Centralized method and system for clarifying voice commands

• US 20060106614A1
• Filed: 11/16/2004
• Published: 05/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chambers, Robert L., Mowatt, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,942,985 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/18 using natural language modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context

Abstract

A method and system for facilitating centralized interaction with a user includes providing a recognized voice command to a plurality of application modules. A plurality of interpretations of the voice command are generated by at least one of the plurality of application modules. A centralized interface module visually renders the plurality of interpretations of the voice command on a centralized display. An indication of selection of an interpretation is received from the user.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of facilitating centralized interaction with a user, the method comprising:

providing a recognized voice command to a plurality of application modules;

receiving a plurality of interpretations of the voice command, the plurality of interpretations generated by at least one of the plurality of application modules;

visually rendering the plurality of interpretations of the voice command on a centralized display; and

receiving an indication of selection of an interpretation from the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein visually rendering the plurality of interpretations comprises visually rendering the plurality of interpretations in a list, each of the plurality of interpretations having a corresponding identifier.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving an indication of selection of an interpretation comprises receiving a speech signal indicating an identifier that corresponds to the selected interpretation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving an indication of selection of an interpretation comprises receiving an input device signal indicating an identifier that corresponds to the selection of interpretation.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising visually rendering an alternative that allows the user to choose to respeak the voice command.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising visually rendering a plurality of refreshed interpretations when the user chooses to respeak the voice command.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising visually rendering an alternative that allows the user to choose to create a new interpretation that is not included in the plurality of interpretations.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein allowing the user to choose to create a new interpretation further comprises receiving an audible spelling of the new interpretation.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising conveying the selected interpretation to the at least one application module after the indication of selection is received.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the centralized display comprises a centralized panel that is displayed in a consistent location on a computing device display.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising visually rendering a list of alternative spellings for a misrecognized utterance on the centralized display.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising visually rendering feedback from the plurality of application modules on the centralized display.

13. A computer-implemented system for facilitating centralized interaction with a user, the system comprising:

an audio capture module configured to capture a voice command;

a speech recognizer configured to recognize the voice command by accessing a plurality of commands in a grammar;

a centralized interface module configured to;

visually render a plurality of interpretations from at least one of a plurality of application modules when the recognized voice command is ambiguous; and

receive an indication of selection of one of the plurality of interpretations.

14. The computer-implemented system of claim 13, wherein the centralized interface is adapted to convey the indication of selection to the at least one of a plurality of application modules.

15. The computer-implemented system of claim 13, further comprising a centralized display configured to display a centralized panel that visually renders the list of interpretations.

16. The computer-implemented system of claim 13, wherein the centralized interface module is adapted to visually render an alternative that allows the user to choose to respeak the voice command.

17. The computer-implemented system of claim 16, wherein the centralized interface module is adapted to refresh the visually rendered list of interpretations when the user chooses to respeak the voice command.

18. The computer-implemented system of claim 13, wherein the centralized interface module is adapted to visually render an alternative that allows the user to choose to create a voice command that is not visually rendered in the list of interpretations.

19. The computer-implemented system of claim 18, wherein the centralized interface module is adapted to receive the created voice command in the form of a spelled command.

20. The computer-implemented system of claim 13, wherein the centralized interface module is adapted to visually render a list of alternative phrases for a dictated phrase that includes a recognition error.

21. The computer-implemented system of claim 20, wherein the centralized interface module is adapted to visually render an alternative that allows the user to choose to respeak the dictated phrase.

22. The computer-implemented system of claim 20, wherein the centralized interface module is adapted to visually render an alternative that allows the user to choose to create a word not shown in the list of alternative spellings.

23. The computer-implemented system of claim 13, wherein the centralized interface module is adapted to visually render feedback from the plurality of application modules.

24. The computer-implemented system of claim 13, further comprising a grammar generator module configured to generate the grammar based on commands received from the plurality of application modules.

25. The computer-implemented system of claim 13, wherein the recognized voice command is ambiguous when the recognized voice command can be processed by at least some of the plurality of application modules.

26. The computer-implemented system of claim 13, wherein the recognized voice command is ambiguous when one of the application modules determines that more than one action can be executed based on the recognized voice command.

27. A computer-implemented method of facilitating centralized interaction with a user, the method comprising:

capturing a voice command;

recognizing the voice command by accessing a grammar of recognizable commands;

determining that the recognized voice command is ambiguous; and

visually rendering a list of interpretations of the recognized voice command on a centralized display;

receiving an indication of selection of one of the interpretations.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the list of interpretations are generated by a plurality of application modules.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the list of interpretations are based on a notion that more than one instance of an application is operating.

30. The method of claim 27, further comprising visually rendering an alternative that allows the user to choose to respeak the voice command.

31. The method of claim 27, further comprising visually rendering an alternative that allows the user to choose to create a voice command that does not correspond to an interpretation in the list of interpretations.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein allowing the user to choose to create a new interpretation comprises receiving an audible spelling of the new interpretation.