Systems and methods for off-board voice-automated vehicle navigation

1. A method of providing navigational information to a vehicle occupant comprising:

processing destination information spoken by a vehicle occupant with an on-board processing system on a vehicle;

transmitting the processed voice information via a wireless link to a remote data center;

analyzing the processed voice information with a computerized voice recognition system at the remote data center to recognize components of the destination information spoken by the vehicle occupant;

computer-generating at the remote data center a list of hypothetical recognized components of the destination information listed by confidence levels as computer-calculated for each component of the destination information analyzed by the voice recognition system;

computer-generating a display of the computer-generated list of hypothetical recognized components and confidence levels at the remote data center for selective checking by a human data center operator;

selecting a set of hypothetical components based on the confidence levels in the list;

confirming the accuracy of the selected set of hypothetical recognized components of the destination information via computer-generated interactive exchanges between the vehicle occupant and the remote data center; and

determining a destination from confirmed components of the destination information.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of confirming the accuracy of the hypothetical recognized components of the destination information comprises:

transmitting a computer-generated representation of at least one hypothetical recognized component of the destination information to the vehicle occupant via the wireless link; and

prompting the vehicle occupant via the wireless link to aurally confirm the accuracy of the component of the destination information.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the step of confirming the accuracy of the hypothetical recognized components of the desired destination comprises:

determining if a confidence level of hypothetical recognized component is above a selected threshold; and

computer generating a representation of the hypothetical recognized component for transmission to the vehicle occupant when the confidence level is above the selected threshold.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of confirming the accuracy of the hypothetical recognized components of the destination information comprises:

transmitting at least one recorded hypothetical recognized component of the destination information spoken by the vehicle occupant to the vehicle occupant via the wireless link; and

prompting the vehicle occupant via the wireless link to aurally confirm the accuracy of the hypothetical recognized component of the voice destination information.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of confirming the accuracy of the hypothetical recognized components of the desired destination via interactive voice exchanges comprises transmitting aural representations of hypothetical recognized components of the destination information to the vehicle occupant, the hypothetical recognized components of the destination information being selected from the group consisting of aural representations of the destination address number, street name, city, state, and point of interest.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of determining the destination from the confirmed components comprises providing human data center operator assistance using the developed list of hypothetical recognized components and confidence levels to recognize the desired destination.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the step of providing human data center operator assistance comprises:

playing back recorded representations of the destination information spoken by the vehicle occupant to the data center operator for analysis by the data center operator; and

receiving information from the data center operator identifying the destination.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the step of receiving information from the data center operator comprises entering a choice from the displayed list of hypothetical components from the data center operator.

9. A system for providing navigational information to a vehicle occupant, comprising:

an on-board system disposed on a vehicle for processing and transmitting via a wireless link spoken requests from a vehicle occupant for navigational information to a selected destination; and

a data center processing the spoken requests for navigational information received via the wireless link and operates to:

perform automated voice recognition processing on the spoken requests for navigational information to recognize destination components of the spoken requests;

confirm the recognized destination components through interactive speech exchanges with the vehicle occupant via the wireless link and the on-board system;

selectively allow human operator intervention to assist in identifying the selected recognized destination components having a recognition confidence below a selected threshold value; and

download the desired destination for transmission to the on-board system derived from the confirmed destination components.

10. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the data center is further operates to download the navigational information in response to position information received from the on-board system via the wireless link.

11. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the data center further operates to:

generate a list of possible destination components corresponding to the spoken requests;

assign a confidence score for each of the possible destination components on the list;

determine if a possible destination component with a highest confidence score has a confidence score above a threshold; and

computer-generate an aural representation of the destination for transmission to the on-board system for confirmation by the vehicle occupant if the confidence score is above the threshold.

12. The system according to claim 9 , wherein a spoken request comprises location information selected from the group consisting of information identifying state, city, street name, and address number.

13. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the data center further operates to record the spoken requests as normalized audio wave fields for subsequent playback.

14. The system according to claim 9 , wherein a spoken request comprises a spoken request for point of interest information.

15. The system according to claim 14 , wherein the point of interest information includes information selected from the group consisting of names and categories.

16. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the data center further operates to:

determine that at least one destination component of the spoken request has a recognition confidence value below a threshold; and

playback a recording in the voice of the vehicle occupant of at least the component with the recognition confidence value below the threshold to the vehicle owner through the on-board system for confirmation.

17. The system according to claim 16 , wherein the data center further comprises a data center operator facility playing-back the destination components for assisting in identifying the desired destination.

18. The system according to claim 16 , wherein the data center further operates to present a list of possible destinations listed by confidence scores to the data center operator for selection as the desired destination.

19. The system according to claim 18 , wherein the data center further operates to allow the data center operator to vary the order of the possible destinations in the list.

20. A method of providing navigational information to a vehicle occupant comprising:

processing destination information spoken by a vehicle occupant with an on-board processing system on a vehicle;

transmitting the processed voice information via a wireless link to a remote data center;

analyzing the processed voice information with a computerized voice recognition system at the remote data center to recognize components of the destination information spoken by the vehicle occupant;

computer-generating at the remote data center a list of hypothetical recognized components of the destination information listed by confidence levels as computer-calculated for each component of the destination information analyzed by the voice recognition system;

computer-generating a display of the computer-generated list of hypothetical recognized components and confidence levels at the remote data center;

selecting a set of hypothetical components based on the confidence levels in the list;

confirming the accuracy of the selected set of hypothetical recognized components of the destination information via computer-generated interactive exchanges between the vehicle occupants and the remote data center; and

determining a destination from confirmed components of the destination information.