Patents by Inventor Daniel Willett

Daniel Willett 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).

  • Patent number: 11972753
    Abstract: A system, method and computer-readable storage device provides an improved speech processing approach in which hyper parameters used for speech recognition are modified dynamically or in batch mode rather than fixed statically. The method includes estimating, via a model trained on audio data and/or metadata, a set of parameters useful for performing automatic speech recognition, receiving speech at an automatic speech recognition system, applying, by the automatic speech recognition system, the set of parameters to processing the speech to yield text and outputting the text from the automatic speech recognition system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC.
    Inventors: Daniel Willett, Yang Sun, Paul Joseph Vozila, Puming Zhan
  • Publication number: 20210166699
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for selectively performing speech processing in a hybrid speech processing system. The hybrid speech processing system includes at least one mobile electronic device and a network-connected server remotely located from the at least one mobile electronic device. The mobile electronic device is configured to use an embedded speech recognizer to process at least a portion of input audio to produce recognized text. A controller on the mobile electronic device determines whether to send information from the mobile electronic device to the server for speech processing. The determination of whether to send the information is based, at least in part, on an analysis of the input audio, the recognized text, or a semantic category associated with the recognized text.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 9, 2021
    Publication date: June 3, 2021
    Applicant: Nuance Communications, Inc
    Inventors: Daniel Willett, Joel Pinto, William F. Ganong, III
  • Patent number: 10971157
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for selectively performing speech processing in a hybrid speech processing system. The hybrid speech processing system includes at least one mobile electronic device and a network-connected server remotely located from the at least one mobile electronic device. The mobile electronic device is configured to use an embedded speech recognizer to process at least a portion of input audio to produce recognized text. A controller on the mobile electronic device determines whether to send information from the mobile electronic device to the server for speech processing. The determination of whether to send the information is based, at least in part, on an analysis of the input audio, the recognized text, or a semantic category associated with the recognized text.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2021
    Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel Willett, Joel Pinto, William F. Ganong, III
  • Publication number: 20210082402
    Abstract: A system and/or method receives speech input including an accent. The accent is classified with an accent classifier to yield an accent classification. Automatic speech recognition is performed based on the speech input and the accent classification to yield an automatic speech recognition output. Natural language understanding is performed on the speech recognition output and the accent classification determining an intent of the speech recognition output. Natural language generation generates an output based on the speech recognition output and the intent and the accent classification. An output is rendered using text to speech based on the natural language generation and the accent classification.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 13, 2019
    Publication date: March 18, 2021
    Applicant: Cerence Operating Company
    Inventors: Yang SUN, Junho PARK, Goujin WEI, Daniel WILLETT
  • Publication number: 20210035560
    Abstract: A system, method and computer-readable storage device provides an improved speech processing approach in which hyper parameters used for speech recognition are modified dynamically or in batch mode rather than fixed statically. The method includes estimating, via a model trained on audio data and/or metadata, a set of parameters useful for performing automatic speech recognition, receiving speech at an automatic speech recognition system, applying, by the automatic speech recognition system, the set of parameters to processing the speech to yield text and outputting the text from the automatic speech recognition system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 20, 2020
    Publication date: February 4, 2021
    Inventors: Daniel WILLETT, Yang SUN, Paul Joseph VOZILA, Puming ZHAN
  • Patent number: 10810996
    Abstract: A system, method and computer-readable storage device provides an improved speech processing approach in which hyper parameters used for speech recognition are modified dynamically or in batch mode rather than fixed statically. The method includes estimating, via a model trained on audio data and/or metadata, a set of parameters useful for performing automatic speech recognition, receiving speech at an automatic speech recognition system, applying, by the automatic speech recognition system, the set of parameters to processing the speech to yield text and outputting the text from the automatic speech recognition system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2020
    Assignee: NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
    Inventors: Daniel Willett, Yang Sun, Paul Joseph Vozila, Puming Zhan
  • Patent number: 10785173
    Abstract: A method in accordance with the present disclosure may include receiving a message at a mobile computing device and performing natural language processing (NLP) based interpretation of the message. Embodiments may further include suggesting at least one of an action and an application configured to perform the action, the suggestion based upon, at least in part, the NLP-based interpretation of the message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2020
    Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel Willett, William F. Ganong, III
  • Patent number: 10650805
