IP Library Granted Patent US 10,373,612
Granted Patent B2
US 10,373,612 · App. 15/196,228 · Granted Aug 6, 2019

Anchored speech detection and speech recognition

Inventors: Sree Hari Krishnan Parthasarathi (Seattle, WA); Bjorn Hoffmeister (Seattle, WA); Brian King (Seattle, WA); Roland Maas (Seattle, WA)
Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
G10L15/20G10L15/02G10L15/08G10L15/16G10L17/06G10L17/18G10L25/87G10L17/02G10L2015/088G10L2025/783
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,373,612
App. No.
15/196,228
Granted
Aug 6, 2019
Kind
B2
Abstract

A system configured to process speech commands may classify incoming audio as desired speech, undesired speech, or non-speech. Desired speech is speech that is from a same speaker as reference speech. The reference speech may be obtained from a configuration session or from a first portion of input speech that includes a wakeword. The reference speech may be encoded using a recurrent neural network (RNN) encoder to create a reference feature vector. The reference feature vector and incoming audio data may be processed by a trained neural network classifier to label the incoming audio data (for example, frame-by-frame) as to whether each frame is spoken by the same speaker as the reference speech. The labels may be passed to an automatic speech recognition (ASR) component which may allow the ASR component to focus its processing on the desired speech.

Claims (74)

1. A computer implemented method for identifying speech from a desired speaker for automatic speech recognition (ASR), the method comprising:

receiving audio data corresponding to speech, the audio data comprising a plurality of audio frames;

processing the plurality of audio frames to determine a first plurality of feature vectors corresponding to a first portion of the audio data and a second plurality of feature vectors corresponding to a second portion of the audio data;

determining that the first plurality of feature vectors corresponds to a wakeword;

processing the first plurality of feature vectors with a recurrent neural network encoder to determine a reference feature vector corresponding to speech from a desired speaker;

processing the second plurality of feature vectors, and the reference feature vector, using a neural-network classifier to determine a first score corresponding to a first feature vector in the second plurality, the first score corresponding to a likelihood that the first feature vector corresponds to audio spoken by the desired speaker;

determining that the score is above a threshold;

creating an indication that the first feature vector corresponds to speech from the desired speaker;

determining a first weight corresponding to the first feature vector based on the first feature vector corresponding to speech from the desired speaker; and

performing ASR using the first weight and the first feature vector.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:

processing at least a portion of the plurality of audio frames to determine a third plurality of feature vectors corresponding to the second portion;

processing the third plurality of feature vectors and the reference feature vector using the neural-network classifier to determine a second score corresponding to a second feature vector in the third plurality, the second score corresponding to a likelihood that the second feature vector corresponds to audio spoken by the desired speaker;

determining that the second score is below the threshold;

creating a second indication that the second feature vector corresponds to speech from a different speaker as the wakeword; and

determining a second weight corresponding to the second feature vector based on the second feature vector corresponding to speech from a different speaker as the wakeword, wherein the second weight is less than the first weight.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying a first pair of feature vectors corresponding to audio frames positioned prior to a first audio frame corresponding to the first feature vector;

identifying a second pair of feature vectors corresponding to audio frames positioned after the first audio frame,

wherein processing the second plurality of feature vectors and the reference feature vector using the neural-network classifier further comprises processing the first pair of feature vectors, the first feature vector, and the second pair of feature vectors to determine the first score.

4. A computer implemented method comprising:

receiving first audio data as part of a first interaction with a device, the first audio data corresponding to first speech from a first speaker;

determining, using the first audio data and a recurrent neural network, a reference feature vector:

receiving second audio data as part of a second interaction with the device;

determining, using the reference feature vector and a trained model, that a first portion of the second audio data corresponds to second speech from a second speaker;

determining, using the reference feature vector and the trained model, that a second portion of the second audio data corresponds to third speech from the first speaker; and

based at least in part on determining that the first portion of the second audio data corresponds to the second speaker, executing a command corresponding to the second portion of the second audio data.

