System and method for enhancing voice-enabled search based on automated demographic identification

• US 9,189,483 B2
• Filed: 03/19/2013
• Issued: 11/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Interactions, LLC
• Original Assignee: Interactions, LLC
• Inventors: Johnston, Michael, Bangalore, Srinivas, Feng, Junlan, Mishra, Taniya
• Primary Examiner(s): Han, Qi
• Application Number:
  US13/847,173
• Publication Number:
  US 20130218561A1
• Time in Patent Office: 973 Days
• Field of Search: 704/246, 704/251, 704/231, 704/235, 704/243, 704/270
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/433 using audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90332 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90335 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/227 of the speaker; Human-factor methodology

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for approximating responses to a user speech query in voice-enabled search based on metadata that include demographic features of the speaker. A system practicing the method recognizes received speech from a speaker to generate recognized speech, identifies metadata about the speaker from the received speech, and feeds the recognized speech and the metadata to a question-answering engine. Identifying the metadata about the speaker is based on voice characteristics of the received speech. The demographic features can include age, gender, socio-economic group, nationality, and/or region. The metadata identified about the speaker from the received speech can be combined with or override self-reported speaker demographic information.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, from a speech recognition system, recognized speech;

identifying information about a speaker of the recognized speech from the recognized speech; and

submitting the recognized speech and the information to a question-answering engine which selects and outputs a response associated with the recognized speech based on the recognized speech and the information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information comprises demographic features.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the demographic features comprise one of age, gender, socio-economic group, nationality, and origin.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying of the information is based on voice characteristics of the recognized speech.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the question-answering engine is integrated with the speech recognition system.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the information for future use.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the storing of the information is performed in accordance with a privacy policy.

8. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium having instruction stored which, when executed by the processor, result in the processor performing operations comprising;

receiving, from a speech recognition system, recognized speech;

identifying information about a speaker of the recognized speech from the recognized speech; and

submitting the recognized speech and the information to a question-answering engine which selects and outputs a response associated with the recognized speech based on the recognized speech and the information.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the information comprises demographic features.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the demographic features comprise one of age,

gender, socio-economic group, nationality, and origin.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein identifying of the information is based on voice characteristics of the recognized speech.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the question-answering engine is integrated with the speech recognition system.

13. The system of claim 8, the computer-readable storage medium having additional instructions which result in the operations further comprising storing the information for future use.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the storing of the information is performed in accordance with a privacy policy.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instruction stored which, when executed by a computing device, result in the computing device performing operations comprising:

receiving, from a speech recognition system, recognized speech;

identifying information about a speaker of the recognized speech from the recognized speech; and

submitting the recognized speech and the information to a question-answering engine which selects and outputs a response associated with the recognized speech based on the recognized speech and the information.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the information comprises demographic features.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the demographic features comprise one of age, gender, socio-economic group, nationality, and origin.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein identifying of the information is based on voice characteristics of the recognized speech.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the question-answering engine is integrated with the speech recognition system.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, the computer-readable storage medium having additional instructions which result in the operations further comprising storing the information for future use.