Voice interactive system and method

A voice interactive method, comprising:

• performing acoustic signal processing with respect to an input voice signal and producing a processed, output signal;
• recognizing contents of a voice contained in the processed, output signal, after the input voice signal has been subjected to the acoustic signal processing;
• transmitting information to a user through a voice output or a combination of the voice output and another information transmission unit based on the contents of the voice;
• and
• determining whether a barge-in function of suspending transmission of information by an input or an output in the performing acoustic signal processing or an input signal from an external input in the transmission information to a user is set to be effective or non-effective, wherein, in the determining:
• one or more feature values are detected from the input voice signal or the processed, output signal or the input signal from the external input, and whether or not the barge-in function is set to be effective is determined based on the one or more feature values, the one or more feature values including positional information of the user detected from the input signal from the external input,
• an environment evaluation value of a position of the user is calculated, based on the positional information and environmental information on the position, and
• the barge-in function is determined to be non-effective in the case where the environment evaluation value exceeds a predetermined threshold value by comparing the position of the user with previously recorded map information that represents noise levels in a plurality of areas.

A recording medium encoded with a computer-executable program for realizing a voice interactive method, the program causing the computer to execute:

• performing acoustic signal processing with respect to an input voice signal and producing a processed, output signal;
• recognizing contents of a voice contained in the processed, output signal after the input voice has been subjected to the acoustic signal processing;
• transmitting information to a user through a voice output or a combination of the voice output and another information transmission unit based on the contents of the voice;
• and
• determining whether a barge-in function of suspending transmission of information by an input or an output in the acoustic signal processing or an input signal from an external input the transmitting information to a user is set to be effective or non-effective, wherein, in the, determining:
• one or more feature values are detected from the input voice signal or the processed, output signal or the input signal from the external input, and whether or not the barge-in function is set to be effective is determined based on the one or more feature values, and the one or more feature values include positional information of the user detected from the input signal from the external input, and
• an environment evaluation value of a position of the user is calculated based on the positional information and environmental information on the position, and the barge-in function is determined to be non-effective in the case where the environment evaluation value exceeds a predetermined threshold value by comparing the position of the user with previously recorded map information that represents noise levels in a plurality of areas.