Robust voice browser system and voice activated device controller

• US 20040193427A1
• Filed: 04/09/2004
• Published: 09/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Parus Holdings, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Parus Holdings, Inc.
• Inventors: Zhukoff, Valery, Kurganov, Alexander
• Granted Patent: US 7,076,431 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/187 Phonemic context, e.g. pronunciation rules, phonotactical constraints or phoneme n-grams
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/193 Formal grammars, e.g. finite state automata, context free grammars or word networks
• 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 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/39 using speech synthesis speech synthesis per se G10L13/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system for acquiring information from sources on a network, such as the Internet. A voice browsing system maintains a database containing a list of information sources, such as web sites, connected to a network. Each of the information sources is assigned a rank number which is listed in the database along with the record for the information source. In response to a speech command received from a user, a network interface system accesses the information source with the highest rank number in order to retrieve information requested by the user.

Claims

1. A system for gathering information from information sources connected to a network by using speech commands indicating specific actions to be performed, said system comprising:

a voice enabled device employed by users to communicate speech commands indicating specific actions to be performed;

said speech commands comprising information requests selectable by the user;

a database operatively connected with a computer said database containing stored digital-form commands for operating said system;

a speaker-independent speech recognition device for receiving from users said speech commands indicating specific actions to be performed, said speaker-independent speech recognition device configured to convert said speech commands to data messages;

a computer operatively connected with said database and said speech recognition device and configured to match said data messages with said stored digital-form commands and configured to carry out the specific actions indicated by said speech commands;

said computer further configured to search information sources connected to a network to gather information from said information sources connected to said network in response to said information requests.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said network is the Internet.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said information sources are web sites.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the said voice enabled device is a standard telephone, an IP telephone, a cellular phone, a PDA, a personal computer, a DVD player, a television or other video display device, a CD player, a MP3 player, or any other device capable of audio playing an audio signal.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said speaker-independent speech recognition device analyzes phonemes to recognize said speech commands.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein said speaker-independent speech recognition device recognizes naturally spoken speech commands.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said database contains a stored list of said information sources connected to said network.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein said computer is further configured to periodically search said information sources contained in said stored list and also configured to assign ranks to said information sources to reflect the results of said periodic search.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein said computer is further configured to periodically search said network to identify new information sources and to add said new information sources to said stored list.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein said computer is further configured to periodically search said information sources contained in said stored list and also configured to assign ranks to said information sources to reflect the results of said periodic search.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein said ranks are established or modified based upon utility considerations of said information sources.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein said utility considerations comprise one or more of the following list:

functionality of said information sources, speed of said information sources, or changes to said information sources that lower its utility for a specific information request.

13. The system in claim 8 wherein said computer searches said information sources with the highest rank in order to retrieve said information requested by said user.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein said information gathered by said system from said information sources in response to said information requests is stored by said database and processed by said computer into a message, said system further configured to transmit said message to said voice enabled device or such other destination as designated by said user.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein said message is an audio message.

16. The system of claim 15 further comprising a speech synthesis engine configured to create said audio message.

17. The system of claim 15 further comprising a pre-recorded audio concatenation application configured to create said audio message.