Initiating actions based on partial hotwords

• US 9,443,512 B2
• Filed: 01/07/2016
• Issued: 09/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Sharifi, Matthew
• Primary Examiner(s): YEN, ERIC L
• Application Number:
  US14/990,462
• Publication Number:
  US 20160118040A1
• Time in Patent Office: 250 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/02 Feature extraction for speech recognition; Selection of recognition unit
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/08 Speech classification or search
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/18 using natural language modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1815 Semantic context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word meaning
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/28 Constructional details of speech recognition systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/088 Word spotting
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/51 for comparison or discrimination

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, receiving audio data; determining that an initial portion of the audio data corresponds to an initial portion of a hotword; in response to determining that the initial portion of the audio data corresponds to the initial portion of the hotword, selecting, from among a set of one or more actions that are performed when the entire hotword is detected, a subset of the one or more actions; and causing one or more actions of the subset to be performed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying a set of one or more actions that are associated with an utterance of a hotword;

identifying a subset of the one or more actions that are to be associated with a partial utterance of the hotword, wherein the subset of actions includes one or more actions whose respective results are not discernible to a user of a computing device that performs the actions;

associating the subset of actions with the partial utterance of the hotword; and

causing one or more actions of the subset of actions to be performed upon receiving the partial utterance of the hotword.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the subset of actions includes actions that are performed in a background computing environment of the computing device.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the subset of actions includes one or more of:

initializing a camera functionality of the computing device, activating the computing device from a sleep state, initializing a network connection on the computer device, and preloading an application on the computing device associated with the hotword.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying an additional subset of the one or more actions that are to be associated with a further utterance of the hotword that is subsequent to the partial utterance of the hotword; and

associating the additional subset of the actions with the further utterance of the hotword.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the set of the one or more actions includes the subset of the one or more actions and the additional subset of the one more actions.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the additional subset of the one or more actions includes one or more actions whose respective results are discernible to the user of the computer device.

7. A system comprising:

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

identifying a set of one or more actions that are associated with an utterance of a hotword;

identifying a subset of the one or more actions that are to be associated with a partial utterance of the hotword, wherein the subset of actions includes one or more actions whose respective results are not discernible to a user of a computing device that performs the actions;

associating the subset of actions with the partial utterance of the hotword; and

causing one or more actions of the subset of actions to be performed upon receiving the partial utterance of the hotword.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the subset of actions includes actions that are performed in a background computing environment of the computing device.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the subset of actions includes one or more of:

initializing a camera functionality of the computing device, activating the computing device from a sleep state, initializing a network connection on the computer device, and preloading an application on the computing device associated with the hotword.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying an additional subset of the one or more actions that are to be associated with a further utterance of the hotword that is subsequent to the partial utterance of the hotword; and

associating the additional subset of the actions with the further utterance of the hotword.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the set of the one or more actions includes the subset of the one or more actions and the additional subset of the one more actions.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the additional subset of the one or more actions includes one or more actions whose respective results are discernible to the user of the computer device.

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

identifying a set of one or more actions that are associated with an utterance of a hotword;

identifying a subset of the one or more actions that are to be associated with a partial utterance of the hotword, wherein the subset of actions includes one or more actions whose respective results are not discernible to a user of a computing device that performs the actions;

associating the subset of actions with the partial utterance of the hotword; and

causing one or more actions of the subset of actions to be performed upon receiving the partial utterance of the hotword.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the subset of actions includes actions that are performed in a background computing environment of the computing device.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the subset of actions includes one or more of:

initializing a camera functionality of the computing device, activating the computing device from a sleep state, initializing a network connection on the computer device, and preloading an application on the computing device associated with the hotword.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying an additional subset of the one or more actions that are to be associated with a further utterance of the hotword that is subsequent to the partial utterance of the hotword; and

associating the additional subset of the actions with the further utterance of the hotword.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the set of the one or more actions includes the subset of the one or more actions and the additional subset of the one more actions.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the additional subset of the one or more actions includes one or more actions whose respective results are discernible to the user of the computer device.