Systems and methods for providing information discovery and retrieval

• US 8,521,766 B1
• Filed: 11/12/2008
• Issued: 08/27/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wyoming Technology Licensing LLC (Leigh M. Rothschild)
• Original Assignee: W. Leo Hoarty
• Inventors: Hoarty, W Leo
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, UYEN T
• Application Number:
  US12/269,718
• Time in Patent Office: 1,749 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/43 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/639 using playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/686 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title or artist information, time, location or usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/953 Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/211 Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/005 Language recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/08 Speech classification or search
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/14 using statistical models, e.g. Hidden Markov Models [HMMs] G10L15/18 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1822 Parsing for meaning understanding
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue

Abstract

This invention relates generally to software and computers, and more specifically, to systems and methods for providing information discovery and retrieval. In one embodiment, the invention includes a system for providing information discovery and retrieval, the system including a processor module, the processor module configurable to performing the steps of receiving an information request from a consumer device over a communications network; decoding the information request; discovering information using the decoded information request; preparing instructions for accessing the information; and communicating the prepared instructions to the consumer device, wherein the consumer device is configurable to retrieving the information for presentation using the prepared instructions.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving an information request;

decoding the information request;

discovering information using the decoded information request;

preparing, using one or more processing devices instructions for accessing the information, the instructions including;

one or more Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) grammar codes;

one or more short text string matching codes; and

one or more information formatting codes operative to format a consumer device display; and

communicating the prepared instructions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the discovering information using the decoded information request comprises:

accessing a database, the database configured at least for containing references to information available from a third party source; and

identifying a reference to the information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the preparing, using one or more processing devices, instructions for accessing the discovered information comprises:

preparing instructions for accessing the referenced information from the third party source.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the prepared instructions are contained within an active metadata file, the active metadata file further comprising:

an identity of the referenced information;

a location of the referenced information;

a sample of the referenced information; and

access instructions for the referenced information, the access instructions including any of a login, password, and digital rights management code for use with the third party source.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating the prepared instructions to a consumer device different from a requesting consumer device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the information request is a media request and the information is media.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the decoding the information request comprises:

isolating an utterance from background noise.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the decoding the information request comprises:

determining a background noise portion of the information request; and

subtracting the background noise portion from the information request.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving an information request comprises:

receiving an information request including at least an audio portion during which a speaker is silent, the audio portion during which a speaker is silent representing a background noise portion.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the decoding the information request comprises:

using the background noise portion to filter background noise from at least an audio portion of the information request including an utterance.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the decoding the information request comprises:

determining that a background noise portion of the information request interferes with processing an utterance; and

alerting a speaker.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the alerting a speaker comprises one or more of alerting a speaker to move to a quieter location, alerting a speaker to reduce background noise, and alerting a speaker to utter the information request again.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the decoding the information request comprises:

applying one or more of a pitch-shift or a time-shift to the information request.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the applying one or more of a pitch-shift or a time-shift to the information request comprises:

applying a reference pitch-shift and/or time-shift determined during a prior decoding of an information request.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the prior decoding of an information request comprises:

determining a reference pitch-shift and/or time-shift, including;

receiving an audio sample of at least a known test phrase uttered by a speaker;

transforming the audio sample into a plurality of test samples, each test sample including the audio sample shifted in one or more of pitch and time;

establishing a confidence value for each of the plurality of test samples, wherein the establishing a confidence value includes at least comparing each of the plurality of test samples with the known test phrase;

selecting the test sample with a most favorable confidence value for a reference pitch-shift and/or time-shift; and

storing the reference pitch-shift and/or time-shift for subsequent decoding.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the transforming the audio sample into a plurality of test samples, each test sample including the audio sample shifted in one or more of pitch and time comprises:

invoking a processor module for transforming the audio sample into a particular test sample, each particular test sample including the audio sample shifted in one of pitch or time,

wherein a plurality of processor modules each perform the steps of transforming the audio sample and establishing a confidence value for an individual test sample, each of the plurality of processor modules performing the steps in parallel with the other processor modules.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the decoding the information request comprises:

identifying a reference accent, the reference accent determined during a prior decoding of an information request, the prior decoding of an information request including;

receiving an audio sample of at least a known test phrase uttered by a speaker;

transforming the audio sample into a plurality of test samples;

establishing a confidence value for each of the plurality of test samples, wherein the establishing a confidence value includes at least recognizing the plurality of test samples using a plurality of speech recognition modules, each of the plurality of speech recognition modules optimized for a different accent or dialect of a given language;

selecting the accent or dialect of a given language utilized by the speech recognition module which recognized the test sample with a most favorable confidence value for a reference accent; and

storing the reference accent for subsequent decoding.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the transforming the audio sample into a plurality of test samples comprises:

invoking a processor module for transforming the audio sample into a particular test sample and establishing a confidence value for that particular test sample,

wherein a plurality of processor modules each perform the steps of transforming the audio sample and establishing a confidence value for a different accent or dialect of a given language, each of the plurality of processor modules performing the steps in parallel with the other processor modules.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the decoding the information request further comprises:

decoding the information request including at least speech recognition optimized for the reference accent.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the decoding the information request comprises:

parsing the information request using a first speech recognition process to recognize at least a context for further recognition of at least a portion of the information request; and

parsing the at least a portion of the information request using at least a second speech recognition process.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the parsing the at least a portion of the information request using at least a second speech recognition process comprises:

performing the speech recognition process on the at least a portion of the information request iteratively to determine one or more of a further context and a keyword, the performing the speech recognition process iteratively determining at least a second result.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the performing the speech recognition process on the at least a portion of the information request iteratively to determine one or more of a further context and a keyword comprises:

invoking at least a processor module to assist in decoding the information request.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the first speech recognition process comprises:

performing a first speech recognition process on the entire information request, the first speech recognition process determining at least a first result.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the performing a first speech recognition process comprises:

performing a first speech recognition process including determining a first result selected from an open dictionary.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the performing a first speech recognition process comprises:

performing a first speech recognition process including determining a first result using Statistical Language Model Automated Speech Recognition (SLM ASR).

26. The method of claim 21, wherein the second speech recognition process comprises:

performing the second speech recognition process including determining a second result selected from a pre-defined list of keywords determined by the context.

27. The method of claim 21, wherein the second speech recognition process comprises:

performing a second speech recognition process including Context Free Grammar Automated Speech Recognition (CFG ASR).

28. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

disambiguating at least the first result and the second result, the disambiguating at least the first result and the second result including determining one of the first or second results as a favorable result based upon context.

29. A system for providing information discovery and retrieval, the system comprising:

a processor module, the processor module configured at least for performing the steps of;

receiving an information request from a consumer device over a communications network;

decoding the information request;

discovering information using the decoded information request;

preparing instructions for accessing the information, the instructions including;

one or more Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) grammar codes;

one or more short text string matching codes; and

one or more information formatting codes operative to format a consumer device display; and

communicating the prepared instructions to the consumer device,

wherein the consumer device is configured at least for retrieving the information for presentation using the prepared instructions.

30. A computer program product comprising one or more non-transitory computer readable media bearing one or more instructions for:

receiving an information request;

decoding the information request;

discovering information using the decoded information request;

preparing instructions for accessing the information, the instructions including;

one or more ASR grammar codes;

one or more short text string matching codes; and

one or more information formatting codes operative to format a consumer device display; and

communicating the prepared instructions.