Patents Examined by Shaun Roberts
  • Patent number: 12033655
    Abstract: Provided are a sound output control apparatus, a sound output control system, a sound output control method, and a program that can appropriately thin out the output of pieces of sound data. A sound data reception section receives a plurality of pieces of sound data transmitted from transmission apparatuses that are different from each other. A selection section selects a portion of the plurality of pieces of sound data on the basis of at least one of a result of a voice activity detection process performed on each of the pieces of sound data or moving averages of volumes of sounds represented by the pieces of sound data. A sound data transmission section outputs the selected portion of the pieces of sound data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2024
    Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.
    Inventors: Takuma Oiwa, Yoshihisa Onoue, Shogo Suzuki, Shin Nagata, Makoto Oshita, Yuji Kojima, Akihisa Sumi
  • Patent number: 12033641
    Abstract: Techniques disclosed herein are directed towards streaming keyphrase detection which can be customized to detect one or more particular keyphrases, without requiring retraining of any model(s) for those particular keyphrase(s). Many implementations include processing audio data using a speaker separation model to generate separated audio data which isolates an utterance spoken by a human speaker from one or more additional sounds not spoken by the human speaker, and processing the separated audio data using a text independent speaker identification model to determine whether a verified and/or registered user spoke a spoken utterance captured in the audio data. Various implementations include processing the audio data and/or the separated audio data using an automatic speech recognition model to generate a text representation of the utterance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2023
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2024
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Rajeev Rikhye, Quan Wang, Yanzhang He, Qiao Liang, Ian C. McGraw
  • Patent number: 12002477
    Abstract: Controlling a concealment method for a lost audio frame associated with a received audio signal is provided. At least one bin vector of a spectral representation for at least one tone is obtained, wherein the at least one bin vector includes three consecutive bin values for the at least one tone. Whether each of the three consecutive bin values has a complex value or a real value is determined. Responsive to the determination, the three consecutive bin values are processed to estimate a frequency of the at least one tone based on whether each bin value has a complex value or a real value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2023
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2024
    Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ)
    Inventor: Martin Sehlstedt
  • Patent number: 12002463
    Abstract: Systems and methods for enabling voice-based interactions with electronic devices can include a data processing system maintaining a plurality of device action data sets and a respective identifier for each device action data set. The data processing system can receive, from an electronic device, an audio signal representing a voice query and an identifier. The data processing system can identify, using the identifier, a device action data set. The data processing system can identify a device action from device action data set based on content of the audio signal. The data processing system can then identify, from the device action dataset, a command associated with the device action and send the command to the for execution device for execution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2024
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Bo Wang, Venkat Kotla, Chad Yoshikawa, Chris Ramsdale, Pravir Gupta, Alfonso Gomez-Jordana, Kevin Yeun, Jae Won Seo, Lantian Zheng, Sang Soo Sung
  • Patent number: 11996109
    Abstract: There is disclosed inter alia an apparatus for spatial audio signal encoding comprising means for receiving for each time frequency block of a sub band of an audio frame a spatial audio parameter comprising an azimuth and an elevation; determining a first distortion measure for the audio frame by determining a first distance measure for each time frequency block and summing the first distance measure for each time frequency block; determining a second distortion measure for the audio frame by determining a second distance measure for each time frequency block and summing the second distance measure for each time frequency block, and selecting either the first quantization scheme or the second quantization scheme for quantising the elevation and the azimuth for all time frequency blocks of the sub band of the audio frame, wherein the selecting is dependent on the first and second distortion measures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2024
    Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy
    Inventor: Adriana Vasilache
  • Patent number: 11989524
    Abstract: The present invention solves difficulties in constructing a dialogue corpus, ensures the accuracy of a system utterance, and evaluates a user utterance in a dialogue technology for language learning and a knowledge-grounded dialogue technology, in which a system and method is capable of helping a learner in language learning by constructing a language learning dialogue corpus using passages and exercises commonly used in language education and learning sites, training a dialogue model and a dialogue evaluation model with the language learning dialogue corpus, and allowing a user and a system to have a dialogue on the basis of a given passage. It is expected that it will be possible to implement a dialogue system for language learning that is capable of performing evaluation and easily expanding a domain (expansion of learning content).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2024
    Assignee: ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE
    Inventor: Jinxia Huang
