IP Library Granted Patent US 10,714,096
Granted Patent B2
US 10,714,096 · App. 15/981,376 · Granted Jul 14, 2020

Determining hotword suitability

Inventors: Andrew Rubin (Portola Valley, CA); Johan Schalkwyk (Scarsdale, NY); Maria Carolina Parada San Martin (Palo Alto, CA)
Assignee: Google LLC
G10L17/24G06F21/32G06F21/46G10L15/06G10L15/08G10L15/22G10L25/51G10L2015/0638G10L2015/088G10L2015/225
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,714,096
App. No.
15/981,376
Granted
Jul 14, 2020
Kind
B2
Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining hotword suitability. In one aspect, a method includes receiving speech data that encodes a candidate hotword spoken by a user, evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the candidate hotword, using one or more predetermined criteria, generating a hotword suitability score for the candidate hotword based on evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the candidate hotword, using one or more predetermined criteria, and providing a representation of the hotword suitability score for display to the user.

Claims (53)

1. A method performed by one or more computing devices:

receiving, by the one or more computing devices, speech data that encodes an utterance of a candidate hotword by a user, the candidate hotword comprising a word or phrase;

evaluating, by the one or more computing devices, the speech data or a transcription of the speech data using one or more hotword suitability criteria;

determining, by the one or more computing devices and based on the evaluation, that the candidate hotword satisfies the one or more hotword suitability criteria; and

in response to determining that the candidate hotword satisfies the one or more hotword suitability criteria, accepting the candidate hotword as a hotword for at least one computing device associated with the user and configuring the at least one computing device to enter a state to receive voice commands in response to utterances of the hotword.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the speech data comprises determining a hotword suitability score for the candidate hotword; and

wherein determining that the candidate hotword satisfies the one or more hotword suitability criteria comprises determining that the hotword suitability score satisfies a predetermined threshold.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein determining a hotword suitability score for the candidate hotword comprises:

generating a feature score for the speech data or of a transcription of the speech data, for each of two or more predetermined criteria;

aggregating the feature scores; and

generating a hotword suitability score based on the aggregated feature scores.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the speech data comprises evaluating a length of the speech data representing the utterance of the candidate hotword.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the speech data comprises evaluating a quantity of syllables or phones in a representation of the candidate hotword.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the speech data comprises evaluating an edit distance between the transcription of the candidate hotword and one or more other words that share a same language as the candidate hotword.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the speech data comprises evaluating a quantity of pronunciations specified for the candidate hotword.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the speech data comprises determining that one or more particular linguistic units occur in the transcription of the speech data.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the speech data comprises evaluating an extent to which pronunciation of the candidate hotword varies among multiple utterances of the candidate hotword by the user.

10. A system comprising:

one or more computing devices; and

one or more computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by the one or more computing devices, speech data that encodes an utterance of a candidate hotword by a user, the candidate hotword comprising a word or phrase;

evaluating, by the one or more computing devices, the speech data or a transcription of the speech data using one or more hotword suitability criteria;

determining, by the one or more computing devices and based on the evaluation, that the candidate hotword satisfies the one or more hotword suitability criteria; and

in response to determining that the candidate hotword satisfies the one or more hotword suitability criteria, accepting the candidate hotword as a hotword for at least one computing device associated with the user and configuring the at least one computing device to enter a state to receive voice commands in response to utterances of the hotword.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the speech data comprises determining a hotword suitability score for the candidate hotword; and

wherein determining that the candidate hotword satisfies the one or more hotword suitability criteria comprises determining that the hotword suitability score satisfies a predetermined threshold.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein determining a hotword suitability score for the candidate hotword comprises:

generating a feature score for the speech data or of a transcription of the speech data, for each of two or more predetermined criteria;

aggregating the feature scores; and

generating a hotword suitability score based on the aggregated feature scores.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the speech data comprises evaluating a length of the speech data representing the utterance of the candidate hotword.

14. A method performed by one or more computing devices:

receiving, by the one or more computing devices, speech data that encodes an utterance of a candidate hotword by a user, the candidate hotword comprising a word or phrase;

evaluating, by the one or more computing devices, the speech data or a transcription of the speech data using one or more hotword suitability criteria;

determining, by the one or more computing devices and based on the evaluation, that the candidate hotword does not satisfy the one or more hotword suitability criteria; and

in response to determining that the candidate hotword does not satisfy the one or more hotword suitability criteria, providing, for output by a computing device associated with the user, an indication that the candidate hotword is not accepted as a custom hotword.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the speech data comprises determining a hotword suitability score for the candidate hotword; and

wherein determining that the candidate hotword does not satisfy the one or more hotword suitability criteria comprises determining that the hotword suitability score does not satisfy a predetermined threshold.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein determining a hotword suitability score for the candidate hotword comprises:

generating a feature score for the speech data or of a transcription of the speech data, for each of two or more predetermined criteria;

aggregating the feature scores; and

generating a hotword suitability score based on the aggregated feature scores.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the speech data comprises evaluating a length of the speech data representing the utterance of the candidate hotword.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the speech data comprises evaluating a quantity of syllables or phones in a representation of the candidate hotword.

19. The method of claim 14 , wherein evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the speech data comprises evaluating an edit distance between the transcription of the candidate hotword and one or more other words that share a same language as the candidate hotword.

20. The method of claim 14 , wherein evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the speech data comprises evaluating a quantity of pronunciations specified for the candidate hotword.

21. A system comprising:

one or more computing devices; and

one or more computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by the one or more computing devices, speech data that encodes an utterance of a candidate hotword by a user, the candidate hotword comprising a word or phrase;

evaluating, by the one or more computing devices, the speech data or a transcription of the speech data using one or more hotword suitability criteria;

determining, by the one or more computing devices and based on the evaluation, that the candidate hotword does not satisfy the one or more hotword suitability criteria; and

in response to determining that the candidate hotword does not satisfy the one or more hotword suitability criteria, providing, for output by a computing device associated with the user, an indication that the candidate hotword is not accepted as a custom hotword.

Assignments (2)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded May 16, 2018
From: RUBIN, ANDREW E.; SCHALKWYK, JOHAN; SAN MARTIN, MARIA CAROLINA PARADA
To: GOOGLE INC.
Reel/Frame 045823/0423 →
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded May 16, 2018
From: GOOGLE INC.
To: GOOGLE LLC
Reel/Frame 046172/0803 →
Continuity (4)
Continuation 15002044 · Jan 20, 2016
Continuation 13567572 · Aug 6, 2012
Provisional Application 61667817 · Jul 3, 2012
Related Publication 20180336906A1 · Nov 22, 2018