Location-Based Responses to Telephone Requests

• US 20080243501A1
• Filed: 04/02/2007
• Published: 10/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Agarwal, Sumit, Lebeau, Michael J., Marmasse, Natalia, Hafsteinsson, Gudmundur, Nishar, Dipchand
• Granted Patent: US 8,650,030 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/235
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 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 15/30 Distributed recognition, e.g. in client-server systems, for mobile phones or network applications
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/221 Announcement of recognition results
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/15 Information service where the information is dependent on the location of the subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

A method for receiving processed information at a remote device is described. The method includes transmitting from the remote device a verbal request to a first information provider and receiving a digital message from the first information provider in response to the transmitted verbal request. The digital message includes a symbolic representation indicator associated with a symbolic representation of the verbal request and data used to control an application. The method also includes transmitting, using the application, the symbolic representation indicator to a second information provider for generating results to be displayed on the remote device.

Claims

1. A method for receiving processed information at a remote device comprising:

transmitting from the remote device a verbal request to a first information provider;

receiving a digital message from the first information provider in response to the transmitted verbal request, the digital message comprising a symbolic representation indicator associated with a symbolic representation of the verbal request and data used to control an application; and

transmitting, using the application, the symbolic representation indicator to a second information provider for generating results to be displayed on the remote device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the symbolic representation indicator comprises the symbolic representation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the symbolic representation indicator comprises a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) used by the second information provider to identify a storage location of the symbolic representation, which is processed by the second information provider.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the results of the processing by the second information provider comprise a map highlighting one or more locations associated with the converted verbal request.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the symbolic representation comprises binary values.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the symbolic representation comprises American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) values, ISO-8858-1 values, or UTF-8 (8-bit Unicode Transformation Format) values.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the digital message comprises a Short Message Service text message.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the verbal request is transmitted as part of a call for directory assistance.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving from the first information provider at the remote device a confirmation in response to the verbal request that prompts a user to verify the accuracy of the symbolic representation of the verbal request.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the confirmation comprises a verbal query from the first information provider, the verbal query comprising computer-generated speech based on the symbolic representation.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the confirmation comprises a text query from the first information provider, the text query comprising at least a portion of the symbolic representation.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising formatting the symbolic representation as a search query before the transmission to the second information provider for processing.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the second information provider comprises a search engine.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving from the first information provider a partial set of results for display on the remote device, the results based on processing by the first information provider of the symbolic representation of the verbal response.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote device is selected from a group consisting of a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistant, and an email device.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the data used to control the application based on the symbolic representation of the verbal request.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising recording the verbal request using the remote device before transmission to the first information provider.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information provider and the second information provider are included in one system that is separate from the remote device.

19. A method for providing a user with location-based information comprising:

receiving a verbal request for locational information from a mobile device and converting the verbal request into a symbolic representation;

generating a message comprising the symbolic representation and an indicator used to control an application on the mobile device; and

transmitting the message to the mobile device to cause the application to use the symbolic representation to display one or more locations associated with the symbolic representation.

20. A method for receiving location-based information comprising:

transmitting from a mobile device a verbal request for locational information to a first information provider;

receiving a Short Message Service message from the first information provider comprising a symbolic representation of the verbal request and an identifier used to control an application on the mobile device;

transmitting a data request comprising the symbolic representation of the verbal request for locational information to a second information provider using the application on the mobile device;

displaying on the mobile device one or more locations associated with the symbolic representation using locational information transmitted by the second information provider in response to the data request.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising displaying directions to the one or more locations from a starting location.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the starting location is input by a user.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the starting location is input by a global positioning system component of the mobile device.

24. The method of claim 20, further comprising displaying an adjustable amount of detail for an area that includes the one or more locations, the amount of detail being specified by a user.

25. A method for providing processed data to a remote device comprising:

receiving a verbal request from the remote device;

generating a data response for the verbal request, the data response comprising data for controlling an application on the remote device and a conversion of the verbal request, wherein the converted verbal request is accessible by the application; and

transmitting the data response to the remote device to cause the remote device to control the application, process at least a portion of the converted verbal request, and display results generated from the processing.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the application comprises a calendar application and the verbal request comprises a request to enter event information into the calendar application.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the application comprises a mapping application and the verbal request comprises a request to display one or more locations using the mapping application.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the locations are identified using keywords associated with the locations.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the locations are identified address information associated with the locations.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein the application comprises a contact application and the verbal request comprises a request to enter contact information into the contact application.

31. The method of claim 25, wherein the application comprises a search result user interface and the verbal request comprises a search query.

32. A system for providing location-based information to a plurality of users, comprising:

an interface for receiving verbal requests over a voice transmission line from a plurality of remote devices;

a conversion module for converting the verbal requests into a symbolic representation of the verbal request; and

means for outputting digital messages to the remote devices, each message comprising an identifier used to control an application on a remote device and a symbolic representation indicator used by the application to process the symbolic representation.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein one or more of the verbal requests comprises a plurality of sub-requests transmitted at separate times.