Touch Anywhere to Speak

• US 20100318366A1
• Filed: 06/10/2009
• Published: 12/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sullivan, Anne K., Leong, Su Chuin, Lee, Kathleen J., Stifelman, Lisa
• Granted Patent: US 8,412,531 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724 User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector digitizers for touch screens G06F3/041
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/74 with voice recognition means voice activated dialling H04M1/271; voice recognition algorithms G10L15/00

Abstract

The present invention provides a user interface for providing press-to-talk-interaction via utilization of a touch-anywhere-to-speak module on a mobile computing device. Upon receiving an indication of a touch anywhere on the screen of a touch screen interface, the touch-anywhere-to-speak module activates the listening mechanism of a speech recognition module to accept audible user input and displays dynamic visual feedback of a measured sound level of the received audible input. The touch-anywhere-to-speak module may also provide a user a convenient and more accurate speech recognition experience by utilizing and applying the data relative to a context of the touch (e.g., relative location on the visual interface) in correlation with the spoken audible input.

Claims

1. A method for providing input functionality for a speech recognition interaction module, comprising:

receiving an indication of a touch anywhere on a touch screen interface of a mobile computing device;

upon reception of an indication of a touch anywhere on the touch screen interface, activating a listening mechanism of a speech recognition module; and

displaying dynamic visual feedback of a measured sound level of a spoken utterance received by the speech recognition module, wherein the displayed visual feedback is rendered as centered around an area on the touch screen at which a touch is received.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising

generating an acknowledgment in response to receiving an indication of a touch anywhere on the touch screen interface of the mobile computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving an indication of a touch anywhere on a touch screen interface of a mobile computing device includes receiving an indication of a touch and hold anywhere on a touch screen interface of a mobile computing device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein activating the listening mechanism of a speech recognition module comprises:

determining if the touch screen interface has received a touch; and

activating the listening mechanism.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein acknowledging reception of the indication of a touch anywhere on the touch screen interface is in the form of visual feedback.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein acknowledging reception of the indication of a touch anywhere on the touch screen interface is in the form of audible feedback.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein acknowledging reception of the indication of a touch anywhere on the touch screen interface is in the form of tactile feedback.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein acknowledging reception of the indication of a touch anywhere on the touch screen interface is in the form of a combination of audible, visual, and /or tactile feedback.

9. A method for providing input functionality for a speech recognition interaction module, comprising:

receiving an indication of a touch within a contextual area on a touch screen interface of a mobile computing device; and

upon reception of the indication of the touch within a contextual area on the touch screen interface;

identifying the contextual data of the touch and determining an identification of the touch in association with the identified contextual data;

passing the identification of the touch to one or more software applications;

activating a listening mechanism of a speech recognition module;

receiving a spoken utterance;

utilizing the identification of the touch in association with the identified contextual data, and causing a performance of a functionality of the one or more software applications based on the identified contextual data; and

displaying dynamic visual feedback of a measured sound level of a spoken utterance received by the speech recognition module, wherein the displayed visual feedback is rendered as centered around an area on the touch screen at which a touch within a contextual area is received.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising generating an acknowledgment in response to receiving an indication of a touch within a contextual area on the touch screen interface of the mobile computing device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein acknowledging reception of indication of a touch within a contextual area on the touch screen interface may be in the form of audible feedback, visual feedback, tactile feedback, or any combination of the three.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the step of receiving an indication of a touch within a contextual area on a touch screen interface of a mobile computing device includes receiving an indication of a touch and hold reception within a contextual area on the touch screen interface on a touch screen interface of a mobile computing device.

13. A computer readable medium containing computer executable instructions which when executed by a computer perform a method for providing input functionality for a speech recognition interaction module, comprising:

receiving an indication of a touch anywhere on a touch screen interface of a mobile computing device;

activating a listening mechanism of a speech recognition module;

generating an acknowledgment in response to receiving an indication of a touch anywhere on the touch screen interface of the mobile computing device; and

displaying dynamic visual feedback of a measured sound level of a spoken utterance received by the speech recognition module, wherein the displayed visual feedback is rendered as centered around an area on the touch screen at which a touch within a contextual area is received.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13 wherein the step of receiving an indication of a touch anywhere on a touch screen interface of a mobile computing device includes receiving an indication of a touch and hold anywhere on a touch screen interface of a mobile computing device.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein receiving an indication of a touch anywhere on a touch screen interface of a mobile computing device includes receiving an indication of a touch within a contextual area on the touch screen interface.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein receiving an indication of a touch within a contextual area on the touch screen interface includes receiving a touch on a portion of the touch screen interface where a given information is displayed by a software application operated via the mobile computing device.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, further comprising identifying a contextual data associated with the contextual area on the touch screen interface.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17, further comprising receiving a spoken utterance via the activated listening mechanism of the speech recognition module related to the identified contextual data.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, further comprising passing an instruction representing the received spoken utterance to one or more software applications operative to perform a function related to the identified contextual data.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19, further comprising causing the software application operative to perform a function related to the identified contextual data and to display a result of the performed function on the touch screen interface.