Speech Recognition
AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC
InventorRaymond J. Froelich
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Voice input is received from a user. An ASR system generates in memory a set of words it has identified in the voice input, and update the set each time it identifies a new word in the voice input to add the new word to the set, during at least one interval of speech activity. Information is pre-retrieved whilst the speech activity interval is still ongoing, for conveying in a response to be outputted at the end of the speech activity interval.
Claims20
A computer system comprising:
- an input configured to receive voice input from a user;
- an ASR system for identifying individual words in the voice input, wherein the ASR system is configured to generate in memory during at least one interval of speech activity in the voice input a set of one or more words it has identified in the voice input, and update the set in the memory each time it identifies a new word in the voice input to add the new word to the set;
- a lookup module configured to retrieve during the interval of speech activity in the voice input at least one word from the set in the memory at a first time whilst the speech activity interval is still ongoing, and perform a lookup whilst the speech activity interval is still ongoing to pre-retrieve information associated with the at least one word;
- and
- a response generation module configured to detect the end of the speech activity interval at a later time, the set having been updated by the ASR system at least once between the first time and the later time, and to generate based thereon a response for outputting to the user, wherein the response conveys the information pre-retrieved by the lookup module.
A computer-implemented method of effecting communication between a user and an artificial intelligence software agent executed on a computer, the method comprising:
- receiving at an ASR system voice input from the user;
- identifying by the ASR system individual words in the voice input, wherein the ASR system generates in memory during at least one interval of speech activity in the voice input a set of one or more words it has identified in the voice input, and updates the set in the memory each time it identifies a new word in the voice input to add the new word to the set;
- retrieving during the interval of speech activity in the voice input at least one word from the set in the memory at a first time whilst the speech activity interval is still ongoing;
- performing a lookup whilst the speech activity interval is still ongoing to pre-retrieve information associated with the at least one word;
- detecting the end of the speech activity interval at a later time, the set having been updated by the ASR system at least once between the first time and the later time;
- and
- generating based thereon a response for outputting to the user, by the software agent, wherein the response conveys the information pre-retrieved by the lookup module.
A computer program product comprising an artificial intelligence software agent stored on a computer readable storage medium, the software agent for communicating with a user based on the output of an ASR system, the ASR system for receiving voice input from the user and identifying individual words in the voice input during at least one interval of speech activity in the voice input, the software agent being configured when executed to perform operations of:
- retrieving during the interval of speech activity in the voice input at least one word from the set at a first time whilst the speech activity interval is still ongoing;
- performing a lookup whilst the speech activity interval is still ongoing to pre-retrieve information associated with the at least one word;
- detecting the end of the speech activity interval at a later time, the set having been updated by the ASR system at least once between the first time and the later time;
- and
- generating based thereon a response for outputting to the user, by the software agent, wherein the response conveys the information pre-retrieved by the lookup module.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.