Location-based responses to telephone requests

• US 10,431,223 B2
• Filed: 07/19/2018
• Issued: 10/01/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Hafsteinsson, Gudmundur, LeBeau, Michael J., Marmasse, Natalia, Agarwal, Sumit, Nishar, Dipchand
• Primary Examiner(s): Guerra-Erazo, Edgar X
• Application Number:
  US16/040,410
• Publication Number:
  US 20190019510A1
• Time in Patent Office: 439 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• 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 2015/221 Announcement of recognition results
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/15 Information service where the information is dependent on the location of the subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

A method for receiving processed information at a remote device is described. The method includes transmitting from the remote device a verbal request to a first information provider and receiving a digital message from the first information provider in response to the transmitted verbal request. The digital message includes a symbolic representation indicator associated with a symbolic representation of the verbal request and data used to control an application. The method also includes transmitting, using the application, the symbolic representation indicator to a second information provider for generating results to be displayed on the remote device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a first computer system, audio data associated with a verbal request from a user, the user associated with a computing device;

converting, by the first computer system, the received audio data into a symbolic representation of content of the verbal request;

generating, by the first computer system, an application identifier for a particular application to be launched on the computing device, the particular application indicated by the content of the verbal request; and

transmitting the symbolic representation and the application identifier to the computing device, the symbolic representation and the application identifier when received by the computing device causing the computing device to;

launch the particular application installed on the computing device;

transmit a query to a second computer system that corresponds to the particular application, the query based on the symbolic representation of the verbal request;

receive a response to the query from the second computer system; and

present the response to the query through an interface of the computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

receiving the audio data associated with the verbal request comprises receiving a recording of the verbal request spoken by the user; and

converting the received audio data into the symbolic representation comprises using a speech-to-text converter to convert the recording of the verbal request into a textual representation of the verbal request.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to generating the application identifier, identifying, by the first computer system, the particular application from a plurality of possible applications installed on the computing device as having significance to the content of verbal request from the user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device is configured to:

present the interface; and

launch the particular application within the interface.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device is configured to generate the query by formatting the query to include data based on the symbolic representation of the verbal request.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein, after the computing device launches the particular application, the particular application is configured to format the symbolic representation for inclusion in the query.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device is configured to, after launching the particular application, use the application identifier to establish a connection with the second computer system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the symbolic representation of content of the verbal request comprises a textual representation of the verbal request.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device presents the response to the query through the interface as an output of the launched particular application.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular application is installed on the computing device.

11. A system comprising:

data processing hardware of a first computer system;

memory hardware of the first computer system and in communication with the data processing hardware, the memory hardware storing instructions that when executed by the data processing hardware cause the data processing hardware to perform operations comprising;

receiving audio data associated with a verbal request from a user, the user associated with a computing device;

converting the received audio data into a symbolic representation of content of the verbal request;

generating an application identifier for a particular application to be launched on the computing device, the particular application indicated by the content of the verbal request; and

transmitting the symbolic representation and the application identifier to the computing device, the symbolic representation and the application identifier when received by the computing device causing the computing device to;

launch the particular application installed on the computing device;

transmit a query to a second computer system that corresponds to the particular application, the query based on the symbolic representation of the verbal request;

receive a response to the query from the second computer system; and

present the response to the query through an interface of the computing device.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein:

receiving the audio data associated with the verbal request comprises receiving a recording of the verbal request spoken by the user; and

converting the received audio data into the symbolic representation comprises using a speech-to-text converter to convert the recording of the verbal request into a textual representation of the verbal request.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise, prior to generating the application identifier, identifying the particular application from a plurality of possible applications installed on the computing device as having significance to the content of verbal request from the user.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the computing device is configured to:

present the interface; and

launch the particular application within the interface.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the computing device is configured to generate the query by formatting the query to include data based on the symbolic representation of the verbal request.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein, after the computing device launches the particular application, the particular application is configured to format the symbolic representation for inclusion in the query.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the computing device is configured to, after launching the particular application, use the application identifier to establish a connection with the second computer system.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the symbolic representation of content of the verbal request comprises a textual representation of the verbal request.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the computing device presents the response to the query through the interface as an output of the launched particular application.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the particular application is installed on the computing device.