Systems and methods for off-board voice-automated vehicle navigation

• US 8,706,405 B2
• Filed: 06/04/2013
• Issued: 04/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sirius XM Connected Vehicle Services Inc. (Liberty Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Agero Connected Services, Inc. (Liberty Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Schalk, Thomas Barton
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): PIPALA, EDWARD J
• Application Number:
  US13/909,490
• Publication Number:
  US 20130268269A1
• Time in Patent Office: 322 Days
• Field of Search: 701/400, 701/408, 701/409, 701/410, 701/418, 701/419, 701/420, 701/427, 701/443, 340/988, 340/989, 340/990, 340/993, 340/995.12, 340/995.16, 340/995.24, 340/996
• US Class Current: 701/418
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3608 using speech input, e.g. using speech recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/00 Speech recognition G10L17/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/04 Segmentation; Word boundary detection
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/30 Distributed recognition, e.g. in client-server systems, for mobile phones or network applications
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/221 Announcement of recognition results
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/06 Transformation of speech into a non-audible representation, e.g. speech visualisation or speech processing for tactile aids G10L15/26 takes precedence

Abstract

A system for providing navigational information comprises a mobile system processing and transmitting via a wireless link a continuous voice stream spoken by a user of the mobile system, the continuous voice stream including a complete destination address and a data center processing the continuous voice stream received via the wireless link into voice navigational information. The data center performs automated voice recognition processing on the voice navigational information to recognize destination components of the complete destination address, confirms the recognized destination components through interactive speech exchanges with the mobile system user via the wireless link and the mobile system, selectively allows human data center operator intervention to assist in identifying the selected recognized destination components having a recognition confidence below a selected threshold value, and downloads the complete destination address for transmission to the mobile system derived from the confirmed recognized destination components.

Claims

1. A method of providing navigational information, which comprises:

receiving at a mobile processing system a continuous voice stream spoken by a user of the mobile processing system, the continuous voice stream including a complete destination address being an entirety of at least one of;

a target destination point of interest;

a street intersection; and

an address set including at least a street number and a street name;

processing the continuous voice stream into voice navigation information;

transmitting the processed voice navigation information via a wireless link to a remote data center;

analyzing the processed voice navigation information with a computerized voice recognition system at the remote data center to recognize components of the complete destination address spoken by the mobile system user;

computer-generating at the remote data center a list of hypothetical recognized components of the complete destination address listed by confidence levels as computer-calculated for each component of the complete destination address analyzed by the voice recognition system;

computer-generating a display of the computer-generated list of hypothetical recognized components and confidence levels at the remote data center for selective checking by a human data center operator;

selecting a set of hypothetical recognized components based on the confidence levels in the list;

confirming the accuracy of the selected set of hypothetical recognized components of the complete destination address via computer-generated interactive exchanges between the mobile system user and the remote data center; and

determining a destination from confirmed components of the complete destination address.

2. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises carrying out the accuracy confirming step by:

transmitting a computer-generated representation of at least one hypothetical recognized component of the complete destination address to the mobile system user via the wireless link; and

prompting the mobile system user via the wireless link to aurally confirm the accuracy of the component of the complete destination address.

3. The method according to claim 2, which further comprises carrying out the accuracy confirming step by:

determining if a confidence level of a hypothetical recognized component is above a selected threshold; and

computer generating a representation of the hypothetical recognized component for transmission to the mobile system user when the confidence level is above the selected threshold.

4. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises carrying out the accuracy confirming step by:

transmitting at least one recorded hypothetical recognized component of the complete destination address spoken by the mobile system user to the mobile system user via the wireless link; and

prompting the mobile system user via the wireless link to aurally confirm the accuracy of the hypothetical recognized component of the complete destination address.

5. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises carrying out the destination determining step by providing human data center operator assistance using the developed list of hypothetical recognized components and confidence levels to recognize the complete destination address.