    Abstract: A system and method for speech recognition is provided. Embodiments may include receiving an audio signal at a first deep neural network (“DNN”) associated with a computing device. Embodiments may further include receiving the audio signal at a second deep neural network (“DNN”) associated with a computing device, wherein the second deep neural network includes fewer parameters than the first deep neural network. Embodiments may also include determining whether to select an output from the first deep neural network or the second deep neural network and providing the selected output to a decoder with an overall objective of speeding up ASR.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2020
    Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Joel Pinto, Daniel Willett, Christian Plahl
  • Publication number: 20200043468
    Abstract: A system, method and computer-readable storage device provides an improved speech processing approach in which hyper parameters used for speech recognition are modified dynamically or in batch mode rather than fixed statically. The method includes estimating, via a model trained on audio data and/or metadata, a set of parameters useful for performing automatic speech recognition, receiving speech at an automatic speech recognition system, applying, by the automatic speech recognition system, the set of parameters to processing the speech to yield text and outputting the text from the automatic speech recognition system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 31, 2018
    Publication date: February 6, 2020
    Inventors: Daniel WILLETT, Yang SUN, Paul Joseph VOZILA, Puming ZHAN
  • Patent number: 10229701
    Abstract: A mobile device is adapted for automatic speech recognition (ASR). A user interface for interaction with a user includes an input microphone for obtaining speech inputs from the user for automatic speech recognition, and an output interface for system output to the user based on ASR results that correspond to the speech input. A local controller obtains a sample of non-ASR audio from the input microphone for ASR-adaptation to channel-specific ASR characteristics, and then provides a representation of the non-ASR audio to a remote ASR server for server-side adaptation to the channel-specific ASR characteristics, and then provides a representation of an unknown ASR speech input from the input microphone to the remote ASR server for determining ASR results corresponding to the unknown ASR speech input, and then provides the system output to the output interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2019
    Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel Willett, Jean-Guy E. Dahan, William F. Ganong, III, Jianxiong Wu
  • Patent number: 10186256
    Abstract: Typical speech recognition systems usually use speaker-specific speech data to apply speaker adaptation to models and parameters associated with the speech recognition system. Given that speaker-specific speech data may not be available to the speech recognition system, information indicative of language skills is employed in adapting configurations of a speech recognition system. According to at least one example embodiment, a method and corresponding apparatus, for speech recognition comprise maintaining information indicative of language skills of users of the speech recognition system. A configuration of the speech recognition system for a user is determined based at least in part on corresponding information indicative of language skills of the user. Upon receiving speech data from the user, the configuration of the speech recognition system determined is employed in performing speech recognition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 22, 2019
    Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Weiying Li, Daniel Willett
  • Patent number: 10049658
    Abstract: A system and method for speech recognition is provided. Embodiments may include receiving, at a first computing device, a far-talk signal from a far-talk computing device, the far-talk signal transmitted using a first channel and corresponding to an audible sound. Embodiments may further include receiving, at the first computing device, a near-talk signal from a near-talk computing device, the near-talk signal transmitted using a second channel and corresponding to the audible sound, wherein the far-talk signal and the near-talk signal are received during an enrollment phase of a far-talk speech recognition system. Embodiments may also include updating, at the first computing device, one or more models associated with a far-talk speech recognition system based upon, at least in part, one or more characteristics of the far-talk signal and one or more characteristics of the near-talk signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2018
    Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Joel Pinto, Josef Damianus Anastasiadis, Daniel Willett
  • Publication number: 20180211668
    Abstract: Method and apparatus for providing visual feedback on an electronic device in a client/server speech recognition system comprising the electronic device and a network device remotely located from the electronic device. The method comprises processing, by an embedded speech recognizer of the electronic device, at least a portion of input audio comprising speech to produce local recognized speech, sending at least a portion of the input audio to the network device for remote speech recognition, and displaying, on a user interface of the electronic device, visual feedback based on at least a portion of the local recognized speech prior to receiving streaming recognition results from the network device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 17, 2015
    Publication date: July 26, 2018
    Applicant: Nuance Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel WILLETT, Christian GOLLAN, Carl Benjamin QUILLEN, Stefan HAHN, Fabian STEMMER
  • Publication number: 20180197545
