of said valve manipulator (68).
9. The discharging device as defined in claim 8, characterized in that
said valve manipulator (68) is positioned in an aperture (26) of said external housing (20) and in the closed state of said valve unit (54, 72) is at least partially countersunk in relation to an external surface of said external housing (20).
10. An assembly method for a discharging device as defined in claim 1,
characterized in that
a. said valve unit (54, 72) is set to its open state,
b. said liquid container (80) at least partially filled with liquid is fitted to said outlet passage (58, 56, 70, 74) such that said liquid container (80) communicates with an external environment only via the outlet port (66),
c. the volume of said liquid container (80) is then reduced, and
d. said valve unit (54, 72) is then transferred to its closed state.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method, comprising:
categorizing a plurality of events which occur during automated conversations based on an impact of the events on a level of user satisfaction with the automated conversations;
assigning to each category of events a quality score corresponding to the impact on user satisfaction of the events in each category; and
initiating a conversation handling action for one of the conversations based on the categories of events detected during the one of the conversations.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the categories of events includes the steps of:
identifying categorized events occurring in the one of the conversations; and
incrementing a total quality score by a value corresponding to the quality score for each identified event.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the conversation handling action is initiated at a total quality score threshold.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the automated conversations are automated phone calls.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the conversation handling action is transferring the one of the phone calls to a live operator.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the events include one of a confirmation event, a no input event, a no match event, a correction event and a more than one repeat event.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
resetting the total quality score prior to initiating a conversation handling action.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the resetting is in response to the occurrence of an event categorized as having a positive impact on user satisfaction with the automated conversations.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the quality scores assigned to the various categories of events is based on a characteristic of the user.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the characteristic includes a location of the user.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein the quality score corresponding to a category of events is based on a characteristic of the user.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein the initiating step is suspended for the one of the conversations when the one of the conversations reaches a predefined state.
13. A system, comprising:
a storage module storing a categorization of a plurality of events which occur during automated conversations, the categorization being based on an impact of the events on a level of user satisfaction with the automated conversations, wherein each of the events of each category is assigned a quality score corresponding to the impact on user satisfaction of the events in each category; and
a quality score module initiating a conversation handling action for one of the conversations based on the categories of events detected during the one of the conversations.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein the quality score module records a total quality score for the one of the conversations by identifying categorized events occurring in the one of the conversations and incrementing the total quality score by a value corresponding to the quality score for each identified event.
15. The system of claim 13, further comprising:
a conversation handling module implementing the conversation handling action when initiated by the quality score module.
16. The system of claim 13, further comprising:
an automated prompting module providing prompts to a user during the automated conversation.
17. The system of claim 16, further comprising:
an automatic speech recognition engine analyzing user responses to the prompts to identify information included in the responses.
18. The system of claim 13, wherein the conversation handling action is transferring the one of the automated conversations to a non-automated conversation handler.
19. The system of claim 17, wherein the conversation handling action is a change of a parameter of the automatic speech recognition engine.
20. The system of claim 14, wherein the conversation handling action is initiated when a total quality score threshold is reached.
21. The system of claim 20, wherein the total quality score threshold is set based on desired performance characteristics of the system to achieve a desired minimum level of customer satisfaction.
22. The system of claim 13, wherein the quality score module is implemented using Voice XML.
23. A system comprising a memory to store a set of instructions and a processor to execute the set of instructions, the set of instructions being operable to:
access a categorization of a plurality of events which occur during automated conversations, the categorization being based on an impact of the events on a level of user satisfaction with the automated conversations;
access a quality score assigned to each category of events, the quality score corresponding to the impact on user satisfaction of the events in each category; and
initiate a conversation handling action for one of the conversations based on the categories of events detected during the one of the conversations.
24. A method, comprising:
categorizing a plurality of events which occur during automated conversations based on an impact of the events on a level of user satisfaction with the automated conversations;
assigning to each category of events a quality score corresponding to the impact on user satisfaction of the events in each category; and
recording user satisfaction for a plurality of automated conversations based on the categorization of events detected during the conversations.
25. A method, comprising:
storing a sequence of events which occur during automated conversations;
recording events in one of the automated conversations;
initiating a conversation handling action for the one of the conversations when the recorded events correspond to the stored sequence of events.