Patents Examined by Farzad Kazeminezhad
  • Patent number: 11238873
    Abstract: An apparatus for level estimation of an encoded audio signal is provided. The apparatus has a codebook determinator for determining a codebook from a plurality of codebooks as an identified codebook. The audio signal has been encoded by employing the identified codebook. Moreover, the apparatus has an estimation unit configured for deriving a level value associated with the identified codebook as a derived level value and for estimating a level estimate of the audio signal using the derived level value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2022
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
    Inventors: Ralf Geiger, Markus Schnell, Manfred Lutzky, Marco Diatschuk
  • Patent number: 11232810
    Abstract: A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a program that causes a computer to execute a process for evaluating a voice, the process includes analyzing a voice signal to detect a pitch frequency; selecting an evaluation target region to be evaluated in the detected pitch frequency based on a distribution of a detection rate of the detected pitch frequency; and evaluating a voice based on the distribution of the detection rate and the selected evaluation target region. An Impression of the voice using a correction to the distribution is evaluated and determined as good when a spread of the corrected distribution is larger than or equal to a certain threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2022
    Assignee: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventors: Sayuri Nakayama, Taro Togawa, Takeshi Otani
  • Patent number: 11227112
    Abstract: An approach is provided that provides a recognition, engagement and evaluation system. The approach analyzes textual communications between users with the analysis revealing a contribution made by one of the users, called a contributor. The approach further identifies at least one decision maker based on an organizational relationship between the identified decision maker and the contributor and transmits the identification (name, etc.) of the contributor and the contribution made by the contributor to the identified decision maker, provided as a reply comprising a confidence level by a Question Answer system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2022
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Sailaja S. Perumalla, Shanthan Chamala, Gautam Zalpuri, Apparao Mogali
  • Patent number: 11211066
    Abstract: Various embodiments include a hazard detector comprising: a microphone configured to record an audio signal; a hazard sensor; a detection circuit connected to the hazard sensor; and a processing unit connected to the detection circuit and the microphone. The detection circuit receives signals from the hazard sensor and generates a signal as a function thereof. The processing unit comprises a digital interface for communication with an external computer and is configured: to receive the detector signal from the detection circuit; to receive the audio signal from the microphone and to detect a predetermined preamble comprising a word in the audio signal; and if the detector signal contains a positive indication with respect to a hazard or if a predetermined preamble is detected in the audio signal, to generate a output signal as a function of the received signal and send the output signal to the computer via the interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 28, 2021
    Assignee: SIEMENS SCHWEIZ AG
    Inventor: Tilman Weiers
  • Patent number: 11188289
    Abstract: In one example of the disclosure, volume level information is obtained for each of a set of connected communication devices that include a microphone and a speaker. The obtained volume level information is analyzed to determine the volume level information is indicative of a spoken trigger phrase. A preferred communication device among the set of communication devices is identified according to an audio preference rule. The preferred communication device can engage in transactions with a virtual assistant service such that a user spoken data other than the trigger phrase is detected within a selected time of the trigger phrase, and a response is provided to the combination of the trigger phrase and the user spoken data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Jon R. Dory, David H. Hanes, Jeri R. Culp
  • Patent number: 11176319
    Abstract: Methods and systems for leveraging a topic divergence model to generate dynamic sidebar chat conversations are disclosed. A method includes: collecting, by a computing device, data from a first group chat; determining, by the computing device, a main topic of the first group chat and a current topic of the first group chat using the data collected from the first group chat; determining, by the computing device, a first divergence score representing a degree of divergence between the main topic of the first group chat and the current topic of the first group chat; determining, by the computing device, that the first divergence score exceeds a predetermined threshold; and in response to determining that the first divergence score exceeds the predetermined threshold, the computing device creating a second group chat; determining an efficacy based on an emotive analysis which increases as the divergence score decreases.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Jonathan Dunne, Muneeb Arshad, Megan Capobianco, Gregory Ecock, Vijai Kalathur, Christopher Potter, Daniela Regier
  • Patent number: 11170784
    Abstract: Example embodiments of systems and methods for providing a video call between a first party and a second party. The method includes detecting an attempt to establish the video call by monitoring a voice call between the first party and the second party; authenticating the first and second parties; receiving from the first and second parties respective voice acceptances to invitations to establish the video call; retrieving video call identifications of the first and second parties; and establishing the video call without revealing the video call identification of the first party to the second party and the video call identification of the second party to the first party. A server uses credentials of a first party to request if that party would allow access of his identifying information to a second party and use that credential to further authenticate the first party.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2021
