Identifying and Generating Audio Cohorts Based on Audio Data Input

• US 20100131263A1
• Filed: 11/21/2008
• Published: 05/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Angell, Robert Lee, Friedlander, Robert R, Kraemer, James R
• Granted Patent: US 8,301,443 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/06 Creation of reference templates; Training of speech recognition systems, e.g. adaptation to the characteristics of the speaker's voice G10L15/14 takes precedence

Abstract

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for generating audio cohorts. An audio analysis engine receives audio data from a set of audio input devices. The audio data is associated with a plurality of objects. The audio data comprises a set of audio patterns. The audio data is processed to identify attributes of the audio data to form digital audio data. The digital audio data comprises metadata describing the attributes of the audio data. A set of audio cohorts is generated using the digital audio data and cohort criteria. Each audio cohort in the set of audio cohorts comprises a set of objects from the plurality of objects that share at least one audio attribute in common.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of generating audio cohorts, the computer implemented method comprising:

receiving audio data from a set of audio sensors, by an audio analysis engine, wherein the audio data is associated with a plurality of objects, and wherein the audio data comprises a set of audio patterns;

processing the audio data to identify audio attributes associated with the plurality of objects to form digital audio data, wherein the digital audio data comprises metadata describing the audio attributes of the set of objects; and

generating a set of audio cohorts using the audio attributes associated with the digital audio data and cohort criteria, wherein each audio cohort in the set of audio cohorts comprises a set of objects from the plurality of objects that share at least one audio attribute in common.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the attributes of the audio data comprises an identification of a sound.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2 wherein the attributes of the audio data comprises an identification of a sound, wherein the sound is identified as human speech, and wherein the attributes of the audio data identifies at least one of a language spoken, a regional dialect associated with the human speech, an accent associated with the human speech, an identification of whether the speaker is male or female, and an identification of words spoken in the human speech.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the attributes of the audio data comprises sound wave properties, wherein a sound wave property is at least one of frequency, wavelength, amplitude, intensity, speed, and direction of a sound associated with an object in the plurality of objects.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the attributes of the audio data comprises an origin of a sound.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the audio data is a first set of audio data generated at a first time interval, and further comprising:

receiving a second set of audio data taken at a second time interval; and

processing the first audio data and the second audio data to generate the digital audio data, wherein the digital audio data describes the attributes of the first audio data and the second audio data.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving the set of audio cohorts by an inference engine; and

processing the set of audio cohorts by the inference engine, wherein the inference engine uses the set of audio cohorts to generate a set of inferences.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein identifying the set of audio cohorts using the digital audio data and the cohort critieria further comprises:

analyzing the digital audio data using cohort constraints with the cohort criteria, by a cohort generation engine, to identify the set of audio cohorts.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein identifying the set of audio cohorts using the digital audio data further comprises:

analyzing the digital audio data in a set of cohort generation data models, by a cohort generation engine, to identify the set of audio cohorts.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the set of cohorts comprises a sound wave property cohort, wherein each object in the sound wave property cohort shares a common sound wave attribute, and wherein a sound wave property attributes comprises at least one of a frequency, a wavelength, an amplitude, an intensity, a speed, and a direction of a sound associated with the each object.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the set of cohorts comprises a sound identification cohort, wherein each object in the sound identification cohort is associated with an identified sound in a set of identified sounds.

13. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the attributes of the audio data comprises sound wave properties, wherein a sound wave property is at least one of frequency, wavelength, amplitude, intensity, speed, and direction of a sound.

14. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the attributes of the audio data comprises an identification of a sound.

15. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the attributes of the audio data comprises an origin of a sound.

16. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the sound is identified as human speech, and wherein the attributes of the audio data identifies at least one of a language spoken, a regional dialect associated with the human speech, an accent associated with the human speech, an identification of whether the speaker is male or female, and an identification of words spoken in the human speech.

17. The computer program product of claim 10 further comprising:

computer usable program code configured to receive the set of audio cohorts by an inference engine; and

computer usable program code configured to process the set of audio cohorts by the inference engine, wherein the inference engine uses the set of audio cohorts to generate a set of inferences.

12. A computer program product for generating audio cohort data, the computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising;

computer usable program code configured to receive audio data from a set of audio sensors, by an audio analysis engine, wherein the audio data is associated with a plurality of objects, and wherein the audio data comprises a set of audio patterns;

computer usable program code configured to process the audio data to identify audio attributes associated with the plurality of objects to form digital audio data, wherein the digital audio data comprises metadata describing the audio attributes of the set of objects; and

computer usable program code configured to generate a set of audio cohorts using the audio attributes associated with the digital audio data and cohort criteria, wherein each audio cohort in the set of audio cohorts comprises a set of objects from the plurality of objects that share at least one audio attribute in common.

18. An apparatus comprising:

a bus system;

a communications system coupled to the bus system;

a memory connected to the bus system, wherein the memory includes computer usable program code; and

a processing unit coupled to the bus system, wherein the processing unit executes the computer usable program code to receive audio data from a set of audio sensors, by an audio analysis engine, wherein the audio data is associated with a plurality of objects, and wherein the audio data comprises a set of audio patterns;

process the audio data to identify audio attributes associated with the plurality of objects to form digital audio data, wherein the digital audio data comprises metadata describing the audio attributes of the set of objects; and

generate a set of audio cohorts using the audio attributes associated with the digital audio data and cohort criteria, wherein each audio cohort in the set of audio cohorts comprises a set of objects from the plurality of objects that share at least one audio attribute in common.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the attributes of the audio data comprises at least one of an identification of a sound, an origin of a sound, and sound wave properties of a sound, wherein a sound wave property is at least one of frequency, wavelength, amplitude, intensity, speed, and direction of a sound.

20. An audio cohort generation system comprising:

a set of audio sensors, wherein the set of audio sensors comprises a microphone;

a data processing system, wherein the data processing system comprises;

an audio analysis engine, wherein the audio analysis engine receives audio data from a set of audio sensors, wherein the audio data is in an analog format, and wherein the audio data identifies a set of audio patterns associated with a plurality of objects;

processes the audio data and identify audio attributes of the audio data to form digital audio data, wherein the digital audio data comprises metadata describing the audio attributes associated with the plurality of objects; and

a cohort generation engine, wherein the cohort generation engine generates a set of audio cohorts using the digital audio data and cohort criteria, wherein each audio cohort in the set of audio cohorts comprises a set of objects from the plurality of objects that share at least one audio attribute in common.