6. The method according to claim 5, which further comprises carrying out the operator assistance providing step by:

playing back recorded representations of the complete destination address spoken by the mobile system user to the data center operator for analysis by the data center operator; and

receiving information from the data center operator identifying the destination.

7. The method according to claim 6, which further comprises carrying out the data center operator information receiving step by entering a choice from the displayed list of hypothetical recognized components from the data center operator.

8. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises carrying out the accuracy confirming step by transmitting aural representations of hypothetical recognized components of the complete destination address to the mobile system user, the hypothetical recognized components of the complete destination address being selected from aural representations of portions of the complete destination from the group consisting address number, street name, city, state, and point of interest.

9. A system for providing navigational information, comprising:

a mobile system processing and transmitting via a wireless link a continuous voice stream spoken by a user of the mobile system, the continuous voice stream including a complete destination address; and

a data center processing the continuous voice stream received via the wireless link into voice navigational information and operates to;

perform automated voice recognition processing on the voice navigational information to recognize destination components of the complete destination address;

confirm the recognized destination components through interactive speech exchanges with the mobile system user via the wireless link and the mobile system;

selectively allow human data center operator intervention to assist in identifying the selected recognized destination components having a recognition confidence below a selected threshold value; and

download the complete destination address for transmission to the mobile system derived from the confirmed recognized destination components.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the data center further operates to download the navigational information in response to position information received from the mobile system via the wireless link.

11. The system according to claim 9, wherein the data center further operates to:

generate a list of possible destination components corresponding to the continuous voice stream;

assign a confidence score for each of the possible destination components on the list;

determine if a possible destination component with a highest confidence score has a confidence score above a threshold; and

computer-generate an aural representation of the destination address for transmission to the mobile system for confirmation by the mobile system user if the confidence score is above the threshold.

12. The system according to claim 9, wherein the data center further operates to:

determine that at least one of the destination components of the continuous voice stream has a recognition confidence value below a threshold; and

playback a recording in the voice of the mobile system user of at least the at least one destination component with the recognition confidence value below the threshold to the mobile system user via the mobile system for confirmation.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein the data center further comprises a data center operator facility playing back the destination components for assisting in identifying the complete destination address.

14. The system according to claim 12, wherein the data center further operates to present a list of possible destinations listed by confidence scores to the data center operator for selection as the complete destination address.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the data center further operates to allow the data center operator to vary an order of the possible destinations in the list.

16. The system according to claim 9, wherein the continuous voice stream comprises a spoken request for point of interest information.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the point of interest information includes information selected from the group consisting of names and categories.

18. The system according to claim 9, wherein the destination components of the continuous voice stream comprise location information selected from at least one of the group consisting of information identifying state, city, street name, and address number.

19. The system according to claim 9, wherein the data center further operates to record the continuous voice stream spoken by the user as normalized audio wave fields for subsequent playback.

20. A method of providing navigational information, which comprises:

receiving at a mobile processing system a continuous voice stream spoken by a user of the mobile processing system, the continuous voice stream including a complete destination address being an entirety of at least one of;

a target destination point of interest;

a street intersection; and

an address set including at least a street number and a street name;

processing the continuous voice stream into voice navigation information;

transmitting the processed voice navigation information via a wireless link to a remote data center;

analyzing the processed voice navigation information with a computerized voice recognition system at the remote data center to recognize components of the complete destination address spoken by the mobile system user;

computer-generating at the remote data center a list of hypothetical recognized components of the complete destination address listed by confidence levels as computer-calculated for each component of the complete destination address analyzed by the voice recognition system;

computer-generating a display the computer-generated list of hypothetical recognized components and confidence levels at the remote data center;

selecting a set of hypothetical recognized components based on the confidence levels in the list;

confirming the accuracy of the selected set of hypothetical recognized components of the complete destination address via computer-generated interactive exchanges between the mobile system user and the remote data center; and

determining a destination from confirmed components of the complete destination address.