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

Systems and methods are provided for receiving speech and non-speech communications of natural language questions and/or commands, transcribing the speech and non-speech communications to textual messages, and executing the questions and/or commands. The invention applies context, prior information, domain knowledge, and user specific profile data to achieve a natural environment for one or more users presenting questions or commands across multiple domains. The systems and methods creates, stores and uses extensive personal profile information for each user, thereby improving the reliability of determining the context of the speech and non-speech communications and presenting the expected results for a particular question or command.

Systems and methods for responding to natural language speech utterance

A mobile system is provided that includes speech-based and non-speech-based interfaces for telematics applications. The mobile system identifies and uses context, prior information, domain knowledge, and user specific profile data to achieve a natural environment for users that submit requests and/or commands in multiple domains. The invention creates, stores and uses extensive personal profile information for each user, thereby improving the reliability of determining the context and presenting the expected results for a particular question or command. The invention may organize domain specific behavior and information into agents, that are distributable or updateable over a wide area network.

Mobile systems and methods of supporting natural language human-machine interactions

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 conversational, natural language voice user interface may provide an integrated voice navigation services environment. The voice user interface may enable a user to make natural language requests relating to various navigation services, and further, may interact with the user in a cooperative, conversational dialogue to resolve the requests. Through dynamic awareness of context, available sources of information, domain knowledge, user behavior and preferences, and external systems and devices, among other things, the voice user interface may provide an integrated environment in which the user can speak conversationally, using natural language, to issue queries, commands, or other requests relating to the navigation services provided in the environment.

System and method for providing a natural language voice user interface in an integrated voice navigation services environment

A method is described for ordering recognition results produced by an automatic speech recognition ( ASR ) engine for a multimodal application implemented with a grammar of the multimodalapplication in the ASR engine, with the multimodal application operating in a multimodalbrowser on a multimodal device supporting multiple modes of interaction including a voice mode and one or more non-voice modes, the multimodal application 10 operativelycoupled to the ASR enginethrough a VoiceXML interpreter. The method includes: receiving, in the VoiceXML interpreter from the multimodal application, a voice utterance; determining, by the VoiceXML interpreter using the ASR engine, a plurality of recognition results in dependence upon the voice utterance and the grammar; determining, by the VoiceXML interpreter according to semantic interpretation scripts of the grammar, a 15 weight for each recognition result; and sorting, bythe VoiceXML interpreter, the plurality of recognition results in dependence upon the weight for each recognition result.

Ordering recognition results produced by an automatic speech recognition engine for a multimodal application

A method of building a mixed-initiative grammar can include receiving one or more conjoin phrases, wherein each conjoin phrase is associated with a selected one of the plurality of directed dialog grammars, and receiving a user input specifying a selected grammar generation technique. The mixed-initiative grammar can be automatically generated, in accordance with the selected grammar generation technique, such that the mixed-initiative grammar specifies an allowable ordering of sets when interpreting a user spoken utterance and whether duplicative phrases are allowable within the user spoken utterance.

Creating a mixed-initiative grammar from directed dialog grammars

A method for enhancing voice interactions within a portable multimodal computing device using visual messages. A multimodal interface can be provided that includes an audio interface and a visual interface. A speech input can then be received and a voice recognition task can be performed upon at least a portion of the speech input. At least one message within the multimodal interface can be visually presented, wherein the message is a prompt for the speech input and/or a confirmation of the speech input.

Method of enhancing voice interactions using visual messages

A computer-implemented method and system are provided for filling a graphic-based form field in response to a speech utterance. The computer-implemented method includes generating a grammar corresponding to the form field, the grammar being based on a user profile and comprising a semantic interpretation string. The method further includes creating an auto-fill event based upon the at least one grammar and responsive to the speech utterance, the auto-fill event causing the filling of the form field with data corresponding to the user profile. The system includes a grammar-generating module for generating a grammar corresponding to the form field, the grammar being based on a user profile and comprising a semantic interpretation string. The system also includes an event module for creating an auto-fill event based upon the at least one grammar and responsive to the speech utterance, the event causing the filling of the form field with data corresponding to the user profile.

Method and system for voice-enabled autofill

Dynamically generating a vocal help prompt in a multimodal application that include detecting a help-triggering event for an input element of a VoiceXML dialog, where the detecting is implemented with a multimodal application operating on a multimodal device supporting multiple modes of interaction including a voice mode and one or more non-voice modes, the multimodal application is operatively coupled to a VoiceXML interpreter, and the multimodal application has no static help text. Dynamically generating a vocal help prompt in a multimodal application according to embodiments of the present invention typically also includes retrieving, by the VoiceXML interpreter from a source of help text, help text for an element of a speech recognition grammar, forming by the VoiceXML interpreter the help text into a vocal help prompt, and presenting by the multimodal application the vocal help prompt through a computer user interface to a user.

Soonthorn Ativanichayaphong

Papers

Ordering recognition results produced by an automatic speech recognition engine for a multimodal application

Creating a mixed-initiative grammar from directed dialog grammars

Method of enhancing voice interactions using visual messages

Method and system for voice-enabled autofill

Dynamically generating a vocal help prompt in a multimodal application