Method for phonetizing a data list and voice-controlled user interface

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9405742-B2
Application number	US-201314378879-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 11, 2013
Priority date	Feb 16, 2012
Publication date	Aug 2, 2016
Grant date	Aug 2, 2016

Abstract

A method for phonetizing a data list having text-containing list entries, each list entry in the data list being subdivided into at least two data fields for provision to a voice-controlled user interface, includes: converting a list entry from a text representation into phonetics; storing the phonetics as phonemes in a phonetized data list; inserting a separating character into the text of a list entry between the respective data fields of the list entry, concomitantly converting the inserted separating character into phonetics and concomitantly storing the converted separating character as a phoneme symbol; and storing the phonemes in a phonetic database, the phonetized data list being produced from the phonemes stored in the phonetic database.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method on a voice-controlled user interface ( 1 ) having a voice recognizer ( 5 ), a data interface ( 3 ), and a computing unit ( 4 ) configured to control the voice recognizer ( 5 ) and the data interface ( 3 ), the method comprising:
the data interface ( 3 ) receiving a data list ( 2 ) having text-containing list entries by transmission from a storage device, each list entry in the received data list ( 2 ) having been subdivided into at least two sortable data fields;
the computing unit al converting a received list entry from a text representation into phonetics;
the computing unit ( 4 ) storing the phonetics as phonemes in a phonetized data list ( 6 );
the computing unit ( 4 ) inserting a separating character into the text of a list entry between the respective sortable data fields of the list entry, concomitantly converting the inserted separating character into phonetics and concomitantly storing the converted separating character as a phoneme symbol;
the computing unit ( 4 ) assigning a respectively different separating character to each sortable data field of a list entry, concomitantly converting the assigned separating character into phonetics, and concomitantly storing in a phonetic database ( 7 ) the converted assigned separating character as a respectively different phoneme symbol along with the position of the phoneme symbol;
the computing unit ( 4 ) storing the phonemes in the phonetic database ( 7 ), the phonetized data list ( 6 ) being produced from the phonemes stored in the phonetic database ( 7 );
resorting the list entries with respect to a selected one of the at least two sortable data fields based on identifying a separating character, where the resorting results in reorganizing the phonemes stored in the phonetic database ( 7 ) with the phoneme symbol symbolizing the separating character associated with the selected one of the at least two sortable data fields and storing them as a new phonetized data list replacing the phonetized data list;
receiving at the voice recognizer ( 5 ) a voice command from a user, wherein the voice command comprises a name of a person;
recognizing the voice command based on the new phonetized data list; and
controlling the user interface based on the recognized voice command by dialing a telephone number associated with the name of the person.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the storage position of the phoneme symbol corresponding to the separating character converted into phonetics is determined in the phonemes corresponding to a list entry and the storage contents before and after the determined storage position are interchanged.

3. A voice-controlled user interface having a voice recognition system ( 5 ), a data interface ( 3 ) for connecting a data list ( 2 ) having text-containing list entries, and a computing unit configured to control the voice-controlled user interface ( 1 ), wherein the voice-controlled user interface is configured to carry out the method as claimed in claim 1 .

4. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing program code that, when executed, controls a voice-controlled user interface ( 1 ) to carry out the method as claimed in claim 1 .

Assignees

• Walther Jens
• Continental Automotive Gmbh

Inventors

• Walther Jens

Classifications

• G06F40/205 Primary

  Parsing · CPC title

• G10L2015/228

  of application context · CPC title

• G10L15/187

  Phonemic context, e.g. pronunciation rules, phonotactical constraints or phoneme n-grams · CPC title

• G10L13/08 Primary

  Text analysis or generation of parameters for speech synthesis out of text, e.g. grapheme to phoneme translation, prosody generation or stress or intonation determination · CPC title

• G06F16/30

  of unstructured textual data (document management systems G06F16/93) · CPC title