Contextual utterance resolution in multimodal systems
AssigneeCerence Operating Company
InventorsSlawek Jarosz, Cassandra Lee, Patrick Langer, Christian Ardelean, Mohammad Mehdi Moniri
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method of responding to a vocal utterance may include capturing and converting the utterance to word(s) using a language processing method, such as natural language processing. The context of the utterance and of the system, which may include multimodal inputs, may be used to determine the meaning and intent of the words.
Claims23
A method comprising:
- storing context data in a computer-readable medium, wherein the context data that are stored include data related to multimodal inputs, interactions with automotive systems, and automotive system status indicators, wherein said automotive system status indicators comprise automotive sensor readings;
- receiving a first utterance via a microphone, wherein said first utterance is a command given to a system that is selected from the group that consists of an infotainment system, a vehicular environment system, and a vehicle status-and-control system;
- and causing a computer-system having a multi-modal input to carry out a process for disambiguating the first utterance;
- wherein the process for disambiguating the first utterance comprises causing the computer-system having the multi-modal input to carry out the steps of applying the context data to the first utterance and determining a meaning of the first utterance based at least in part on the context data,
- wherein said context data comprises context factors,
- wherein applying context data to said first utterance is carried out after having determined that said first utterance remains ambiguous,
- wherein determining said meaning comprises, after having applied said context data, determining that said first utterance is no longer ambiguous,
- wherein said method further comprises responding to said first utterance,
- said method further comprising, after having caused said computer-system to carry out the process for disambiguating said first utterance, receiving a second utterance,
- determining that said second utterance is unambiguous,
- responding to said second utterance without application of said context data,
- receiving a third utterance,
- applying said context data to said third utterance,
- determining that said third utterance remains ambiguous, and
- requesting further information from a driver and/or a passenger in a vehicle that comprises said computer-system.
An apparatus comprising a multi-modal system for disambiguating utterances received via a microphone, said utterances comprising first, second, and third utterances, said second utterance having been received after said first utterance and said third utterance having been received after said second utterance, each of said utterances being a command given to a system that is selected from the group that consists of an infotainment system, a vehicular environment system, and a vehicle status-and-control system, wherein said multi-modal system is configured to store context data in a computer-readable medium, wherein said context data comprises context factors, data related to multimodal inputs received by said multi-modal system, data related to interactions with automotive systems, and data related to automotive system status indicators that comprise automotive sensor readings, wherein said multi-modal system is further configured to apply said context data for determining a meaning of each of said first, second, and third utterances, said context data being applied to said first utterance after having determined that said first utterance remains ambiguous, wherein determining a meaning of said first utterance comprises, after having applied said context data to said first utterance, determining that said first utterance is no longer ambiguous, wherein said multi-modal system is further configured to respond to said first utterance and, after having disambiguated said first utterance, to receive said second utterance, to determine that said second utterance is unambiguous, and to respond to said second utterance without application of said context data, wherein said multi-modal system is further configured to receive said third utterance, to apply said context data to said third utterance, to determine that said third utterance remains ambiguous, and to request further information from a driver and/or a passenger in a vehicle that comprises an infotainment system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.