Biometric and speech recognition system and method

1 . A remote control device comprising:

a non-voice based biometric detector to detect a biometric signature;

a microphone to receive spoken commands; and

a processor and a memory device accessible to the processor, wherein the memory device includes:

a user recognition module executable by the processor to associate the biometric signature with user data; and

a speech recognition engine executable by the processor to recognize the spoken commands in accordance with the user data associated with the biometric signature.

2 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the user data comprises a history of transactions associated with the biometric signature.

3 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the user data comprises speech recognition data associated with the biometric signature.

4 . The device of claim 1 , further comprising a button proximate the biometric detector to detect the biometric signature concurrently with actuation of the button, and wherein the microphone is responsive to actuation of the button.

5 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the speech recognition engine comprises an automatic speech recognition engine.

6 . The device of claim 5 , wherein the speech recognition engine further comprises a portion of a distributed speech recognition engine.

7 . A remote control device comprising:

a microphone to receive spoken commands;

a button coupled to the microphone to enable the microphone in response to a user actuation of the button; and

a non-voice based biometric detector located proximate the button to detect a biometric signature of a user concurrently with the actuation of the button.

8 . The device of claim 7 , wherein the button is a biased push button.

9 . The device of claim 8 , further comprising a processor and a memory device accessible to the processor, wherein the memory device includes:

a user recognition module executable by the processor to associate the biometric signature with user data; and

a speech recognition engine executable by the processor to recognize spoken commands in accordance with the user profile data associated with the biometric signature.

10 . The device of claim 9 , wherein the user profile includes biometric data, transaction data, and speech recognition data.

11 . A speech recognition method comprising:

detecting by a remote control device a non-voice based biometric signature;

associating user data stored in a memory of the remote control device with the biometric signature;

receiving a spoken command from a user of the remote control device; and

recognizing the spoken command using a speech recognition engine executed by the remote control device, the speech recognition engine operating in accordance with the user data.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the spoken command is received concurrently with receiving a user input.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the user input is actuation of a button, and wherein the biometric signature is detected concurrently with receiving the user input.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the biometric detector is a fingerprint detector located proximate the button to detect a fingerprint in contact with the button.

15 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising transmitting data associated with the spoken command and the user data to a distributed speech recognition engine in response to recognizing the spoken command at a confidence level below a first predetermined confidence level.

16 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising updating the user data in response to recognizing the spoken command at a confidence level above a second predetermined confidence level.

17 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising transmitting transaction summary data to a distributed speech recognition engine, the transaction summary data comprising user identification data, a transaction history associated with the user, and speech recognition data associated with the user.

18 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

comparing user data stored in the memory of the remote control device with the non-voice based biometric signature;

transmitting data corresponding to the non-voice based biometric signature to a remote network device in response to not locating in the memory of the remote control device user data associated with the biometric signature;

receiving user profile data associated with the non-voice based biometric signature; and

storing the received user profile data in the memory of the remote control device.

19 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

detecting by the remote control device a non-voice based second biometric signature;

associating by the remote control device second user data stored in the memory of the remote control device with the second biometric signature;

receiving by the remote control device a second spoken command from a second user of the remote control device; and

recognizing the second spoken command using the speech recognition engine executed by the remote control device, the speech recognition engine operating in accordance with the second user data.

20 . A speech recognition method comprising:

detecting, by a remote control device, a user pressing a button;

concurrently with detecting the user pressing the button, detecting fingerprint data of a fingerprint of a finger pressing the button;

comparing user data stored in a memory of the remote control device with the fingerprint data;

in response to not finding user data in the memory of the remote control device associated with the fingerprint data, transmitting the fingerprint data to a remote network device;

receiving from the remote network device user profile data associated with the fingerprint data;

receiving by the remote control device a spoken command while the button is pressed; and

recognizing the spoken command using a speech recognition engine executed by the remote control device, the speech recognition engine operating in accordance with the received user profile data.

21 . The method of claim 20 , further comprising transmitting data associated with the spoken command and the user profile data to the remote network device in response to recognizing the spoken command at a confidence level below a first predetermined confidence level.

22 . A set of processor instructions embedded in a processor-readable medium, the processor instructions comprising:

instructions to receive a non-voice based biometric signature;

instructions to associate user data with the non-voice based biometric signature;

instructions to receive a spoken command; and

instructions to recognize the spoken command using a speech recognition engine in accordance with the user data.

23 . A method for a set-top box, comprising:

receiving from a remote device data comprising user data and data associated with a spoken command;

sending the received data over a network interface to a network speech recognition engine;

receiving over the network interface an instruction corresponding to the spoken command; and

processing the instruction corresponding to the spoken command.

24 . The method of claim 23 , wherein the network interface includes an internet protocol network.

25 . A set of processor instructions embedded in a processor-readable medium, the processor instructions comprising:

instructions to receive from a remote device data comprising user data and data associated with a spoken command;

instructions to send the received data over a network interface to a network speech recognition server;

instructions to receive over the network interface an instruction corresponding to the spoken command; and

instructions to process the instruction corresponding to the spoken command.

26 . A user profile embedded in a processor-readable medium, comprising:

fingerprint data corresponding to a fingerprint scanner of a remote control;

speech recognition data corresponding to speech of the user received by the remote control; and

transaction history data corresponding to transactions of the user with the remote control.

27 . The user profile of claim 26 , wherein the transaction history data includes data corresponding to a spoken command recognized at a confidence level above a predetermined confidence level.

28 . The user profile of claim 26 , wherein the transaction history data includes data corresponding to a spoken command recognized by a first wireless device and further includes data corresponding to a spoken command recognized by a network speech engine.

29 . The user profile of claim 28 , wherein the first wireless device is the remote control, and wherein the transaction history data further includes data corresponding to a spoken command recognized by a second wireless device.

30 . The user profile of claim 26 , wherein the transaction history data comprises a command from a user associated with the user profile.

31 . The user profile of claim 27 , wherein the command is a spoken command recognized by the remote control.