User barge-in enablement in large vocabulary speech recognition systems
First Claim
1. An interactive voice response unit (VRU) including a telecommunication port, a prompt unit, and a controller that controls at least one prompt that is delivered by said prompt unit to said port, the improvement comprising:
- a recognizer coupled to said port that discards input signals that fail to meet usefulness criteria; and
a phrase detector responsive to output signals of said recognizer and to control signals from said controller, developing detected meaningful phrases supplying data to said controller that corresponds to said meaningful phrases.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An interactive voice response unit which provides beneficial operation by including means to handle unconstrained input such as natural speech and to allow barge-in includes a prompter, a recognizer of speech signals, a meaningful phrase detector and classifier, and a turn-taking module, all under control of a dialog manager. In the course of listening to user input while outputting a voiced message, the voice response unit processes the received signal and ascertains whether it is receiving an utterance that is intended to interrupt the prompt, or merely noise or an utterance that is not meant to be used by the arrangement. The unit is sensitive to the speed and context of the speech provided by the user and is thus able to distinguish between a situation where a speaker is merely pausing and a situation where a speaker is done speaking.
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Citations
28 Claims
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1. An interactive voice response unit (VRU) including a telecommunication port, a prompt unit, and a controller that controls at least one prompt that is delivered by said prompt unit to said port, the improvement comprising:
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a recognizer coupled to said port that discards input signals that fail to meet usefulness criteria; and
a phrase detector responsive to output signals of said recognizer and to control signals from said controller, developing detected meaningful phrases supplying data to said controller that corresponds to said meaningful phrases. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
a meaningful phrase detector responsive to said recognizer that translates meaningful phrases found in said output signals of said recognizer into tasks to be provided to said controller, and a turn-taking module responsive to output signals detected by said meaningful phrase detector, where said turn-taking module ascertains rate at which said meaningful phrase detector detects significant signal segments.
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19. The VRU of claim 1 where said phrase detector comprises:
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a meaningful phrase detector responsive to said recognizer that translates meaningful phrases found in said output signals of said recognizer into tasks to be provided to said controller, and a turn-taking module responsive to output signals detected by said meaningful phrase detector, where said turn-taking module ascertains lengths of silences between significant signal segments detected by said meaningful phrase detector and provided to said turn-taking module.
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20. The VRU of claim 1 where said phrase detector comprises:
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a meaningful phrase detector responsive to said recognizer that translates meaningful phrases found in said output signals of said recognizer into tasks to be provided to said controller, and a turn-taking module responsive to output signals detected by said meaningful phrase detector, where said turn-taking module ascertains inflections at which said meaningful phrase detector detects significant signal segments.
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21. The VRU of claim 18 where said significant signal segments are words or DTMF signals representative of digits.
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22. The VRU of claim 18 where said translating of meaningful phrases is controlled by signals developed by said turn-taking module from said ascertainment of rate at which said meaningful phrase detector detects significant signal segments.
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23. The VRU of claim 18 where said turn-taking module controls said meaningful phrase detector.
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24. The VRU of claim 18 where said controller provides control signals to said turn-taking module.
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25. The VRU of claim 18 where said controller provides control signals to said meaningful phrase detector.
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26. The VRU of claim 18 where said turn-taking module determines from elapsed times without a received input from said meaningful phrase detector that said port has completed sending an input signal.
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27. The VRU of claim 18 where said turn-taking module determines from grammatical construct of input provided by said meaningful phrase detector whether said port has completed sending an input signal.
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28. The VRU of claim 18 where said turn-taking module determines from context of input provided by said meaningful phrase detector whether said port has completed sending an input signal.
Specification