{
  "patent_number": "US 8612235",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How Speech Recognizers Use Expected Answers to Speed Up",
  "original_title": "Method and system for considering information about an expected response when performing speech recognition",
  "summary": "This patent describes how a speech recognition system can get faster and more accurate by first checking if what you said matches what it expects you to say, instead of listening for everything.",
  "what_it_does": "This patent describes a method for a speech recognition system to process user input more efficiently. During a conversation, or \"speech dialog,\" the system identifies a set of highly probable user responses, called the \"expected response,\" which is a smaller part of all possible answers (the \"grammar of possible responses\"). Instead of comparing the sounds it hears (the \"acoustic features\") to every single possible word, the system first compares these sounds *only* to the sound pattern (the \"model\") of the expected response (Claim 1). If this initial comparison yields a high enough \"confidence factor\" compared to an \"acceptance threshold,\" the system quickly accepts the expected response. If not, it can then proceed to compare the input to models for other possible responses (Claim 3). For example, if a voice assistant asks \"Yes or No?\" it would first check if the user's speech matches the models for \"yes\" or \"no\" before searching for other words.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Speech recognition systems that always compare input speech to all possible responses in a grammar simultaneously without prioritizing expected responses.",
    "Systems that do not have a pre-determined \"expected response\" known before the user speaks.",
    "Speech recognition that doesn't use a \"confidence factor\" and \"acceptance threshold\" for the expected response.",
    "Systems that do not perform an initial, direct comparison *only* to the expected response model before considering other options."
  ],
  "filed": "2012-06-08",
  "granted": "2013-12-17",
  "expires": "2032-06-08",
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "Vocollect",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/vocollect",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Amro El-Jaroudi",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/amro-el-jaroudi"
    },
    {
      "name": "Keith Braho",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/keith-braho"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 6,
  "tags": [
    "telecommunications",
    "software",
    "consumer_electronics",
    "ai_ml"
  ],
  "abstract": "A speech recognition system receives and analyzes speech input from a user in order to recognize and accept a response from the user. Under certain conditions, information about the response expected from the user may be available. In these situations, the available information about the expected response is used to modify the behavior of the speech recognition system by taking this information into account. The modified behavior of the speech recognition system according to the invention has several embodiments including: comparing the observed speech features to the models of the expected response separately from the usual hypothesis search in order to speed up the recognition system; modifying the usual hypothesis search to emphasize the expected response; updating and adapting the models when the recognized speech matches the expected response to improve the accuracy of the recognition system.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/8612235/method-and-system-for-considering-information-about-an-expected-response-when-pe",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/8612235/method-and-system-for-considering-information-about-an-expected-response-when-pe/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US8612235",
  "relatedPatents": []
}