Voice recognition system

• US 10,269,354 B2
• Filed: 03/02/2018
• Issued: 04/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Aleksic, Petar, Moreno Mengibar, Pedro J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Shreyans A
• Application Number:
  US15/910,872
• Publication Number:
  US 20180190293A1
• Time in Patent Office: 417 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/632 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/04 Segmentation; Word boundary detection
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/183 using context dependencies, e.g. language models
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/19 Grammatical context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word sequence rules
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/197 Probabilistic grammars, e.g. word n-grams
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/085 Methods for reducing search complexity, pruning

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for voice recognition. In one aspect, a method includes the actions of receiving a voice input; determining a transcription for the voice input, wherein determining the transcription for the voice input includes, for a plurality of segments of the voice input: obtaining a first candidate transcription for a first segment of the voice input; determining one or more contexts associated with the first candidate transcription; adjusting a respective weight for each of the one or more contexts; and determining a second candidate transcription for a second segment of the voice input based in part on the adjusted weights; and providing the transcription of the plurality of segments of the voice input for output.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving audio data corresponding to a voice input of a user, the voice input including a first segment and a second segment;

providing, for output, a transcription of the voice input of the user, the transcription including a first transcription corresponding to the first segment and a second transcription corresponding to the second segment, wherein;

the first transcription for the first segment is associated with one or more contexts, the one or more contexts respectively associated with one or more base weights; and

the second transcription for the second segment is determined based on adjusting a respective base weight of the one or more base weights for each of the one or more contexts based on the first transcription.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more contexts include data including a user'"'"'s geographic location, a user'"'"'s search history, user'"'"'s interests, or a user'"'"'s activity.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining data representing the one or more contexts.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving one or more search results responsive to the transcription; and

providing the one or more search results to the user.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the first segment of the voice input satisfies stability criteria; and

in response to determining that the first segment of the voice input satisfies the stability criteria, obtaining the first transcription for the first segment.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the stability criteria comprises one or more sematic characteristics of the first segment of the voice input.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the stability criteria comprises a time delay occurring after the first segment of the voice input.

5. A system comprising:

one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

receiving audio data corresponding to a voice input of a user, the voice input including a first segment and a second segment; and

providing, for output, a transcription of the voice input of the user, the transcription including a first transcription corresponding to the first segment and a second transcription corresponding to the second segment, wherein;

the first transcription for the first segment is associated with one or more contexts, the one or more contexts respectively associated with one or more base weights; and

the second transcription for the second segment is determined based on adjusting a respective base weight of the one or more base weights for each of the one or more contexts based on the first transcription.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the one or more contexts include data including a user'"'"'s geographic location, a user'"'"'s search history, user'"'"'s interests, or a user'"'"'s activity.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the operations further comprise maintaining data representing the one or more contexts.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving one or more search results responsive to the transcription; and

providing the one or more search results to the user.

15. The system of claim 5, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining that the first segment of the voice input satisfies stability criteria; and

in response to determining that the first segment of the voice input satisfies the stability criteria, obtaining the first transcription for the first segment.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the stability criteria comprises one or more sematic characteristics of the first segment of the voice input.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the stability criteria comprises a time delay occurring after the first segment of the voice input.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more computers which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

receiving audio data corresponding to a voice input of a user, the voice input including a first segment and a second segment; and

providing, for output, a transcription of the voice input of the user, the transcription including a first transcription corresponding to the first segment and a second transcription corresponding to the second segment, wherein;

the first transcription for the first segment is associated with one or more contexts, the one or more contexts respectively associated with one or more base weights; and

the second transcription for the second segment is determined based on adjusting a respective base weight of the one or more base weights for each of the one or more contexts based on the first transcription.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise maintaining data representing the one or more contexts.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving one or more search results responsive to the transcription; and

providing the one or more search results to the user.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining that the first segment of the voice input satisfies stability criteria; and

in response to determining that the first segment of the voice input satisfies the stability criteria, obtaining the first transcription for the first segment.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the stability criteria comprises one or more sematic characteristics of the first segment of the voice input.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the stability criteria comprises a time delay occurring after the first segment of the voice input.