CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPTION BASED ON CONFERENCE DATA

• US 20120143605A1
• Filed: 12/01/2010
• Published: 06/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gatzke, Alan Darryl, Thorsen, Tyrone Terry
• Granted Patent: US 9,031,839 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/235
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/065 Adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/183 using context dependencies, e.g. language models

Abstract

In one implementation, a collaboration server is a conference bridge or other network device configured to host an audio and/or video conference among a plurality of conference participants. The collaboration server sends conference data and a media stream including speech to a speech recognition engine. The conference data may include the conference roster or text extracted from documents or other files shared in the conference. The speech recognition engine updates a default language model according to the conference data and transcribes the speech in the media stream based on the updated language model. In one example, the performance of default language model, the updated language model, or both may be tested using a confidence interval or submitted for approval of the conference participant.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving conference data from at least one of a plurality of conference participants;

sending text associated with the conference data to a speech recognition engine;

receiving a plurality of input media streams from the plurality of conference participants;

generating an output media stream from the plurality of input media streams; and

sending the output media stream to the plurality of conference participants and to the speech recognition engine,

wherein the conference data includes a shared material or a conference roster.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the shared material includes a document, a slide show, a spreadsheet, a diagram, or a website.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the conference roster includes names of the plurality of conference participants.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the text is sent to the speech recognition engine before the output media stream is sent to the speech recognition engine.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the text is sent to the speech recognition engine as the output media stream is sent to the speech recognition engine.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a transcript from the speech recognition engine, wherein the transcript was created using a language model based on the text.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request for the text from the speech recognition engine, wherein the request is based on a confidence score of a transcription of a portion of the output media stream.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the conference data include chat data from a chat window of at least one of the plurality of conference participants.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the conference data indexed by at least one of the plurality of conference participants for use in future sessions.

10. An apparatus comprising:

a memory storing conference data received from at least one of a plurality of conference participants;

a controller configured to obtain text based on the conference data and configured to generate an output media stream from a plurality of input media streams received from the plurality of conference participants; and

a communication interface configured to send the output media stream and the text to a speech recognition engine.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the communication interface is configured to send the output media stream to the plurality of conference participants and to the speech recognition engine.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the speech recognition engine generates a transcription of the output media stream using a default language model.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the speech recognition engine calculates a confidence interval based on the transcription and updates the default language model using the conference data if the confidence interval does not exceed a predetermined threshold.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the conference data comprises shared presentation material from at least one of the plurality of conference participants.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the conference data comprises a conference roster including names of the plurality of conference participants.

16. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the text is sent to the speech recognition engine before the output media stream is sent to the speech recognition engine.

17. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the text is sent to the speech recognition engine as the output media stream is sent to the speech recognition engine.

18. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

a memory configured to store the conference data indexed by at least one of the plurality of conference participants for use in future sessions.

19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions configured to:

receive shared data associated with a conference from at least one of a plurality of conference participants, the shared data being other than audio data;

extract text from the shared data;

update a default language model based on the text; and

transcribe at least a portion of a media stream from the conference using the updated language model.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19, further configured to:

transcribe the portion of the media stream from the conference using the default language model;

calculate a first confidence interval using the default language model;

calculate a second confidence interval using the updated language model; and

compare the first confidence interval and the second confidence interval.