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

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

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and apparatus for searching using an active ontology. One embodiment of a method for searching a database includes receiving a search string, where the search string comprises one or more words, generating a semantic representation of the search string in accordance with an ontology, searching the database using the semantic representation, and outputting a result of the searching.

Method and apparatus for searching using an active ontology

Disclosed are a display apparatus and a method of controlling the display apparatus. The display apparatus includes: a signal receiver configured to receive a broadcasting signal; a display configured to display an image based on the received broadcasting signal; a sound receiver configured to receive a sound spoken by a user; a first sound recognizer configured to be supplied with power when the display apparatus is in a standby mode, and determine whether the received sound is a reserved word candidate having a high probability of corresponding to a reserved word; a second sound recognizer configured to be supplied with power when the received sound is determined as the reserved word candidate and to determine whether the received sound is the reserved word; and a controller configured to control the preset operation to be performed when the received sound is determined as the reserved word.

Electronic apparatus and control method thereof

An electronic device and a method for recognizing a speech are provided. The method for recognizing a speech by an electronic device includes: receiving sounds generated from a sound source through a plurality of microphones; calculating power values from a plurality of audio signals generated by performing signal processing on each sound input through the plurality of microphones and calculating direction information on the sound source based on the calculated power values and storing the calculated direction information; and performing the speech recognition on a speech section included in the audio signal based on the direction information on the sound source. As a result, the electronic device may correctly detect only a speech section from an audio signal while improving a speech section detection related processing speed.

Electronic device and method for recognizing speech

Human's ability to perceive elevation of a sound and distinguish whether a sound is coming from the front or rear strongly depends on the monaural spectral features of the pinnae. In order to realize an effective virtual auditory display by HRTF (head-related transfer function) customization, the pinna responses were isolated from the median HRIRs (head-related impulse responses) of 45 individual HRIRs in the CIPIC HRTF database and modeled as linear combinations of 4 or 5 basic temporal shapes (basis functions) per each elevation on the median plane by PCA (principal components analysis) in the time domain. By tuning the weight of each basis function computed for a specific height to replace the pinna response in the KEMAR HRIR at the same height with the resulting customized pinna response and listening to the filtered stimuli over headphones, 4 individuals with normal hearing sensitivity were able to create a set of HRIRs that outperformed the KEMAR HRIRs in producing vertical effects with reduced front/back ambiguity in the median plane. Since the monaural spectral features of the pinnae are almost independent of azimuthal variation of the source direction, similar vertical effects could also be generated at different azimuthal directions simply by varying the ITD (interaural time difference) according to the direction as well as the size of each individual's own head.

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Enhanced Vertical Perception through Head-Related Impulse Response Customization Based on Pinna Response Tuning in the Median Plane

An apparatus and method to localize multiple sound sources is provided. Virtual microphone signals are generated based on actual microphone signals from a microphone array including a plurality of microphones, which are arranged at intervals that may minimize space aliasing at a given sampling frequency, and sound source directions are tracked using the actual microphone signals and the virtual microphone signals. Thus, without increasing the aperture length of the microphone array, it is possible to achieve almost the same resolution as when a microphone array having a relatively long length is used.

Apparatus and method to localize multiple sound sources

Disclosed herein is a sound source recording apparatus and method adaptable to an operating environment, which can record a target sound source at a predetermined level without being affected by characteristics of the sound source or ambient noise. A target sound source is separated from a sound source signal received through an array of microphones and a recording sound pressure level and a gain are estimated using a reference sound pressure level and a reference distance for the target sound source, thereby controlling or adjusting the gain of the microphones.

Ki-Hoon Shin

Papers

Electronic apparatus and control method thereof

Electronic device and method for recognizing speech

Enhanced Vertical Perception through Head-Related Impulse Response Customization Based on Pinna Response Tuning in the Median Plane

Apparatus and method to localize multiple sound sources

Sound source recording apparatus and method adaptable to operating environment