Patents by Inventor Johan Schalkwyk

Johan Schalkwyk 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: 10210267
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for processing spoken query terms. In one aspect, a method includes performing speech recognition on an audio signal to select two or more textual, candidate transcriptions that match a spoken query term, and to establish a speech recognition confidence value for each candidate transcription, obtaining a search history for a user who spoke the spoken query term, where the search history references one or more past search queries that have been submitted by the user, generating one or more n-grams from each candidate transcription, where each n-gram is a subsequence of n phonemes, syllables, letters, characters, words or terms from a respective candidate transcription, and determining, for each n-gram, a frequency with which the n-gram occurs in the past search queries, and a weighting value that is based on the respective frequency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Matthew I. Lloyd, Johan Schalkwyk, Pankaj Risbood
  • Patent number: 10157040
    Abstract: A computer-implemented input-method editor process includes receiving a request from a user for an application-independent input method editor having written and spoken input capabilities, identifying that the user is about to provide spoken input to the application-independent input method editor, and receiving a spoken input from the user. The spoken input corresponds to input to an application and is converted to text that represents the spoken input. The text is provided as input to the application.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2018
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Brandon M. Ballinger, Johan Schalkwyk, Michael H. Cohen, William J. Byrne, Gudmundur Hafsteinsson, Michael J. LeBeau
  • Publication number: 20180336906
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining hotword suitability. In one aspect, a method includes receiving speech data that encodes a candidate hotword spoken by a user, evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the candidate hotword, using one or more predetermined criteria, generating a hotword suitability score for the candidate hotword based on evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the candidate hotword, using one or more predetermined criteria, and providing a representation of the hotword suitability score for display to the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 16, 2018
    Publication date: November 22, 2018
    Inventors: Andrew Rubin, Johan Schalkwyk, Maria Carolina Parada San Martin
  • Publication number: 20180233150
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for detecting hotwords using a server. One of the methods includes receiving an audio signal encoding one or more utterances including a first utterance; determining whether at least a portion of the first utterance satisfies a first threshold of being at least a portion of a key phrase; in response to determining that at least the portion of the first utterance satisfies the first threshold of being at least a portion of a key phrase, sending the audio signal to a server system that determines whether the first utterance satisfies a second threshold of being the key phrase, the second threshold being more restrictive than the first threshold; and receiving tagged text data representing the one or more utterances encoded in the audio signal when the server system determines that the first utterance satisfies the second threshold.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 14, 2017
    Publication date: August 16, 2018
    Inventors: Alexander H. Gruenstein, Petar Aleksic, Johan Schalkwyk, Pedro J. Moreno Mengibar
  • Patent number: 10002613
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining hotword suitability. In one aspect, a method includes receiving speech data that encodes a candidate hotword spoken by a user, evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the candidate hotword, using one or more predetermined criteria, generating a hotword suitability score for the candidate hotword based on evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the candidate hotword, using one or more predetermined criteria, and providing a representation of the hotword suitability score for display to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2018
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Andrew E. Rubin, Johan Schalkwyk, Maria Carolina Parada San Martin
  • Publication number: 20180130469
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for hotword trigger suppression are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes the actions of receiving, by a microphone of a computing device, audio corresponding to playback of an item of media content, the audio including an utterance of a predefined hotword that is associated with performing an operation on the computing device. The actions further include processing the audio. The actions further include in response to processing the audio, suppressing performance of the operation on the computing device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 31, 2017
    Publication date: May 10, 2018
    Inventors: Alexander H. Gruenstein, Johan Schalkwyk, Matthew Sharifi
  • Publication number: 20170301352
    Abstract: Methods, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for improving speech recognition based on external data sources. In one aspect, a method includes obtaining an initial candidate transcription of an utterance using an automated speech recognizer and identifying, based on a language model that is not used by the automated speech recognizer in generating the initial candidate transcription, one or more terms that are phonetically similar to one or more terms that do occur in the initial candidate transcription. Additional actions include generating one or more additional candidate transcriptions based on the identified one or more terms and selecting a transcription from among the candidate transcriptions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 29, 2017
    Publication date: October 19, 2017
    Inventors: Trevor D. Strohman, Johan Schalkwyk, Gleb Skobeltsyn
  • Patent number: 9786269
