Voice Actions on Computing Devices

• US 20110106534A1
• Filed: 10/28/2010
• Published: 05/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: LeBeau, Michael J., Jitkoff, John Nicholas
• Granted Patent: US 9,239,603 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/235
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/265 constructional aspects of navigation devices, e.g. housings, mountings, displays G01C21/3688 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3608 using speech input, e.g. using speech recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/362 received from an external device or application, e.g. PDA, mobile phone or calendar application
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3661 Guidance output on an external device, e.g. car radio
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/367 Details, e.g. road map scale, orientation, zooming, illumination, level of detail, scrolling of road map or positioning of current position marker
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1632 External expansion units, e.g. docking stations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/266 Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3265 Power saving in display device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/329 by task scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/444 Spatial browsing, e.g. 2D maps, 3D or virtual spaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/638 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1614 Image rotation following screen orientation, e.g. switching from landscape to portrait mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/04 Supports for telephone transmitters or receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72415 for remote control of appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/02 including a Bluetooth interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/74 : with voice recognition means voice activated dialling H04M1/271; voice recognition algorithms G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 : Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A computer-implemented method includes receiving spoken input at a computing device from a user of the computing device, the spoken input including a carrier phrase and a subject to which the carrier phrase is directed, providing at least a portion of the spoken input to a server system in audio form for speech-to-text conversion by the server system, the portion including the subject to which the carrier phrase is directed, receiving from the server system instructions for automatically performing an operation on the computing device, the operation including an action defined by the carrier phrase using parameters defined by the subject, and automatically performing the operation on the computing device.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving spoken input at a computing device from a user of the computing device, the spoken input including a carrier phrase and a subject to which the carrier phrase is directed;

providing at least a portion of the spoken input to a server system in audio form for speech-to-text conversion by the server system, the portion including the subject to which the carrier phrase is directed;

receiving from the server system instructions for automatically performing an operation on the computing device, the operation including an action defined by the carrier phrase using parameters defined by the subject; and

automatically performing the operation on the computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the carrier phrase comprises an instruction to execute a navigation application, and the subject describes a geographical landmark.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the subject describes a geographical landmark without naming the geographical landmark.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the carrier phrase is “

navigate to.”

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the operation comprises displaying turn-by-turn navigation in an application, wherein data for the turn-by-turn navigation is generated by the server system for a navigation route from a current location of the computing device to a location described by the subject.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the prefix comprises an instruction to play a media file, and the subject describes the media file to be played.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the subject includes a name of content in the media file.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the subject comprises a search query and the prefix identifies operations to be conducted on search results for the search query.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the operations to be conducted on the search results comprises parsing a landing page corresponding to a search result for a designated type of information.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the designated type of information comprises a location.

11. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, at a computer server system from a remote computing device, audio spoken by a user of the computing device, the audio including a subject to which a spoken carrier phrase form the user was directed;

performing speech-to-text conversion on the audio by the computer server system;

generating data for execution on the computing device to cause the computing device to automatically perform an operation identified by the carrier phrase using the subject as a parameter of the operation; and

transmitting the data to the computing device.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving an textual identifier of the carrier phrase, wherein the computing device identified the carrier phrase before providing the audio to the computer server system.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising using the identifier to select a grammar for performing the speech-to-text conversion.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the carrier phrase comprises an instruction to execute a navigation application, and the subject describes a geographical landmark.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the subject describes a geographical landmark without naming the geographical landmark.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the carrier phrase is “

navigate to.”

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the operation comprises displaying turn-by-turn navigation in an application, wherein data for the turn-by-turn navigation is generated by the server system for a navigation route from a current location of the computing device to a location described by the subject.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the prefix comprises an instruction to play a media file, and the subject describes the media file to be played.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the subject includes a name of content in the media file.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the subject comprises a search query and the prefix identifies operations to be conducted on search results for the search query.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the operations to be conducted on the search results comprises parsing a landing page corresponding to a search result for a designated type of information.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the designated type of information comprises a location.

23. One or more tangible non-transient machine-readable media storing instructions that, when executed, perform actions comprising:

receiving spoken input at a computing device from a user of the computing device, the spoken input including a carrier phrase and a subject to which the carrier phrase is directed;

providing at least a portion of the spoken input to a server system in audio form for speech-to-text conversion by the server system, the portion including the subject to which the carrier phrase is directed;

receiving from the server system instructions for automatically performing an operation on the computing device, the operation including an action defined by the carrier phrase using parameters defined by the subject; and

automatically performing the operation on the computing device.

24. The machine-readable media of claim 23, wherein the carrier phrase comprises an instruction to execute a navigation application, and the subject describes a geographical landmark.

25. The machine-readable media of claim 23, wherein the prefix comprises an instruction to play a media file, and the subject describes the media file to be played.

26. The machine-readable media of claim 23, wherein the subject comprises a search query and the prefix identifies operations to be conducted on search results for the search query.