System and method of providing generated speech via a network

• US 9,065,914 B2
• Filed: 06/19/2012
• Issued: 06/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Dragosh, Pamela Leigh, Roe, David Bjorn, Sharp, Robert Douglas
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Paras D
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sharma, Neeraj
• Application Number:
  US13/527,151
• Publication Number:
  US 20120259623A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,099 Days
• Field of Search: 704/224, 704/270.1, 704/233, 704/270, 704/275, 704/201, 704/214, 704/231, 704/251, 704/267, 379/88.01, 379/52, 719/328, 706/10, 706/11, 706/12, 709/232, 381/110
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/19 Grammatical context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word sequence rules
• 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 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/493 Interactive information services, e.g. directory enquiries ; Arrangements therefor, e.g. interactive voice response [IVR] systems or voice portals
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4936 Speech interaction details speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42

Abstract

A system and method of operating an automatic speech recognition application over an Internet Protocol network is disclosed. The ASR application communicates over a packet network such as an Internet Protocol network or a wireless network. A grammar for recognizing received speech from a user over the IP network is selected from a plurality of grammars according to a user-selected application. A server receives information representing speech over the IP network, performs speech recognition using the selected grammar, and returns information based upon the recognized speech. Sub-grammars may be included within the grammar to recognize speech from sub-portions of a dialog with the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

selecting a spoken dialog application from a plurality of spoken dialog applications;

transmitting, over a network, an identification of the selected spoken dialog application, the spoken dialog application having a grammar identifier;

selecting a grammar from a plurality of grammars based on the grammar identifier, wherein the grammar is provided by the selected spoken dialog application and chosen from a predetermined group of grammars based upon information provided by the selected spoken dialog application;

transmitting digitized user speech over the network while receiving user speech which is digitized into the digitized user speech;

receiving partially synthesized speech in response to the digitized user speech, wherein the selected spoken dialog application recognizes the digitized user speech using the grammar; and

receiving final synthesized speech in response to the digitized user speech, wherein the receiving of the final synthesized speech occurs after receiving the partially synthesized speech.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the digitized user speech is recognized using a sub-grammar based on a sub-component of the user speech.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the sub-grammar is associated with a task.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the network is an internet protocol network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the spoken dialog application carries on a dialog with a user communicating with a client device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving information associated with the final synthesized speech over the network from a client device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

modifying the grammar based on the digitized user speech.

8. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

selecting a spoken dialog application from a plurality of spoken dialog applications;

transmitting, over a network, an identification of the selected spoken dialog application, the spoken dialog application having a grammar identifier;

selecting a grammar from a plurality of grammars based on the grammar identifier, wherein the grammar is provided by the selected spoken dialog application and chosen from a predetermined group of grammars based upon information provided by the selected spoken dialog application;

transmitting digitized user speech over the network while receiving user speech which is digitized into the digitized user speech;

receiving partially synthesized speech in response to the digitized user speech, wherein the selected spoken dialog application recognizes the digitized user speech using the grammar; and

receiving final synthesized speech in response to the digitized user speech, wherein the receiving of the final synthesized speech occurs after receiving the partially synthesized speech.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the digitized user speech is recognized using a sub-grammar based on a sub-component of the digitized user speech.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the sub-grammar is associated with a task.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the network is an internet protocol network.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the spoken dialog application carries on a dialog with a user communicating with a client device.

13. The system of claim 8, the computer-readable storage medium having additional instructions stored which, when executed by the processor, result in operations comprising:

receiving information associated with the final synthesized speech over the network from a client device.

14. The system of claim 8, the computer-readable storage medium having additional instructions stored which, when executed by the processor, result in operations comprising:

modifying the grammar based on the digitized user speech.

15. A computer-readable storage device having instructions stored which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

selecting a spoken dialog application from a plurality of spoken dialog applications;

transmitting, over a network, an identification of the selected spoken dialog application, the spoken dialog application having a grammar identifier;

selecting a grammar from a plurality of grammars based on the grammar identifier, wherein the grammar is provided by the selected spoken dialog application and chosen from a predetermined group of grammars based upon information provided by the selected spoken dialog application;

transmitting digitized user speech over the network while receiving user speech which is digitized into the digitized user speech;

receiving partially synthesized speech in response to the digitized user speech, wherein the selected spoken dialog application recognizes the digitized user speech using the grammar; and

receiving final synthesized speech in response to the digitized user speech, wherein the receiving of the final synthesized speech occurs after receiving the partially synthesized speech.

16. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the user speech is recognized using a sub-grammar based on a sub-component of the digitized user speech.

17. The computer-readable storage device of claim 16, wherein the sub-grammar is associated with a task.

18. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the network is an internet protocol network.

19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the spoken dialog application carries on a dialog with a user communicating with a client device.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, having additional instructions stored which, when executed by the computing device, result in operations comprising:

receiving information associated with the final synthesized speech over the network from a client device.