Method and Apparatus for Recognizing and Reacting to User Personality in Accordance with Speech Recognition System

• US 20080177540A1
• Filed: 03/26/2008
• Published: 07/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Stewart, Osamuvimen Thompson, Dai, Liwei
• Granted Patent: US 8,719,035 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/249
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/08 Speech classification or search
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/26 Recognition of special voice characteristics, e.g. for use in lie detectors; Recognition of animal voices
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/63 for estimating an emotional state

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for recognizing user personality in accordance with a speech recognition system. For example, a technique for recognizing a personality trait associated with a user interacting with a speech recognition system includes the following steps/operations. One or more decoded spoken utterances of the user are obtained. The one or more decoded spoken utterances are generated by the speech recognition system. The one or more decoded spoken utterances are analyzed to determine one or more linguistic attributes (morphological and syntactic filters) that are associated with the one or more decoded spoken utterances. The personality trait associated with the user is then determined based on the analyzing step/operation.

Claims

1. A method of recognizing a personality trait associated with a user interacting with a speech recognition system, comprising the steps of:

obtaining one or more decoded spoken utterances of the user, the one or more decoded spoken utterances being generated by the speech recognition system;

analyzing the one or more decoded spoken utterances to determine one or more linguistic attributes associated with the one or more decoded spoken utterances; and

determining the personality trait associated with the user based on the analyzing step.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more linguistic attributes comprise at least one of one or more morphological attributes and one or more syntactic attributes.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more morphological attributes comprise a structure of words in the one or more decoded spoken utterances.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more morphological attributes comprise a type of words in the one or more decoded spoken utterances.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more morphological attributes comprise one of the number of words and the number of compound words in the one or more decoded spoken utterances.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more syntactic attributes comprise a class of speech associated with words in the one or more decoded spoken utterances.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the class of speech comprises one of a noun, an adjective, a preposition, a pronoun, an adverb, and a verb.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a subsequent dialog output to the user is selected based on the determined personality trait.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing step further comprises assigning weights to the one or more linguistic attributes, wherein assignment of the weights corresponds to different possible personality traits.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of analyzing the one or more decoded spoken utterances to determine one or more personality attributes associated with the one or more decoded spoken utterances such that the step of determining the personality trait associated with the user is based on the one or more linguistic attributes and the one or more personality attributes.

11. Apparatus for recognizing a personality trait associated with a user interacting with a speech recognition system, comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and operative to;

(i) obtain one or more decoded spoken utterances of the user, the one or more decoded spoken utterances being generated by the speech recognition system;

(ii) analyze the one or more decoded spoken utterances to determine one or more linguistic attributes associated with the one or more decoded spoken utterances; and

(iii) determine the personality trait associated with the user based on the analyzing operation.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the one or more linguistic attributes comprise at least one of one or more morphological attributes and one or more syntactic attributes.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the one or more morphological attributes comprise a structure of words in the one or more decoded spoken utterances.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the one or more morphological attributes comprise a type of words in the one or more decoded spoken utterances.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the one or more morphological attributes comprise one of the number of words and the number of compound words in the one or more decoded spoken utterances.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the one or more syntactic attributes comprise a class of speech associated with words in the one or more decoded spoken utterances.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the class of speech comprises one of a noun, an adjective, a preposition, a pronoun, an adverb, and a verb.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the analyzing operation further comprises assigning weights to the one or more linguistic attributes, wherein assignment of the weights corresponds to different possible personality traits.

19. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the at least one processor is further operative analyze the one or more decoded spoken utterances to determine one or more personality attributes associated with the one or more decoded spoken utterances such that the step of determining the personality trait associated with the user is based on the one or more linguistic attributes and the one or more personality attributes.

20. An article of manufacture for recognizing a personality trait associated with a user interacting with a speech recognition system, comprising a machine readable medium containing one or more programs which when executed implement the steps of:

obtaining one or more decoded spoken utterances of the user, the one or more decoded spoken utterances being generated by the speech recognition system;

analyzing the one or more decoded spoken utterances to determine one or more linguistic attributes associated with the one or more decoded spoken utterances; and

determining the personality trait associated with the user based on the analyzing step.