System and method for providing network coordinated conversational services

• US 8,332,227 B2
• Filed: 04/14/2009
• Issued: 12/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Maes, Stephane H., Gopalakrishnan, Ponani S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Paras D
• Application Number:
  US12/386,166
• Publication Number:
  US 20090287477A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,337 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 704/270.1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/00 Speech or voice signal processing techniques to produce another audible or non-audible signal, e.g. visual or tactile, in order to modify its quality or its intelligibility G10L19/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference

Abstract

A system and method for providing automatic and coordinated sharing of conversational resources, e.g., functions and arguments, between network-connected servers and devices and their corresponding applications. In one aspect, a system for providing automatic and coordinated sharing of conversational resources includes a network having a first and second network device, the first and second network device each comprising a set of conversational resources, a dialog manager for managing a conversation and executing calls requesting a conversational service, and a communication stack for communicating messages over the network using conversational protocols, wherein the conversational protocols establish coordinated network communication between the dialog managers of the first and second network device to automatically share the set of conversational resources of the first and second network device, when necessary, to perform their respective requested conversational service.

Claims

1. A mobile device capable of wirelessly communicating with at least one server over a network to facilitate allocation of conversational resources, the mobile device comprising:

at least one input/output (I/O) for communicating wirelessly with the at least one server over the network;

at least one storage medium for storing instructions configured to utilize a set of conversational resources on the mobile device;

at least one processor coupled to the at least one storage medium and configured to execute the instructions to perform speech recognition, speaker recognition, text-to-speech, natural language understanding and/or natural language generation; and

a dialog manager for managing calls requesting a conversational service, the dialog manager, upon receiving a request for a conversational service, determining whether the conversational service should be processed locally or processed remotely at the at least one server based, at least in part, on the set of available conversational resources at the mobile device and, if determined that the conversational service is to be processed locally, instructing the at least one processor to execute the requested conversational service and, if determined that the conversational service is to be processed at the at least one server, communicating, via the at least one I/O, with the at least one server to initiate execution of the requested conversational service.

2. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is a smartphone.

3. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is a personal digital assistant (PDA).

4. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the device further comprises speech transmission protocols for transmitting one of compressed speech waveforms, compressed speech features, and compressed results.

5. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the at least one server comprises speech transmission protocols for transmitting one of compressed speech waveforms, compressed speech features, and compressed results.

6. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the dialog manager determines whether results of processing the requested conversational service, either locally or remotely, are acceptable, and if determined that the results are not acceptable, the dialog manager communicates with a server different from a server that performed the processing to initiate processing of the requested conversational service.

7. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the at least one server comprises a first server and a second server, and if it is determined that the conversation service should be processed at the at least one server, the dialog manager further determines whether the conversational service should be processed at the first server or at the second server based at least in part on conditions of the network.