Management of voice commands for devices in a cloud computing environment

• US 9,443,520 B2
• Filed: 10/02/2014
• Issued: 09/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ding, Chandler F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Augustin, Marcellus
• Application Number:
  US14/505,149
• Publication Number:
  US 20160098997A1
• Time in Patent Office: 712 Days
• Field of Search: 704 2- 9, 704203-277
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 15/30 Distributed recognition, e.g. in client-server systems, for mobile phones or network applications
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/22 Interactive procedures; Man-machine interfaces

Abstract

Provided is a lightweight computational device that is configured to be in communication with a cloud both directly and via a smart computational device. The lightweight computational device receives a voice command from a user, wherein the lightweight computational device does not have adequate processing power to convert the voice command to a text command. The voice command is transmitted from the lightweight computational device to a smart computational device, wherein the smart computational device uses voice recognition to convert the voice command to a text command in the smart computational device, and transmits the text command for being processed by that cloud that provides at least one of voice recognition service and other services. The lightweight computational device receives a data response for the user from the cloud, via the smart computational device, based on the other services provided by the cloud.

Claims

1. A system comprising a lightweight computational device configured to be in communication with a cloud both directly and via a smart computational device, the system comprising:

a memory;

a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor is operable to perform operations, the operations comprising;

receiving, by the lightweight computational device, a voice command from a user, wherein the lightweight computational device does not have adequate processing power to convert the voice command to a text command;

transmitting, the voice command from the lightweight computational device to a smart computational device, wherein the smart computational device uses voice recognition to convert the voice command to a text command in the smart computational device, and transmits the text command for being processed by that cloud that provides at least one of voice recognition service and other services;

receiving, by the lightweight computational device, a data response for the user from the cloud, via the smart computational device, based on the other services provided by the cloud;

receiving, by the lightweight computational device, another voice command from the user;

transmitting, by the lightweight computational device, the another voice command to the cloud, without the another voice command being transmitted via the smart computational device, wherein the another voice command is converted to another text command in the cloud via the voice recognition services, wherein one or more of the other services provided by the cloud are used to generate another data response by executing the another text command; and

receiving, by the lightweight computational device, from the cloud, the another data response, without the another data response being transmitted through the smart computational device.

2. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

using, the other services provided by the cloud to generate the data response by executing the text command received from the smart computational device; and

transmitting, by the cloud, the data response to the smart computational device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the cloud is comprised of one or more computational devices.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the lightweight computational device is an in-car voice interaction system; and

the smart computational device is a smartphone that interacts with the cloud via a wireless communications protocol.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein computational devices that provide the at least one of voice recognition services and the other services in the cloud have a relatively greater processing power than the lightweight computational device.

6. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code configured to perform operations on a processor, the operations comprising;

configuring a lightweight computational device to be in communication with a cloud both directly and via a smart computational device;

receiving, by the lightweight computational device, a voice command from a user, wherein the lightweight computational device does not have adequate processing power to convert the voice command to a text command;

transmitting, the voice command from the lightweight computational device to a smart computational device, wherein the smart computational device uses voice recognition to convert the voice command to a text command in the smart computational device, and transmits the text command for being processed by that cloud that provides at least one of voice recognition service and other services;

receiving, by the lightweight computational device, a data response for the user from the cloud, via the smart computational device, based on the other services provided by the cloud;

receiving, by the lightweight computational device, another voice command from the user;

transmitting, by the lightweight computational device, the another voice command to the cloud, without the another voice command being transmitted via the smart computational device, wherein the another voice command is converted to another text command in the cloud via the voice recognition services, wherein one or more of the other services provided by the cloud are used to generate another data response by executing the another text command; and

receiving, by the lightweight computational device, from the cloud, the another data response, without the another data response being transmitted through the smart computational device.

7. The computer program product of claim 6, the operations further comprising:

using, the other services provided by the cloud to generate the data response by executing the text command received from the smart computational device; and

transmitting, by the cloud, the data response to the smart computational device.

8. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein:

the cloud is comprised of one or more computational devices.

9. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein:

the lightweight computational device is an in-car voice interaction system; and

the smart computational device is a smartphone that interacts with the cloud via a wireless communications protocol.

10. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein computational devices that provide the at least one of voice recognition services and the other services in the cloud have a relatively greater processing power than the lightweight computational device.