Personal voice-based information retrieval system

• US 9,377,992 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2010
• Issued: 06/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Parus Holdings, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Parus Holdings, Inc.
• Inventors: Kurganov, Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Hashem, Lisa
• Application Number:
  US12/787,801
• Publication Number:
  US 20100232580A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,225 Days
• Field of Search: 709217-219, 709/203, 709/317, 709/224, 379/105, 379/67, 379/88, 379/88.17, 704/275, 704/270.1, 455/417
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/638 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/08 Text analysis or generation of parameters for speech synthesis out of text, e.g. grapheme to phoneme translation, prosody generation or stress or intonation determination
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/02 Feature extraction for speech recognition; Selection of recognition unit
• 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 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/24 the user being prompted to utter a password or a predefined phrase
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/54 for retrieval
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/39 using speech synthesis
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/405 involving speaker-dependent recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/40 terminals with audio html browser
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system for retrieving information from a network such as the Internet. A user creates a user-defined record in a database that identifies an information source, such as a web site, containing information of interest to the user. This record identifies the location of the information source and also contains a recognition grammar based upon a speech command assigned by the user. Upon receiving the speech command from the user that is described within the recognition grammar, a network interface system accesses the information source and retrieves the information requested by the user.

Claims

1. A method for retrieving information from an information source using speech commands by a user provided via an electronic communication device, said method comprising steps of:

receiving a speech command from the user via the electronic communication device at a speech recognition engine coupled to a media server, the media server configured to identify and access the information source via a network, wherein the speech recognition engine selects recognition grammar established to correspond to the speech command and wherein the information source is periodically updated with information;

selecting, by the media server, at least one appropriate information source retrieval instruction corresponding to the recognition grammar established for the speech command, wherein the at least one appropriate information source retrieval instruction is stored in a database associated with the server;

accessing, by a web browsing server, a portion of the information source including only a portion of information previously identified by the user of interest to the user by using a clipping client to separate the portion of the information from other information, wherein the clipping client generates a content descriptor file containing a description of content of the portion of information and wherein the content descriptor file indicates where the portion of the information selected is located within the information source and retrieving only the portion of the information according to the at least one appropriate information source retrieval instruction;

converting the information retrieved from said information source into an audio message by a speech synthesis engine, the speech synthesis engine coupled to the media server; and

transmitting said audio message to the electronic communication device for the user.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

displaying the information that is of interest to the user on a graphical display operatively connected to the server; and

selecting the information source which contains the information to be retrieved.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the information source retrieval instruction is associated with information selected from a group comprising of:

“

weather”

, “

forecast”

, “

high”

, “

low”

, “

radar”

, “

temp”

, “

temperature”

, “

humidity”

, “

wind”

, “

pressure”

, “

sunrise”

, “

sunset”

, “

time”

, “

month”

, “

day”

, “

stock quote”

, “

news”

, “

news real”

, and “

flight”

.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying the information source that is a web site on a graphical display operatively connected to the media server; and

selecting the web site which contains the portion of the information to be retrieved.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising a step of said media server searching the information source including a web site to locate requested information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic communication device is a landline telephone.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic communication device is a wireless telephone.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic communication device is an internet protocol telephone.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the server is operatively connected to a local area network.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the server is operatively connected to a wide area network.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the server is operatively connected to the Internet.

12. A system for retrieving information from an information source with speech commands by a user using an electronic communication device, said system comprising:

a speech recognition engine configured to receive a speech command from the user via the electronic communication device, and to select an appropriate information source retrieval instruction corresponding to the speech command based on recognition grammar established for the speech command;

a media server operatively connected to the internet, the electronic communication device, and the speech recognition engine, said media server configured to access by a web browsing server an information source that is periodically updated and retrieve information from the information source stored in a database, as defined by the appropriate information source retrieval instruction, wherein the information includes an item of information that is previously identified by the user as of interest to the user, by selecting the item to separate the item from other information by using a clipping client, wherein upon selecting by the user, the media server further generates a content descriptor file containing a description of content of the item and wherein the content descriptor file indicates where the item selected is located within the information source;

a speech synthesis engine operatively connected to said media server, said speech synthesis engine configured to convert the item of information retrieved from the information source into an audio message and transmit said audio message to the electronic communication device.