Providing contextual information for spoken information

• US 9,477,971 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2013
• Issued: 10/25/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Madhavapeddi, Shreedhar, Pollard, John F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Paras D
• Application Number:
  US14/053,490
• Publication Number:
  US 20140046770A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,107 Days
• Field of Search: 704/235, 704/275, 704/231, 705/14.4, 705/14.67, 379/88.01, 379/88.04, 379/88.08, 379/88.12, 379/88.22, 379/114.13, 379/114.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/353 where the information comprises non-audio but is provided over voice channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4518 Attachments to voicemail
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/18 wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53366 Message disposing or creating aspects

Abstract

Techniques are described for providing relevant information to users (e.g., information that is at least potentially of interest to the users). Relevant information for a user may be automatically determined based on a determined context of the user and/or on a request for that information from the user. For example, voice-based information may be obtained from a user in one or more ways, and then analyzed to identify requests or other indications of information of interest and/or to otherwise determine a context of the user that corresponds to potential information of interest. Relevant information for a user may be provided to the user in various ways, such as via a voice-based response during a telephone call and/or via one or more electronic messages sent to the user (e.g., via emails, instant messages, paging messages, SMS or other text messages, etc.).

Claims

1. A method for a computing device in a voice-based service to provide relevant promotional material based on spoken information, the method comprising:

receiving, for the voice-based service, a voice recording that is provided by a user using a mobile device;

automatically transcribing the voice recording via speech-to-text translation in order to produce a text memo; and

responding to the user by;

analyzing contents of the text memo to identify an expression present in the text memo, the expression comprising at least one word and being associated with one or more pieces of promotional material;

selecting a piece of promotional material relevant to the identified expression; and

sending the selected piece of promotional material with a portion of the text memo to the user in an electronic message, wherein the user has previously registered with the voice-based service and provided the voice-based service with one or more electronic message addresses for the user to which the electronic message is sent.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the voice-based service provides functionality to multiple users, and wherein receiving the voice recording provided by the user includes receiving a telephone call from the user and generating the voice recording during the telephone call.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the user has previously provided the voice-based service with demographic information specific to the user, and wherein the piece of promotional information is selected based at least in part on the previously-provided demographic information specific to the user.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic message is an email message, an instant message, or a text message.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein sending promotional material with a portion of the text memo includes storing the promotional material together with at least a portion of the text memo in such a manner that the promotional material is provided together with the at least a portion of the text memo to the user.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the piece of promotional material includes a coupon and/or a promotional code.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the piece of promotional material includes an advertisement for a product and/or service.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing, in the electronic message, an audio version of at least a portion of the voice recording in conjunction with the provided portion of the text memo and the provided promotional material.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the promotional material is provided to the user in an audible format.

10. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium whose contents enable a computing system in a voice-based service to provide relevant promotional material based on spoken information, by performing a method comprising:

receiving, for the voice-based service, a voice recording that is provided by a user via a mobile device, the voice recording including an expression having at least one word;

automatically transcribing the voice recording received from the user via speech-to-text translation in order to generate textual information; and

responding to the user by;

analyzing the textual information to identify an included expression;

selecting promotional information relevant to the identified expression; and

sending the selected promotional information with a portion of the textual information to the user in an electronic message, wherein the user has previously registered with the voice-based service and provided the voice-based service with one or more electronic message addresses for the user to which the electronic message is sent.

11. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein the voice-based service provides functionality to multiple users and to multiple advertisers, the multiple advertisers each specifying one or more expressions and, for each specified expression, providing relevant information about an advertised product that is associated with the specified expression, so that an identified expression in a voice recording provided by a user is matched to a corresponding specified expression from an advertiser and causes that user to receive the relevant information associated with the advertised product.

12. A computing system in a voice-based service configured to provide relevant information based on spoken information, comprising:

a memory storing computer executable instructions of;

a first component configured to;

receive, for the voice-based service, a voice recording from user using a mobile device; and

transcribe the voice recording using speech-to-text translation in order to generate a textual representation of the voice recording; and

a second component configured to send relevant information to the user of the mobile device by;

analyzing the textual representation of the voice recording to identify an expression, the expression comprising one or more words;

selecting a piece of relevant information to provide to the user based on the identified expression; and

sending the selected piece of relevant information with a portion of the textual representation to the user in an electronic message, wherein the user has previously registered with the voice-based service and provided the voice-based service with one or more electronic message addresses associated with the user; and

a processor for executing the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory.

13. The computing system of claim 12 wherein the second component is further configured to store the relevant information together with at least a portion of the textual representation such that the relevant information is provided together with the portion of the textual representation to the user.

14. The computing system of claim 12 wherein the voice recording received from the user is a voice message.

15. The computing system of claim 12 wherein the identified expression is an expression previously indicated by an advertiser to be associated with an advertised product, and wherein the selected piece of relevant information includes information about the advertised product.

16. The computing system of claim 12 wherein the electronic message is an email message, an instant message, or a text message.

17. The computing system of claim 12 wherein the selected piece of relevant information includes a piece of promotional material.

18. The computing system of claim 17 wherein the piece of promotional material includes a coupon and/or a promotional code.

19. The computing system of claim 17 wherein the promotional material is provided to the user in an audible format.

20. The computing system of claim 12 wherein the first component is further configured to receive a telephone call from the user and to generate the voice recording during the telephone call.