An electronic device may capture a voice command from a user. The electronic device may store contextual information about the state of the electronic device when the voice command is received. The electronic device may transmit the voice command and the contextual information to computing equipment such as a desktop computer or a remote server. The computing equipment may perform a speech recognition operation on the voice command and may process the contextual information. The computing equipment may respond to the voice command. The computing equipment may also transmit information to the electronic device that allows the electronic device to respond to the voice command.

Electronic Devices with Voice Command and Contextual Data Processing Capabilities

A method for operating a voice trigger is provided. In some implementations, the method is performed at an electronic device including one or more processors and memory storing instructions for execution by the one or more processors. The method includes receiving a sound input. The sound input may correspond to a spoken word or phrase, or a portion thereof. The method includes determining whether at least a portion of the sound input corresponds to a predetermined type of sound, such as a human voice. The method includes, upon a determination that at least a portion of the sound input corresponds to the predetermined type, determining whether the sound input includes predetermined content, such as a predetermined trigger word or phrase. The method also includes, upon a determination that the sound input includes the predetermined content, initiating a speech-based service, such as a voice-based digital assistant.

Voice trigger for a digital assistant

A device can be configured to receive speech input from a user. The speech input can include a command for accessing a restricted feature of the device. The speech input can be compared to a voiceprint (e.g., text-independent voiceprint) of the user's voice to authenticate the user to the device. Responsive to successful authentication of the user to the device, the user is allowed access to the restricted feature without the user having to perform additional authentication steps or speaking the command again. If the user is not successfully authenticated to the device, additional authentication steps can be request by the device (e.g., request a password).

Device access using voice authentication

Systems and processes are disclosed for controlling television user interactions using a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant can interact with a television set-top box to control content shown on a television. Speech input for the virtual assistant can be received from a device with a microphone. User intent can be determined from the speech input, and the virtual assistant can execute tasks according to the user's intent, including causing playback of media on the television. Virtual assistant interactions can be shown on the television in interfaces that expand or contract to occupy a minimal amount of space while conveying desired information. Multiple devices associated with multiple displays can be used to determine user intent from speech input as well as to convey information to users. In some examples, virtual assistant query suggestions can be provided to the user based on media content shown on a display.

Intelligent automated assistant for tv user interactions

Systems and processes are disclosed for handling a multi-part voice command for a virtual assistant. Speech input can be received from a user that includes multiple actionable commands within a single utterance. A text string can be generated from the speech input using a speech transcription process. The text string can be parsed into multiple candidate substrings based on domain keywords, imperative verbs, predetermined substring lengths, or the like. For each candidate substring, a probability can be determined indicating whether the candidate substring corresponds to an actionable command. Such probabilities can be determined based on semantic coherence, similarity to user request templates, querying services to determine manageability, or the like. If the probabilities exceed a threshold, the user intent of each substring can be determined, processes associated with the user intents can be executed, and an acknowledgment can be provided to the user.

Multi-command single utterance input method

A method is provided for enabling or enhancing a use of voice control in a voice controlled application (VCA) via a development framework. The method includes: providing in the framework a plurality of action-context pairs—also called framework action-context pairs—usable in a memory of an application development device, which includes a processor, that serve to direct execution of the VCA, wherein the framework context defines a list of parameters related to the action and their respective value types; providing at least one of a voice recognition engine (VRE) and a natural language library to match each action-context pair with semantically related vocabulary; providing in the framework a registration mechanism that permits an association to be formed between an action-context pair and a handler in the voice controlled application. An associated development system for developing the VCA and user equipment that executes the VCA are provided as well.

Voice control of applications by associating user input with action-context identifier pairs

A system and associated method are provided for using a voice activated voice personal assistant (VPA) for a first user equipment, comprising: detecting establishment of a voice communication with a second user equipment; monitoring the voice communications using the VPA for commands relevant to the VPA; identifying, by the VPA, the commands within the voice communication; and implementing an action related to the commands during the ongoing voice communication.

Telephone voice personal assistant

Telephone voice personnal assistant

An application programming interface (API) receives a request from an application on a mobile device to be notified when a Quality of Service (QoS) for communications with the mobile device is predicted to change. The API contacts a server to request a QoS map indicating predicted Quality of Service values for the mobile device. The API receives the QoS map from the server and determines that the QoS map indicates a predicted change in QoS associated with the mobile device. The API sends a notification to the application that the QoS for the mobile device will change in the future.

Method, apparatus and readable medium for an api notifying an application that qos will change in future

A method includes identifying multiple communication paths extending from a source device and for each path, determining a data rate, a power level used to communicate over at least a portion of the path and a power per data rate value by dividing the power level by the data rate. One of the multiple communication paths is selected such that the selected communication path has the lowest power per data rate value given quality of service requirements of an application. The power per data rate can be optimized from the device perspective as well as an overall network perspective. A message is then sent over the selected communication path.

Dachuan Yu

Papers

Voice control of applications by associating user input with action-context identifier pairs

Telephone voice personal assistant

Telephone voice personnal assistant

Method, apparatus and readable medium for an api notifying an application that qos will change in future

Power optimization in heterogenous networks