System and method for allowing family members to access TV contents and program media recorder over telephone or internet

• US 6,324,512 B1
• Filed: 08/26/1999
• Issued: 11/27/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sovereign Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Junqua, Jean-claude, Kuhn, Roland, Davis, Tony, Zhao, Yi, Li, Weiying
• Primary Examiner(s): Dorvil, Richemond
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nolan, Daniel A.
• Application Number:
  US09/383,760
• Time in Patent Office: 824 Days
• Field of Search: 704/270, 704/275, 704/246, 704/250, 704/253, 704/256, 704/257, 704/273
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/00 Speaker identification or verification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42203 sound input device, e.g. microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4227 Providing Remote input by a user located remotely from the client device, e.g. at work
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42676 for modulating an analogue carrier signal to encode digital information or demodulating it to decode digital information, e.g. ADSL or cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4383 Accessing a communication channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4415 using biometric characteristics of the user, e.g. by voice recognition or fingerprint scanning cryptography using biological data H04L9/3231; authentication in networks using biometric H04L63/0861
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4662 characterized by learning algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6118 involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6137 involving transmission via a telephone network, e.g. POTS

Abstract

Users of the system can access the TV contents and program media recorder by speaking in natural language sentences. The user interacts with the television and with other multimedia equipment, such as media recorders and VCRs, through the unified access controller. A speaker verification/identification module determines the identity of the speaker and this information is used to control how the dialog between user and system proceeds. Speech can be input through either a microphone or over the telephone. In addition, the user can interact with the system using a suitable computer attached via the internet. Regardless of the mode of access, the unified access controller interprets the semantic content of the user'"'"'s request and supplies the appropriate control signals to the television tuner and/or recorder.

Claims

1. A unified access system for controlling audio/video components, comprising:

a unified access controller having port for communicating with at least one audio/video component and for supplying control commands to said component;

a speech recognition system coupled to said unified access controller;

said speech recognition system having a first input for user entry of spoken information by microphone and a second input for user entry of spoken information by telephone;

storage system for acquiring and storing an electronic program guide that identifies program content that is available for presentation through said audio/video component;

natural language parser coupled to said speech recognition system and to said storage system for extracting semantics from said user entry of spoken information and for correlating said extracted semantics with said electronic program guide.

2. The unified access system of claim 1 further comprising a third input for user entry of information through a computer network.

3. The unified access system of claim 2 wherein said third input includes internet access module coupled to said natural language parser for conveying information entered through said computer network to said parser.

4. The unified access system of claim 1 wherein said storage system includes internet access module coupled to a computer network for acquisition of said electronic program guide.

5. The unified access system of claim 1 wherein said unified access controller supplies control commands to a plurality of audio/video components.

6. The unified access system of claim 5 wherein said plurality of components includes a display monitor and a recorder.

7. The unified access system of claim 1 wherein said storage system includes cable interface for acquiring said electronic program guide over a channel that also provides audio/video content.

8. The unified access system of claim 1 further comprising speaker verification module coupled to at least one of said first and second inputs for ascertaining the identity of the user who is speaking.

9. The unified access system of claim 8 further comprising a data store containing user profile data that is accessed based on the identity of the user as determined by said speaker verification module.

10. The unified access system of claim 1 wherein said natural language parser is a goal-oriented parser that extracts semantics using a prestored set of frames having slots corresponding to predefined semantic content.

11. The unified access system of claim 10 wherein said recognition system supplies data to fill said slots based on keyword information extracted from said spoken information.

12. The unified access system of claim 1 further comprising a dialog manager coupled to at least one of said unified access controller and said parser, said dialog manager generating prompts to the user to elicit further spoken information from said user.

13. The unified access system of claim 1 further comprising speech synthesizer for supplying synthesized speech prompts to said user.