Patents by Inventor Frank J. McGrath

Frank J. McGrath 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: 6101468
    Abstract: A word recognition system can: respond to the input of a character string from a user by limiting the words it will recognize to words having a related, but not necessarily the same, string; score signals generated after a user has been prompted to generate a given word against words other than the prompted word to determine if the signal should be used to train the prompted word; vary the number of signals a user is prompted to generate to train a given word as a function of how well the training signals score against each other or prior models for the prompted word; create a new acoustic model of a phrase by concatenating prior acoustic models of the words in the phrase; obtain information from another program running on the same computer, such as its commands or the context of text being entered into it, and use that information to vary which words it can recognize; determine which program unit, such as an application program or dialog box, currently has input focus on its computer and create a vocabulary
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 1997
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2000
    Assignee: Dragon Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Joel M. Gould, Elizabeth E. Steele, Frank J. McGrath, Steven D. Squires, Peter S. Heitman, Joel W. Parke, Dean G. Sturtevant, Jed M. Roberts, James K. Baker
  • Patent number: 6092043
    Abstract: A word recognition system can: respond to the input of a character string from a user by limiting the words it will recognize to words having a related, but not necessarily the same, string, score signals generated after a user has been prompted to generate a given word against words other than the prompted word to determine if the signal should be used to train the prompted word; vary the number of signals a user is prompted to generate to train a given word as a function of how well the training signals score against each other or prior models for the prompted word; create a new acoustic model of a phrase by concatenating prior acoustic models of the words in the phrase; obtain information from another program running on the same computer, such as its commands or the context of text being entered into it, and use that information to vary which words it can recognize; determine which program unit, such as an application program or dialog box, currently has input focus on its computer and create a vocabulary
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 1997
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2000
    Assignee: Dragon Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Steven D. Squires, Frank J. McGrath, Peter S. Heitman, Joel W. Parke
  • Patent number: 5960394
    Abstract: A word recognition system is disclosed for converting spoken utterances into either text or commands. The system runs on a platform capable of running a plurality applications. Text and commands are sent from a word recognition application to one or more user applications. In addition, information pertaining to the state of the user applications is sent back to the word recognition application. Word recognition probabilities are modified based the information received from the user applications. As a result, the probabilities of recognizing a spoken utterance as a particular command will be greater when that command is active in the user application then when it is not active. Also, text strings will be assigned higher probabilities when they are appropriate for the present state of the user application.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 1997
    Date of Patent: September 28, 1999
    Assignee: Dragon Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Joel M. Gould, Elizabeth E. Steele, Frank J. McGrath, Steven D. Squires, Joel W. Parke
  • Patent number: 5920837
    Abstract: A computerized word recognition system, such as a speech recognition system, stores word models of a first and second set for each of a plurality of vocabulary words. The system has a user interface which enable a user to selectively prevent the use of a second set's word model for a selected word. Often the first set of word models are spelled word models, such as models represented by a sequence of phonetic component models, each of is derived from similar speech sounds occurring in different words. In such systems the second set of word models are custom words models derived largely from word signals which are presumed to correspond only to the model's associated word. In many embodiments, the user interface allows a user to select to stop using a selected word's custom, or second set, model by selecting a menu or control window of a user interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 1997
    Date of Patent: July 6, 1999
    Assignee: Dragon Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Joel M. Gould, Frank J. McGrath, Jed M. Roberts
  • Patent number: 5920836
    Abstract: A computerized system performs word recognition. It does pattern matching to select which vocabulary words appears, according to the pattern matching, to most probably correspond to word signals it seeks to recognize. It produces an output corresponding to the vocabulary words selected at a movable cursor position in a body of text. The system improves its recognition by obtaining information about the linguistic context of the current cursor position in the body of text and using that information to vary the probability of which one or more words is selected by its pattern matching. The pattern matching can be speech recognition performed on signals representing the sound of spoken words.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 1997
    Date of Patent: July 6, 1999
    Assignee: Dragon Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Joel M. Gould, Frank J. McGrath
  • Patent number: 5915236
    Abstract: A word recognition system detects the computational resources available to it, such as the speed or number of processors, or whether there is DSP hardware, and alters the instructions it executes in response. The system can be a word recognition program designed to run on different computers having different computational resources. The program receives user generated word signals representing words to be recognized; performs pattern matching on them to select which vocabulary words most probably correspond to such word signals; detects if certain computational resources are available; and varies the instructions it executes in response. In many embodiments the system is a speech recognition program. The word recognition program can vary the computational intensity of its signal processing as a function of available computational resources. Preferably it can match the same word models against representations of word signals produced both by its more and less intensive signal processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 1997
    Date of Patent: June 22, 1999
    Assignee: Dragon Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Joel M. Gould, Frank J. McGrath, Joel W. Parke, Dean G. Sturtevant, Jed M. Roberts
  • Patent number: 5909666
    Abstract: A computerized speech recognition system creates acoustic models of phrases by concatenating acoustic models for individual words. The system stores an acoustic word model and spelling for each of its vocabulary words. When it receives the spelling of a multi-word phrase to be treated as a new vocabulary word, it stores that multi-word spelling as the spelling of the new vocabulary word, and a new acoustic model created by concatenating the acoustic word models of previous vocabulary words whose spellings correspond to words in the multi-word spelling as the acoustic model for the new word. The system can then perform speech recognition by comparing acoustic signals against the word models of stored vocabulary words, including those representing such multi-word phrases. Preferably when a multi-word model is formed, the individual acoustic models concatenated are modified to represent the coarticulation which takes place between words spoken continuously.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 1997
    Date of Patent: June 1, 1999
    Assignee: Dragon Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Joel M. Gould, Frank J. McGrath, Steven D. Squires, Joel W. Parke, Jed M. Roberts
  • Patent number: 5850627
    Abstract: A word recognition system can: respond to the input of a character string from a user by limiting the words it will recognize to words having a related, but not necessarily the same, string; score signals generated after a user has been prompted to generate a given word against words other than the prompted word to determine if the signal should be used to train the prompted word; vary the number of signals a user is prompted to generate to train a given word as a function of how well the training signals score against each other or prior models for the prompted word; create a new acoustic model of a phrase by concatenating prior acoustic models of the words in the phrase; obtain information from another program running on the same computer, such as its commands or the context of text being entered into it, and use that information to vary which words it can recognize; determine which program unit, such as an application program or dialog box, currently has input focus on its computer and create a vocabulary
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 1997
    Date of Patent: December 15, 1998
    Assignee: Dragon Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Joel M. Gould, Elizabeth E. Steele, Frank J. McGrath, Steven D. Squires, Peter S. Heitman, Joel W. Parke, Dean G. Sturtevant, Jed M. Roberts, James K. Baker