Automatic filtering of TV contents using speech recognition and natural language

• US 6,330,537 B1
• Filed: 08/26/1999
• Issued: 12/11/2001
• 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: Davis, Tony, Junqua, Jean-claude, Kuhn, Roland, Li, Weiying, Zhao, Yi
• Primary Examiner(s): Dorvil, Richemond
• Assistant Examiner(s): NOLAN, DANIEL A
• Application Number:
  US09/383,758
• Time in Patent Office: 838 Days
• Field of Search: 704/270, 704/275, 704/257, 704/270.1
• US Class Current: 704/257
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42203 sound input device, e.g. microphone
• 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 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• 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 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73

Abstract

Speech recognition and natural language parsing components are used to extract the meaning of the user'"'"'s spoken input. The system stores a semantic representation of an electronic program guide, and the contents of the program guide can be mapped into the grammars used by the natural language parser. Thus, when the user wishes to navigate through the complex menu structure of the electronic program guide, he or she only needs to speak in natural language sentences. The system automatically filters the contents of the program guide and supplies the user with on-screen display or synthesized speech responses to the user'"'"'s request.

Claims

1. An electronic program guide searching system comprising:

a speech recognition system having parser for extracting semantic information from a user'"'"'s input speech;

a data store for storing a representation of an electronic program guide;

a mapping module coupled to said data store for updating the contents of said data store from a source of electronic program guide information;

a dialog manager for filtering said stored electronic program guide representation based on said semantic information and for providing the user with information about available programs in response to the user'"'"'s input speech.

2. The electronic program guide searching system of claim 1 wherein said dialog manager includes a speech synthesizer for providing the user with synthesized speech information about available programs.

3. The electronic program guide searching system of claim 1 wherein said dialog manager includes an on-screen display module for providing the user with visual display of information about available programs.

4. The electronic program guide searching system of claim 1 wherein said parser is a goal-oriented parser defining a plurality of goal-oriented frames having slots corresponding to information represented in said electronic program guide.

5. The electronic program guide searching system of claim 1 wherein said parser is a natural language parser having a set of predefined grammars that correspond to information represented in said electronic program guide.

6. The electronic program guide searching system of claim 1 wherein said mapping module includes a mapping module updating system for updating the functionality of said mapping module based on information obtained from a remote site.

7. The electronic program guide searching system of claim 1 wherein said dialog manager includes a user profile data store for storing a representation of a user'"'"'s past use of said searching system, and wherein said dialog manager uses said profile data store to further filter said stored electronic program guide representation.