    Assignee: CAPITAL ONE SERVICES, LLC
    Inventors: Anh Truong, Reza Farivar, Vincent Pham
  • Patent number: 11133009
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for improving audio processing by receiving an external input sound message during playing a first audio message; matching the external input sound message with a receiving message to obtain a matching result, wherein the receiving message is associated with the first audio message in content, wherein the matching is based on a proportion of sound units in the sound message that hit sound units in the receiving message; determining whether the matching result meets a threshold; and upon determining that the matching result meets the threshold, stop playing the first audio message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Limited
    Inventors: Yeming Xiao, Jie Gao
  • Patent number: 11120791
    Abstract: Described herein are methods, computer-readable media, techniques, and methodologies for collaborative control of an artificial intelligence (AI) voice response system and an AI voice response system configured for collaborative interaction and control. A user command submitted by a first user to an AI voice response client device is evaluated against a user profile associated with the first user to determine whether the user command requires authorization from a second user prior to execution. If authorization is required, the user command or those portion(s) of the user command requiring authorization are sent to a user device of the second user. The second user is provided with the capability to approve, reject, or modify the user command. If approved or modified, the user command or the modified command are executed and the execution result is presented to the first user via the AI voice response client device or another device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2021
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Eric V. Kline, Sarbajit K. Rakshit
  • Patent number: 11106872
    Abstract: A computer-implemented system for improving computerized analysis and grading for one or more populated sentence structure diagrams is shown. The system includes a sentence diagramming interface which in turn includes a natural language input for receiving a natural language sentence to be diagrammed, a sentence construction toolbox including a plurality of sentence construction components used in generating a constructed sentence structure, and a sentence construction workspace configured to receive and allow manipulation of at least one selected sentence construction component to generate the constructed sentence structure and receive and allow manipulation of each word in the natural language sentence such that each word is assigned to a position in the constructed sentence structure to generate a constructed and populated sentence structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2021
    Inventor: Jyu-fang Yu
  • Patent number: 11100939
    Abstract: An apparatus for processing an encoded audio signal, which includes a sequence of access units, each access unit including a core signal with a first spectral width and parameters describing a spectrum above the first spectral width, has a demultiplexer generating, from an access unit of the encoded audio signal, the core signal and a set of the parameters, an upsampler upsampling the core signal of the access unit and outputting a first upsampled spectrum and a timely consecutive second upsampled spectrum, the first upsampled spectrum and the second upsampled spectrum, both, having a same content as the core signal and having a second spectral width being greater than the first spectral width of the core spectrum, a parameter converter converting parameters of the set of parameters of the access unit to obtain converted parameters, and a spectral gap filling processor processing the first upsampled spectrum and the second upsampled spectrum using the converted parameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2021
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Andreas Niedermeier, Sascha Disch
  • Patent number: 11087751
    Abstract: A system of reducing transmissions of packetized data in a voice activated data packet based computer network environment is provided. A natural language processor component can parse an input audio signal to identify a request and a trigger keyword. Based on the input audio signal, a direct action application programming interface can generate a first action data structure, and a content selector component can select a content item. An interface management component can identify candidate interfaces and determine if prior instances of the packetized data was transmitted to the candidate interfaces. The interface management component can prevent the transmission of the packetized data if determined to be redundant, such as having previously received the data, and instead transmit it to a separate client device of a different device type.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2021
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Gaurav Bhaya, Tarun Jain, Anshul Kothari
  • Patent number: 11087766
    Abstract: A dynamic speech processing system and method is provided. The system includes a receiver configured to receive a plurality of audio files. The audio files include sample training audio files and run-time audio files. The system further includes a speech processor coupled to the receiver and configured to compute a variable value for a specific audio file. The speech processor is configured to dynamically select a set of relevant speech recognition engines for a specific run-time audio file based on the variable value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2021
    Assignee: Uniphore Software Systems
    Inventors: Sachdev Umesh, Pattabhiraman Thiyagarajasarma, Gopalakrishnan Gururaghavendran
  • Patent number: 11068653
    Abstract: Disclosed is a system for context-based abbreviation disambiguation, the system comprising: an ontological databank represented into a multi-dimensional space, a synonym databank, a glossary databank, and a server arrangement. The server arrangement is configured to obtain a text comprising abbreviations and concept phrases, extract a target abbreviation from the abbreviations, obtain potential expansions for the target abbreviation, calculate a synonym match score for potential expansions, using synonyms of the potential expansions and the concept phrases, calculate a concept match score, using concepts relating to the potential expansions and the concept phrases, calculate a context match score for the potential expansions using a comparison module, and determine one of the potential expansions as a valid expansion of the target abbreviation based on at least one of the: synonym match score, concept match score and context match score.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2021
    Assignee: Innoplexus AG
    Inventors: Tanay Gahlot, Tapashi Mandal, Vatsal Agarwal
  • Patent number: 11062726
    Abstract: A method of providing real-time speech analysis to a user includes capturing a speech input, performing a real-time recognition of the speech input including converting the speech input to a text, analyzing the recognized speech input to identify an error in a voice of the user, the analyzing including comparing a voice of a correct text generated by an automated speech generation system with the captured speed input, and processing the text to extract a context dialog prompt.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2021
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Sasha P. Caskey, Jian Ni, Andrzej Sakrajda, Hui Wan, Cheng Wu
  • Patent number: 11062700
    Abstract: A method comprising receiving first data representative of a query received by an electronic device. Device characteristic data indicative of at least one characteristic of the electronic device is received. It is determined, using the device characteristic data, that the electronic device is authorized to access a first portion of at least one knowledge graph, which is an access-controlled portion. The at least one knowledge graph also includes a second portion which is a non-access-controlled portion. The first data is sent to at least the first portion of the at least one knowledge graph. Second data is received from the first portion of the at least one knowledge graph. The second data is representative of an answer to the query. Answer data representative of the answer to the query is generated using the second data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2021
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Pooria Azimi, Zachary Philip Pearson Feinn, Thomas Reno, Ivgeni Segal, John Zucchi
  • Patent number: 11048883
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide a system that that can be used to determine whether a sentiment analysis model is portable between two data sets. During operation, the system analyzes the text of a respective review in a data set (e.g., a set of reviews) using the sentiment analysis model to determine a sentiment expressed in the review. The system then computes a confidence score, which indicates the accuracy of a respective sentiment. The system subsequently determines a confidence score distribution for various sentiments, as determined by the sentiment analysis model. The system determines the significance of changes between the confidence score distribution and a benchmark confidence score distribution, which is associated with a benchmark data set for which the sentiment analysis model yields a high accuracy. The system can then determine whether the sentiment analysis model is portable to the data set based on the significance of changes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2021
    Assignee: Medallia, Inc.
    Inventors: Tzu-Ting Kuo, Ji Fang
  • Patent number: 11049490
    Abstract: An audio playback device receives an instruction from a user to select a target voice model from a plurality of voice models and assigns the target voice model to a target character in a text. The audio playback device also transforms the text into a speech, and during the process of transforming the text into the speech, transforms sentences of the target character in the text into the speech of the target character according to the target voice model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2021
    Assignee: Institute For Information Industry
    Inventors: Guang-Feng Deng, Cheng-Hung Tsai, Tsun Ku, Zhi-Guo Zhu, Han-Wen Liu
  • Patent number: 11037564
    Abstract: A robot apparatus including an input unit to receive a voice command from a user, a determination unit to determine whether a voice command is repeated a predetermined number of times, and a control unit to register a shortcut command to shorten a voice command if it is determined a voice command is repeated a predetermined number of times. A shortcut command to shorten a voice command of a user is generated, and thus user convenience is enhanced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2021
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Hyun-Ryong Jung
  • Patent number: 11017799
    Abstract: The present disclosure discloses a method for processing a voice in interior environment of a vehicle, an electronic device and a storage medium. The method includes the following. A reference audio is acquired, and the reference audio is recorded to obtain a recorded audio. A pure voice is acquired. Noise data for each part or period of the recorded audio satisfying a target signal-to-noise ratio condition pertaining to that part is selected from the recorded audio, and the noise data is superimposed to the pure data to obtain a noisy voice. The noisy voice and the reference audio are inputted to an acoustic echo canceller (AEC) module as inputted data. The AEC module is configured to perform an echo cancellation operation on the inputted data to obtain training data having AEC residual noise.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignee: BEIJING BAIDU NETCOM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Hui Song