US 8,015,006 C1 (13,220th)
Systems and methods for processing natural language speech utterances with context-specific domain agents
Robert A. Kennewick, Seattle, WA (US); David Locke, Redmond, WA (US); Michael R. Kennewick, Sr., Bellevue, WA (US); Michael R. Kennewick, Jr., Bellevue, WA (US); Richard Kennewick, Woodinville, WA (US); and Tom Freeman, Mercer Island, WA (US)
Filed by Robert A. Kennewick, Seattle, WA (US); David Locke, Redmond, WA (US); Michael R. Kennewick, Sr., Bellevue, WA (US); Michael R. Kennewick, Jr., Bellevue, WA (US); Richard Kennewick, Woodinville, WA (US); and Tom Freeman, Mercer Island, WA (US)
Assigned to DIALECT, LLC, Longview, TX (US)
Reexamination Request No. 90/015,338, Jun. 23, 2025.
Reexamination Certificate for Patent 8,015,006, issued Sep. 6, 2011, Appl. No. 12/130,397, May 30, 2008.
Application 90/015,338 is a continuation of application No. 10/452,147, filed on Jun. 3, 2003, granted, now 7,398,209.
Claims priority of provisional application 60/384,388, filed on Jun. 3, 2002.
Ex Parte Reexamination Certificate issued on Mar. 31, 2026.
Int. Cl. G10L 15/18 (2013.01); G06F 17/27 (2006.01); G06F 17/30 (2006.01); G10L 15/22 (2006.01); G10L 17/00 (2013.01)
CPC G10L 15/1822 (2013.01) [G10L 15/22 (2013.01); G10L 2015/228 (2013.01); Y10S 707/99933 (2013.01)]
OG exemplary drawing
AS A RESULT OF REEXAMINATION, IT HAS BEEN DETERMINED THAT:
The patentability of claims 1-5 is confirmed.
Claims 6-11 were not reexamined.
1. A method for processing natural language speech utterances with context-specific domain agents, comprising:
receiving, at a speech unit coupled to a processing device, a natural language speech utterance that contains a request;
recognizing, at a speech recognition engine coupled to the processing device, one or more words or phrases contained in the utterance using information in one or more dictionary and phrase tables, wherein recognizing the one or more words or phrases contained in the utterance includes:
dynamically updating the information in the one or more dictionary and phrase tables based on a dynamic set of prior probabilities or fuzzy possibilities;
determining an identity associated with a user that spoke the utterance based on voice characteristics associated with the utterance; and
associating the one or more recognized words or phrases and a pronunciation associated with the one or more recognized words or phrases with the determined identity and the request contained in the utterance in response to the one or more recognized words or phrases satisfying a predetermined confidence level;
parsing, at a parser coupled to the processing device, the one or more recognized words or phrases to determine a meaning associated with the utterance and a context associated with the request contained in the utterance, wherein the one or more recognized words or phrases are further associated with the determined context in response to the one or more recognized words or phrases satisfying the predetermined confidence level;
formulating, at the parser, the request contained in the utterance in accordance with a grammar used by a domain agent associated with the determined context;
processing the formulated request with the domain agent associated with the determined context to generate a response to the utterance; and
presenting the generated response to the utterance via the speech unit.