Patents by Inventor Donald R. McAllaster

Donald R. McAllaster 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: 11475898
    Abstract: Systems and processes for operating an intelligent automated assistant are provided. In one example, a method includes receiving mixed speech data representing utterances of a target speaker and utterances of one or more interfering audio sources. The method further includes obtaining a target speaker representation, which represents speech characteristics of the target speaker; and determining, using a learning network, probability distributions of phonetic elements directly from the mixed speech data. The inputs of the learning network include the mixed speech data and the target speaker representation. An output of the learning network includes the probability distributions of phonetic elements. The method further includes generating text corresponding to the utterances of the target speaker based on the probability distributions of the phonetic elements; and providing a response to the target speaker based on the text corresponding to the utterances of the target speaker.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Masood Delfarah, Ossama A. Abdelhamid, Kyuyeon Hwang, Donald R. McAllaster, Sabato Marco Siniscalchi
  • Publication number: 20200135209
    Abstract: Systems and processes for operating an intelligent automated assistant are provided. In one example, a method includes receiving mixed speech data representing utterances of a target speaker and utterances of one or more interfering audio sources. The method further includes obtaining a target speaker representation, which represents speech characteristics of the target speaker; and determining, using a learning network, probability distributions of phonetic elements directly from the mixed speech data. The inputs of the learning network include the mixed speech data and the target speaker representation. An output of the learning network includes the probability distributions of phonetic elements. The method further includes generating text corresponding to the utterances of the target speaker based on the probability distributions of the phonetic elements; and providing a response to the target speaker based on the text corresponding to the utterances of the target speaker.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 7, 2019
    Publication date: April 30, 2020
    Inventors: Masood DELFARAH, Ossama A. ABDELHAMID, Kyuyeon HWANG, Donald R. MCALLASTER, Sabato Marco SINISCALCHI
  • Patent number: 10592604
    Abstract: Techniques for inverse text normalization are provided. In some examples, speech input is received and a spoken-form text representation of the speech input is generated. The spoken-form text representation includes a token sequence. A feature representation is determined for the spoken-form text representation and a sequence of labels is determined based on the feature representation. The sequence of labels is assigned to the token sequence and specifies a plurality of edit operations to perform on the token sequence. Each edit operation of the plurality of edit operations corresponds to one of a plurality of predetermined types of edit operations. A written-form text representation of the speech input is generated by applying the plurality of edit operations to the token sequence in accordance with the sequence of labels. A task responsive to the speech input is performed using the generated written-form text representation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Ernest J. Pusateri, Bharat Ram Ambati, Elizabeth S. Brooks, Donald R. McAllaster, Venkatesh Nagesha, Ondrej Platek
  • Publication number: 20190278841
    Abstract: Techniques for inverse text normalization are provided. In some examples, speech input is received and a spoken-form text representation of the speech input is generated. The spoken-form text representation includes a token sequence. A feature representation is determined for the spoken-form text representation and a sequence of labels is determined based on the feature representation. The sequence of labels is assigned to the token sequence and specifies a plurality of edit operations to perform on the token sequence. Each edit operation of the plurality of edit operations corresponds to one of a plurality of predetermined types of edit operations. A written-form text representation of the speech input is generated by applying the plurality of edit operations to the token sequence in accordance with the sequence of labels. A task responsive to the speech input is performed using the generated written-form text representation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 29, 2018
    Publication date: September 12, 2019
    Inventors: Ernest J. PUSATERI, Bharat Ram AMBATI, Elizabeth S. BROOKS, Donald R. MCALLASTER, Venkatesh NAGESHA, Ondrej PLATEK
  • Publication number: 20170092278
    Abstract: A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium stores one or more programs including instructions, which when executed by an electronic device, cause the electronic device to receive natural-language speech input from one of a plurality of users, the natural-language speech input having a set of acoustic properties; and determine whether the natural-language speech input corresponds to both a user-customizable lexical trigger and a set of acoustic properties associated with the user; where in accordance with a determination that the natural language speech input corresponds to both a user-customizable lexical trigger and a set of acoustic properties associated with the user, invoke a virtual assistant; and in accordance with a determination that either the natural language speech input fails to correspond to a user-customizable lexical trigger or the natural-language speech input fails to have a set of acoustic properties associated with the user, forego invocation of a virtual assistant.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 24, 2016
    Publication date: March 30, 2017
    Inventors: Gunnar EVERMANN, Donald R. MCALLASTER
  • Patent number: 7133827
    Abstract: A new word model is trained from synthetic word samples derived by Monte Carlo techniques from one or more prior word models. The prior word model can be a phonetic word model and the new word model can be a non-phonetic, whole-word, word model. The prior word model can be trained from data that has undergone a first channel normalization and the synthesized word samples from which the new word model is trained can undergo a different channel normalization similar to that to be used in a given speech recognition context. The prior word model can have a first model structure and the new word model can have a second, different, model structure. These differences in model structure can include, for example, differences of model topology; differences of model complexity; and differences in the type of basis function used in a description of such probability distributions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2006
    Assignee: Voice Signal Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Laurence S. Gillick, Donald R. McAllaster, Daniel L. Roth