IP Library Granted Patent US 8,600,757
Granted Patent B2
US 8,600,757 · App. 13/690,825 · Granted Dec 3, 2013

System and method of dynamically modifying a spoken dialog system to reduce hardware requirements

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 8,600,757
App. No.
13/690,825
Granted
Dec 3, 2013
Kind
B2
Abstract

A system and method for providing a scalable spoken dialog system are disclosed. The method comprises receiving information which may be internal to the system or external to the system and dynamically modifying at least one module within a spoken dialog system according to the received information. The modules may be one or more of an automatic speech recognition, natural language understanding, dialog management and text-to-speech module or engine. Dynamically modifying the module may improve hardware performance or improve a specific caller's speech processing accuracy, for example. The modification of the modules or hardware may also be based on an application or a task, or based on a current portion of a dialog.

Claims (31)

1. A method comprising:

receiving a time of day associated with a time limited special offer;

determining, via a processor, a call volume for a spoken dialog system based on the time limited special offer; and

modifying, via the processor, a dialog manager within the spoken dialog system from a first dialog mode to a second dialog mode based on the call volume.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the modifying of the dialog manager from the first dialog mode to the second dialog mode results in a change of computational intensity for the spoken dialog system.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the change of computational intensity occurs when a compute load level surpasses a predetermined threshold.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising modifying one of an automatic speech recognition module, a natural language understanding module, and a text-to-speech module based on the call volume.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the call volume is projected.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the modifying of the dialog manager occurs on a call-by-call basis.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the modifying of the dialog manager is further based on received information about a particular caller.

8. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving a time of day associated with a time limited special offer;

determining a call volume for a spoken dialog system based on the time limited special offer; and

modifying a dialog manager within the spoken dialog system from a first dialog mode to a second dialog mode based on the call volume.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the modifying of the dialog manager from the first dialog mode to the second dialog mode results in a change of computational intensity for the spoken dialog system.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the change of computational intensity occurs when a compute load level surpasses a predetermined threshold.

11. The system of claim 8 , the computer-readable storage medium having additional instructions stored which result in the operations further comprising modifying one of an automatic speech recognition module, a natural language understanding module, and a text-to-speech module based on the call volume.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the call volume is projected.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the modifying of the dialog manager occurs on a call-by-call basis.

14. The system of claim 8 , wherein the modifying of the dialog manager is further based on received information about a particular caller.

15. A computer-readable storage device having instructions stored which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving a time of day associated with a time limited special offer;

determining a call volume for a spoken dialog system based on the time limited special offer; and

modifying a dialog manager within the spoken dialog system from a first dialog mode to a second dialog mode based on the call volume.

16. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15 , wherein the modifying of the dialog manager from the first dialog mode to the second dialog mode results in a change of computational intensity for the spoken dialog system.

17. The computer-readable storage device of claim 16 , wherein the change of computational intensity occurs when a compute load level surpasses a predetermined threshold.

18. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15 , the computer-readable storage device having additional instructions stored which result in the operations further comprising modifying one of an automatic speech recognition module, a natural language understanding module, and a text-to-speech module based on the call volume.

19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15 , wherein the call volume is projected.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15 , wherein the modifying of the dialog manager occurs on a call-by-call basis.

Assignments (5)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Nov 14, 2023
From: NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
To: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
Reel/Frame 065578/0676 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jan 26, 2017
From: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY II, L.P.
To: NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
Reel/Frame 041512/0608 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Mar 28, 2016
From: AT&T CORP.
To: AT&T PROPERTIES, LLC
Reel/Frame 038275/0238 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Mar 28, 2016
From: AT&T PROPERTIES, LLC
To: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY II, L.P.
Reel/Frame 038275/0310 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Nov 30, 2012
From: RAHIM, MAZIN G.; SCHROETER, JUERGEN
To: AT&T CORP.
Reel/Frame 029386/0710 →