Methods and systems for managing dialog of speech systems

• US 9,202,459 B2
• Filed: 04/19/2013
• Issued: 12/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Tzirkel-Hancock, Eli, Talwar, Gaurav, Zhao, Xufang, Lindemann, Greg T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Godbold, Douglas
• Application Number:
  US13/866,829
• Publication Number:
  US 20140316782A1
• Time in Patent Office: 956 Days
• Field of Search: 704251-252
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/06 Creation of reference templates; Training of speech recognition systems, e.g. adaptation to the characteristics of the speaker's voice G10L15/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/08 Speech classification or search
• 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 2015/086 Recognition of spelled words
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/221 Announcement of recognition results
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• 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

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for managing speech dialog of a speech system. In one embodiment, a method includes: receiving a first utterance from a user of the speech system; determining a first list of possible results from the first utterance, wherein the first list includes at least two elements that each represent a possible result; analyzing the at least two elements of the first list to determine an ambiguity of the elements; and generating a speech prompt to the user based on partial orthography and the ambiguity.

Claims

1. A method for managing speech dialog of a speech system, comprising:

receiving a first utterance from a user of the speech system;

determining a first list of possible results from the first utterance, wherein the first list includes at least two elements that each represent a possible result;

analyzing an orthography of the at least two elements of the first list to determine an ambiguity of the elements; and

generating a speech prompt to the user that dynamically requests a partial orthography of the first utterance based on the ambiguity.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second utterance from a user in response to the speech prompt;

determining a second list of possible results from the second utterance; and

generating a result based on the first list and the second list.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the generating the result is based on a fusing of the possible results of the first list and the possible results of the second list.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

updating a grammar of a speech model based on the second list; and

using the updated grammar of the speech model to generate the result.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing comprises analyzing the at least two elements of the first list to determine differences between the at least two elements.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the analyzing further comprises determining differences between slots of a first element and slots of a second element of the first list to determine the differences.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the determining differences comprises determining orthographic differences between the slots of the first element and the slots of the second element.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the orthographic differences are based on a language associated with the slot.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the orthographic differences are based on at least one of letters, digits, characters, phonemes, and tones of the slots.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the determining the differences comprises determining confidence differences between the slots of the first element and the slots of the second element.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the determining the differences further comprises determining orthographic differences between the slots of the first element and the slots of the second element.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the analyzing further comprises selecting a greatest difference from the differences, and setting an ambiguity type to a slot type associated with the slots that are associated with the greatest difference, and wherein the generating the speech prompt to the user is based on the ambiguity type.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the partial orthography is based on a determined orthographic difference type.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the partial orthography is based on a determined ambiguity type.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an ambiguity type based on the ambiguity;

determining a difference type based on the ambiguity; and

wherein the generating the speech prompt is based on the ambiguity type and the difference type.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the first utterance is through a human machine interface module of a vehicle.

17. A speech system for managing speech dialog, comprising:

a first module that receives a first utterance from a user of the speech system, and that determines a first list of possible results from the first utterance, wherein the first list includes at least two elements that each represent a possible result;

a second module that analyzes an orthography of the at least two elements of the first list to determine an ambiguity of the elements; and

a third module that generates a speech prompt to the user that dynamically requests a partial orthography of the first utterance based on the ambiguity.

18. The speech system of claim 17, wherein the first module receives a second utterance from a user in response to the speech prompt, wherein the second module determines a second list of possible results from the second utterance, and wherein a fourth module generates a result based on the first list and the second list.

19. The speech system of claim 18, wherein the fourth module generates the result based on a comparison of the possible results of the first list and the possible results of the second list.

20. The speech system of claim 18, wherein the fourth module updates a grammar of a speech model based on the second list;

and uses the updated grammar of the speech model to generate the result.