Voice profile-based in-vehicle infotainment identity identification

• US 9,544,412 B2
• Filed: 03/09/2015
• Issued: 01/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Stottlemyer, Brett
• Primary Examiner(s): Ghulamali, Qutbuddin
• Application Number:
  US14/642,271
• Publication Number:
  US 20160269524A1
• Time in Patent Office: 673 Days
• Field of Search: 455/563
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3822 specially adapted for use in vehicles H04B1/3827 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6091 including a wireless interface

Abstract

A computing platform of a vehicle may communicate with a plurality of mobile devices. The computing platform may identify a voice profile as matching voice input received from a user, the voice profile associated with one of a plurality of mobile devices within the vehicle; perform speech recognition on the voice input using the voice profile to determine a voice command; and process the voice command in the context of the mobile device associated with the voice profile. The voice profiles may be retrieved from a remote telematics server based on unique device identifiers retrieved from the mobile devices connected to the computing platform or retrieved from storage of the mobile devices connected to the computing platform.

Claims

1. A vehicle comprising:

a computing platform, including a processor, a voice interface configured to perform speech recognition from voice input received via a microphone, and a transceiver configured to communicate with a plurality of mobile devices connected to the computing platform, each of the mobile devices associated with a respective voice profile, the computing platform programmed to

identify which one of the voice profiles of the connected plurality of mobile devices most closely matches the voice input received from a user;

perform the speech recognition on the voice input using the voice profile matching the voice input to determine a voice command; and

process the voice command in context of the one of the mobile devices associated with the one of the voice profiles,

wherein the context of the one of the mobile devices includes an address book of the one of the mobile devices, the voice command includes a reference to an entry of the address book of the one of the mobile devices, the entry of the address book of the one of the mobile devices includes a contact name and a first contact phone number, another of the plurality of mobile devices connected to the computing platform includes an address book having an entry with the contact name and a second contact phone number different from the first contact phone number, and processing the voice command in the context of the one of the mobile devices includes using the first contact phone number.

2. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the voice profile includes (i) speech recognition tuning information regarding a user, and (ii) vocal biometrics indicative of characteristics of the voice of the user.

3. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the voice profile includes a unique identifier of the one of the mobile devices associated with the voice profile.

4. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the computing platform is further configured to:

match vocal biometrics of the voice input to voice characteristics of each of the voice profiles associated with the plurality of mobile devices connected to the computing platform; and

identify which voice profile most closely matches the vocal biometrics of the voice input.

5. The vehicle of claim 4, wherein the computing platform is further configured to at least one of:

retrieve at least a subset of the voice profiles from a remote telematics server based on unique device identifiers retrieved from the plurality of mobile devices connected to the computing platform; and

retrieve at least a subset of the voice profiles from storage of the plurality of mobile devices connected to the computing platform.

6. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the computing platform is further configured to automatically connect to mobile devices referenced in paired device data maintained by the computing platform.

7. A method comprising:

using a voice profile, identified by a computing platform of a vehicle as associated with an identified device of a plurality of mobile devices within the vehicle, for performing speech recognition on received voice input to determine a contact to call; and

calling the contact using a phone number stored to the identified device, each of the mobile devices having an address book including a different phone number for calling the contact.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the voice profile includes (i) speech recognition tuning information regarding a user, and (ii) vocal biometrics indicative of characteristics of the voice of the user.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the voice profile includes a unique identifier of the mobile device associated with the voice profile.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

matching vocal biometrics of the voice input to voice characteristics of each of the voice profiles associated with mobile devices connected to the computing platform; and

identifying which voice profile most closely matches the vocal biometrics of the voice input.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising automatically connecting to mobile devices referenced in paired device data maintained by the computing platform.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, embodying instructions that, when executed by a processor of a vehicle, are configured to cause the processor to:

match vocal biometrics of voice input to voice characteristics of each of a plurality of voice profiles associated with mobile devices connected to the vehicle;

identify which voice profile most closely matches the vocal biometrics of the voice input;

perform speech recognition on the voice input using the identified voice profile to determine a voice command; and

process the voice command in context of the mobile device associated with the identified voice profile,

wherein the context of the mobile device includes an address book of the mobile device, and the voice command includes a reference to an entry of the address book of the mobile device, the entry of the address book of the mobile device associated with the identified profile includes a contact name and a first contact phone number, another of the mobile devices connected to the vehicle includes an address book having an entry with the contact name and a second contact phone number different from the first contact phone number, and processing the voice command in the context of the mobile device associated with the identified voice profile includes using the first contact phone number.

13. The medium of claim 12, further embodying instructions configured to cause the processor to retrieve at least a subset of the plurality of voice profiles from a remote telematics server based on unique device identifiers retrieved from the mobile devices connected to the vehicle.

14. The medium of claim 12, further embodying instructions configured to cause the processor to retrieve at least a subset of the plurality of voice profiles from storage of the mobile devices connected to the vehicle.

15. The medium of claim 12, wherein the voice profile includes (i) speech recognition tuning information regarding a user, and (ii) vocal biometrics indicative of characteristics of the voice of the user.

16. The medium of claim 12, wherein the voice profile includes a unique identifier of the mobile device associated with the voice profile.

17. The medium of claim 12, further embodying instructions configured to cause the processor to automatically connect to mobile devices referenced in paired device data maintained by the processor of the vehicle.