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for language modeling of complete language sequences. Training data indicating language sequences is accessed, and counts for a number of times each language sequence occurs in the training data are determined. A proper subset of the language sequences is selected, and a first component of a language model is trained. The first component includes first probability data for assigning scores to the selected language sequences. A second component of the language model is trained based on the training data, where the second component includes second probability data for assigning scores to language sequences that are not included in the selected language sequences. Adjustment data that normalizes the second probability data with respect to the first probability data is generated, and the first component, the second component, and the adjustment data are stored.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Ciprian I. Chelba, Hasim Sak, Johan Schalkwyk
  • Publication number: 20170229124
    Abstract: Methods, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for improving speech recognition based on external data sources. In one aspect, a method includes obtaining an initial candidate transcription of an utterance using an automated speech recognizer and identifying, based on a language model that is not used by the automated speech recognizer in generating the initial candidate transcription, one or more terms that are phonetically similar to one or more terms that do occur in the initial candidate transcription. Additional actions include generating one or more additional candidate transcriptions based on the identified one or more terms and selecting a transcription from among the candidate transcriptions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 5, 2016
    Publication date: August 10, 2017
    Inventors: Trevor D. Strohman, Johan Schalkwyk, Gleb Skobeltsyn
  • Patent number: 9728185
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for recognizing speech using neural networks. One of the methods includes receiving an audio input; processing the audio input using an acoustic model to generate a respective phoneme score for each of a plurality of phoneme labels; processing one or more of the phoneme scores using an inverse pronunciation model to generate a respective grapheme score for each of a plurality of grapheme labels; and processing one or more of the grapheme scores using a language model to generate a respective text label score for each of a plurality of text labels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Johan Schalkwyk, Francoise Beaufays, Hasim Sak, John Giannandrea
  • Publication number: 20170199665
    Abstract: In some examples, a computing device includes at least one processor; and at least one module, operable by the at least one processor to: output, for display at an output device, a graphical keyboard; receive an indication of a gesture detected at a location of a presence-sensitive input device, wherein the location of the presence-sensitive input device corresponds to a location of the output device that outputs the graphical keyboard; determine, based on at least one spatial feature of the gesture that is processed by the computing device using a neural network, at least one character string, wherein the at least one spatial feature indicates at least one physical property of the gesture; and output, for display at the output device, based at least in part on the processing of the at least one spatial feature of the gesture using the neural network, the at least one character string.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2017
    Publication date: July 13, 2017
    Inventors: Shumin Zhai, Thomas Breuel, Ouais Alsharif, Yu Ouyang, Francoise Beaufays, Johan Schalkwyk
  • Patent number: 9678664
    Abstract: In some examples, a computing device includes at least one processor; and at least one module, operable by the at least one processor to: output, for display at an output device, a graphical keyboard; receive an indication of a gesture detected at a location of a presence-sensitive input device, wherein the location of the presence-sensitive input device corresponds to a location of the output device that outputs the graphical keyboard; determine, based on at least one spatial feature of the gesture that is processed by the computing device using a neural network, at least one character string, wherein the at least one spatial feature indicates at least one physical property of the gesture; and output, for display at the output device, based at least in part on the processing of the at least one spatial feature of the gesture using the neural network, the at least one character string.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2017
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Shumin Zhai, Thomas Breuel, Ouais Alsharif, Yu Ouyang, Francoise Beaufays, Johan Schalkwyk
  • Patent number: 9569431
    Abstract: The present disclosure describes a teleconferencing system that may use a virtual participant processor to translate language content of the teleconference into each participant's spoken language without additional user inputs. The virtual participant processor may connect to the teleconference as do the other participants. The virtual participant processor may intercept all text or audio data that was previously exchanged between the participants may now be intercepted by the virtual participant processor. Upon obtaining a partial or complete language recognition result or making a language preference determination, the virtual participant processor may call a translation engine appropriate for each of the participants. The virtual participant processor may send the resulting translation to a teleconference management processor. The teleconference management processor may deliver the respective translated text or audio data to the appropriate participant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2017
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Jakob David Uszkoreit, Ashish Venugopal, Johan Schalkwyk, Joshua James Estelle
  • Patent number: 9536528
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining hotword suitability. In one aspect, a method includes receiving speech data that encodes a candidate hotword spoken by a user, evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the candidate hotword, using one or more predetermined criteria, generating a hotword suitability score for the candidate hotword based on evaluating the speech data or a transcription of the candidate hotword, using one or more predetermined criteria, and providing a representation of the hotword suitability score for display to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2017