  • Patent number: 11990126
    Abstract: A method is implemented to move media content display between two media output devices. A server system determines in a voice message recorded by an electronic device a media transfer request that includes a user voice command to transfer media content to a destination media output device and a user voice designation of the destination media output device. The server system then obtains from a source cast device instant media play information including information of a media play application, the media content that is being played, and a temporal position. The server system further identifies a destination cast device associated in a user domain coupled to the destination media output device, and sends to the destination cast device a media play request including the instant media play information, thereby enabling the destination cast device to execute the media play application for playing the media content from the temporal location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2024
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Raunaq Shah, Matt Van Der Staay
  • Patent number: 11978446
    Abstract: Systems and methods may be used to detect an inaudible signal associated with a first audible signal of an audio input. The inaudible signal may include a frequency signature. The frequency signature may be associated with an electronic device type. The systems and methods may activate a response monitor. The response monitor may be activated for a predetermined time. The response monitor may be activated responsive to the frequency signature. The systems and methods may determine a content characteristic of the first audible signal based on the inaudible signal. The systems and methods may include generating a message. The message may be based on the content characteristic. The systems and methods may include transmitting the message. The message may be transmitted on a condition that a second audible signal corresponds to the message and is received within the predetermined time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Rovi Guides, Inc.
    Inventors: David D. Shoop, Dylan M. Wondra
  • Patent number: 11978463
    Abstract: A stereo signal encoding method includes: obtaining a residual signal encoding parameter of a current frame of a stereo signal based on downmixed signal energy and residual signal energy of each of M sub-bands of the current frame, where the residual signal encoding parameter indicates whether to encode residual signals of the M sub-bands; determining whether to encode the residual signals based on the residual signal encoding parameter; and encoding the residual signals when it is determined that the residual signals need to be encoded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Bin Wang, Zexin Liu, Haiting Li
  • Patent number: 11977617
    Abstract: Provided is to prevent a false determination due to an attachment condition of an apparatus that transmits and receives an acoustic signal, and perform accurate personal authentication. A personal authentication device includes: a personal authentication means that authenticates an individual by using first information at least including an acoustic characteristic calculated from an acoustic signal propagating through the head of the user, which is detected by an apparatus being attached on a head of a user for transmitting and receiving the acoustic signal, and a feature amount extracted from the acoustic characteristic; an attachment trouble rule storage means that stores an attachment trouble rule for detecting an attachment trouble with the apparatus; and an attachment trouble detection means that detects a trouble with an attachment state of the apparatus when the first information satisfies the attachment trouble rule.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: NEC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takayuki Arakawa, Takafumi Koshinaka
  • Patent number: 11978439
    Abstract: Speech recognition may be improved by generating and using a topic specific language model. A topic specific language model may be created by performing an initial pass on an audio signal using a generic or basis language model. A speech recognition device may then determine topics relating to the audio signal based on the words identified in the initial pass and retrieve a corpus of text relating to those topics. Using the retrieved corpus of text, the speech recognition device may create a topic specific language model. In one example, the speech recognition device may adapt or otherwise modify the generic language model based on the retrieved corpus of text.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: TiVo Corporation
    Inventors: David F. Houghton, Seth Michael Murray, Sibley Verbeck Simon
  • Patent number: 11978460
    Abstract: A method, system, and computer program to encode and decode a channel coherence parameter applied on a frequency band basis, where the coherence parameters of each frequency band form a coherence vector. The coherence vector is encoded and decoded using a predictive scheme followed by a variable bit rate entropy coding.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET LM ERICSSON (PUBL)
    Inventors: Erik Norvell, Fredrik Jansson
  • Patent number: 11972227
    Abstract: A speech translation system and methods for cross-lingual communication that enable users to improve and customize content and usage of the system and easily. The methods include, in response to receiving an utterance including a first term associated with a field, translating the utterance into a second language. In response to receiving an indication to add the first term associated with the field to a first recognition lexicon, adding the first term associated with the field and the determined translation to a first machine translation module and to a shared database for a community associated with the field of the first term associated with the field, wherein the first term associated with the field added to the shared database is accessible by the community.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc.
