System and Method for Extracting a Specific Situation From a Conversation

• US 20100114575A1
• Filed: 10/09/2009
• Published: 05/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Itoh, Nobuyasu, Nishimura, Masafumi, Kurata, Gakuto
• Granted Patent: US 9,269,357 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/251
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/685 using automatically derived transcript of audio data, e.g. lyrics speech recognition G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence

Abstract

A system, method, and computer readable article of manufacture for extracting a specific situation in a conversation. The system includes: an acquisition unit for acquiring speech voice data of speakers in the conversation; a specific expression detection unit for detecting the speech voice data of a specific expression from speech voice data of a specific speaker in the conversation; and a specific situation extraction unit for extracting, from the speech voice data of the speakers in the conversation, a portion of the speech voice data that forms a speech pattern that includes the speech voice data of the specific expression detected by the specific expression detection unit.

Claims

1. A system for extracting a specific situation in a conversation, comprising:

an acquisition unit for acquiring speech voice data of speakers in the conversation;

a specific expression detection unit for detecting the speech voice data of a specific expression from speech voice data of a specific speaker in the conversation; and

a specific situation extraction unit for extracting, from the speech voice data of the speakers in the conversation, a portion of the speech voice data that forms a speech pattern that includes the speech voice data of the specific expression detected by the specific expression detection unit.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the speech pattern is based on characteristics of the speech voice data of the speakers in the conversation and the characteristics of the speech voice data are based on speaking time of each speaker in the conversation.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the specific situation extraction unit extracts from the speech voice data the portion of the conversation where the characteristics of the speech voice data meet certain conditions.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the specific situation extraction unit obtains a quantitative characteristic value representing characteristics of the portion of the conversation that forms the speech pattern in the speech voice data.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein the specific situation extraction unit obtains, as a characteristic value of a predetermined conversation unit, a total sum of the characteristic values obtained for the portions of the conversation included in the conversation unit.

6. The system according to claim 4, wherein the specific situation extraction unit obtains the characteristic value, based on a difference in speaking time between speaking time of the specific speaker and speaking time of a different speaker, for each speaker speaking before the speech voice data of the specific expression.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the specific situation extraction unit determines whether a portion of the conversation that includes the speech voice data of the specific expression forms the speech pattern according to a difference in speech time between (i) the specific expression spoken by the specific speaker and (ii) the speech segment immediately before the specific expression spoken by the specific speaker.

8. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a voice separation unit for identifying a speaker from the speech voice data of the conversation acquired by the acquisition unit.

9. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an output unit for outputting the result of extracting the portion of the speech voice data that forms a speech pattern.

10. A method implemented by a computing apparatus for extracting a specific situation by analyzing a conversation, the method comprising the steps of:

acquiring, by an acquisition unit, speech voice data of the speakers in the conversation;

detecting, by a specific expression detection unit, the speech voice data of a specific expression from speech voice data of a specific speaker in the conversation; and

extracting, by a specific extraction unit, a portion of the speech voice data that forms a speech pattern that includes the speech voice data of the specific expression from the speech voice data of the speakers in the conversation, thereby extracting the specific situation by analyzing the conversation by the computing apparatus.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the step of extracting by the specific extraction unit includes the steps of:

forming the pattern based on characteristics of speech voice data of the speakers in the conversation; and

basing the characteristics of the speech voice data on speaking time of each speaker in the conversation.

12. The method according to claim 10, further including the step of:

extracting a portion of the conversation from the speech voice data, wherein characteristics of the speech voice data meet certain conditions.

13. The method according to claim 10, wherein the step of extracting by the specific extraction unit includes the step of:

obtaining a quantitative characteristic value representing characteristics of the portion of the conversation that forms the speech pattern in the speech voice data.

14. The method according to claim 13, further including the step of:

obtaining, as a characteristic value of a predetermined conversation unit, a total sum of the characteristic values obtained for the portions of the conversation included in the conversation unit.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein the characteristic value is based on a difference in speaking time between speaking time of the specific speaker and speaking time of a different speaker, for each speaker speaking before the speech voice data of the specific expression.

16. The method according to claim 10, wherein the step of extracting further includes the step of:

determining whether a portion of the conversation that includes the speech voice data of the specific expression forms the speech pattern according to a difference in speech time between (i) the specific expression spoken by the specific speaker and (ii) the speech segment immediately before the specific expression spoken by the specific speaker.

17. The method according to claim 10, further comprising the step of:

identifying, by a voice separation unit, a speaker from the speech voice data of the conversation acquired by the acquisition unit.

18. The method according to claim 10, further comprising the step of:

outputting, by an output unit, the result of extracting the portion of the speech voice data that forms a speech pattern.

19. A computer readable article of manufacture tangibly embodying computer readable instructions which, when executed, cause a computer device to implement a method of extracting a specific situation by analyzing a conversation, the method comprising the steps of:

acquiring, by an acquisition unit, speech voice data of the speakers in the conversation;

detecting, by a specific expression detection unit, the speech voice data of a specific expression from speech voice data of a specific speaker in the conversation; and

extracting, by a specific extraction unit, from the speech voice data of the speakers in the conversation, a portion of the speech voice data that forms a speech pattern that includes the speech voice data of the specific expression, thereby extracting the specific situation by analyzing the conversation by the computing apparatus.