VOICE SCRATCHPAD

• US 20100254521A1
• Filed: 04/02/2009
• Published: 10/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kriese, Jason P., Porter, Scott D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,509,398 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/88.140
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6075 adapted for handsfree use in a vehicle H04M1/6058 takes precedence; arrangements for holding telephones in a vehicle B60R11/0241
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/68 with means for recording information, e.g. telephone number during a conversation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/74 with voice recognition means

Abstract

Various embodiments of systems and methods to implement a voice scratchpad for deriving data from a voice communication are provided. The system may include a voice scratchpad module configured to detect an audio connection between an on-board vehicle computing device and a communications device, and present a selector on a voice scratchpad graphical user interface, which upon selection by a user causes the voice scratchpad module to process voice data received via the audio connection to obtain recognized speech data. The system may further include an annotation engine configured to annotate the recognized speech data to produce structured data in one of a plurality of predetermined formats. The voice scratchpad module may be configured to receive the structured data from the annotation engine, and display the structured data on voice scratchpad graphical user interface.

Claims

1. A method of deriving data from a voice communication, the method comprising:

detecting an audio connection between an on-board vehicle computing device and a communications device;

presenting a voice scratchpad graphical user interface on a display associated with the computing device, the voice scratchpad graphical user interface including a selector to initiate processing of the voice communication;

receiving a selection of the selector by a user to initiate voice data processing;

processing voice data received via the audio connection to obtain recognized speech data in response to receiving a selection of the selector by the user;

annotating the recognized speech data to produce structured data in one of a plurality of predetermined formats based on the recognized speech data; and

displaying the structured data on the voice scratchpad graphical user interface.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the structured data includes one or more of contact data, address data, or point of interest data.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying in the graphical user interface a link for accessing the structured data via a related application.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving a selection of the link by the user; and

accessing the structured data with the related application.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the related application is one or more of a contacts manager, a navigation application, a media application, or a telephone application.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a clip management tool on the graphical user interface, the clip management tool being configured to display a list of structured data for a plurality of voice communications, and one or more option selectors for managing the structured data in the list.

7. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising providing a notification that audio is going to be recorded, upon receiving a user selection of the selector to initiate processing of voice data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein and the communications device is a microphone or a mobile telephone.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the voice data further includes controlling a speech service to process the voice data to generate the recognized speech data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the speech service is configured to transmit the voice data from the audio connection to a speech recognition engine that is onboard the vehicle or remotely connected to the on-board vehicle computing device via a data network for processing, and to receive the recognized speech from the speech recognition engine in response.

11. A system for deriving data from a voice communication, the system comprising:

a voice scratchpad module configured to be executed on an on-board vehicle computing device, the voice scratchpad module being configured to detect an audio connection between the on-board vehicle computing device and a communications device, the voice scratchpad module further being configured to present a voice scratchpad graphical user interface on a display associated with the computing device, the graphical user interface including a selector, which upon selection by a user causes the voice scratchpad module to process voice data received via the audio connection to obtain recognized speech data; and

an annotation engine configured to be executed on the on-board vehicle computing device, the annotation engine being configured to annotate the recognized speech data to produce structured data in one of a plurality of predetermined formats based on the recognized speech data

wherein the voice scratchpad module is configured to receive the structured data from the annotation engine, and display the structured data on voice scratchpad graphical user interface.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the voice scratchpad module is configured to display a clip management tool on the graphical user interface, the clip management tool being configured to display a list of structured data for a plurality of voice communications, and one or more option selectors for managing the structured data in the list.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the structured data includes a plurality of different data types, including text data, contact data, address data, and/or point of interest data.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the voice scratchpad module is configured to display in the graphical user interface a link to a related application for each type of data in the structural data, the link being configured to launch the related application upon selection, the voice scratchpad module further being configured to output the structured data for further processing by the related application.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the related application is one or more of a contacts manager, a navigation application, a media application, or a telephone application.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein in response to a selection of the selector for initiating a voice scratchpad, the voice scratchpad module is configured to provide a notification that voice data is going to be recorded.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the communications device is a microphone or a mobile telephone.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein voice scratchpad module is configured to process the voice data by controlling a speech service to process the voice data to generate the recognized speech data.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the speech service is configured to transmit the voice data from the audio connection to a speech recognition engine that is either onboard the vehicle or remotely connected to the on-board vehicle computing device via a data network, and receive the recognized speech from the speech recognition engine in response.

20. A method of deriving data from a voice communication, the method comprising:

detecting an audio connection between an on-board vehicle computing device and a communications device, wherein the communications device is a microphone or a mobile telephone;

presenting a voice scratchpad graphical user interface on a display associated with the computing device, the voice scratchpad graphical user interface including a selector to initiate processing of the voice communication;

receiving a selection of the selector by a user to initiate voice data processing;

processing voice data received via the audio connection to obtain recognized speech data in response to receiving a selection of the selector by the user;

annotating the recognized speech data to produce structured data in one of a plurality of predetermined formats based on the recognized speech data;

displaying the structured data on the voice scratchpad graphical user interface; and

displaying in the graphical user interface a link for accessing the structured data via a related application;

wherein the predetermined format of the structured data includes one or more of contact data, address data, or point of interest data, and the related application is one or more of a contacts manager, a navigation application, a media application, or a telephone application.