Voice recognition device and display method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9639322-B2
Application number	US-201314648935-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 9, 2013
Priority date	Jan 9, 2013
Publication date	May 2, 2017
Grant date	May 2, 2017

Abstract

Because a voice recognition device in accordance with the present invention can adjust the output of a voice recognition result according to the priority of a display of the recognition result with respect to display information other than the voice recognition result at all times while recognizing an uttered voice, the voice recognition device prevents the acquisition of other information important for the user from being blocked due to the display of the recognition result, and improves the user's convenience.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A voice recognition device that recognizes a voice uttered by a user and displays an operation button to which a function corresponding to a recognition result is assigned, said voice recognition device comprising:
a voice acquirer to detect and acquire a voice uttered by said user;
a voice recognizer to refer to a voice recognition dictionary, recognize voice data acquired by said voice acquirer, and output a recognition result;
a display to display an operation button to which a function corresponding to the recognition result outputted by said voice recognizer is assigned;
a display controller to output a command for displaying the operation button to which the function corresponding to the recognition result outputted by said voice recognizer is assigned in a recognition result display area of said display;
a display priority calculator to calculate a display priority for said operation button corresponding to said recognition result, said display priority indicating a degree that said operation button should be displayed in preference to information other than said operation button in said recognition result display area, said display priority for said operation button corresponding to said recognition result being calculated to reflect whether display of said operation button would distract from other display information that would be important to the user; and
a recognition result output controller to increase a display frequency of said operation button with increase in the display priority calculated by said display priority calculator by decreasing an output frequency of said information other than said operation button,
wherein said voice recognition device is applied to a navigation device that displays a map on said display and provides route guidance for a moving object, and said display priority calculator calculates said display priority on a basis of a positional relationship between a traveling direction of said moving object displayed on said display and said recognition result display area, such that said display priority calculator decreases display priority for said operation button corresponding to said recognition result when the traveling direction of said moving object is aligned with said recognition result display area.

2. The voice recognition device according to claim 1 , wherein said voice recognizer refers to said voice recognition dictionary, recognizes the voice data acquired by said voice acquirer, and outputs the recognition result at all times, even if a voice recognition process start command is not provided by a user.

3. The voice recognition device according to claim 1 , wherein said voice recognizer outputs a recognition result having a likelihood greater than a likelihood of judgments, and said recognition result output controller increases the display frequency of said operation button with increase in the display priority calculated for said operation button by said display priority calculator by decreasing said likelihood of judgments of said voice recognizer.

4. The voice recognition device according to claim 1 , wherein said voice recognizer outputs a recognition result which said voice recognizer acquires by referring to one of a plurality of voice recognition dictionaries in which numbers of recognized words stored therein differ from one another, and performing recognition, and said recognition result output controller increases the display frequency of said operation button with increase in the display priority calculated for said operation button by said display priority calculator by switching the voice recognition dictionary which is referred to by said voice recognizer to a voice recognition dictionary in which a smaller number of recognized words are stored therein.

5. The voice recognition device according to claim 1 , wherein said voice recognition device includes:
a number-of-words-to-be-recognized determinator to decrease a number of words which are objects to be recognized in said voice recognizer with increase in the display priority calculated for said operation button by said display priority calculator; and
a recognized word candidate storage to store readings of words which are objects to be recognized in said voice recognizer, and wherein
said recognition result output controller increases the display frequency of said operation button with increase in said display priority for said operation button by acquiring words whose number of words is determined by said number-of-words-to-be-recognized determinator from said recognized word candidate storage, and generating said voice recognition dictionary by using said acquired words.

6. The voice recognition device according to claim 5 , wherein said recognized word candidate storage stores recognition ranks while bringing them into correspondence with the readings of said words, respectively, and said recognition result output controller acquires the readings of said words from said recognized word candidate storage on a basis of said recognition ranks.

7. The voice recognition device according to claim 5 , wherein said recognized word candidate storage stores numbers of times of recognition while bringing them into correspondence with the readings of said words, respectively, and wherein said voice recognition device further includes a number-of-times-of-recognition setter to search through said recognized word candidate storage by using, as a search key, the recognition result outputted by said voice recognizer, and increase a number of times of recognition corresponding to a reading of a word matching the search key, and said recognition result output controller acquires the readings of said words from said recognized word candidate storage on a basis of said number of times of recognition.

8. The voice recognition device according to claim 1 , wherein said recognition result output controller stops and restarts the recognition process performed by said voice recognizer on a basis of the display priority calculated by said display priority calculator.

9. The voice recognition device according to claim 1 , wherein said display priority calculator calculates said display priority on a basis of a display state of traffic information on said map in said recognition result display area.

10. The voice recognition device according to claim 1 , wherein said display priority calculator calculates said display priority on a basis of a display state of icons on said map in said recognition result display area.

11. The voice recognition device according to claim 10 , wherein when said icons are displayed in said recognition result display area, said display priority calculator raises said display priority to a higher value than that when said icons are not displayed.

12. The voice recognition device according to claim 10 , wherein said display priority calculator calculates said display priority in such a way that a number of said icons displayed in said recognition result display area and said display priority have a positive correlation between them.

13. The voice recognition device according to claim 1 , wherein said display priority calculator calculates said display priority on a basis of a type of a road along which said moving object is traveling.

14. The voice recognition device according to claim 1 , wherein said display priority calculator calculates said display priority on a basis of a type of an area in which said moving object is traveling.

15. The voice recognition device according to claim 1 , wherein said display priority calculator calculates said display priority on a basis o

Assignees

• Osawa Masanobu
• Furumoto Yuki
• Mitsubishi Electric Corp

Inventors

• Osawa Masanobu
• Furumoto Yuki

Classifications

• G06F3/167 Primary

  Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback · CPC title

• G06F3/04817

  using icons (graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34) · CPC title

• G08G1/0967

  Systems involving transmission of highway information, e.g. weather, speed limits (transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968) · CPC title

• G01C21/265

  constructional aspects of navigation devices, e.g. housings, mountings, displays (G01C21/3688 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G10L15/22

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