Speech recognition for context switching

• US 9,256,396 B2
• Filed: 10/10/2011
• Issued: 02/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Monson, Matthew J., Giese, William P., Greenawalt, Daniel J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Desir, Pierre-Louis
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sharma, Neeraj
• Application Number:
  US13/270,018
• Publication Number:
  US 20130090930A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,583 Days
• Field of Search: 704/275, 704/251, 704/9, 704/247, 704/201, 704/254, 704/257, 717/113, 463/31, 463/1, 715/719, 715/728, 709/229, 707/741, 707/706, 348/730, 725/151, 379/93.05, 379/88.17
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6072 of an input signal, e.g. pitch and rhythm extraction, voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/088 Word spotting
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context

Abstract

Various embodiments provide techniques for implementing speech recognition for context switching In at least some embodiments, the techniques can enable a user to switch between different contexts and/or user interfaces of an application via speech commands. In at least some embodiments, a context menu is provided that lists available contexts for an application that may be navigated to via speech commands. In implementations, the contexts presented in the context menu include a subset of a larger set of contexts that are filtered based on a variety of context filtering criteria. A user can speak one of the contexts presented in the context menu to cause a navigation to a user interface associated with one of the contexts.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

presenting, in response to a recognition of a spoken trigger word, a context menu in a user interface associated with an application context for a game application;

filtering a set of application contexts for the game application based on attributes of a device on which the game application is executable to identify at least one other application context, the attributes representing a set of context-specific criteria used to determine the at least one other application context and the attributes including a threshold processing capability of the device and a bandwidth of a network connection of the device, the context-specific criteria including one or more attributes of the game application or one or more attributes of a user of the device;

presenting the at least one other application context as part of the context menu such that the at least one other application context is navigable to via a speech input command;

recognizing, within a specific time interval after said recognition of the spoken trigger word, a speech input of a context word associate with the at least one other application context; and

navigating from the user interface associated with the first application context to a user interface associated with the at least one other application context in response to said recognition of the speech input of the context word within the specific time interval.

2. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the user interface associated with the first application context comprises a different set of game functionality than does the user interface associated with the at least one other application context.

3. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the attributes of the game application comprise a version of the game application.

4. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the one or more attributes of the device further comprise a network connectivity status of the device.

5. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the attributes of the user comprise one or more of an account membership level for the application associated with the user, access permissions associated with the user, or an age of the user.

6. A method as described in claim 1, wherein said navigating occurs in response to said recognition and independent of additional input from a user.

7. A computer-implemented method comprising:

filtering a set of context options for a game application based on attributes of a device on which a game application is executable and attributes of a user of the device, the attributes of the device including a bandwidth of an existing network connection and a threshold processing capability for the device, the attributes of the device and the attributes of the user representing a set of context- specific criteria used to determine different application contexts for the game application;

generating a set of available context options for the game application based on said filtering, the set of available context options comprising a subset of the set of context options; and

enabling one or more available context options of the set of available context options to be selectable; and

navigating from a user interface associated with a first context of the game application to a user interface associated with a second context of the game application in response to a user selection via a speech command of an available context option from set of available context options, the first context being different from the second context.

8. A method as described in claim 7, wherein said filtering occurs in response to a speech recognition of a trigger word associated with the game application.

9. A method as described in claim 7, wherein said enabling comprises causing a context menu to be displayed that includes the one or more available context options of the set of available context options.

10. A method as described in claim 9, wherein said causing comprises causing the context menu to be displayed as part of the user interface associated with the first context.

11. A method as described in claim 7, wherein said enabling comprises enabling the one or more available context options to be selectable independent of the one or more available context options being displayed.

12. A method as described in claim 7, wherein the user interface associated with the first context is associated with a different set of game functionality than is the user interface associated with the second context.

18. A method as described in claim 7, wherein the attributes of the user of the computing device comprise one or more of an account membership level for the user, an access permission associated with the user, or an age of the user.

19. A method as described in claim 7, wherein one of the first context or the second context is associated with game customization functionality, and wherein the other of the first context or the second context is associated with game play functionality.

13. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable storage media storing a game application that is executable by the one or more processors to cause the system to perform operations including;

receiving an indication of a speech input of a trigger word while a user interface associated with a first game context of the game application is displayed on a computing device;

filtering a set of game contexts using one or more filtering criteria for the game application to generate a set of one or more available game contexts, the filtering criteria including one or more attributes of the computing device including a threshold processing capability of the computing device and a bandwidth of a network connection for the computing device;

causing cause the set of one or more available game contexts to be displayed as a part of the user interface associated with the first game context; and

navigating to a user interface associated with a second game context of the game application in response to an indication of a speech selection of one or more of the available game contexts within a specified time interval after the speech input of the trigger word.

14. A system as described in claim 13, wherein one of the first game context or the second game context is associated with game customization functionality, and wherein the other of the first game context or the second game context is associated with game play functionality.

15. A system as described in claim 13, wherein the filtering criteria further include one or more attributes of a user of the computing device.

16. A system as described in claim 13, wherein the filtering criteria further include a bandwidth of an active network connection of the computing device.

17. A system as described in claim 13, wherein the filtering criteria further include one or more of an account membership level for a user of the computing device, access permissions associated with the user, or an age of the user.

20. A system as described in claim 13, wherein said filtering is further based on one or more attributes of a user of the computing device.