DEVICE DESIGNATION FOR AUDIO INPUT MONITORING

• US 20170221487A1
• Filed: 04/17/2017
• Published: 08/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Faaborg, Alexander James
• Granted Patent: US 10,210,868 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/162 Interface to dedicated audio devices, e.g. audio drivers, interface to CODECs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/08 Speech classification or search
• 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 15/28 Constructional details of speech recognition systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/30 Distributed recognition, e.g. in client-server systems, for mobile phones or network applications
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/088 Word spotting
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/78 Detection of presence or absence of voice signals switching of direction of transmission by voice frequency in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/10

Abstract

A computing device comprises at least one processor, and at least one module operable by the at least one processor to designate a particular computing device from a plurality of computing devices to process audio input, wherein the computing device comprises a first computing device from the plurality of computing devices. The at least one module may be further operable by the at least one processor to, if the particular computing device is not the first computing device, cease processing of audio input, and if the particular computing device is the first computing device, receive first audio input and process the first audio input to determine whether the first audio input includes a predetermined audio command.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a first computing device of a plurality of computing devices each of which are associated with a user account and are located in physical proximity to one another, at least a portion of a spoken audio input, wherein the portion of the spoken audio input is also received by at least one other computing device from the plurality of computing devices;

determining, by the first computing device, whether the first computing device or a second computing device of the plurality of computing devices is a device designated to process the spoken audio input for a spoken audio command; and

responsive to determining that the first computing device is the device designated to process the spoken audio input for the spoken audio command, processing, by the first computing device, the spoken audio input for the spoken audio command.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending, by the first computing device and to the second computing device, a command to temporarily refrain from processing spoken audio input.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the first computing device or the second computing device is the designated device comprises:

receiving, by the first computing device, a device identifier for the designated device;

determining, by the first computing device, whether the device identifier for the designated device corresponds to a device identifier for the first computing device; and

responsive to determining that the device identifier for the designated device corresponds to the device identifier for the first computing device, determining, by the first computing device, that the first computing device is the device designated to execute the command included in the spoken audio input.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending, by the first computing device and to a third computing device, an indication of at least the portion of the received spoken audio input; and

receiving, by the first computing device and from the third computing device, an indication of the device designated to execute the command, wherein the device designated to execute the command is based at least in part on a quality of the spoken audio input received by the first computing device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the second computing device and the third computing device are the same computing device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending, by the first computing device and to a third computing device, an indication of a type of the first computing device; and

receiving, by the first computing device and from the third computing device, an indication of the device designated to execute the command, wherein the device designated to execute the command is based at least in part on the type of the first computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the first computing device and from the second computing device, an indication of a context of the second computing device,

wherein determining whether the first computing device or the second computing device is the device designated to process the spoken audio input for the spoken audio command is based at least in part on a context of the first computing device and the context of the second computing device.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the first computing device and from the second computing device, an indication of a type of the second computing device,

wherein determining whether the first computing device or the second computing device is the device designated to process the spoken audio input for the spoken audio command is based at least in part on a type of the first computing device and the type of the second computing device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the first computing device and from the second computing device, an indication of an audio quality of the spoken audio input received by the second computing device,

wherein determining whether the first computing device or the second computing device is the device designated to process the spoken audio input for the spoken audio command is based at least in part on an audio quality of the spoken audio input received by the first computing device and the audio quality of the spoken audio input received by the second computing device.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to determining that the first computing device is not the device designated to process the spoken audio input, refraining, by the computing device, from processing the spoken audio input.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein refraining from processing the spoken audio input comprises temporarily deactivating, by the first computing device, an audio monitoring module.

12. The method of claim 1,

wherein receiving at least the portion of the spoken audio input includes receiving a first portion that includes a hotword, and

wherein the device designated to process the spoken audio input is designated based on the first portion of the spoken audio input that includes the hotword, and

wherein processing the spoken audio input comprises receiving, by the first computing device, a second portion of the spoken audio input that includes the spoken audio command.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein processing the second portion of the spoken audio input further comprises performing, by the first computing device, speech recognition on the second portion of the spoken audio input.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the first computing device, whether the first computing device is a device designated to execute the spoken audio command included in the spoken audio input;

responsive to determining that the first computing device is the device designated to execute the command included in the spoken audio input, executing, by the first computing device, the command included in the spoken audio input

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting, by the first computing device and to at least the second computing device, a command that causes the second computing device to temporarily refrain from processing spoken audio input.

16. A first computing device comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to;

receive at least a portion of a spoken audio input that is also received by at least one other computing device from a plurality of computing devices, wherein the plurality of computing devices includes the first computing device and a second computing device, and wherein each computing device of the plurality of computing devices are associated with a user account and are located in physical proximity to one another;

determine whether the first computing device or the second computing device is a device designated to process the spoken audio input for a spoken audio command; and

responsive to determining that the first computing device is the device designated to process the spoken audio input for the spoken audio command, process the spoken audio input for the spoken audio command.

17. The first computing device of claim 16, wherein the instruction cause the at least one processor to determine whether the first computing device or the second computing device is the designated device by causing the at least one processor to:

receive a device identifier for the designated device;

determine whether the device identifier for the designated device corresponds to a device identifier for the first computing device; and

responsive to determining that the device identifier for the designated device corresponds to the device identifier for the first computing device, determine that the first computing device is the device designated to execute the command included in the spoken audio input.

18. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to:

send, by the first computing device and to a third computing device, an indication of at least the portion of the received spoken audio input or an indication of the type of the first computing device; and

receive, from the third computing device, an indication of the device designated to execute the command, wherein the device designated to execute the command is based at least in part on a quality of the spoken audio input received by the first computing device or the type of the first computing device.

19. The computing device of claim 16,

wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to receive, from the second computing device, an indication of a context of the second computing device, and

wherein the instructions cause the at least one processor to determine whether the first computing device or the second computing device is the device designated to process the spoken audio input for the spoken audio command based at least in part on a context of the first computing device and the context of the second computing device.

20. The computing device of claim 16,

wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to receive, from the second computing device, an indication of a type of the second computing device,

wherein the instructions cause the at least one processor to determine whether the first computing device or the second computing device is the device designated to process the spoken audio input for the spoken audio command based at least in part on a type of the first computing device and the type of the second computing device.

21. The computing device of claim 16,

wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to receive, from the second computing device, an indication of an audio quality of the spoken audio input received by the second computing device,

wherein the instructions cause the at least one processor to determine whether the first computing device or the second computing device is the device designated to process the spoken audio input for the spoken audio command based at least in part on an audio quality of the spoken audio input received by the first computing device and the audio quality of the spoken audio input received by the second computing device.

22. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed, cause at least one processor of a first computing device to:

receive at least a portion of a spoken audio input that is also received by at least one other computing device from a plurality of computing devices, wherein the plurality of computing devices includes the first computing device and a second computing device, and wherein each computing device of the plurality of computing devices are associated with a user account and are located in physical proximity to one another;

determine whether the first computing device or the second computing device is a device designated to process the spoken audio input for a spoken audio command; and

responsive to determining that the first computing device is the device designated to process the spoken audio input for the spoken audio command, process the spoken audio input for the spoken audio command.