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew E. Rubin, Johan Schalkwyk, Maria Carolina Parada San Martin
  • Patent number: 9495127
    Abstract: Methods, computer program products and systems are described for converting speech to text. Sound information is received at a computer server system from an electronic device, where the sound information is from a user of the electronic device. A context identifier indicates a context within which the user provided the sound information. The context identifier is used to select, from among multiple language models, a language model appropriate for the context. Speech in the sound information is converted to text using the selected language model. The text is provided for use by the electronic device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2016
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Brandon M. Ballinger, Johan Schalkwyk, Michael H. Cohen, Cyril Georges Luc Allauzen
  • Patent number: 9483459
    Abstract: A system is configured to receive a first string corresponding to an interpretation of a natural-language user voice entry; provide a representation of the first string as feedback to the natural-language user voice entry; receive, based on the feedback, a second string corresponding to a natural-language corrective user entry, where the natural-language corrective user entry may correspond to a correction to the natural-language user voice entry; parse the second string into one or more tokens; determine at least one corrective instruction from the one or more tokens of the second string; generate, from at least a portion of each of the first and second strings and based on the at least one corrective instruction, candidate corrected user entries; select a corrected user entry from the candidate corrected user entries; and output the selected, corrected user entry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2016
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Michael D Riley, Johan Schalkwyk, Cyril Georges Luc Allauzen, Ciprian Ioan Chelba, Edward Oscar Benson
  • Publication number: 20160299685
    Abstract: In some examples, a computing device includes at least one processor; and at least one module, operable by the at least one processor to: output, for display at an output device, a graphical keyboard; receive an indication of a gesture detected at a location of a presence-sensitive input device, wherein the location of the presence-sensitive input device corresponds to a location of the output device that outputs the graphical keyboard; determine, based on at least one spatial feature of the gesture that is processed by the computing device using a neural network, at least one character string, wherein the at least one spatial feature indicates at least one physical property of the gesture; and output, for display at the output device, based at least in part on the processing of the at least one spatial feature of the gesture using the neural network, the at least one character string.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 10, 2015
    Publication date: October 13, 2016
    Inventors: Shumin Zhai, Thomas Breuel, Ouais Alsharif, Yu Ouyang, Francoise Beaufays, Johan Schalkwyk
  • Patent number: 9418177
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for processing spoken query terms. In one aspect, a method includes performing speech recognition on an audio signal to select two or more textual, candidate transcriptions that match a spoken query term, and to establish a speech recognition confidence value for each candidate transcription, obtaining a search history for a user who spoke the spoken query term, where the search history references one or more past search queries that have been submitted by the user, generating one or more n-grams from each candidate transcription, where each n-gram is a subsequence of n phonemes, syllables, letters, characters, words or terms from a respective candidate transcription, and determining, for each n-gram, a frequency with which the n-gram occurs in the past search queries, and a weighting value that is based on the respective frequency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2016
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Matthew I. Lloyd, Johan Schalkwyk, Pankaj Risbood
  • Publication number: 20160203127
    Abstract: The present disclosure describes a teleconferencing system that may use a virtual participant processor to translate language content of the teleconference into each participant's spoken language without additional user inputs. The virtual participant processor may connect to the teleconference as do the other participants. The virtual participant processor may intercept all text or audio data that was previously exchanged between the participants may now be intercepted by the virtual participant processor. Upon obtaining a partial or complete language recognition result or making a language preference determination, the virtual participant processor may call a translation engine appropriate for each of the participants. The virtual participant processor may send the resulting translation to a teleconference management processor. The teleconference management processor may deliver the respective translated text or audio data to the appropriate participant.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 21, 2016
    Publication date: July 14, 2016
    Applicant: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Jakob David Uszkoreit, Ashish Venugopal, Johan Schalkwyk, Joshua James Estelle
  • Patent number: 9378733
    Abstract: Embodiments pertain to automatic speech recognition in mobile devices to establish the presence of a keyword. An audio waveform is received at a mobile device. Front-end feature extraction is performed on the audio waveform, followed by acoustic modeling, high level feature extraction, and output classification to detect the keyword. Acoustic modeling may use a neural network or a vector quantization dictionary and high level feature extraction may use pooling.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2016
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Vincent O. Vanhoucke, Oriol Vinyals, Patrick An Phu Nguyen, Maria Carolina Parada San Martin, Johan Schalkwyk