Patents by Inventor Aaron Challenner

Aaron Challenner has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20260031081
    Abstract: A system performs federated learning and retraining of a machine learning model used for processing audio detected by a user device. The system uses both gradient data (which may correspond to false-rejects) and audio data (which may correspond to false-positives) received from devices. The system may also use a teacher model to produce labels for data in an automated fashion, thus allowing retraining to happen in an unsupervised manner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 1, 2025
    Publication date: January 29, 2026
    Inventors: Andrew Morris Werchniak, Ilya Sokolov, Raphael Petegrosso, Aansh Shah, Aaron Challenner, Michael Thomas Peterson, Shuang Wu
  • Publication number: 20250363989
    Abstract: A device is configured to detect multiple different wakewords. A device may operate a joint encoder that operates on audio data to determine encoded audio data. The device may operate multiple different decoders which process the encoded audio data to determine if a wakeword is detected. Each decoder may correspond to a different wakeword. The decoders may use fewer computing resources than the joint encoder, allowing for the device to more easily perform multiple wakeword processing. Enabling/disabling wakeword(s) may involve the reconfiguring of a wakeword detector to add/remove data for respective decoder(s). Specific decoders may be activated/deactivated depending on device context, thereby efficiently managing device resources.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 6, 2025
    Publication date: November 27, 2025
    Inventors: Michael Thomas Peterson, Gengshen Fu, Aaron Challenner, Rong Chen, Cody Jacques, Stefan M. Bradstreet
  • Patent number: 12451122
    Abstract: A system performs federated learning and retraining of a machine learning model used for processing audio detected by a user device. The system uses both gradient data (which may correspond to false-rejects) and audio data (which may correspond to false-positives) received from devices. The system may also use a teacher model to produce labels for data in an automated fashion, thus allowing retraining to happen in an unsupervised manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2023
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2025
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Morris Werchniak, Ilya Sokolov, Raphael Petegrosso, Aansh Shah, Aaron Challenner, Michael Thomas Peterson, Shuang Wu
  • Publication number: 20250299670
    Abstract: Techniques for determining when speech is directed at another individual of a dialog, and storing a representation of such user-directed speech for use as context when processing subsequently-received system-directed speech are described. A system receives audio data and/or video data and determines therefrom that speech in the audio data is user-directed. Based on this, the system determine whether the speech is able to be used to perform an action by the system. If the speech is able to be used to perform an action, the system stores a natural language representation of the speech. Thereafter, when the system receives system-directed speech, the system generates a rewrite of a natural language representation of the system-directed speech based on the previously-received user-directed speech. The system then determines output data responsive to the system-directed speech using the rewritten natural language representation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 6, 2025
    Publication date: September 25, 2025
    Inventors: Alexandros Potamianos, Arijit Biswas, Bonan Zheng, Anushree Venkatesh, Yohan Jo, Vincent Auvray, Nikolaos Malandrakis, Aaron Challenner, Xinyan Zhao, Angeliki Metallinou, David A. Jara, Jiahui Li, Ying Shi, Nikko Strom, Veerdhawal Pande
  • Patent number: 12412578
    Abstract: A device is configured to detect multiple different wakewords. A device may operate a joint encoder that operates on audio data to determine encoded audio data. The device may operate multiple different decoders which process the encoded audio data to determine if a wakeword is detected. Each decoder may correspond to a different wakeword. The decoders may use fewer computing resources than the joint encoder, allowing for the device to more easily perform multiple wakeword processing. Enabling/disabling wakeword(s) may involve the reconfiguring of a wakeword detector to add/remove data for respective decoder(s). Specific decoders may be activated/deactivated depending on device context, thereby efficiently managing device resources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2023
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2025
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Thomas Peterson, Gengshen Fu, Aaron Challenner, Rong Chen, Cody Jacques, Stefan M Bradstreet
  • Patent number: 12374326
    Abstract: Techniques for determining when speech is directed at another individual of a dialog, and storing a representation of such user-directed speech for use as context when processing subsequently-received system-directed speech are described. A system receives audio data and/or video data and determines therefrom that speech in the audio data is user-directed. Based on this, the system determine whether the speech is able to be used to perform an action by the system. If the speech is able to be used to perform an action, the system stores a natural language representation of the speech. Thereafter, when the system receives system-directed speech, the system generates a rewrite of a natural language representation of the system-directed speech based on the previously-received user-directed speech. The system then determines output data responsive to the system-directed speech using the rewritten natural language representation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2023
    Date of Patent: July 29, 2025
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Alexandros Potamianos, Arijit Biswas, Bonan Zheng, Anushree Venkatesh, Yohan Jo, Vincent Auvray, Nikolaos Malandrakis, Aaron Challenner, Xinyan Zhao, Angeliki Metallinou, David A Jara, Jiahui Li, Ying Shi, Nikko Strom, Veerdhawal Pande
  • Publication number: 20250149036
    Abstract: Systems and methods for preemptive wakeword detection are disclosed. For example, a first part of a wakeword is detected from audio data representing a user utterance. When this occurs, on-device speech processing is initiated prior to when the entire wakeword is detected. When the entire wakeword is detected, results from the on-device speech processing and/or the audio data is sent to a speech processing system to determine a responsive action to be performed by the device. When the entire wakeword is not detected, on-device processing is canceled and the device refrains from sending the audio data to the speech processing system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 3, 2024
