Electronic apparatus and voice processing method thereof

• US 9,830,911 B2
• Filed: 11/06/2013
• Issued: 11/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Lee, Joo-yeong, Park, Sang-shin
• Primary Examiner(s): He, Jialong
• Application Number:
  US14/072,853
• Publication Number:
  US 20140207470A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,483 Days
• Field of Search: 704200, 704231-257, 704270-275, 704E1501-E1505
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/30 Distributed recognition, e.g. in client-server systems, for mobile phones or network applications
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command

Abstract

Apparatuses and methods related an electronic apparatus and a voice processing method thereof are provided. More particularly, the apparatuses and methods relate to an electronic apparatus capable of recognizing a user'"'"'s voice and a voice processing method thereof. An electronic apparatus includes: a voice recognizer configured to recognize a user'"'"'s voice; a storage configured to have previously stored instructions; a function executor which performs a predetermined function; and a controller configured to control the function executor to execute the function in response to the instruction in response to a user'"'"'s voice corresponding to the instruction being input, and controls the function executor to execute the function in accordance with results of an external server which analyzes a user'"'"'s voice in response to a preset dialog selection signal and a dialog voice for executing the function being input by a user.

Claims

1. An electronic apparatus comprising:

a voice recognizer configured to recognize a user'"'"'s voice;

a storage configured to have previously stored instructions;

a function executor configured to perform a predetermined function; and

a controller configured to;

make a first determination whether or not the user'"'"'s voice comprises a voice selection command for using a dialogue mode;

in response to the first determination that the user'"'"'s voice comprises the voice selection command, skip an instruction mode and provide voice following the voice selection command to an external server for external analyzing and based on results of the external server analyzing of the voice, control the function executor to execute the predetermined function, and

in response to the first determination that the user'"'"'s voice does not comprise the voice selection command, make a second determination whether the user'"'"'s voice matches an instruction of the previously stored instructions, in response to the second determination indicating that the user'"'"'s voice matches the instruction of the previously stored instructions, execute the instruction mode in which the user'"'"'s voice is processed internally within the electronic apparatus and control the function executor to execute the predetermined function corresponding to the instruction, and in response to the second determination indicating that the user'"'"'s voice does not match any of the previously stored instructions, provide the user'"'"'s voice to the external server for external analyzing.

2. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the instruction mode is a default mode of processing the voice in the electronic apparatus and wherein, in response to a selection of the dialogue mode via the voice selection command, the controller is further configured to switch from the default mode to the dialogue mode and skip the processing of the user'"'"'s voice internally by the electronic apparatus.

3. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, in response to a voice command being repetitively input, the controller is configured to store, in the storage, a record of the voice command processed by the dialogue mode, and

wherein, in response to the controller determining that the user'"'"'s voice corresponds to the voice command stored in the record, the controller executes the instruction mode instead of the dialogue mode.

4. An electronic apparatus comprising:

a voice recognizer configured to recognize a user'"'"'s voice;

a storage configured to have previously stored instructions;

a function executor configured to perform a predetermined function; and

a controller configured to;

make a first determination whether or not the user'"'"'s voice comprises a voice selection command for using a dialogue process;

in response to the first determination that the user'"'"'s voice comprises the voice selection command, skip an instruction process and provide voice following the voice selection command to an external server for external analyzing and based on results of the external server analyzing of the voice, control the function executor to execute the predetermined function, and

in response to the first determination that user'"'"'s voice does not comprises the voice selection command, make a second determination whether the user'"'"'s voice matches an instruction of the previously stored instructions, in response to the second determination indicating that the user'"'"'s voice matches the instruction of the previously stored instructions, execute the instruction process in which the user'"'"'s voice is processed internally within the electronic apparatus and the predetermined function is executed in accordance with the instruction, and in response to the second determination indicating that the user'"'"'s voice does not match any of the previously stored instructions, provide the user'"'"'s voice to the external server for external analyzing.

5. The electronic apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the voice recognizer sequentially receives the user'"'"'s voice comprising the voice selection command and the voice which is contextual voice input for executing the predetermined function.

6. The electronic apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the storage is further configured to store history and record of the user'"'"'s voice processed by the dialogue process.

7. The electronic apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the controller is further configured to switch frequently used instructions from the dialogue process to the instruction process and generating a notification to a user.

8. The electronic apparatus according to claim 4, wherein, in response to a voice command being repetitively input, the controller is configured to store, in the storage, a record of the voice command processed by the dialogue process, and

wherein, in response to the controller determining that the user'"'"'s voice corresponds to the voice command stored in the record, the controller executes the instruction process instead of the dialogue process.

9. A voice processing method of an electronic apparatus comprising a storage configured to have previously stored instructions, the method comprising:

recognizing a user'"'"'s voice;

determining whether the user'"'"'s voice comprises a voice selection command for using a dialogue process;

in response to the determining that the user'"'"'s voice comprises the voice selection command, skipping internal processing of the user'"'"'s voice and providing voice following the voice selection command to an external server for processing the voice in the external server and based on results of the processing by the external server, executing a predetermined function; and

in response to the determining that the user'"'"'s voice does not comprise the voice selection command, further determining whether the user'"'"'s voice matches an instruction from among the previously stored instructions, in response to the further determining indicating that the user'"'"'s voice matches the instruction from among the previously stored instructions, performing the internal processing of the user'"'"'s voice in the electronic apparatus and based on results of the internal processing, executing the predetermined function, and in response to the further determining indicating that the user'"'"'s voice does not match any of the previously stored instructions, providing the user'"'"'s voice to the external server for the processing.

10. The voice processing method according to claim 9, the method is further comprising:

in response to a voice command being repetitively input, storing, in the storage, a record of the voice command processed by the dialogue process, and

in response to the determining that the user'"'"'s voice comprises the voice command stored in the record, executing the instruction process instead of the dialogue process.

11. An electronic apparatus comprising:

a function executor configured to perform a predetermined function; and

a controller configured to determine whether a user'"'"'s voice comprises a voice selection command for using a dialogue process,

wherein, in response to the controller determining that the user'"'"'s voice comprises the voice selection command, the controller is further configured to skip an internal process of the user'"'"'s voice and transmit voice following the voice selection command to an external server for external analyzing and based on results of the external server analyzing the voice, control the function executor to execute the predetermined function, and

wherein, in response to the controller determining that the user'"'"'s voice does not comprise the voice selection command, the controller is further configured to determine whether the user'"'"'s voice matches an instruction from among a plurality of internally stored instructions, in response to the controller determining that the user'"'"'s voice matches the instruction from among the internally stored instructions, process the user'"'"'s voice internally within the electronic apparatus and control the function executor to execute the predetermined function corresponding to the instruction, and in response to the controller determining that the user'"'"'s voice does not match any of the internally stored instructions, transmit the user'"'"'s voice to the external server for the external analyzing.

12. The electronic apparatus of claim 11 further comprising:

a voice recognizer configured to recognize the user'"'"'s voice.

13. The electronic apparatus of claim 11, further comprising an internal memory configured to pre-store said internally stored instructions.