An intelligent automated assistant system engages with the user in an integrated, conversational manner using natural language dialog, and invokes external services when appropriate to obtain information or perform various actions. The system can be implemented using any of a number of different platforms, such as the web, email, smartphone, and the like, or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, the system is based on sets of interrelated domains and tasks, and employs additional functionally powered by external services with which the system can interact.

Intelligent Automated Assistant

A virtual assistant uses context information to supplement natural language or gestural input from a user. Context helps to clarify the user's intent and to reduce the number of candidate interpretations of the user's input, and reduces the need for the user to provide excessive clarification input. Context can include any available information that is usable by the assistant to supplement explicit user input to constrain an information-processing problem and/or to personalize results. Context can be used to constrain solutions during various phases of processing, including, for example, speech recognition, natural language processing, task flow processing, and dialog generation.

Using context information to facilitate processing of commands in a virtual assistant

A method and apparatus are provided for building an intelligent automated assistant. Embodiments of the present invention rely on the concept of “active ontologies” (e.g., execution environments constructed in an ontology-like manner) to build and run applications for use by intelligent automated assistants. In one specific embodiment, a method for building an automated assistant includes interfacing a service-oriented architecture that includes a plurality of remote services to an active ontology, where the active ontology includes at least one active processing element that models a domain. At least one of the remote services is then registered for use in the domain.

Method and apparatus for building an intelligent automated assistant

The method includes automatically, without user input and without regard to whether a digital assistant application has been separately invoked by a user, determining that the electronic device is in a vehicle. In some implementations, determining that the electronic device is in a vehicle comprises detecting that the electronic device is in communication with the vehicle (e.g., via a wired or wireless communication techniques and/or protocols). The method also includes, responsive to the determining, invoking a listening mode of a virtual assistant implemented by the electronic device. In some implementations, the method also includes limiting the ability of a user to view visual output presented by the electronic device, provide typed input to the electronic device, and the like.

Automatically adapting user interfaces for hands-free interaction

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 novel software-based video compression algorithm, the Popular Video Coder (PVC), is presented in this paper, and a video phone system, the Popular Phone, is also implemented based on the PVC. The PVC simplifies the traditional video coder by removing the transform and the motion estimation parts and modifies the quantizer and entropy coder. Two novel coding algorithms, the adaptive quantizer and the modified windowed Huffman-like coder, are used in the PVC to encode the video data with a quality picture at a high compression ratio. The video quality of the proposed coder is as good as that of the MPEG coder when the input is a low-resolution and slow-motion video, and the computational complexity of the PVC is much lower than that of the Motion Picture Expert Group (MPEG). Since no compression hardware is needed for the PVC to encode and decode video data, the cost and complexity of developing multimedia applications, such as video phone and multimedia e-mail systems, can be greatly reduced. Furthermore, some networking issues, such as error control and flow control, are discussed in connection with applying the PVC to implement the Popular Phone.

Jau-Hsiung Huang

Papers

Real-time software-based video coder for multimedia communication systems

Real-time software-based video coder for multimedia communication systems