Automatic Speech Recognition With Dynamic Grammar Rules

• US 20080235022A1
• Filed: 03/20/2007
• Published: 09/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Jania, Frank, Cross, Charles W., Bergl, Vladimir
• Granted Patent: US 8,670,987 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/257
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/19 Grammatical context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word sequence rules
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/32 Multiple recognisers used in sequence or in parallel; Score combination systems therefor, e.g. voting systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context

Abstract

Automatic speech recognition implemented with a speech recognition grammar of a multimodal application in an ASR engine, the multimodal application operating on a multimodal device supporting multiple modes of user interaction including a voice mode, the multimodal application operatively coupled to the ASR engine, including: matching by the ASR engine at least one static rule of the speech recognition grammar with at least one word of a voice utterance, yielding a matched value, the matched value specified by the grammar to be required for processing of a dynamic rule of the grammar; and dynamically defining at run time the dynamic rule of the grammar as a new static rule in dependence upon the matched value, the dynamic rule comprising a rule that is specified by the grammar as a rule that is not to be processed by the ASR until after the at least one static rule has been matched.

Claims

1. A method of automatic speech recognition (‘

ASR’

), the method implemented with a speech recognition grammar of a multimodal application in an ASR engine, with the multimodal application operating on a multimodal device supporting multiple modes of user interaction with the multimodal application, the modes of user interaction including a voice mode and one or more non-voice modes, the multimodal application operatively coupled to the ASR engine, the method comprising;

matching by the ASR engine at least one static rule of the speech recognition grammar with at least one word of a voice utterance, yielding at least one matched value, the matched value specified by the grammar to be required for processing of a dynamic rule of the grammar; and

dynamically defining at run time the dynamic rule of the grammar as a new static rule in dependence upon the matched value, the dynamic rule comprising a rule that is specified by the grammar as a rule that is not to be processed by the ASR engine until after the at least one static rule has been matched.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the grammar further comprises a rule reference specified by the grammar to be a dynamic rule reference to the dynamic rule, the dynamic rule reference characterized by a static rule parameter list comprising at least one static rule reference specifying at least one static rule required to be matched by the ASR engine before processing the dynamic rule.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the static rule occurs in document order after the dynamic rule, and the method further comprises treating the dynamic rule as a rule that matches any speech in the utterance until a next rule match, a next token match, or the end of processing of the utterance.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the grammar includes a definition of the dynamic rule that identifies a computer resource capable of dynamically defining at run time the dynamic rule of the grammar as a new static rule in dependence upon the matched value.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein dynamically defining at run time the dynamic rule of the grammar as a new static rule in dependence upon the matched value further comprises expanding a definition of the dynamic rule with at least one matched value of a static rule.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the grammar comprises more than one dynamic rule reference to the dynamic rule, the dynamic rule references characterized by more than one static rule parameter list, each static rule parameter list comprising one or more static rule references specifying one or more static rules required to be matched by the ASR engine before processing the dynamic rule.

7. Apparatus for automatic speech recognition (‘

ASR’

), the apparatus implemented with a speech recognition grammar of a the multimodal application in an ASR engine, with the multimodal application operating on a multimodal device supporting multiple modes of user interaction with the multimodal application, the modes of user interaction including a voice mode and one or more non-voice modes, the multimodal application operatively coupled to the ASR engine, the apparatus comprising a computer processor and a computer memory operatively coupled to the computer processor, the computer memory having disposed within it computer program instructions capable of;

matching by the ASR engine at least one static rule of the speech recognition grammar with at least one word of a voice utterance, yielding at least one matched value, the matched value specified by the grammar to be required for processing of a dynamic rule of the grammar; and

dynamically defining at run time the dynamic rule of the grammar as a new static rule in dependence upon the matched value, the dynamic rule comprising a rule that is specified by the grammar as a rule that is not to be processed by the ASR engine until after the at least one static rule has been matched.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the grammar further comprises a rule reference specified by the grammar to be a dynamic rule reference to the dynamic rule, the dynamic rule reference characterized by a static rule parameter list comprising at least one static rule reference specifying at least one static rule required to be matched by the ASR engine before processing the dynamic rule.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the static rule occurs in document order after the dynamic rule, and the apparatus further comprises computer program instructions capable of treating the dynamic rule as a rule that matches any speech in the utterance until a next rule match, a next token match, or the end of processing of the utterance.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the grammar includes a definition of the dynamic rule that identifies a computer resource capable of dynamically defining at run time the dynamic rule of the grammar as a new static rule in dependence upon the matched value.

11. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein dynamically defining at run time the dynamic rule of the grammar as a new static rule in dependence upon the matched value further comprises expanding a definition of the dynamic rule with at least one matched value of a static rule.

12. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the grammar comprises more than one dynamic rule reference to the dynamic rule, the dynamic rule references characterized by more than one static rule parameter list, each static rule parameter list comprising one or more static rule references specifying one or more static rules required to be matched by the ASR engine before processing the dynamic rule.

13. A computer program product for automatic speech recognition (‘

ASR’

), the computer program product including a speech recognition grammar of a multimodal application for processing in an ASR engine, with the multimodal application operating on a multimodal device supporting multiple modes of user interaction with the multimodal application, the modes of user interaction including a voice mode and one or more non-voice modes, the multimodal application operatively coupled to the ASR engine, the computer program product disposed upon a computer-readable, signal-bearing medium, the computer program product comprising computer program instructions capable of;

matching by the ASR engine at least one static rule of the speech recognition grammar with at least one word of a voice utterance, yielding at least one matched value, the matched value specified by the grammar to be required for processing of a dynamic rule of the grammar; and

dynamically defining at run time the dynamic rule of the grammar as a new static rule in dependence upon the matched value, the dynamic rule comprising a rule that is specified by the grammar as a rule that is not to be processed by the ASR engine until after the at least one static rule has been matched.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the computer-readable, signal-bearing medium comprises a recordable medium.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the computer-readable, signal-bearing medium comprises a transmission medium.

16. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the grammar further comprises a rule reference specified by the grammar to be a dynamic rule reference to the dynamic rule, the dynamic rule reference characterized by a static rule parameter list comprising at least one static rule reference specifying at least one static rule required to be matched by the ASR engine before processing the dynamic rule.

17. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the static rule occurs in document order after the dynamic rule, and the computer program product further comprises computer program instructions capable of treating the dynamic rule as a rule that matches any speech in the utterance until a next rule match, a next token match, or the end of processing of the utterance.

18. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the grammar includes a definition of the dynamic rule that identifies a computer resource capable of dynamically defining at run time the dynamic rule of the grammar as a new static rule in dependence upon the matched value.

19. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein dynamically defining at run time the dynamic rule of the grammar as a new static rule in dependence upon the matched value further comprises expanding a definition of the dynamic rule with at least one matched value of a static rule.

20. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the grammar comprises more than one dynamic rule reference to the dynamic rule, the dynamic rule references characterized by more than one static rule parameter list, each static rule parameter list comprising one or more static rule references specifying one or more static rules required to be matched by the ASR engine before processing the dynamic rule.