Distributed dictation/transcription system

• US 8,412,523 B2
• Filed: 03/16/2012
• Issued: 04/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: nVoq, Inc.
• Original Assignee: nVoq, Inc.
• Inventors: Beach, Richard, Butler, Christopher, Ford, Jon, Marquette, Brian, Omland, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): MCFADDEN, SUSAN IRIS
• Application Number:
  US13/422,151
• Publication Number:
  US 20120185250A1
• Time in Patent Office: 382 Days
• Field of Search: 704/235
• US Class Current: 704/235
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/30 Distributed recognition, e.g. in client-server systems, for mobile phones or network applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1004 Server selection for load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1027 Persistence of sessions during load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

A distributed dictation/transcription system is provided. The system provides a client station, dictation manager, and dictation server networked such that the dictation manager selects a dictation server to transcribe audio from the client station. The dictation manager selects one of a plurality of dictation servers based on conventional load balancing and on a determination of whether the user profile is already uploaded to a dictation server. While selecting a dictation server or uploading a profile, the client may begin dictating, which audio would be stored in a buffer of dictation manager until a dictation server was selected or available. The user may receive in real time or near real time a display of the textual data that may be corrected by the user to update the user profile.

Claims

1. A dictation manager connected to at least one client station and a plurality of dictation servers, comprising:

at least one network data port to receive audio signals from the connected client station and to transmit the received audio signals to the plurality of connected dictation servers;

a dictation server selector to select one of the plurality of connected dictation servers to which the received audio signal is transmitted for transcription;

at least one memory containing a user profile and an indication of whether the user profile has been uploaded and maintained in one of the plurality of dictation servers to which the dictation manager is connected;

wherein if the dictation server selector determines that the user profile has been uploaded and maintained by one of the plurality of dictation servers, the dictation server selector selects the one of the plurality of dictation servers;

wherein if the dictation server selector determines that the user profile has not been uploaded or maintained by any of the plurality of dictation servers, the dictation server selector selects any one of the plurality of dictation servers and uploads the user profile.

2. The dictation manager of claim 1 wherein the at least one network data port comprises a plurality of data ports configured to receive and transmit audio signals and data signals.

3. The dictation manager of claim 2 wherein the audio signal is stored in a buffer while the dictation server selector is selecting one of the plurality of dictation servers.

4. The dictation manager of claim 1 wherein the dictation server selector further comprises a load balancer.

5. The dictation manager of claim 4 wherein the dictation server selector selects a dictation server based on a determination of the load balancer.

6. The dictation manager of claim 5 wherein the determination is based on at least one of queue length, average time to process, process load, and memory.

7. The dictation manager of claim 1 further comprising a user profile corrector wherein the dictation manager is further configured to receive corrective textual data from the client station and a user profile corrector updates the user profile based on the corrective textual data.

8. The dictation manager of claim 1, wherein the dictation manager further configured to transmit the received audio to the selected one of the plurality of dictation servers.

9. A method of distributed dictation and transcription performed using at least one processor associated with a dictation manager, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving an audio signal from a user operating a client station;

identifying a user profile stored in a memory of the dictation manager associated with the user of the received audio signal;

determining whether one of a plurality of servers has an affinity for the identified user, wherein the affinity is determined in part by whether one of the plurality of servers is maintaining the identified user profile;

if it is determined that one of the plurality of servers has an affinity for the identified user based on whether the identified user profile is maintained by one of the plurality of servers, than selecting the one server having the affinity to transcribe the received audio signal;

causing the received audio signal to be transmitted to the one server wherein the received audio signal is converted into a textual data signal.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the step of selecting the server also comprises balancing a load between servers.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the step of determining whether the identified user profile has been previously provided comprises determining at least two servers of the plurality of servers have an affinity for the identified user and the step of selecting the dictation server further comprises selecting one of the at least two dictation servers to balance a load between the at least two servers.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the step of determining an affinity to the identified user includes a determination that the identified user profile has not been previously provided and the step of selecting the one server from the plurality of servers comprises balancing a load between the plurality of servers and further comprises the step of transmitting the identified user profile to the selected one of the plurality of servers.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of buffering the audio signal prior to the step of causing the received audio to be transmitted.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein the step of causing the received audio to be transmitted includes causing the client station to transmit the audio signal to the one server.

15. The method of claim 9 further comprising the steps of:

returning the textual data signal to the client station; and

displaying the textual data on a display at the client station.

16. A system to provide a client station with a distributed dictation and transcription service comprising:

at least one dictation manager connected to at least one client station via a connection, the connection comprising at least one of a data port to receive audio signals from the at least one client station, to transmit textual data to the at least one client station, and to receive textual data from the at least one client station;

a plurality of homogeneous dictation servers comprising at least one transcription engine that transforms audio signals of dictated words to textual data signals;

at least one connection between the at least one dictation manager and the plurality of homogeneous dictation servers configured to transmit audio signals and textual data signals between the at least one dictation manager and the plurality of homogeneous dictation servers;

the at least one dictation manager comprising a processor with a means for selecting one of the plurality of homogeneous dictation servers to transform audio signals of dictated words to textual data signals wherein the means for selecting comprises a means for determining whether a user profile is stored in any of the plurality of homogeneous dictation servers; and

a memory containing at least one user profile.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the means for selecting one of the plurality of homogeneous dictation servers comprises a load balancer.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein the means for selecting one of the plurality of homogeneous dictation servers comprises a determinator that uses information in the memory to determine whether at least one of the plurality of dictation servers has been provided with the at least one user profile.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein the dictation manager transmits a user profile to the selected one of the plurality of homogeneous dictation servers.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the audio signal received from the client station by the dictation manager is stored in a buffer while the dictation manager is transmitting the user profile.

21. The system of claim 16 wherein the dictation manager comprises a user profile corrector that updates the user profile based on received corrective textual data from the client station.