Methods and Systems for Searching Using Spoken Input and User Context Information
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Abstract
Systems and methods for searching using spoken input and user context information are disclosed. In systems and methods according to embodiments of the invention, continuous speech natural language queries are accepted from a user using a client device. Speech processing tasks are divided between the client device and one or more server systems. Along with speech in compressed form, the client device transmits to the one or more server systems user context information, which is used by the one or more server systems to dynamically load one or more of a dictionary, a grammar, or a vocabulary.
427 Citations
50 Claims
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1-28. -28. (canceled)
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29. A method for conducting a search using spoken input, comprising:
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accepting continuous user speech in the form of a natural language query using a client device; processing the user speech on the client device using a first processing routine to form processed speech; transmitting the processed speech to a server system using an application-level Internet protocol; transmitting user context information from the client device to the server system; dynamically selecting one or more of a grammar, a dictionary, or a vocabulary on the server system based on the user context information; recognizing the processed speech on the server system using a second processing routine to form recognized speech; searching a plurality of topics in a data repository using the recognized speech and environment variables derived from the user context information to arrive at a best answer; and returning at least the best answer to the client device. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 35, 36)
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- 33. The method of 32, wherein the plurality of extracted features comprise spectral representations of the user speech.
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37. A system for conducting a search using spoken input, comprising:
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a speech recognizer that receives continuous user speech in compressed form and processes the speech to recognize a natural language query; a natural language engine that selects one or more of a grammar, a dictionary, or a vocabulary based, at least in part, on user context information supplied to the natural language engine and processes the recognized natural language query to formulate one or more queries to data repositories, the natural language engine being configured to dynamically switch between the selected grammar, dictionary or vocabulary and other grammars, dictionaries, and vocabularies based on the user context information; and a search engine that accepts the one or more queries to data repositories and executes those queries on the data repositories to arrive at a best answer to the natural language query. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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46. A method for conducting a search using spoken input, comprising:
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accepting continuous speech from a user in the form of a natural language query using an application program running on a client device, the speech being associated with a resource the user wishes to locate; processing the user speech on the client device using a first processing routine to form processed speech; transmitting the processed speech to a server system using an application-level Internet protocol; transmitting user context information from the client device to the server system; dynamically selecting one or more of a grammar, a dictionary, or a vocabulary on the server system based on the user context information; recognizing the processed speech on the server system using a second processing routine to form recognized speech; searching a plurality of topics in a data repository using the recognized speech and environment variables derived from the user context information to arrive at a best answer associated with the resource; and returning at least the best answer to the client device. - View Dependent Claims (47, 48, 49, 50)
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Specification