Partial speech processing device and method for use in distributed systems
First Claim
1. A portable speech processing device incorporated within a personal digital assistant or cellphone for use in a distributed speech recognition system for processing a speech utterance comprising:
- a first signal processing circuit adapted to generate a first set of speech data values from speech utterance signals associated with the speech utterance, wherein said first set of speech data values have a limited data content and are compressed;
a transmission circuit that formats the first set of speech data values by removing NULL data in the first set of speech data values and inserting a single NULL character to denote end of speech and transmits the first set of speech data values over a communications channel to a second signal processing circuit;
said transmission circuit being adapted to transmit said speech data values over said communications channel in response to a designated button for speech queries being pressed on the portable speech processing device;
wherein the portable speech processing device is configured so that said first set of speech data values can be sent in a data stream over said channel, during periods when silence is not detected, to a server system which includes a second signal processing circuit which can perform a full recognition of text words in the speech utterance as well as a natural language engine for performing a recognition of a meaning of a sentence presented in said text words;
said full recognition being performed subject to a confidence level provided to said server system by the portable speech processing device.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A client device incorporates partial speech recognition for recognizing a spoken query by a user. The full recognition process is distributed over a client/server architecture, so that the amount of partial recognition signal processing tasks can be allocated on a dynamic basis based on processing resources, channel conditions, etc. Partially processed speech data from the client device can be streamed to a server for a real-time response. Additional natural language processing operations can also be performed to implement sentence recognition functionality.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A portable speech processing device incorporated within a personal digital assistant or cellphone for use in a distributed speech recognition system for processing a speech utterance comprising:
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a first signal processing circuit adapted to generate a first set of speech data values from speech utterance signals associated with the speech utterance, wherein said first set of speech data values have a limited data content and are compressed; a transmission circuit that formats the first set of speech data values by removing NULL data in the first set of speech data values and inserting a single NULL character to denote end of speech and transmits the first set of speech data values over a communications channel to a second signal processing circuit; said transmission circuit being adapted to transmit said speech data values over said communications channel in response to a designated button for speech queries being pressed on the portable speech processing device; wherein the portable speech processing device is configured so that said first set of speech data values can be sent in a data stream over said channel, during periods when silence is not detected, to a server system which includes a second signal processing circuit which can perform a full recognition of text words in the speech utterance as well as a natural language engine for performing a recognition of a meaning of a sentence presented in said text words; said full recognition being performed subject to a confidence level provided to said server system by the portable speech processing device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A portable speech processing device incorporated within a personal digital assistant or cellphone for use in a distributed speech recognition system for processing a speech utterance, comprising:
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a first signal processing circuit that generates a first set of speech data values from speech utterance signals associated with the speech utterance, the first set of speech data values being compressed and having a limited data content; a transmission circuit that formats the first set of speech data values by removing NULL data in the first set of speech data values and inserting a single NULL character to denote end of speech and transmits the first set of speech data values over a communications channel to a second signal processing circuit; and a designated button on the portable speech processing device coupled to the transmission circuit such that when the button is pressed, the first set of speech data values are transmitted; wherein the portable speech processing device is configured such that the first set of speech data values are sent in a data stream over the channel during periods when silence is not detected to a server system that includes a second signal processing circuit capable of performing a full recognition of text words in the speech utterance and a natural language engine for performing a recognition of a meaning of a sentence presented in the text words. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A distributed speech recognition system, comprising:
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a portable speech processing device incorporated within a personal digital assistant or cellphone including a first signal processing circuit that generates a first set of speech data values from speech utterance signals, the first set of speech data values being compressed and having a limited data content; a transmission circuit that formats the first set of speech data values by removing NULL data in the first set of speech data values and inserting a single NULL character to denote end of speech and transmits the first set of speech data values over a communications channel to a second signal processing circuit, and a designated button for speech queries on the portable speech processing device coupled to the transmission circuit such that when the button is pressed, the first signal processing circuit and the transmission circuit are caused, respectively, to generate the first speech data values from speech utterance signals associated with a user utterance made immediately after the button is depressed and to transmit the speech data values, the portable speech processing device being configured such that the first set of speech data values are sent in a data stream over the channel during periods when silence is not detected; and a server system configured to receive the first set of speech values over the communications channel, the server system having a second signal processing circuit capable of performing a full recognition of text words in the user utterance, and a natural language engine for performing a recognition of a meaning of a sentence presented in the text words. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification