Granted Patent B2

US 12,640,149 · App. 18/103,037 · Granted May 26, 2026

Inventors: Meik Pfeffinger (Ulm, DE); Timo Matheja (Neo-Ulm, DE); Tobias Herbig (Ulm, DE); Tim Haulick (Blaubeuren, DE)

Assignee: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY

G10L15/22G06F3/167G10L15/08G10L17/22G10L2015/088G10L2015/223

Abstract

Claims (42)

1 . A system for detecting at least one designated wake-up word for at least one speech-enabled application, the system comprising:

at least one computer hardware component configured to perform:

receiving an acoustic signal generated by at least one microphone at least in part as a result of receiving an utterance spoken by a speaker;

digitizing the acoustic signal to create a digitized acoustic signal;

sending the digitized acoustic signal to at least one computer hardware processor, the at least one computer hardware processor configured to perform:

obtaining information indicative of a speaker's identity by processing, at least in part, the digitized acoustic signal;

using the information indicative of the speaker's identity to determine whether the utterance spoken by the speaker includes at least one or more wake-up words associated with the speaker's identity;

in response to determining that the utterance spoken by the speaker includes the at least one designated wake-up word, interacting with the speaker, wherein the at least one designated wake-up word includes a first designated wake-up word for a first speech-enabled application of the at least one speech-enabled application, and wherein the first designated wake-up word is specific to the speaker such that no other speaker can use the first designated wake-up word to interact with the at least one speech-enabled application.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein interacting with the speaker comprises allowing the speaker to control the at least one speech-enabled application.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one computer hardware processor is programmed to use the information indicative of the speaker's identity to determine whether the speaker is authorized to control the at least one speech-enabled application, and to allow the speaker to control the at least one speech-enabled application if it is determined that the speaker is authorized to control the at least one speech-enabled application, and not allow the speaker to control the at least one speech-enabled application if it is determined that the speaker is not authorized to control the at least one speech-enabled application.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the speaker's identity comprises:

obtaining speech characteristics from the digitized acoustic signal;

comparing the obtained speech characteristics against stored speech characteristics for each of multiple speakers registered with the system.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the utterance spoken by the speaker includes the at least one designated wake-up word comprises:

using automated speech recognition to determine whether the utterance spoken by the speaker includes a wake-up word in the one or more wake-up words, wherein the automated speech recognition is performed using the one or more wake-up words associated with the speaker identity.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein obtaining information indicative of the speaker's identity comprises determining a position of the speaker in an environment.

7 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the at least one computer hardware processor is configured to determine, using the position of the speaker in the environment, whether the speaker is authorized to control the at least one speech-enabled application, and to allow the speaker to control the at least one speech-enabled application if it is determined that the speaker is authorized to control the at least one speech-enabled application, and not allow the speaker to control the at least one speech-enabled application if it is determined that the speaker is not authorized to control the at least one speech-enabled application.

8 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the at least one computer hardware processor is configured to determine the position of the speaker inside a vehicle based, at least in part, on information gathered by at least one sensor in the vehicle.

9 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the at least one computer hardware processor receives digitized acoustic signals from a plurality of microphones, and wherein the position of the speaker is determined using the digitized acoustic signals received from the plurality of microphones.

10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one microphone comprises a plurality of microphones installed in a respective plurality of acoustic zones inside of a vehicle, wherein each of the plurality of acoustic zones comprises a seating area for a passenger in the vehicle.

11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein interacting with the speaker comprises inferring, based at least in part on the information indicative of the speaker's identity, at least one action to take when interacting with the speaker.

12 . The system of claim 1 , wherein obtaining information indicative of the speaker's identity comprises obtaining the speaker's identity; and

wherein determining whether the utterance spoken by the speaker includes the at least one designated wake-up word comprises:

accessing a list of wake-up words associated with the speaker's identity; and

determining whether the utterance includes any wake-up word in the list of wake-up words associated with the speaker's identity.

13 . The system of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the utterance spoken by the speaker includes the at least one designated wake-up word comprises:

compensating for interference received by the at least one microphone by using the information associated with the speaker's identity.

14 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one computer hardware processor is further configured to store the information about the speaker's identity in at least one data store.

15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the at least one data store comprises a plurality of data records including a first data record, the first data record comprising information selected from the group consisting of an identity of a particular speaker, a position of the particular speaker in an environment, a list of one or more wake-up words associated with the particular speaker, a list of one or more speech-enabled applications that the particular speaker is allowed to control, a list of one or more speech-enabled applications that the particular speaker is not allowed to control, and information obtained from one or more sensors.

16 . A method for detecting at least one designated wake-up word for at least one speech-enabled application, the method comprising:

receiving a digitized acoustic signal generated by a computer hardware component based on an utterance spoken by a speaker and received at at least one microphone;

obtaining information indicative of the speaker's identity;

using the information indicative of the speaker's identity to determine whether the utterance spoken by the speaker includes the at least one designated wake-up word associated with the speaker's identity; and

in response to determining that the utterance spoken by the speaker includes the at least one designated wake-up word, interacting with the speaker.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein obtaining information indicative of the speaker's identity comprises determining a position of the speaker in an environment.

18 . At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one computer hardware processor, cause the at least one computer hardware processor to perform a method for detecting at least one designated wake-up word for at least one speech- enabled application, the method comprising:

receiving a digitized acoustic signal generated by at least one microphone at least in part as a result of receiving an utterance spoken by a speaker and processed to generate the digitized acoustic signal;

obtaining information indicative of the speaker's identity;

using the information indicative of the speaker's identity to determine whether the utterance spoken by the speaker includes the at least one designated wake-up word associated with the speaker's identity; and

in response to determining that the utterance spoken by the speaker includes the at least one designated wake-up word, interacting with the speaker.

19 . The medium of claim 18 , wherein method is further configured to store the information about the speaker's identity in at least one data store.

20 . The medium of claim 19 , wherein the at least one data store comprises a plurality of data records including a first data record, the first data record comprising information selected from the group consisting of an identity of a particular speaker, a position of the particular speaker in an environment, a list of one or more wake-up words associated with the particular speaker, a list of one or more speech-enabled applications that the particular speaker is allowed to control, a list of one or more speech-enabled applications that the particular speaker is not allowed to control, and information obtained from one or more sensors.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (123)