Systems and methods for determining correct pronunciation of dictated words

• US 10,546,580 B2
• Filed: 12/05/2017
• Issued: 01/28/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Incorporated (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Friedman, Scott A., Remegio, Prince R., Falkenmayer, Tim Uwe, Kyle, Roger Akira, Kakimi, Ryoma, Heide, Luke D., Puranik, Nishikant Narayan
• Primary Examiner(s): Abebe, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US15/832,247
• Publication Number:
  US 20190172446A1
• Time in Patent Office: 784 Days
• Field of Search: 704275
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/065 Adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/187 Phonemic context, e.g. pronunciation rules, phonotactical constraints or phoneme 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 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/225 Feedback of the input speech

Abstract

Methods, systems, and vehicle components for providing a corrected pronunciation suggestion to a user are disclosed. A method includes receiving, by a microphone communicatively coupled to a processing device, a voice input from the user, the voice input including a particularly pronounced word. The method further includes comparing, by the processing device, the particularly pronounced word to one or more reference words in a reference table, determining, by the processing device, that the particularly pronounced word has been potentially mispronounced by the user based on the one or more reference words in the reference table, determining, by the processing device, a corrected pronunciation suggestion from the one or more reference words, and providing, via a user interface, the corrected pronunciation suggestion to the user.

Claims

1. A method for providing a corrected pronunciation suggestion to a user of a vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving, by a microphone communicatively coupled to a processing device, a voice input to a navigation system user interface from the user of the vehicle, wherein the voice input comprises a particularly pronounced word and a voiced spelling of the particularly pronounced word;

determining, by the processing device, supplemental information corresponding to the particularly pronounced word, the supplemental information comprising GPS coordinates of the vehicle at the time the voice input was received;

comparing, by the processing device, the particularly pronounced word and the voiced spelling to one or more reference words in a reference table for a regional dialect selected based on the GPS coordinates;

determining, by the processing device, that the particularly pronounced word has been potentially mispronounced by the user of the vehicle based on the voiced spelling and the one or more reference words in the reference table;

determining, by the processing device, the corrected pronunciation suggestion from the voiced spelling and the one or more reference words; and

providing, via a user interface, the corrected pronunciation suggestion to the user of the vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an input corresponding to an acceptance of the corrected pronunciation suggestion;

determining a command corresponding to the voice input and the corrected pronunciation suggestion; and

executing the command.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an input corresponding to a rejection of the corrected pronunciation suggestion; and

modifying the reference table to include a voice tag corresponding to the particularly pronounced word.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining a command corresponding to the voice input and the particularly pronounced word; and

executing the command.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the corrected pronunciation suggestion to the user comprises providing a local pronunciation suggestion or a regional pronunciation suggestion to the user.

6. A system for providing a corrected pronunciation suggestion to a user of a vehicle, the system comprising:

a microphone;

a processing device communicatively coupled to the microphone; and

a non-transitory, processor-readable storage medium, the non-transitory, processor-readable storage medium comprising one or more programming instructions thereon that, when executed, cause the processing device to;

receive, from the microphone, data pertaining to a voice input to a navigation system user interface from the user, wherein the voice input comprises a particularly pronounced word and a voiced spelling of the particularly pronounced word,

determine supplemental information corresponding to the particularly pronounced word, the supplemental information comprising GPS coordinates of the vehicle at the time the voice input was received,

compare the particularly pronounced word and the voiced spelling to one or more reference words in a reference table for a regional dialect selected based on the GPS coordinates,

determine that the particularly pronounced word has been potentially mispronounced by the user of the vehicle based on the voiced spelling and the one or more reference words in the reference table,

determine the corrected pronunciation suggestion from the voiced spelling and the one or more reference words, and

provide the corrected pronunciation suggestion to the user of the vehicle.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the system is located in the vehicle.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the non-transitory, processor-readable storage medium further comprises one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the processing device to compare the supplemental information to the one or more reference words in the reference table.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the non-transitory, processor-readable storage medium further comprises one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the processing device to:

receive an input corresponding to an acceptance of the corrected pronunciation suggestion;

determine a command corresponding to the voice input and the corrected pronunciation suggestion; and

execute the command.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the non-transitory, processor-readable storage medium further comprises one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the processing device to:

receive an input corresponding to a rejection of the corrected pronunciation suggestion; and

modify the reference table to include a voice tag corresponding to the particularly pronounced word.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the non-transitory, processor-readable storage medium further comprises one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the processing device to:

determine a command corresponding to the voice input and the particularly pronounced word; and

execute the command.

12. The system of claim 6, wherein the one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the processing device to provide the corrected pronunciation suggestion to the user further cause the processing device to provide a local pronunciation suggestion or a regional pronunciation suggestion to the user.

13. A vehicle component for providing a corrected pronunciation suggestion to a user of the vehicle, the vehicle component comprising:

a microphone configured to receive a voice input from the user of the vehicle when the user of the vehicle voices a request to a navigation system user interface, wherein the voice input comprises a particularly pronounced word and a voiced spelling of the particularly pronounced word; and

a processing device communicatively coupled to the microphone and configured to;

determine supplemental information corresponding to the particularly pronounced word, the supplemental information comprising GPS coordinates of the vehicle at the time the voice input was received,

compare the particularly pronounced word and the voiced spelling to one or more reference words in a reference table for a regional dialect selected based on the GPS coordinates,

determine that the particularly pronounced word has been potentially mispronounced by the user of the vehicle based on the voiced spelling and the one or more reference words in the reference table,

determine the corrected pronunciation suggestion from the voiced spelling and the one or more reference words, and

provide the corrected pronunciation suggestion to the user of the vehicle.

14. The vehicle component of claim 13, wherein:

the voice input further comprises supplemental information corresponding to the particularly pronounced word; and

the corrected pronunciation suggestion is a local pronunciation suggestion or a regional pronunciation suggestion.