{
  "patent_number": "US 10923111",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How Voice Assistants Distinguish Speakers After a Wakeword",
  "original_title": "Speech detection and speech recognition",
  "summary": "This patent describes a method for voice assistants to better understand who is speaking after a 'wakeword' by comparing voice characteristics to improve speech recognition accuracy, especially in multi-speaker environments.",
  "what_it_does": "This patent outlines a computer-implemented method for automatic speech recognition that focuses on distinguishing between speakers after a 'wakeword' is detected. First, the system receives audio data and processes it to identify a 'wakeword' spoken by a 'first speaker' (Claim 1). It then takes subsequent portions of audio and compares their characteristics to those of the original wakeword. For example, if a second person speaks, the system determines a 'first similarity data' between the wakeword and that second person's speech (Claim 1). It then calculates a 'first weight' based on this similarity. If the original speaker continues, the system determines 'second similarity data' between the wakeword and the original speaker's continued speech, calculating a 'second weight' that is greater than the first (Claim 1). By comparing these weighted similarity measures, the system determines that the speech from the original speaker is 'more likely' to have come from the person who spoke the wakeword. Finally, it processes the speech from the original speaker to convert it into text and execute a command (Claim 1).",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover speech recognition systems that do not rely on a 'wakeword' to initiate the process.",
    "Does not cover general speaker identification or diarization that is not specifically tied to processing subsequent speech after a wakeword.",
    "Does not cover methods that do not use similarity data and calculated weights to distinguish between speakers after the wakeword.",
    "Does not cover systems where the 'second weight' is not determined to be greater than the 'first weight' when comparing the original speaker's subsequent speech to another speaker's speech."
  ],
  "filed": "2019-03-28",
  "granted": "2021-02-16",
  "expires": "2039-03-28",
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "Amazon Technologies",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/amazon-technologies",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Yuzong Liu",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/yuzong-liu"
    },
    {
      "name": "I-Fan Chen",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/i-fan-chen"
    },
    {
      "name": "Xing Fan",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/xing-fan"
    },
    {
      "name": "Yiming Wang",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/yiming-wang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Bjorn Hoffmeister",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/bjorn-hoffmeister"
    },
    {
      "name": "Tongfei Chen",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/tongfei-chen"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 35,
  "tags": [
    "consumer_electronics",
    "software",
    "telecommunications",
    "ai_ml"
  ],
  "abstract": "A system configured to recognize text represented by speech may determine that a first portion of audio data corresponds to speech from a first speaker and that a second portion of audio data corresponds to speech from the first speaker and a second speaker. Features of the first portion are compared to features of the second portion to determine a similarity therebetween. Based on this similarity, speech from the first speaker is distinguished from speech from the second speaker and text corresponding to speech from the first speaker is determined.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/10923111/speech-detection-and-speech-recognition",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/10923111/speech-detection-and-speech-recognition/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US10923111",
  "relatedPatents": [
    {
      "patentNumber": "11514901",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "title": "How Voice Assistants Recognize Who is Talking",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/11514901/anchored-speech-detection-and-speech-recognition"
    },
    {
      "patentNumber": "12626703",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "title": "How Smart Speakers Recognize Who Is Talking",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/12626703/user-recognition-for-speech-processing-systems"
    },
    {
      "patentNumber": "11361763",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "title": "How Smart Speakers Know You're Talking to Them After a Command",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/11361763/detecting-system-directed-speech"
    },
    {
      "patentNumber": "10121471",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "title": "How Voice Assistants Know When You've Finished Talking",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/10121471/language-model-speech-endpointing"
    },
    {
      "patentNumber": "10847149",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "title": "How Voice Assistants Listen for More Commands Without a Wake Word",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/10847149/speech-based-attention-span-for-voice-user-interface"
    }
  ]
}