5. A computer implemented method comprising:

receiving audio data as part of an interaction with a device;

determining that a first portion of the audio data represents a wakeword spoken by a first speaker;

based at least in part on determining that the first portion of the audio data represents the wakeword, processing the first portion of the audio data to determine a reference feature vector;

determining, using the reference feature vector and a trained model, that a second portion of the audio data represents speech of a second speaker;

determining, using the reference feature vector and the trained model, that a third portion of the audio data represents speech of the first speaker; and

based at least in part on determining that the second portion of the audio data represents the speech of the second speaker, executing a command corresponding to the third portion of the audio data.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , further comprising:

determining a first score corresponding to whether the reference feature vector corresponds to the third speech from the first speaker.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 6 , further comprising:

determining a first weight corresponding to the reference feature vector based on the first score; and

performing speech recognition using the first weight and the reference feature vector.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 7 , further comprising:

determining a second score corresponding to whether the reference feature vector corresponds to the second speech from the second speaker, wherein the second score is lower that the first score; and

determining a second weight corresponding to the second score, wherein the second weight is less than the first weight.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein the recurrent neural network is configured to input a plurality of feature vectors, and wherein determining the reference feature vector is based at least in part on each of the plurality of feature vectors.

10. A computing system comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing system to:

receive first audio data as part of a first interaction with a device, the first audio data corresponding to first speech from a first speaker;

determine, using the first audio data and a recurrent neural network, a reference feature vector;

receiving second audio data as part of a second interaction with the device;

determine, using the reference feature vector and a trained model, that a first portion of the first audio data corresponds to second speech from a second speaker;

determine, using the reference feature vector and the trained model, that a second portion of the second audio data corresponds to third speech from the first speaker; and

based at least in part on determining that the first portion of the second audio data corresponds to the second speaker, execute a command corresponding to the second portion of the second audio data.

11. A computing system comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:

receive audio data as part of an interaction with a device;

determine that a first portion of the audio data represents a wakeword spoken by a first speaker;

based at least in part on determining that the first portion of the audio data represents the wakeword, process the first portion of the audio data to determine a reference feature vector;

determine, using the reference feature vector and a trained model, that a second portion of the audio data represents speech of a second speaker;

determine, using the reference feature vector and the trained model, that a third portion of the audio data represents speech of the first speaker; and

based at least in part on determining that the second portion of the audio data represents the speech of the second speaker, execute a command corresponding to the third portion of the audio data.

12. The computing system of claim 10 , wherein the at least one memory further includes instructions that further configure the system to:

determine a first score corresponding to whether the reference feature vector corresponds to the third speech from the first speaker.

13. The computing system of claim 12 , wherein the at least one memory further includes instructions that further configure the system to:

determine a first weight corresponding to the reference feature vector based on the first score; and

perform speech recognition using the first weight and the reference feature vector.

14. The computing system of claim 13 , wherein the at least one memory further includes instructions that further configure the system to:

determine a second score corresponding to whether the reference feature vector corresponds to the second speech from the second speaker, wherein the second score is lower that the first score; and

determine a second weight corresponding to the second score, wherein the second weight is less than the first weight.

15. The computing system of claim 10 , wherein the recurrent neural network is configured to input a plurality of feature vectors, and wherein the determination of the reference feature vector is based at least in part on each of the plurality of the plurality of feature vectors.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 4 , further comprising:

determining that the first audio data corresponds to a wakeword.

17. The computing system of claim 10 , wherein the at least one memory further includes instructions that further configure the system to:

determine that the first audio data corresponds to a wakeword.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Aug 15, 2016
From: PARTHASARATHI, SREE HARI KRISHNAN; HOFFMEISTER, BJORN; KING, BRIAN; MAAS, ROLAND
To: AMAZON TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Reel/Frame 039435/0045 →
Continuity (2)
Provisional Application 62311082 · Mar 21, 2016
Related Publication 20170270919A1 · Sep 21, 2017
Cited By (6)
US 12,289,595 US 12,451,140 US 12,518,764 US 12,555,591 US 12,626,703 US 12,640,149