User attribute distribution for network/peer assisted speech coding

• US 8,447,619 B2
• Filed: 09/21/2010
• Issued: 05/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zopf, Robert W.
• Primary Examiner(s): COLUCCI, MICHAEL C
• Application Number:
  US12/887,339
• Publication Number:
  US 20110099019A1
• Time in Patent Office: 973 Days
• Field of Search: 704/250, 704/231, 704/270.1, 704/270, 704/235, 704/233, 704/230, 704/226, 704/201, 455/419, 455/412.1, 709/238, 709/219, 707/693, 381/56, 348/14.08
• US Class Current: 704/500
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/00 Speaker identification or verification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/0018 Speech coding using phonetic or linguistical decoding of the source; Reconstruction using text-to-speech synthesis
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/16 Vocoder architecture
• 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

Abstract

Systems, methods and apparatuses are described herein for distributing user attribute information about users of a communications system to communication terminals, which use the user attribute information to configure a speech codec to operate in a speaker-dependent manner during a communication session, thereby improving speech coding efficiency. In a network-assisted model, the user attribute information is stored on the communications network and selectively transmitted to the communication terminals while in a peer-assisted model, the user attribute information is derived by and transferred between communication terminals.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

selecting one or more sets of user attributes from among a stored plurality of sets of user attributes associated with a respective plurality of users of a communications system, wherein each set of user attributes can be used by each of a plurality of communication terminals to configure a configurable speech codec to operate in a speaker-dependent manner; and

transmitting the selected set(s) of user attributes to a particular communication terminal via a network for storage and use thereby to configure a configurable speech codec of the particular communication terminal to operate in a speaker-dependent manner.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the set(s) of user attributes comprises selecting one or more sets of user attributes corresponding to one or more frequently-called or frequently-calling users identified for the particular communication terminal.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the set(s) of user attributes comprises selecting one or more sets of user attributes corresponding to one or more recently-called or recently-calling users identified for the communication terminal.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the set(s) of user attributes comprises selecting one or more sets of user attributes corresponding to one or more users identified in a user database associated with the particular communication terminal.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the set(s) of user attributes comprises selecting sets of user attributes corresponding to a selected group of users identified by a user associated with the particular communication terminal.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the selected set(s) of user attributes to the particular communication terminal comprises:

transmitting the selected set(s) of user attributes to the particular communication terminal during a period of reduced network usage.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving one or more sets of user attributes from the particular communication terminal.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein retrieving the set(s) of user attributes from the particular communication terminal comprises:

retrieving the set(s) of user attributes from the particular communication terminal during a period of reduced network usage.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving one or more updates to a set of user attributes from the particular communication terminal.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein retrieving the updates(s) to the set of user attributes from the particular communication terminal comprises:

retrieving the update(s) to the set of user attributes from the particular communication terminal during a period of reduced network usage.

11. An apparatus, comprising:

a user attribute selection module that selects one or more sets of user attributes from among a stored plurality of sets of user attributes associated with respective users of a communications system, wherein each set of user attributes can be used by each of a plurality of communication terminals to configure a configurable speech codec to operate in a speaker-dependent manner; and

a user attribute distribution module that transmits the selected set(s) of user attributes to a particular communication terminal via a network for storage and use thereby to configure a configurable speech codec of the particular communication terminal to operate in a speaker-dependent manner.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the user attribute selection module selects the set(s) of user attributes by selecting one or more sets of user attributes corresponding to one or more frequently-called or frequently-calling users identified for the particular communication terminal.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the user attribute selection module selects the set(s) of user attributes by selecting one or more sets of user attributes corresponding to one or more recently-called or recently-calling users identified for the particular communication terminal.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the user attribute selection module selects the set(s) of user attributes by selecting one or more sets of user attributes corresponding to one or more users identified in a user database associated with the particular communication terminal.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the user attribute selection module selects the set(s) of user attributes by selecting sets of user attributes corresponding to a selected group of users identified by a user associated with the particular communication terminal.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the user attribute distribution module transmits the selected set(s) of user attributes to the particular communication terminal during a period of reduced network usage.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising:

a user attribute retrieval module that retrieves one or more sets of user attributes from the particular communication terminal.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the user attribute retrieval module retrieves the set(s) of user attributes from the particular communication terminal during a period of reduced network usage.

19. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising:

a user attribute retrieval module that retrieves one or more updates to a set of user attributes from the particular communication terminal.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the user attribute retrieval module retrieves the update(s) to the set of user attributes from the particular communication terminal during a period of reduced network usage.

21. A system, comprising:

a communication terminal; and

a server that selects one or more sets of user attributes from among a stored plurality of sets of user attributes associated with respective users of a communications system and transmits the selected set(s) of user attributes to the communication terminal;

wherein the communication terminal stores the set(s) of user attributes received from the server for use in configuring a configurable speech codec of the particular communication terminal to operate in a speaker-dependent manner.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the server selects the set(s) of user attributes by selecting one or more sets of user attributes corresponding to one or more frequently-called or frequently-calling users identified for the communication terminal.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the server selects the set(s) of user attributes by selecting one or more sets of user attributes corresponding to one or more recently-called or recently-calling users identified for the communication terminal.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the server selects the set(s) of user attributes by selecting one or more sets of user attributes corresponding to one or more users identified in a user database associated with the communication terminal.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein the server selects the set(s) of user attributes by selecting sets of user attributes corresponding to a selected group of users identified by a user associated with the communication terminal.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the server transmits the selected set(s) of user attributes to the communication terminal during a period of reduced network usage.

27. The system of claim 21, wherein the server retrieves one or more sets of user attributes from the communication terminal.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the server retrieves the set(s) of user attributes from the communication terminal during a period of reduced network usage.

29. The system of claim 21, wherein the server retrieves one or more updates to a set of user attributes from the communication terminal.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the server retrieves the update(s) to the set of user attributes from the communication terminal during a period of reduced network usage.