SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AIRCRAFT VOICE-TO-TEXT COMMUNICATION WITH MESSAGE VALIDATION

• US 20160379640A1
• Filed: 06/24/2015
• Published: 12/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2015
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Joshi, Shrinath, Ravindranath, Balasubramanyam, Rodney, Timothy Lee
• Application Number:
  US14/749,090
• Publication Number:
  US 20160379640A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 23/00 Combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value, e.g. for aircraft; Combined measuring devices for measuring two or more variables of movement, e.g. distance, speed or acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0008 with other aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/01 Assessment or evaluation of speech recognition systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/065 Adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/088 Word spotting
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

The embodiments described herein can provide improved reliability and accuracy of communication to and from and aircraft, such as aircraft-to-aircraft communication and aircraft-to-air traffic control (ATC) communication. In particular, the systems and methods can improve the reliability and accuracy of aircraft communication by performing voice-to-text conversions on voice communications and performing a validation check on the resulting voice-to-text converted message. This validation check determines a measure of validation for the voice-to-text converted message. In one embodiment, the voice-to-text converted message can be displayed to a user with a visual indicator of the measure of validation. Thus, the user can be made aware of the measure of validation when viewing the voice-to-text converted message. Such a system and method can be used to provide the user with increased information regarding the reliability and accuracy of the voice-to-text converted message, and thus can provide improved communication to and from the aircraft.

Claims

1. An aircraft communication system, comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor;

an converted message processing program residing in the memory and being executed by the processor, the converted message processing program including;

a voice-to-text converter configured to convert received voice communications regarding an aircraft into a plurality of voice-to-text converted messages; and

a converted message validator, the converted message validator configured to analyze each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages to determine a measure of validation for each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the converted message validator is configured to analyze each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages to determine a measure of validation by identifying a keyword in a voice-to-text converted message and checking for a presence of at least one corresponding subordinate word to the identified keyword in the voice-to-text converted message.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the converted message validator is configured to analyze each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages to determine a measure of validation by identifying a keyword in a voice-to-text converted message and checking for a presence of a corresponding subordinate value to the identified keyword in the voice-to-text converted message.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the converted message validator is further configured to determine if the corresponding at least one subordinate value is consistent with the identified keyword.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the converted message validator is configured to analyze each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages to determine a measure of validation by comparing the voice-to-text converted message to a phraseology dataset.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the phraseology dataset is derived from standardized phrases designed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the phraseology dataset is derived from self-learning.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the converted message validator is configured to analyze each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages to determine a measure of validation by determining if read back is appropriate for the voice-to-text converted message, and comparing the voice-to-text converted message to the voice-to-text converted read back message.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the converted message processing program further comprises a message display driver, the message display driver configured to display the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages on a display screen.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the message display driver is configured to display an indication of determined validity for each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages on a display screen.

11. An aircraft communication system, comprising:

a receiver configured to receive wireless voice communications regarding an aircraft;

a transmitter configured to transmit wireless voice communications regarding an aircraft;

a voice-to-text converter coupled to the receiver and the transmitter, the voice-to-text converter configured to convert the received wireless voice communications into a first plurality of voice-to-text converted messages and convert the transmitted wireless voice communications into a second plurality of voice-to-text converted messages;

a converted message validator, the converted message validator configured to analyze each of the first and second plurality of voice-to-text converted messages to determine a measure of validation for each of the first and second plurality of voice-to-text converted messages; and

a message display driver, the message display driver configured to display the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages on a display screen, the message display driver further configured to display an indication of determined validity for each of the first and second plurality of voice-to-text converted messages on the display screen.

12. A method of aircraft communication, comprising:

converting received voice communications regarding an aircraft into a plurality of voice-to-text converted messages;

analyzing each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages to determine a measure of validation for each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages; and

displaying the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages on a display screen along with an indication of a corresponding measure of validation for each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of analyzing each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages to determine the measure of validation for each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages comprises identifying a keyword in the voice-to-text converted message and checking for a presence of at least one corresponding subordinate word to the identified keyword in the voice-to-text converted message.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of analyzing each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages to determine the measure of validation for each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages comprises identifying a keyword in the voice-to-text converted message and checking for a presence of a corresponding subordinate value to the identified keyword in the voice-to-text converted message.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of analyzing each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages to determine the measure of validation for each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages further comprises determining if the subordinate value is consistent with the identified keyword.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of analyzing each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages to determine the measure of validation for each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages comprises comparing the voice-to-text converted message to a phraseology dataset.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the phraseology dataset is derived from standardized phrases designed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the phraseology dataset is derived from self-learning.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of analyzing each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages to determine the measure of validation for each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages comprises determining if read back is appropriate for the voice-to-text converted message, and comparing the voice-to-text converted message to the voice-to-text converted read back message.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of displaying the measure of validation for each of the plurality of voice-to-text converted messages comprises highlighting.