Continuous speech recognition of text and commands

• US 6,088,671 A
• Filed: 06/17/1998
• Issued: 07/11/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Dragon Systems, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Young, Jonathan H., Gould, Joel M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hudspeth, David R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chawan, Vijay B
• Application Number:
  US09/098,502
• Time in Patent Office: 755 Days
• Field of Search: 704/260, 704/275, 704/277, 704/235, 704/258, 704/259
• US Class Current: 704/235
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1815 Semantic context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word meaning
• 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: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context

Abstract

In a method for use in recognizing continuous speech, signals are accepted corresponding to interspersed speech elements including text elements corresponding to text to be recognized and command elements corresponding to commands to be executed. The elements are recognized. The recognized elements are acted on in a manner which depends on whether they represent text or commands.

Claims

1. A method for use in recognizing continuous speech comprising:

accepting signals corresponding to interspersed speech elements including text elements corresponding to text to be recognized and command elements corresponding to commands to be executed, wherein a particular one of the speech elements may correspond to a text element in one context and to a command element in another context,

recognizing the speech elements as if they were text,

after recognizing the speech elements as if they were text, recognizing the speech elements as if they were commands, and

when a recognized one of the speech elements may be either a command element or a text element, designating the recognized speech element as corresponding to a text element or to a command element based on a context in which the recognized speech element appears.

2. The method of claim 1 in which a text element is acted on by providing the text element to a text processing application.

3. The method of claim 1 in which a command element is acted upon by causing an application to perform an action.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the designating is based on natural characteristics of spoken text versus spoken commands.

5. The method of claim 1 in which the designating includes evaluating a likelihood that the recognized speech element is either a command element or a text element.

6. The method of claim 1 further including biasing, the designating in favor of the recognized speech element being a text element or a command element.

7. The method of claim 6 in which the biasing includes determining if the recognized speech element reflects a command reject.

8. The method of claim 6 in which the biasing includes determining if the recognized speech element conforms to a command template.

9. The method of claim 6 in which the biasing includes comparing recognition scores of the recognized speech element as a command or as text.

10. The method of claim 6 in which the biasing includes determining the length of silence between successive ones of the speech elements.

11. The method of claim 6 in which the biasing includes determining whether actions of the user imply that the recognized speech element cannot be text.

12. A method for use in recognizing continuous speech, the method comprising:

accepting signals corresponding to interspersed speech elements including text elements corresponding to text to be recognized and command elements corresponding to commands to be executed, wherein a particular one of the speech elements may correspond to a text element in one context and to a command element in another context,

recognizing the speech elements,

when a recognized one of the speech elements may be either a command element or a text element, designating the recognized speech element as corresponding to a text element or to a command element based on a context in which the recognized speech element appears, and

if the recognized speech element includes a command element, displaying information associated with the command element.

13. The method of claim 12 in which the displaying includes displaying a command element that would be difficult to undo after execution of the command.

14. A method for use in recognizing continuous speech, the method comprising:

accepting signals corresponding to interspersed speech elements including text elements corresponding to text to be recognized and command elements corresponding to commands to be executed, wherein a particular one of the speech elements may correspond to a text element in one context and to a command element in another context,

enabling a user to indicate whether a speech element is a command element,

recognizing the speech elements, and

when a recognized one of the speech elements may be either a command element or a text element, designating the recognized speech element as corresponding to a text element or to a command element based on either a context in which the recognized speech element appears or the user indication.

15. A method for use in recognizing continuous speech, the method comprising:

accepting signals corresponding to interspersed speech elements including text elements corresponding to text to be recognized and command elements corresponding to commands to be executed, wherein a particular one of the speech elements may correspond to a text element in one context and to a command element in another context,

enabling a user to indicate whether a speech element is a text element,

recognizing the speech elements, and

when a recognized one of the speech elements may be either a command element or a text element, designating the recognized speech element as corresponding to a text element or to a command element based on either a context in which the recognized speech element appears or the user indication.