Speech based personal information manager

• US 20040117188A1
• Filed: 07/02/2003
• Published: 06/17/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: BBN Technologies (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BBN Technologies (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Kiecza, Daniel, Kubala, Francis
• Application Number:
  US10/610,699
• Publication Number:
  US 20040117188A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/270.1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/78 Detection of presence or absence of voice signals switching of direction of transmission by voice frequency in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/42 Graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/305 Recording playback features, e.g. increased speed
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A personal information manager (PIM) [100] stores user personal data. The PIM may be a personal computer like box located in the home of the user. The PIM includes an audio interface [108] and a visual interface [110]. Users may equivalently interact and manage their data through the audio interface or the visual interface. Accordingly, the user has full access to the PIM whenever the user can establish a voice or data connection.

Claims

1. An information management device comprising:

a voice interface;

a database configured to store data for a user of the information management device, the data including at least voicemail data and email data; and

a dialog manager component configured to provide access to the voicemail data and the email data when the user connects to the information management device through the voice interface.

2. The information management device of claim 1, wherein the dialog manager component further comprises:

a speech recognition component configured to analyze verbal commands given by the user;

wherein the information management device accesses the database based on the analyzed verbal commands.

3. The information management device of claim 1, wherein the dialog manager component further comprises:

a text-to-speech component that transmits the email data to the user as audio information synthesized from text of the email data.

4. The information management device of claim 1, further comprising:

a network interface configured to provide access to the database through a visual user interface.

5. The information management device of claim 4, wherein the network interface and the voice interface provide equivalent access to the database.

6. The information management device of claim 1, wherein the data in the database includes additional data related to at least one of personal to-do lists, contact information, and calendar information.

7. The information management device of claim 6, further comprising:

a network interface configured to provide access to the database through a visual user interface;

wherein the additional data is accessible through the voice interface and the network interface.

8. The information management device of claim 1, wherein the information management device is a personal-computer-like device located at a residence of the user.

9. The information management device of claim 1, wherein the access provided by the dialog manager component includes reviewing and deleting the voicemail data and the email data.

10. A device comprising:

means for receiving and transmitting audio data;

means for storing personal data of a user, the personal data including at least voicemail data and email data;

means for providing access to the voicemail data and the email data to the user via an audio interface implemented via the means for receiving and transmitting; and

means for creating email data based on speech received through the means for receiving and transmitting.

11. The device of claim 10, further comprising:

means for recognizing commands spoken by the user; and

means for accessing the voicemail data and the email data based on the commands spoken by the user.

12. A method of managing personal information, comprising:

storing the personal information in a database associated with a personal information management device;

establishing a connection to the personal information management device via a voice interface; and

receiving spoken commands over the voice interface, the spoken commands initiating retrieval of voicemail, email, and personal organization information.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the personal organization information includes at least one of personal to-do lists, contact information, and calendar information.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the spoken commands additionally include commands to create an email message.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein establishing the connection includes authorizing a user based on an identification of acoustic properties of voice information of the user.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the personal information includes passwords of a user.

17. A device for managing personal information, comprising:

means for storing the personal information;

means for accepting a connection initiated over a voice interface; and

means for receiving spoken commands over the voice interface, the spoken commands initiating retrieval of voicemail, email, and personal organization information.

18. The device of claim 17, wherein the personal organization information includes at least one of personal to-do lists, contact information, and calendar information.

19. The device of claim 17, further comprising:

means for authorizing the connection based on an identification of acoustic properties of voice information of a user.

20. A system comprising:

a database configured to store personal data of a user;

a voice interface configured to provide access to the personal data via a voice connection;

a network interface configured to provide access to the personal data via a data connection that provides visual information to the user; and

a control processing component configured to receive spoken commands from the voice interface and respond to the spoken commands by providing the personal data to the user as audio data, the control processing component being further configured to receive logical commands from the network interface and to respond to the logical commands by providing the personal data to the user as visual data.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

a dialog manager component configured to analyze the spoken commands and generate logical commands based on the spoken commands.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the dialog manager component further comprises:

a speech recognition component configured to perform speech recognition functions on the spoken commands; and

a text-to-speech component configured to convert textual information from the database to the audio data.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the speech recognition component further includes:

speaker identification logic configured to identify the user as a speaker of the spoken commands by comparing acoustic features of the voice of the user to a set of pre-stored acoustic features.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the speech recognition component further comprises:

name spotting logic configured to locate the names of at least one of people, places, and organizations in speech spoken by the user; and

topic classification logic configured to assign topics to the speech spoken by the user.

25. The system of claim 20, wherein the personal data in the database includes data related to at least one of personal to-do lists, contact information, and calendar information.

26. The system of claim 20, wherein the personal data in the database includes data related to voicemail and email.