Electronic device, system and control method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11915697-B2
Application number	US-202117436442-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 3, 2021
Priority date	Nov 11, 2020
Publication date	Feb 27, 2024
Grant date	Feb 27, 2024

Abstract

Disclosed are an electronic device, a system, and a controlling method thereof. The controlling method includes: receiving an input utterance, determining whether domain information and intent information are able to be extracted by analyzing the input utterance, based on at least one of the domain information and the intent information not being extracted, broadcasting a signal requesting previous utterance related information to one or more external devices connected to a same network as the electronic device, receiving the previous utterance related information from the at least one external device, extracting the domain information and the intent information based on the received previous utterance related information and the input utterance, and obtaining and outputting a response result based on the extracted domain information and intent information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for controlling an electronic device, the method comprising:
receiving an input utterance;
determining whether domain information and intent information are able to be extracted by analyzing the input utterance;
based on at least one of the domain information and the intent information not being extracted as a result of the determination, broadcasting a signal requesting previous utterance related information to one or more external devices connected to a same network as the electronic device;
receiving the previous utterance related information from the at least one external device;
extracting the domain information and the intent information based on the received previous utterance related information and the input utterance; and
obtaining and outputting a response result based on the extracted domain information and intent information.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein, based on the input utterance including name information of a target device, transmitting the input utterance to the target device.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein, based on the input utterance including information on a location and information on a domain of a target device, transmitting the input utterance to a target device including the domain among target devices disposed at the location.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the extracting the domain information and the intent information comprises: identifying latest utterance related information based on a time stamp included in the previous utterance related information received from the at least one external device, and extracting the domain information and the intent information based on the identified latest utterance related information.

5. The method according to claim 4 , further comprising:
identifying whether the input utterance is a root utterance or a continuation utterance based on the identified latest utterance related information.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the continuation utterance includes at least one of a meta command utterance, a prompt utterance, or a sequence utterance.

7. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the outputting comprises, based on the input utterance being a meta command utterance or a prompt utterance, performing a corresponding operation based on the input utterance and outputting a response result of the operation.

8. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the outputting comprises, based on the input utterance being a sequence utterance, obtaining and outputting a response result based on the extracted domain information and intent information and the input utterance.

9. The method according to claim 4 , further comprising:
based on the extracted domain information not being domain information to be processed on the electronic device, transmitting the input utterance to a target device to which the identified latest utterance related information is transmitted.

10. An electronic device comprising:
a microphone configured to receive an input utterance;
a communication interface comprising communication circuitry configured to communicate with an external device;
a speaker; and
a processor,
wherein the processor is configured to control the electronic device to:
determine whether domain information and intent information are able to be extracted by analyzing the input utterance;
based on at least one of the domain information and the intent information not being extracted as a result of the determination, broadcast a signal requesting previous utterance related information to one or more external devices connected to a same network as the electronic device, and control the communication interface to receive the previous utterance related information from the at least one external device;
extract the domain information and the intent information based on the received previous utterance related information and the input utterance; and
control the speaker to obtain and output a response result based on the extracted domain information and intent information.

11. The electronic device according to claim 10 , wherein the processor is configured to control the electronic device to, based on the input utterance including name information of a target device, control the communication interface to transmit the input utterance to the target device.

12. The electronic device according to claim 10 , wherein the processor is configured to control the electronic device to, based on the input utterance including information on a location and information on a domain of a target device, control the communication interface to transmit the input utterance to one target device including the domain among target devices disposed at the location.

13. The electronic device according to claim 10 , wherein the processor is configured to control the electronic device to: identify latest utterance related information based on a time stamp included in the previous utterance related information received from the at least one external device, and extract the domain information and the intent information based on the identified latest utterance related information.

14. The electronic device according to claim 13 , wherein the processor is configured to control the electronic device to identify whether the input utterance is a root utterance or a continuation utterance based on the identified latest utterance related information.

15. A system comprising:
a first electronic device configured to: receive an input utterance, determine whether domain information and intent information are able to be extracted by analyzing the input utterance, based on at least one of the domain information and the intent information not extracted being, broadcast a signal requesting for previous utterance related information to one or more external devices connected to a same network; and
a second electronic device configured to: receive a signal requesting the previous utterance related information from the first electronic device, and transmit the previous utterance related information to the first electronic device,
wherein the first electronic device is configured to: receive the previous utterance related information from at least one external device including the second electronic device, extract the domain information and the intent information based on the received previous utterance related information and the input utterance, and obtain and output a response result based on the extracted domain information and intent information.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Oh Hyungrai
• RYU Jongyoub
• Ryu Seonghan
• Lee Eunji

Classifications

• G10L15/22 Primary

  Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue · CPC title

• G10L15/1815

  Semantic context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word meaning · CPC title

• G10L2015/223

  Execution procedure of a spoken command · CPC title

• G10L2015/228

  of application context · CPC title

• G10L15/1822

  Parsing for meaning understanding · CPC title