Voice interface to NFC applications

• US 20080162141A1
• Filed: 12/28/2006
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Lortz, Victor B.
• Granted Patent: US 8,386,259 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/270.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/00 Speech or voice signal processing techniques to produce another audible or non-audible signal, e.g. visual or tactile, in order to modify its quality or its intelligibility G10L19/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72445 for supporting Internet browser applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/04 including near field communication means, e.g. RFID
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/74 with voice recognition means

Abstract

A method for combining speech recognition with near field communication (NFC) to enable a user to enter, store, and use web addresses on portable devices. A user of a portable device having a NFC reader, a voice input interface, a speech recognition system, and memory enables the NFC reader of the portable device to touch a NFC tag or reader found on an object. The object containing information of interest to a user of the portable device; wherein when the NFC reader and the NFC tag or reader touch, the portable device receives a URI and default keywords associated with the URI. The portable device stores the URI in a persistent storage of the portable device based on the default keywords, and date, time, and location of when and where the URI was obtained. The user of the portable device can then retrieve and use the URI at a later time using the voice input interface and the speech recognition system, wherein when the user speaks the default keywords into the voice input interface, the speech recognition system to retrieve the URI.

Claims

1. A portable device for processing Web content comprising:

a processor coupled to an NFC (Near Field Communications) reader, an audio input interface, a speech recognition system, and memory, the NFC reader to read URI (Universal Resource Identifier) input and associated keywords from objects having NFC tags, the memory to store the URI input based on the associated keywords, and the audio input interface and the speech recognition system to enable a user of the portable device to retrieve the URI input from memory verbally using the associated keywords.

2. The portable device of claim 1, wherein the audio input interface and the speech recognition system enable the user of the portable device to annotate the URI input with user-defined keywords, the user-defined keywords enable the user to retrieve the URI input from memory verbally.

3. The portable device of claim 1, further comprising a display to display Web content associated with the URI input.

4. A system for processing Web content comprising:

a mobile device having an NFC (Near Field Communications) reader and an audio input interface as Input/Output devices, a speech recognition system, and memory;

an object having an NFC tag, the NFC tag comprising at least one URI for obtaining information about the object and associated default keywords;

wherein when the NFC reader from the mobile device and the NFC tag touch, the at least one URI and the default keywords from the object are transmitted to the mobile device, wherein the at least one URI is stored in the memory of the mobile device using the default keywords as a reference; and

wherein when a user wishes to retrieve the URI from memory to view a Web page associated with the URI, the user to speak at least one of the default keywords into the audio input interface of the mobile device, wherein upon hearing the at least one of the default keywords, the speech recognition system to retrieve the URI and enable the mobile device to connect with a server via a network to obtain and display the Web page associated with the URI.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein subsequent to the at least one URI being stored in the memory of the mobile device using the default keywords as a reference, the user to enter user-defined keywords via the voice input interface, the user-defined keywords to be used to reference the URI stored in the memory.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the displayed Web page comprising meta-data, the meta-data to be used to facilitate subsequent search and selection by the user.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the displayed Web page comprising voice commands tied to additional related links to accelerate navigation of the Web page.

8. A method for navigating and using Internet content comprising:

enabling a NFC (Near Field Communications) reader of a portable device to touch a NFC tag found on an object, the object containing information of interest to a user of the portable device;

wherein when the NFC reader and the NFC tag touch, the portable device

receiving a URI and default keywords associated with the URI;

storing the URI in a persistent storage of the portable device based on the default keywords, and date, time, and location of when and where the URI was obtained; and

enabling the user to retrieve and use the URI at a later time using a speech-based interface, wherein the user speaks the default keywords to enable the speech-based interface to retrieve the URI.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein enabling the user to retrieve and use the URI at a later time using the speech-based interface comprises:

enabling a user to issue a voice command using the speech-based interface to retrieve the URI, the voice command being one of the default keywords, wherein when the voice command is received by the speech-based interface, the speech-based interface to use the voice command to retrieve a list of URIs associated with the voice command;

enabling the list of URIs to be displayed on the portable device;

enabling the user to select a URI of the user'"'"'s choice from the list of URIs;

upon selection of the URI, automatically connecting to a server over a network to obtain and display Web content associated with the URI, wherein if the Web content contains meta-data, augmenting the stored URI reference with the meta-data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein if the user is unable to select a URI of the user'"'"'s choice, enabling the user to provide a new voice command, the new voice command being of a different default keyword to enable the search of the URI of the user'"'"'s choice.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the meta-data is used to facilitate subsequent search and selection of the selected URI by the user.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the meta-data includes one or more of voice commands, the voice commands tied to additional related Web links to accelerate navigation of the Web content.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the meta-data is encoded as an embedded XML (extensible Markup Language) data island.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein subsequent to storing the URI in the persistent storage, enabling the user to enter user-defined keywords based on the content of the object, the user-defined keywords to be used for referencing the URI in the persistent storage.

15. An article comprising:

a storage medium having a plurality of machine accessible instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by a processor, the instructions provide for

enabling a NFC (Near Field Communications) reader of a portable device to touch a NFC tag found on an object, the object containing information of interest to a user of the portable device;

wherein when the NFC reader and the NFC tag touch, the portable device

receiving a URI and default keywords associated with the URI;

storing the URI in a persistent storage of the portable device based on the default keywords, and date, time, and location of when and where the URI was obtained; and

enabling the user to retrieve and use the URI at a later time using a speech-based interface, wherein the user speaks the default keywords to enable the speech-based interface to retrieve the URI.

16. The article of claim 15, wherein instructions for enabling the user to retrieve and use the URI at a later time using the speech-based interface comprises instructions for:

enabling a user to issue a voice command using the speech-based interface to retrieve the URI, the voice command being one of the default keywords, wherein when the voice command is received by the speech-based interface, the speech-based interface to use the voice command to retrieve a list of URIs associated with the voice command;

enabling the list of URIs to be displayed on the portable device;

enabling the user to select a URI of the user'"'"'s choice from the list of URIs;

upon selection of the URI, automatically connecting to a server over a network to obtain and display Web content associated with the URI, wherein if the Web content contains meta-data, augmenting the stored URI reference with the meta-data.

17. The article of claim 16, wherein if the user is unable to select a URI of the user'"'"'s choice, providing instructions for enabling the user to provide a new voice command, the new voice command being of a different default keyword to enable the search of the URI of the user'"'"'s choice.

18. The article of claim 16, wherein the meta-data is used to facilitate subsequent search and selection of the selected URI by the user.

19. The article of claim 16, wherein the meta-data includes one or more of voice commands, the voice commands tied to additional related Web links to accelerate navigation of the Web content.

20. The article of claim 16, wherein the meta-data is encoded as an embedded XML (extensible Markup Language) data island.

21. The article of claim 15, wherein prior to instructions for storing the URI in the persistent storage, providing instructions for enabling the user to enter user-defined keywords based on the content of the object, the user-defined keywords to be used for referencing the URI in the persistent storage.