US 7,693,720 B2Granted

Mobile systems and methods for responding to natural language speech utterance

AssigneeVoiceBox Technologies, Inc.

InventorsRobert A. Kennewick, David Locke, Michael R. Kennewick, Sr., Michael R. Kennewick, Jr., Richard Kennewick, Tom Freeman, Stephen F. Elston

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Abstract

Mobile systems and methods that overcomes the deficiencies of prior art speech-based interfaces for telematics applications through the use of a complete speech-based information query, retrieval, presentation and local or remote command environment. This environment makes significant use of context, prior information, domain knowledge, and user specific profile data to achieve a natural environment for one or more users making queries or commands in multiple domains. Through this integrated approach, a complete speech-based natural language query and response environment can be created. The invention creates, stores and uses extensive personal profile information for each user, thereby improving the reliability of determining the context and presenting the expected results for a particular question or command. The invention may organize domain specific behavior and information into agents, that are distributable or updateable over a wide area network. The invention can be used in dynamic environments such as those of mobile vehicles to control and communicate with both vehicle systems and remote systems and devices.

Claims55

Dependent claims

A mobile system responsive to a user generated natural language speech utterance, comprising:

a speech unit connected to a computer device on a vehicle, wherein the speech unit receives a natural language speech utterance from a user and converts the received natural language speech utterance into an electronic signal;
and
a natural language speech processing system connected to the computer device on the vehicle, wherein the natural language speech processing system receives, processes, and responds to the electronic signal using data received from a plurality of domain agents, wherein the natural language speech processing system includes:
a speech recognition engine that recognizes at least one of words or phrases from the electronic signal using at least the data received from the plurality of domain agents, wherein the data used by the speech recognition engine includes a plurality of dictionary and phrase entries that are dynamically updated based on at least a history of a current dialog and one or more prior dialogs associated with the user;
a parser that interprets the recognized words or phrases, wherein the parser uses at least the data received from the plurality of domain agents to interpret the recognized words or phrases, wherein the parser interprets the recognized words or phrases by:
determining a context for the natural language speech utterance;
selecting at least one of the plurality of domain agents based on the determined context;
and
transforming the recognized words or phrases into at least one of a question or a command, wherein the at least one question or command is formulated in a grammar that the selected domain agent uses to process the formulated question or command;
and
an agent architecture that communicatively couples services of each of an agent manager, a system agent, the plurality of domain agents, and an agent library that includes one or more utilities that can be used by the system agent and the plurality of domain agents, wherein the selected domain agent uses the communicatively coupled services to create a response to the formulated question or command and format the response for presentation to the user.

8 more elements

A method responsive to a user generated natural language speech utterance, comprising:

receiving, at a speech unit connected to a computer device on a vehicle, a natural language speech utterance from a user, wherein the speech unit converts the received natural language speech utterance into an electronic signal;
recognizing, at a speech recognition engine connected to the computer device on the vehicle, at least one of words or phrases from the electronic signal, wherein the speech recognition engine uses at least data received from a plurality of domain agents to recognize the words or phrases, wherein the data used by the speech recognition engine includes a plurality of dictionary and phrase entries that are dynamically updated based on at least a history of a current dialog and one or more prior dialogs associated with the user;
determining, at a parser connected to the computer device on the vehicle, a context for the natural language speech utterance;
selecting, at the parser connected to the computer device on the vehicle, at least one of the plurality of domain agents based on the determined context;
transforming, at the parser connected to the computer device on the vehicle, the recognized words or phrases into at least one of a question or a command, wherein the at least one question or command is formulated in a grammar that the selected domain agent uses to process the formulated question or command;
and
forwarding the formulated question or command to an agent architecture connected to the computer device on the vehicle, wherein the agent architecture communicatively couples services of each of an agent manager, a system agent, the plurality of domain agents, and an agent library that includes one or more utilities that can be used by the system agent and the plurality of domain agents, wherein the selected domain agent uses the communicatively coupled services to create a response to the formulated question or command and format the response for presentation to the user.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 10/618,633Filed 15 Jul 2003 · us provisional application
Priority: 15 Jul 2002
Published: US 2004/0193420 A130 Sep 2004
Granted: 6 Apr 2010
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.