Voice controlled computer interface

• US 20020178009A1
• Filed: 03/20/2002
• Published: 11/28/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/1989
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Multimodal Technologies Incorporated (3M Company)
• Original Assignee: Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products NV (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Firman, Thomas R.
• Application Number:
  US10/102,047
• Publication Number:
  US 20020178009A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence

Abstract

Voice utterances are substituted for manipulation of a pointing device of the kind which is manipulated to control motion of a cursor on a computer display and to indicate desired actions associated with the position of the cursor on the display. Voiced utterances are converted to commands, expressed in a predefined command language, to be used by an operating system of a computer, by converting some voiced utterances into commands corresponding to actions to be taken by the operating system, and converting other voiced utterances into commands which carry associated text strings to be used as part of text being processed in an application program running under the operating system. A table is generated for aiding the conversion of voiced utterances to commands for use in controlling an operating system of a computer to achieve desired actions in an application program running under the operating system.

Claims

1. A system for enabling voiced utterances to be substituted for manipulation of a pointing device, the pointing device being of the kind which is manipulated to control motion of a cursor on a computer display and to indicate desired actions associated with the position of the cursor on the display, the cursor being moved and the desired actions being aided by an operating system in the computer in response to control signals received from the pointing device, the computer also having an alphanumeric keyboard, the operating system being separately responsive to control signals received from the keyboard in accordance with a predetermined format specific to the keyboard, the system comprising

a voice recognizer for recognizing a voiced utterance, and

an interpreter for converting the voiced utterance into control signals which will directly create a desired action aided by the operating system in the computer without first being converted into control signals expressed in the predetermined format specific to the keyboard.

2. A method for converting voiced utterances to commands, expressed in a predefined command language, to be used by an operating system of a computer, comprising

converting some voiced utterances into commands corresponding to actions to be taken by said operating system, and

converting other voiced utterances into commands which carry associated text strings to be used as part of text being processed in an application program running under said operating system.

3. A method of generating a table for aiding the conversion of voiced utterances to commands for use in controlling an operating system of a computer to achieve desired actions in an application program running under the operating system, said application program including menus and control buttons, said method comprising

parsing the instruction sequence of the application program to identify menu entries and control buttons, and

including in said table an entry for each menu entry and control button found in said application program, each said entry containing a control command corresponding to said menu entry or control button.

4. A method of enabling a user to create an instance in a formal language of the kind which has a strictly defined syntax, comprising

providing a graphically displayed list of entries which are expressed in a natural language and which do not comply with said syntax,

permitting the user to point to an entry on said list, and

automatically generating said instance corresponding to the identified entry in the list in response to said pointing.