Dialect translator for a speech application environment extended for interactive text exchanges

• US 8,654,940 B2
• Filed: 03/08/2012
• Issued: 02/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Da Palma, William V., Mandalia, Baiju D., Moore, Victor S., Nusbickel, Wendi L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Anwah, Olisa
• Application Number:
  US13/414,997
• Publication Number:
  US 20120173225A1
• Time in Patent Office: 712 Days
• Field of Search: 379/88.14, 379/93.15, 704/2, 704/4, 704/260, 704/251
• US Class Current: 379/93.15
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue

Abstract

The present solution includes a real-time automated communication method. In the method, a real-time communication session can be established between a text exchange client and a speech application. A translation table can be identified that includes multiple entries, each entry including a text exchange item and a corresponding conversational translation item. A text exchange message can be received that was entered into a text exchange client. Content in the text exchange message that matches a text exchange item in the translation table can be substituted with a corresponding conversational item. The translated text exchange message can be sent as input to a voice server. Output from the voice server can be used by the speech application, which performs an automatic programmatic action based upon the output.

Claims

1. A method comprising acts of:

identifying a translation table that includes a plurality of entries, each entry including a text exchange item and a corresponding conversational item;

receiving an automatic output message, wherein the automatic output message was generated by a speech enabled application in response to a text exchange message that was entered into a text exchange client;

detecting at least one conversational item in the automatic output message, which corresponds to an entry included in the translation table;

in the automatic output message, substituting a corresponding text exchange item for the at least one detected conversational item to create a substitute output message, wherein the corresponding text exchange item comprises at least one letter and/or at least one emoticon; and

sending the substitute output message to the text exchange client.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein a user of the text exchange client is permitted to modify entries of the translation table.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the text exchange item of at least one entry in the translation table is an emoticon.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the text exchange item of at least one entry in the translation table is slang.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the text exchange client is an instant messaging interface, a chat interface, and/or a text-messaging exchange interface.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the speech enabled application is a VoiceXML based application that lacks an inherent text exchange capability.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the text exchange client is an off-the-shelf unmodified interface, and wherein the speech enabled application is an unmodified application configured to execute in a VoiceXML server.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising acts of:

receiving the text exchange message from the at least one text exchange client;

detecting at least one text exchange item in the text exchange message, which corresponds to an entry included in the translation table;

in the text exchange message, substituting a corresponding conversational item for the at least one detected text exchange item; and

sending the substitute text exchange message to a voice server.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said acts of claim 1 are acts performed automatically by at least one machine in accordance with at least one computer program having a plurality of code sections that are executable by the at least one machine.

10. A method for extending a voice server to add text exchange capabilities, the method comprising acts of:

during an interactive dialogue between a text exchange client and a speech enabled application executing on a VoiceXML server, dynamically translating output text that is automatically generated in response to text received from the text exchange client and is grammatically part of a conversational language into corresponding text that is grammatically part of a text exchange specific language, wherein the corresponding text comprises at least one letter and/or at least one emoticon; and

sending the translated output text to the text exchange client.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

dynamically translating text received from the text exchange client that is grammatically part of a text exchange specific language into translated received text that is grammatically part of a conversational language; and

sending the translated received text to a voice server.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the text exchange specific language includes emoticons.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the text exchange specific language includes text exchange slang.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the text output is dynamically translated into corresponding output text using a user configurable translation table.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the act of dynamically translating occurs in a manner transparent to the text exchange client and to the speech application.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the text exchange client is an off-the-shelf unmodified client, and wherein the speech enabled application is an unmodified application configured to execute on the VoiceXML server.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the speech enabled application is a VoiceXML based application that lacks an inherent text exchange capability.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein said acts of claim 10 are acts performed automatically by at least one machine in accordance with at least one computer program having a plurality of code sections that are executable by the at least one machine.

19. A system for providing text exchange services, the system comprising:

a text exchange client configured to send and receive real-time text exchanges over a text exchange channel;

a speech application environment configured to execute an automated speech response application that permits users to interact in real-time over a voice channel;

a Chatbot server configured to establish a communication session involving the text exchange client and the automated speech response application; and

a dialect translator configured to dynamically detect conversational language contained in messages automatically generated by the automated speech response application in response to messages received from the text exchange client, and to translate the conversational language into corresponding text exchange specific language, wherein at least some of the translated messages are received by the text exchange client and comprise at least one letter and/or at least one emoticon.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the text exchange client is an off-the-shelf unmodified client, and wherein the automated speech response application is an unmodified VoiceXML based application that lacks an inherent text exchange capability.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the dialect translator uses a user configurable translation table to convert the conversational language into the corresponding text exchange specific language.