Voice interactive service system and method for providing different speech-based services

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9350860-B2
Application number	US-201414509829-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 8, 2014
Priority date	Aug 26, 2009
Publication date	May 24, 2016
Grant date	May 24, 2016

Abstract

Systems and method are provided for rendering different speech-based services to a plurality of users. A service-providing system may be accessed via a plurality of connectivity ports. Each of the connectivity ports may be associated with at least one of a plurality of different speech-related services. The connectivity ports may be associated with the different speech-related services may be performed before receiving user service requests. The service-providing system may comprise a plurality of processing components, each of which may be configurable to provide one or more of a plurality of different speech-related services. The service-providing system may further comprise a connection component, which may be operable to establish a connection between the respective connectivity port and a processing component having a configuration of suitable for performing a service requested through the respective connectivity port.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a plurality of processing components;
a connection component for coupling the plurality of processing components to a plurality of connectivity ports; and
wherein:
each of the plurality of connectivity ports is associated with at least one of a plurality of different speech-related services;
associating the plurality of connectivity ports with the plurality of different speech-related services is performed before receiving user service requests from a plurality of users;
each of the plurality of processing components is configurable for performing at least one of the plurality of different speech-related services; and
when providing a specific one of the plurality of different speech-related services that is requested by one of the plurality of users through a respective one of the plurality of connectivity ports, the connection component is operable to couple the respective one of the plurality of connectivity ports to a selected one of the plurality of processing components based on the selected one of the plurality of processing components being configurable for performing the specific one of the plurality of different speech-related services.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein configuring each processing component of the plurality of processing components for performing a particular speech-related service is based on use of one or more speech processing resources.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the one or more speech processing resources are stored permanently in memory associated with the respective processing component.

4. The system of claim 2 , wherein the one or more speech processing resources comprise at least one of a service-specific set of speech processing resources and a port-specific set of speech processing resources.

5. The system of claim 2 , wherein the one or more speech processing resources comprise at least one of speech recognition resources, language-specific speech recognition resources, speech synthesis resources, language-specific speech synthesis resources, and dialogue control resources.

6. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a data storing component operable to store user-specific speech processing parameters.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the user-specific speech processing parameters comprise at least one of a voice model, a vocabulary, terminal characteristics, dialogue experience, service history, and synthetic voice preferences.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the processing parameters associated with the one of the plurality of users requesting the specific one of the plurality of different speech-related services are used for a personalized configuration of one or more speech processing resources for one of the plurality of processing components.

9. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a personalization component that is operable to load into a memory associated with the selected one of the plurality of processing components, processing parameters associated with the one of the plurality of users requesting the specific one of the plurality of different speech-related services.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of processing components are in each case a component of a multi-component processor; and the plurality of processing components located on the same multi-component processor have the same configuration of speech processing resources.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the connection component comprises at least one of:
fixed connections linking in each case a specific connectivity port to a processing component associated with the specific connectivity port,
fixed connections linking in each case a connectivity port associated with a specific speech-related service to a processing component configurable for performing the specific speech-related service, and
a matrix switch interconnecting the plurality of the connectivity ports to the plurality of processing components.

12. A method comprising:
receiving by a service system, via one of a plurality of connectivity ports, a service request from one of a plurality of users for a specific one of the plurality of different speech-related services; wherein:
each of the plurality of connectivity ports is associated with at least one of the plurality of different speech-related services;
associating the plurality of connectivity ports with the plurality of different speech-related services is performed before receiving user service requests from a plurality of users;

selecting in the service system, one of a plurality of processing components of the service system, wherein:
each of the plurality of processing components is configurable for performing at least one of the plurality of different speech-related services; and
the one of the plurality of processing components is selected based on being configurable for performing the specific one of the plurality of different speech-related services; and

coupling the selected one of the plurality of processing components to the respective one of the plurality of connectivity ports; and
providing the specific one of the plurality of different speech-related services that is requested by the one of the plurality of users, using the selected one of the plurality of processing components.

13. The method of claim 12 , comprising configuring each processing component of the plurality of processing components for performing a particular speech-related service is based on use of one or more speech processing resources.

14. The method of claim 13 , comprising permanently storing the one or more speech processing resources in memory associated with a respective processing component.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the one or more speech processing resources comprise at least one of a service-specific set of speech processing resources and a port-specific set of speech processing resources.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the one or more speech processing resources comprise at least one of speech recognition resources, language-specific speech recognition resources, speech synthesis resources, language-specific speech synthesis resources, and dialogue control resources.

17. The method of claim 12 , comprising storing user-specific speech processing parameters.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the user-specific speech processing parameters comprise at least one of a voice model, a vocabulary, terminal characteristics, dialogue experience, service history, and synthetic voice preferences.

19. The method of claim 12 , comprising loading into a memory associated with the selected one of the plurality of processing components, processing parameters associated with the one of the plurality of users requesting the specific one of the plurality of different speech-related services.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the processing parameters associated with the one of the plurality of users requesting the specific one of the plurality of different speech-related services are used for a personalized configuration of one or more speech processing resources for one of the plurality of processing components.

Assignees

• Swisscom Ag

Inventors

• Lagadec Roger
• Estermann Patrik
• Butera Luciano

Classifications

• G10L13/047 Primary

  Architecture of speech synthesisers · CPC title

• H04M3/4936 Primary

  Speech interaction details (speech recognition per se G10L15/00) · CPC title

• G10L15/32

  Multiple recognisers used in sequence or in parallel; Score combination systems therefor, e.g. voting systems · CPC title