    Inventors: Alexander Waibel, Ian R. Lane
  • Patent number: 11972767
    Abstract: Methods and systems for improving signal processing by smoothing the covariance matrix of a multi-channel signal by setting a forgetting factor based on the bins of a band. A method and system for resetting the smoothing based on transient detection is also disclosed. A method and system for resampling for the smoothing during a banding transition is also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: David S. McGrath, Stefanie Brown, Juan Felix Torres
  • Patent number: 11960845
    Abstract: Embodiments relate to decoding communications with token sky maps. At least one electronic communication including emoticons having a non-original meaning is received. A candidate meaning is determined for the emoticons having the non-original meaning in the at least one electronic communication based at least in part on token neighborhood distribution structures. The candidate meaning for the emoticons having the non-original meaning is caused to be displayed on at least one device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ziqiumin Wang, Qing Lu, Wei Jun Zheng, Xiao Feng Ji, Yuan Jin
  • Patent number: 11954448
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure include systems and methods for determining position values for training data that is used to train transformer models. In some embodiments, a set of input data for training a transformer model is received. The set of input data comprises a set of tokens. Based on an offset value, a set of successive position values for the set of tokens is determined. Each position value in the set of successive position values represents a position of a token in the set of tokens relative to other tokens in the set of tokens. A set of training data is generated to comprise the set of tokens and the set of successive position values. The transformer model is trained using the set of training data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Andy Wagner, Tiyasa Mitra, Marc Tremblay
  • Patent number: 11935555
    Abstract: The present document relates to audio source coding systems which make use of a harmonic transposition method for high frequency reconstruction (HFR), as well as to digital effect processors, e.g. exciters, where generation of harmonic distortion add brightness to the processed signal, and to time stretchers where a signal duration is prolonged with maintained spectral content. A system and method configured to generate a time stretched and/or frequency transposed signal from an input signal is described. The system comprises an analysis filterbank configured to provide an analysis subband signal from the input signal; wherein the analysis subband signal comprises a plurality of complex valued analysis samples, each having a phase and a magnitude. Furthermore, the system comprises a subband processing unit configured to determine a synthesis subband signal from the analysis subband signal using a subband transposition factor Q and a subband stretch factor S.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2023
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: DOLBY INTERNATIONAL AB
    Inventor: Lars Villemoes
  • Patent number: 11935535
    Abstract: An electronic device configures a device-agnostic voice assistant library for execution on the electronic device based on the electronic device having a first device type. The electronic device also selects an implementation for the voice assistant library. After the configuring, the electronic device receives a verbal input from a user. It extracts request information from the verbal input by processing the verbal input using the voice assistant library executing on the device. It transmits a request to a remote system, the request including the extracted request information. The electronic device receives a response to the request. The response is generated by the remote system in accordance with the extracted request information. The electronic device performs an operation in accordance with the response by one or more voice processing modules of the configured voice assistant library.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Kenneth Mixter, Raunaq Shah
  • Patent number: 11929076
    Abstract: Disclosed speech recognition techniques improve user-perceived latency while maintaining accuracy by: receiving an audio stream, in parallel, by a primary (e.g., accurate) speech recognition engine (SRE) and a secondary (e.g., fast) SRE; generating, with the primary SRE, a primary result; generating, with the secondary SRE, a secondary result; appending the secondary result to a word list; and merging the primary result into the secondary result in the word list. Combining output from the primary and secondary SREs into a single decoder as described herein improves user-perceived latency while maintaining or improving accuracy, among other advantages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC.
    Inventors: Hosam Adel Khalil, Emilian Stoimenov, Christopher Hakan Basoglu, Kshitiz Kumar, Jian Wu
  • Patent number: 11922941
    Abstract: An electronic device stores a voice assistant library for execution on the electronic device based on the electronic device having a first device type. The electronic device receives a verbal input from a user. It extracts request information from the verbal input by processing the verbal input using the voice assistant library executing on the device. It transmits a request to a remote system. The electronic device receives a response to the request. The response is generated by the remote system. The electronic device performs an operation in accordance with the response by one or more voice-processing modules of the configured voice assistant library.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2023
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Kenneth Mixter, Raunaq Shah