Resource utilization indication and commit mechanism in a data processing system and method therefor

• US 6,629,074 B1
• Filed: 08/14/1997
• Issued: 09/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Tannenbaum, Alan Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): S{haeck over (m)}its, Ta̅livaldis Ivars
• Application Number:
  US08/911,596
• Time in Patent Office: 2,238 Days
• Field of Search: 711/159, 711/100, 704/231, 704/4, 395/184.01, 395/180, 395/183.02, 702/1
• US Class Current: 704/270
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/28 Constructional details of speech recognition systems

Abstract

A graphical user interface is implemented to indicate how much of the systems resources are being consumed during a dictation operation, via speech recognition, of a document and its corresponding persistent results information and when said resources are nearing their capacity. An external user may take steps necessary to reduce the information stored within the memory resources of a data processing system implementing this graphical user interface in an efficient and effective manner, through the use of a “commit” signal.

Claims

1. A data processing system, comprising:

a central processing unit for detecting an availability of a resource operable for storing data values during execution of an application, said availability of the resource being able to be selectively modified in response to execution of the data processing application, said execution including translating a first plurality of user input signals to a first plurality of translated data values; and

a display device for displaying said availability of the resource, wherein an indication of availability is selectively modified in response to storing said translated data values in said resource, and wherein the indication is operable for changing from a first state to a second state in response to a preselected threshold.

2. The data processing system of claim 1, wherein the resource further comprises:

a memory coupled to the central processing unit for storing a first plurality of data values in response to execution of the application.

3. The data processing system of claim 2, wherein the availability of the resource indicates a portion of the memory which is capable of storing a second plurality of data values in response to execution of the application.

4. The data processing system of claim 2 wherein the indication indicates the memory is unable to store an additional data value.

5. The data processing system of claim 1 wherein the application is a speech dictation application.

6. The data processing system of claim 5, further comprising:

input means for receiving a plurality of user inputs; and

a speech recognition unit coupled to the input means and coupled to the central processing unit, the speech recognition unit transcribing at least a portion of the plurality of user inputs to generate a plurality of transcribed values in a text format.

7. The data processing system of claim 6, further comprising:

a memory for storing at least a portion of the plurality of transcribed values, the memory being coupled to the speech recognition unit for receiving the plurality of transcribed values.

8. The data processing system of claim 7 wherein the memory is the resource.

9. The data processing system of claim 8 wherein the indication indicates an amount of storage space available in the memory for storing an additional plurality of transcribed values.

10. The data processing system of claim 7 wherein the memory stores at least a portion of the plurality of user inputs.

11. The data processing system of claim 1 wherein the indication is a visual indicator.

12. The data processing system of claim 1 wherein the indication is an audio indicator.

13. The data processing system of claim 1 wherein said second state includes a prompt indicating said threshold has been crossed.

14. The data processing system of claim 1 wherein said first state corresponds to a first color and said second state corresponds to a second color.

15. The data processing system of claim 1 wherein said second state includes an audio signal.

16. The data processing system of claim 1 wherein said second state includes a control operable for making a portion of said resource available to said application.

17. A data processing system, comprising:

a central processing unit for detecting an availability of a resource operable for storing data values during execution of an application, wherein the availability of the resource is selectively modified in response to execution of the data processing application, said execution including translating a plurality of user input signals to a plurality of translated data values; and

a display device for providing an indication of the availability of the resource, wherein the indication of the availability is selectively modified in response to storing said plurality of said translated data values in a first portion of said resource, wherein the resource further comprises;

a memory coupled to the central processing unit for storing a plurality of translated data values in response to execution of the application, wherein the indication indicates that the memory stores a first plurality of translated data values, wherein the first plurality of data values equals or exceeds a threshold amount of data.

18. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform methods steps for executing a data processing application, said method steps comprising:

receiving a first plurality of user input signals at an input circuit;

translating the first plurality of user input signals to a first plurality of translated data values;

storing the first plurality of translated data values in a first portion of the memory having a predetermined storage space; and

modifying a presentation of an indicator in response to a remaining portion of the predetermined storage space of the memory.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of:

initializing the indicator to be displayed on a display device prior to performing the data processing application.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein a step of modifying the presentation of the indicator, further comprises the step of:

modifying a visual appearance of the indicator on the display device in response to the remaining portion of the predetermined storage space of the memory.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein a step of modifying the presentation of the indicator, further comprises the step of:

modifying an audio presentation of the indicator on the display device in response to the remaining portion of the predetermined storage space of the memory.

22. The method of claim 18, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a commit input at the input circuit; and

enabling the memory to make the first portion of the memory available for storing a second plurality of translated data values.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of:

reinitializing the presentation of the indicator to indicate additional storage space is available in the memory.

24. The method of claim 18, wherein the data processing application is a speech dictation application.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising the steps of:

transcribing at least a portion of the first plurality of user inputs to generate a first plurality of transcribed values in a text format; and

storing the first plurality of transcribed data values in the first portion of the memory having the predetermined storage space.

26. The method of claim 18, comprising the steps of:

detecting when the remaining portion of the predetermined storage space of the memory has reached a threshold level; and

disabling the input circuit from receiving an additional user input.

27. The method of claim 26 further comprising the step of:

selectively receiving a threshold data value at the input means wherein the threshold level is set to the received data value.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising the step of:

setting the threshold level to a preselected default value when the threshold data value is not provided to the input means.

29. A data processing system, comprising:

an input circuit for receiving a first plurality of data values and a commit input control signal;

a memory for storing the first plurality of data values in a first portion of the memory; and

a central processing unit for selectively enabling the memory to make the first portion of the memory available for storing a second plurality of translated data values in response to a first logic state of the commit input control signal.

30. The data processing system of claim 29, further comprising:

a display device for displaying a commit graphical user interface, wherein the commit input control signal is selectively asserted in response to access of the commit graphical user interface.

31. The data processing system of claim 29, further comprising:

a speech recognition unit coupled to the input circuit and coupled to the central processing unit, the speech recognition unit transcribing at least a portion of the first plurality of data values to generate a plurality of transcribed values in a text format.

32. The data processing system of claim 31, wherein the plurality of transcribed values in the text format are stored in the memory.

33. The data processing system of claim 31, wherein the plurality of transcribed values in the text format stored in the memory may be selectively overwritten with the second plurality of translated data values when the commit input control signal is in the first logic state.

34. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for developing a communication interface for a data processing system, comprising the steps of:

detecting an availability of a resource operable for storing data values during the execution of an application, said availability of the resource being able to be selectively modified in response to execution of the data processing application, said execution including translating a first plurality of user input signals to a first plurality of translated data values; and

displaying a said availability of the resource, wherein an indication of availability was selectively modified in response to storing said plurality of translated data values in a first portion of said resource, and wherein the indication is operable for changing from a first state to second state in response to a preselected threshold.

35. The storage device of claim 34 wherein said second state includes a prompt indicating said second threshold has been crossed.

36. The storage device of claim 34 wherein said second state includes an audio signal.

37. The storage device of claim 34 wherein said second state includes a control operable for releasing a portion of said resource to said application.

38. The storage device of claim 37 wherein the availability of the resource indicates a portion of the memory which is available for storing a second plurality of data values in response to execution of the data processing application.

39. The storage device of claim 38 wherein said method steps further comprise:

receiving a plurality of user inputs; and

transcribing at least a portion of the plurality of user inputs to generate a plurality of transcribed values in a text format.

40. The storage device of claim 38 wherein said method steps further comprises storing at least a portion of the plurality of transcribed values in a memory, the memory being coupled to a speech recognition unit for receiving the plurality of transcribed values.

41. The storage device of claim 38 wherein the indication indicates an amount of storage space available in the memory for storing an additional plurality of transcribed values.

42. The storage device of claim 34 wherein the resource further comprises:

a memory coupled to a central processing unit for storing a first plurality of data values in response to execution of the application.

43. The storage device of claim 34 wherein said application is a speech dictation application.