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for selectively performing speech processing in a hybrid speech processing system. The hybrid speech processing system includes at least one mobile electronic device and a network-connected server remotely located from the at least one mobile electronic device. The mobile electronic device is configured to use an embedded speech recognizer to process at least a portion of input audio to produce recognized text. A controller on the mobile electronic device determines whether to send information from the mobile electronic device to the server for speech processing. The determination of whether to send the information is based, at least in part, on an analysis of the input audio, the recognized text, or a semantic category associated with the recognized text.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 11, 2017
    Publication date: July 12, 2018
    Applicant: Nuance Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel Willett, Joel Pinto, William F. Ganong, III
  • Patent number: 9984676
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method is described for front end speech processing for automatic speech recognition. A sequence of speech features which characterize an unknown speech input is received with a computer process. A first subset of the speech features is normalized with a computer process using a first feature normalizing function. A second subset of the speech features is normalized with a computer process using a second feature normalizing function different from the first feature normalizing function. The normalized speech features in the first and second subsets are combined with a computer process to produce a sequence of mixed normalized speech features for automatic speech recognition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2018
    Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Dermot Connolly, Daniel Willett
  • Patent number: 9953638
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method is described for front end speech processing for automatic speech recognition. A sequence of speech features which characterize an unknown speech input provided on an audio input channel and associated meta-data which characterize the audio input channel are received. The speech features are transformed with a computer process that uses a trained mapping function controlled by the meta-data, and automatic speech recognition is performed of the transformed speech features.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2018
    Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel Willett, Karl Jonas Lööf, Yue Pan, Joel Pinto, Christian Gollan
  • Patent number: 9886944
    Abstract: A mobile device is described which is adapted for automatic speech recognition (ASR). A speech input receives an unknown speech input signal from a user. A local controller determines if a remote ASR processing condition is met, transforms the speech input signal into a selected one of multiple different speech representation types, and sends the transformed speech input signal to a remote server for remote ASR processing. A local ASR arrangement performs local ASR processing of the speech input including processing any speech recognition results received from the remote server.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2018
    Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel Willett, Jianxiong Wu, Paul J. Vozila, William F. Ganong, III
  • Publication number: 20170294186
    Abstract: A system and method for speech recognition is provided. Embodiments may include receiving an audio signal at a first deep neural network (“DNN”) associated with a computing device. Embodiments may further include receiving the audio signal at a second deep neural network (“DNN”) associated with a computing device, wherein the second deep neural network includes fewer parameters than the first deep neural network. Embodiments may also include determining whether to select an output from the first deep neural network or the second deep neural network and providing the selected output to a decoder with an overall objective of speeding up ASR.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 11, 2014
    Publication date: October 12, 2017
    Inventors: Joel Pinto, Daniel Willett, Christian Plahl
  • Publication number: 20170278511
    Abstract: A mobile device is adapted for automatic speech recognition (ASR). A user interface for interaction with a user includes an input microphone for obtaining speech inputs from the user for automatic speech recognition, and an output interface for system output to the user based on ASR results that correspond to the speech input. A local controller obtains a sample of non-ASR audio from the input microphone for ASR-adaptation to channel-specific ASR characteristics, and then provides a representation of the non-ASR audio to a remote ASR server for server-side adaptation to the channel-specific ASR characteristics, and then provides a representation of an unknown ASR speech input from the input microphone to the remote ASR server for determining ASR results corresponding to the unknown ASR speech input, and then provides the system output to the output interface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2017
    Publication date: September 28, 2017
    Inventors: Daniel Willett, Jean-Guy E. Dahan, William F. Ganong, III, Jianxiong Wu
  • Patent number: 9679560
    Abstract: A mobile device is adapted for automatic speech recognition (ASR). A user interface for interaction with a user includes an input microphone for obtaining speech inputs from the user for automatic speech recognition, and an output interface for system output to the user based on ASR results that correspond to the speech input. A local controller obtains a sample of non-ASR audio from the input microphone for ASR-adaptation to channel-specific ASR characteristics, and then provides a representation of the non-ASR audio to a remote ASR server for server-side adaptation to the channel-specific ASR characteristics, and then provides a representation of an unknown ASR speech input from the input microphone to the remote ASR server for determining ASR results corresponding to the unknown ASR speech input, and then provides the system output to the output interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2017
    Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel Willett, Jean-Guy E. Dahan, William F. Ganong, III, Jianxiong Wu