Systems and methods for routing content to an associated output device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11064248-B2
Application number	US-201916389471-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 19, 2019
Priority date	Jun 27, 2016
Publication date	Jul 13, 2021
Grant date	Jul 13, 2021

Abstract

Devices and methods for routing content are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method for routing content include receiving audio data representing a command from a first electronic device, determining content that is associated with the command, sending responsive audio data to the first electronic device, and sending instructions to the second electronic device to output the content associated with the command. In some embodiments, a method for routing contents includes determining a state of the second electronic device and sending instructions to output the content to a selected one of the first and second electronic devices based on the state of the second electronic device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method performed by a backend computing system connected to a network, the method comprising:
receiving, from a first electronic device and via the network, first data representing a spoken utterance;
determining, based at least in part on the first data, an intent of the spoken utterance;
determining that a second electronic device associated with the first electronic device is capable of processing second data corresponding to the intent;
determining third data representing a response to the spoken utterance;
sending, to the first electronic device via the network, the third data, such that the response is output by a speaker of the first electronic device; and
sending, to the second electronic device and via the network, the second data.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the first data comprises first audio data;
the method further comprises generating first text data representing the first audio data; and
determining the intent further comprises performing natural language understanding (NLU) processing on the first text data.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a user account associated with the first electronic device; and
determining that the second electronic device is associated with the user account.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
determining that the second electronic device is capable of processing the second data comprises determining that the second electronic device is capable of processing video data.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein sending the second data to the second electronic device comprises sending a uniform resource locator (URL) to the second electronic device that allows the second electronic device to obtain the video data.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the response comprises a message indicating that video corresponding to the second data will be displayed by a screen associated with the second electronic device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the response comprises a message indicating that audio corresponding to the second data will be output by a speaker associated with the second electronic device.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the response comprises an indication that an action corresponding to the intent has been performed.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that the second electronic device is in a state in which the second electronic device is ready to process the second data; and
sending the second data to the second electronic device based at least in part on the second electronic device being in the state.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that the second electronic device is not ready to process the second data; and
sending, to the second electronic device via the network, a command that causes the second electronic device to change to a state in which the second electronic device is ready to process the second data.

11. A backend computing system, comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one computer-readable medium encoded with instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing system to:
receive, from a first electronic device and via a network, first data representing a spoken utterance,
determine, based at least in part on the first data, an intent of the spoken utterance,
determine that a second electronic device associated with the first electronic device is capable of processing second data corresponding to the intent,
determine third data representing a response to the spoken utterance,
send, to the first electronic device via the network, the third data, such that the response is output by a speaker of the first electronic device, and
send, to the second electronic device and via the network, the second data.

12. The backend computing system of claim 11 , wherein the first data comprises first audio data, and the at least one computer-readable medium is encoded with additional instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing system to:
generate first text data representing the first audio data; and
determine the intent at least by performing natural language understanding (NLU) processing on the first text data.

13. The backend computing system of claim 11 , wherein the at least one computer-readable medium is encoded with additional instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing system to:
determine a user account associated with the first electronic device; and
determine that the second electronic device is associated with the user account.

14. The backend computing system of claim 11 , wherein the at least one computer-readable medium is encoded with additional instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing system to:
determine that the second electronic device is capable of processing the second data at least by determining that the second electronic device is capable of processing video data.

15. The backend computing system of claim 14 , wherein the at least one computer-readable medium is encoded with additional instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing system to:
send the second data to the second electronic device at least by sending a uniform resource locator (URL) to the second electronic device that allows the second electronic device to obtain the video data.

16. The backend computing system of claim 11 , wherein the response comprises a message indicating that video corresponding to the second data will be displayed by a screen associated with the second electronic device.

17. The backend computing system of claim 11 , wherein the response comprises a message indicating that audio corresponding to the second data will be output by a speaker associated with the second electronic device.

18. The backend computing system of claim 11 , wherein the response comprises an indication that an action corresponding to the intent has been performed.

19. The backend computing system of claim 11 , wherein the at least one computer-readable medium is encoded with additional instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing system to:
determine that the second electronic device is in a state in which the second electronic device is ready to process the second data; and
send the second data to the second electronic device based at least in part on the second electronic device being in the state.

20. The backend computing system of claim 11 , wherein the at least one computer-readable medium is encoded with additional instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing system to:
determine that the second electronic device is not ready to process the second data; and
send, to the second electronic device via the network, a command that causes the second electronic device to change to a state in which the second electronic device is ready to process the second data.

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Jobanputra Soniya
• Typrin Marcello
• Trudell Mallory

Classifications

• H04N21/4516

  involving client characteristics, e.g. Set-Top-Box type, software version or amount of memory available · CPC title

• H04N21/8586

  by using a URL (processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02) · CPC title

• G10L15/26

  Speech to text systems (G10L15/08 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F16/3329

  Natural language query formulation · CPC title

• H04N21/835

  Generation of protective data, e.g. certificates {(protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10)} · CPC title