    Publication date: May 8, 2025
    Inventors: Eli Joshua Fidler, Aaron Challenner, Zoe Adams, Sree Hari Krishnan Parthasarathi, Gengshen Fu
  • Patent number: 12205601
    Abstract: A system configured to perform content recognition using fingerprinting to recognize known media content. A device determines fingerprints based on decoded content data to be sent using a media interface component to an output component. Metadata related to the content/device/fingerprint may also be created. The fingerprints and metadata are sent by the device to a supporting system for orchestration and matching of the fingerprints to known media content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2025
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: David McGuire, Ahmed Abdelal, Sai Kiran Venkata Subramanya Rupanagudi, Sumit Garg, Terrence Yu, Nathaniel White, Siddharth Agrawal, Pavas Kant, Yuxuan Hao, Nagaraj Mahajan, Ameya Agaskar, Aaron Challenner
  • Patent number: 12190875
    Abstract: Systems and methods for preemptive wakeword detection are disclosed. For example, a first part of a wakeword is detected from audio data representing a user utterance. When this occurs, on-device speech processing is initiated prior to when the entire wakeword is detected. When the entire wakeword is detected, results from the on-device speech processing and/or the audio data is sent to a speech processing system to determine a responsive action to be performed by the device. When the entire wakeword is not detected, on-device processing is canceled and the device refrains from sending the audio data to the speech processing system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2025
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Eli Joshua Fidler, Aaron Challenner, Zoe Adams, Sree Hari Krishnan Parthasarathi, Gengshen Fu
  • Publication number: 20240412728
    Abstract: A device is configured to detect multiple different wakewords. A device may operate a joint encoder that operates on audio data to determine encoded audio data. The device may operate multiple different decoders which process the encoded audio data to determine if a wakeword is detected. Each decoder may correspond to a different wakeword. The decoders may use fewer computing resources than the joint encoder, allowing for the device to more easily perform multiple wakeword processing. Enabling/disabling wakeword(s) may involve the reconfiguring of a wakeword detector to add/remove data for respective decoder(s). Specific decoders may be activated/deactivated depending on device context, thereby efficiently managing device resources.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2023
    Publication date: December 12, 2024
    Inventors: Michael Thomas Peterson, Gengshen Fu, Aaron Challenner, Rong Chen, Cody Jacques, Stefan M Bradstreet
  • Patent number: 11908468
    Abstract: A system that is capable of resolving anaphora using timing data received by a local device. A local device outputs audio representing a list of entries. The audio may represent synthesized speech of the list of entries. A user can interrupt the device to select an entry in the list, such as by saying “that one.” The local device can determine an offset time representing the time between when audio playback began and when the user interrupted. The local device sends the offset time and audio data representing the utterance to a speech processing system which can then use the offset time and stored data to identify which entry on the list was most recently output by the local device when the user interrupted. The system can then resolve anaphora to match that entry and can perform additional processing based on the referred to item.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Prakash Krishnan, Arindam Mandal, Siddhartha Reddy Jonnalagadda, Nikko Strom, Ariya Rastrow, Ying Shi, David Chi-Wai Tang, Nishtha Gupta, Aaron Challenner, Bonan Zheng, Angeliki Metallinou, Vincent Auvray, Minmin Shen
  • Publication number: 20220093101
    Abstract: A system that is capable of resolving anaphora using timing data received by a local device. A local device outputs audio representing a list of entries. The audio may represent synthesized speech of the list of entries. A user can interrupt the device to select an entry in the list, such as by saying “that one.” The local device can determine an offset time representing the time between when audio playback began and when the user interrupted. The local device sends the offset time and audio data representing the utterance to a speech processing system which can then use the offset time and stored data to identify which entry on the list was most recently output by the local device when the user interrupted. The system can then resolve anaphora to match that entry and can perform additional processing based on the referred to item.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 4, 2020
    Publication date: March 24, 2022
    Inventors: Prakash Krishnan, Arindam Mandal, Siddhartha Reddy Jonnalagadda, Nikko Strom, Ariya Rastrow, Ying Shi, David Chi-Wai Tang, Nishtha Gupta, Aaron Challenner, Bonan Zheng, Angeliki Metallinou, Vincent Auvray, Minmin Shen
  • Publication number: 20220093093
    Abstract: A system can operate a speech-controlled device in a mode where the speech-controlled device determines that an utterance is directed at the speech-controlled device using image data showing the user speaking the utterance. If the user is directing the user's gaze at the speech-controlled device while speaking, the system may determine the utterance is system directed and thus may perform further speech processing based on the utterance. If the user's gaze is directed elsewhere, the system may determine the utterance is not system directed (for example directed at another user) and thus the system may not perform further speech processing based on the utterance and may take other actions, for example discarding audio data of the utterance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 4, 2020
    Publication date: March 24, 2022
    Inventors: Prakash Krishnan, Arindam Mandal, Nikko Strom, Pradeep Natarajan, Ariya Rastrow, Shiv Naga Prasad Vitaladevuni, David Chi-Wai Tang, Aaron Challenner, Xu Zhang, Krishna Anisetty, Josey Diego Sandoval, Rohit Prasad, Premkumar Natarajan