CONTEXT-BASED SPEECH RECOGNITION

• US 20150039299A1
• Filed: 09/18/2013
• Published: 02/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Weinstein, Eugene, Moreno Mengibar, Pedro J., Schalkwyk, Johan
• Granted Patent: US 9,311,915 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/202
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/16 using artificial neural networks

Abstract

A processing system receives an audio signal encoding a portion of an utterance. The processing system receives context information associated with the utterance, wherein the context information is not derived from the audio signal or any other audio signal. The processing system provides, as input to a neural network, data corresponding to the audio signal and the context information, and generates a transcription for the utterance based on at least an output of the neural network.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving an audio signal encoding a portion of an utterance;

receiving context information associated with the utterance, wherein the context information is not derived from the audio signal or any other audio signal;

providing, as input to a neural network, data corresponding to the audio signal and the context information; and

generating a transcription for the utterance based on at least an output of the neural network.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein providing, as an input to a neural network, data corresponding to the audio signal and the context information comprises providing, as an input to a neural network, a set of acoustic feature vectors derived from the audio signal and data corresponding to the context information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving context information associated with the utterance comprises receiving an internet protocol (IP) address of a client device from which the audio signal originated.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving context information associated with the utterance comprises receiving a geographic location of a client device from which the audio signal originated.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving context information associated with the utterance comprises receiving a search history associated with a speaker of the utterance.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a set of data derived from the audio signal, the set of data corresponding to one or more time-independent characteristics of the audio signal;

wherein providing, as input to a neural network, data corresponding to the audio signal and the context information comprises providing, as input to a neural network, data corresponding to the audio signal, the context information, and the set of data derived from the audio signal.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the set of data corresponding to one or more time-independent characteristics of the audio signal includes one or more of a signal corresponding to an accent of a speaker of the utterance, a signal corresponding to background noise of the audio signal, a signal corresponding to recording channel properties of the audio signal, a signal corresponding to a pitch of the speaker, and a signal corresponding to an age of the speaker.

8. A system comprising:

one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

receiving an audio signal encoding a portion of an utterance;

receiving context information associated with the utterance, wherein the context information is not derived from the audio signal or any other audio signal;

providing, as input to a neural network, data corresponding to the audio signal and the context information; and

generating a transcription for the utterance based on at least an output of the neural network.

9. The system of claim 8,

wherein providing, as an input to a neural network, data corresponding to the audio signal and the context information comprises providing, as an input to a neural network, a set of acoustic feature vectors derived from the audio signal and data corresponding to the context information.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein receiving context information associated with the utterance comprises receiving an internet protocol (IP) address of a client device from which the audio signal originated.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein receiving context information associated with the utterance comprises receiving a geographic location of a client device from which the audio signal originated.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein receiving context information associated with the utterance comprises receiving a search history associated with a speaker of the utterance.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a set of data derived from the audio signal, the set of data corresponding to one or more time-independent characteristics of the audio signal;

wherein providing, as input to a neural network, data corresponding to the audio signal and the context information comprises providing, as input to a neural network, data corresponding to the audio signal, the context information, and the set of data derived from the audio signal.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the set of data corresponding to one or more time-independent characteristics of the audio signal includes one or more of a signal corresponding to an accent of a speaker of the utterance, a signal corresponding to background noise of the audio signal, a signal corresponding to recording channel properties of the audio signal, a signal corresponding to a pitch of the speaker, and a signal corresponding to an age of the speaker.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more computers which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

receiving an audio signal encoding a portion of an utterance;

receiving context information associated with the utterance, wherein the context information is not derived from the audio signal or any other audio signal;

providing, as input to a neural network, data corresponding to the audio signal and the context information; and

generating a transcription for the utterance based on at least an output of the neural network.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15,

wherein providing, as an input to a neural network, data corresponding to the audio signal and the context information comprises providing, as an input to a neural network, a set of acoustic feature vectors derived from the audio signal and data corresponding to the context information.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein receiving context information associated with the utterance comprises receiving an internet protocol (IP) address of a client device from which the audio signal originated.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein receiving context information associated with the utterance comprises receiving a geographic location of a client device from which the audio signal originated.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein receiving context information associated with the utterance comprises receiving a search history associated with a speaker of the utterance.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a set of data derived from the audio signal, the set of data corresponding to one or more time-independent characteristics of the audio signal;

wherein providing, as input to a neural network, data corresponding to the audio signal and the context information comprises providing, as input to a neural network, data corresponding to the audio signal, the context information, and the set of data derived from the audio signal.