Electronic device and method of voice command processing therefor

• US 10,148,807 B2
• Filed: 12/09/2016
• Issued: 12/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kim, Daeyoung, Shin, Sangwook, Kim, Kyungtae, Jeon, Yongjoon, Hwang, Minkyung
• Primary Examiner(s): Jia, Xin
• Application Number:
  US15/373,892
• Publication Number:
  US 20170230497A1
• Time in Patent Office: 725 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/32 Multiple recognisers used in sequence or in parallel; Score combination systems therefor, e.g. voting systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72469 for operating the device by selecting functions from two or more displayed items, e.g. menus or icons
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72484 wherein functions are triggered by incoming communication events
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/42 Graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion

Abstract

Provided are an electronic device and method of voice command processing therefor. The electronic device may include: a housing having a surface; a display disposed in the housing and exposed through the surface; an audio input interface comprising audio input circuitry disposed in the housing; an audio output interface comprising audio output circuitry disposed in the housing; at least one wireless communication circuit disposed in the housing and configured to select one of plural communication protocols for call setup; a processor disposed in the housing and electrically connected with the display, the audio input interface, the audio output interface, the at least one wireless communication circuit, and a codec; and a memory electrically connected with the processor. The memory may store at least one codec supporting multiple modes associated with different frequency bands. The memory may store instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to perform operations comprising: setting up a call using the wireless communication circuit, selecting one of the multiple modes based on the selected communication protocol, selecting a speech recognition model based on the selected mode, receiving a voice command from the outside of the electronic device using the wireless communication circuit, and processing the voice command using the selected speech recognition model.

Claims

1. An electronic device comprising:

a housing;

a display disposed on a surface on the housing;

an audio input interface comprising audio input circuitry disposed in the housing;

an audio output interface comprising audio output circuitry disposed in the housing;

at least one wireless communication circuit disposed in the housing and configured to select one of plural different communication protocols for call setup;

a processor disposed in the housing and electrically connected with the display, the audio input interface, the audio output interface, and the at least one wireless communication circuit; and

a memory electrically connected with the processor,

wherein the memory stores at least one codec supporting multiple modes each respectively associated with a different frequency band and a plurality of speech recognition models being respectively associated with the different frequency band,

wherein the memory stores instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

controlling setting up a call using the wireless communication circuit,

selecting one of the multiple modes based on the selected communication protocol,

selecting one of the plurality of speech recognition models based on a frequency band corresponding to the selected mode,

receiving a voice command from the outside of the electronic device using the wireless communication circuit, and

processing the voice command using the selected speech recognition model.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

activating a function of the electronic device based on the voice command.

3. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the voice command comprises an utterance selected for speech recognition.

4. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying a frequency band based on the phone number of an external device associated with the call.

5. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

displaying on the display a graphical user interface for selecting at least one device from which a voice command is receivable, and

receiving a voice command from at least one of the electronic device and an external device engaged in a call with the electronic device based on an input to the user interface.

6. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

sending pre-stored text data to an external device when either a call is automatically set up based on an absence of a call answering signal for a given time after reception of a call request from the external device or if a voice input is not received through the audio input interface within a given time after the call is set up, and displaying on the display text data received from the external device.

7. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

displaying a graphical user interface for determining whether to activate a real-time messaging application when a second call request is received from another external device during the call, and using, when a selection is made to activate the real-time messaging application, the real-time messaging application to send and receive text data to and from the other external device.

8. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

converting, upon reception of a request signal during a call with an external device, voice data from the external device into text data, storing the text data, and displaying the text data on the display.

9. A method for processing voice commands in an electronic device, the method comprising:

setting up a call through a wireless communication circuit;

selecting one of multiple modes each associated with a different frequency band based on a communication protocol selected for the call setup;

selecting one of a plurality of speech recognition models based on a frequency band corresponding to the selected mode, the plurality of speech recognition models being respectively associated with the different frequency band;

receiving a voice command from the outside of the electronic device through the wireless communication circuit; and

processing the voice command using the selected speech recognition model,

wherein setting up a call comprises automatically setting up a call when a call answering signal is not received for a predetermined time after reception of a call request from an external device and the method further comprises;

sending pre-stored text data to the external device engaged in the call; and

displaying text data received from the external device.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising activating a function of the electronic device based on the voice command.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the voice command comprises an utterance selected for speech recognition.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising identifying a frequency band based on a phone number of the external device associated with the call.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

displaying a graphical user interface for selecting at least one device from which a voice command is receivable; and

receiving a voice command from at least one of the electronic device and the external device engaged in the call with the electronic device based on an input to the user interface.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

displaying, when a second call request is received from another external device during an ongoing call, a graphical user interface for determining whether to activate a real-time messaging application; and

utilizing, when a selection is made to activate the real-time messaging application, the real-time messaging application to send and receive text data to and from the other external device.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

converting, upon reception of a request signal during the call, voice data from the external device into text data and storing the text data; and

displaying the text data.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising storing information on a communication protocol of the external device engaged in the call after the call setup.