System and Method of Providing Generated Speech Via A Network

• US 20120259623A1
• Filed: 06/19/2012
• Published: 10/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Dragosh, Pamela Leigh, Roe, David Bjorn, Sharp, Robert Douglas
• Granted Patent: US 9,065,914 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/201
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/19 Grammatical context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word sequence rules
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/30 Distributed recognition, e.g. in client-server systems, for mobile phones or network applications
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/493 Interactive information services, e.g. directory enquiries ; Arrangements therefor, e.g. interactive voice response [IVR] systems or voice portals
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4936 Speech interaction details speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42

Abstract

A system and method of operating an automatic speech recognition application over an Internet Protocol network is disclosed. The ASR application communicates over a packet network such as an Internet Protocol network or a wireless network. A grammar for recognizing received speech from a user over the IP network is selected from a plurality of grammars according to a user-selected application. A server receives information representing speech over the IP network, performs speech recognition using the selected grammar, and returns information based upon the recognized speech. Sub-grammars may be included within the grammar to recognize speech from sub-portions of a dialog with the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

transmitting over a network an identification of a spoken dialog application, the spoken dialog application having an associated grammar;

transmitting user speech over the network; and

receiving synthesized speech in response to the user speech, wherein the user speech was recognized by the spoken dialog application using the associated grammar.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein recognizing the user speech using the associated grammar further comprises recognizing the user speech using a sub-grammar based on a sub-component of the user speech.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the sub-grammar is associated with a task.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the network is an internet protocol network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the spoken dialog application carries on a dialog with a user communicating with a client.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving information based on the synthesized speech over an internet protocol network from a client.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

modifying the associated grammar based at least in part on the user speech.

8. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed on the processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising;

transmitting over a network an identification of a spoken dialog application, the spoken dialog application having an associated grammar;

transmitting user speech over the network; and

receiving synthesized speech in response to the user speech, wherein the user speech was recognized by the spoken dialog application using the associated grammar.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein recognizing the user speech using the associated grammar further comprises recognizing the user speech using a sub-grammar based on a sub-component of the user speech.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the sub-grammar is associated with a task.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the network is an internet protocol network.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the spoken dialog application carries on a dialog with a user communicating with a client.

13. The system of claim 8, the computer-readable storage medium storing additional instructions which, when executed on the processor cause the processor to perform a step comprising:

receiving information based on the synthesized speech over an internet protocol network from a client.

14. The system of claim 8, the computer-readable storage medium storing additional instructions which, when executed on the processor, cause the processor to perform a step comprising:

modifying the associated grammar based at least in part on the user speech.

15. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor, to perform steps comprising:

transmitting over a network an identification of a spoken dialog application, the spoken dialog application having an associated grammar;

transmitting user speech over the network; and

receiving synthesized speech in response to the user speech, wherein the user speech was recognized by the spoken dialog application using the associated grammar.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein recognizing the user speech using the associated grammar further comprises recognizing the user speech by using a sub-grammar based on a sub-component of the user speech.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the sub-grammar is associated with a task.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the network is an internet protocol network.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the spoken dialog application carries on a dialog with a user communicating with a client.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 storing additional instructions which, when executed on the processor, cause the processor to perform a step comprising:

receiving information based on the synthesized speech over an internet protocol network from a client.