Abstract: A mobile voice communication device including a wireless transceiver circuit for transmitting and receiving voice communications and for receiving data; a digital processor; and a memory storing application program code which when executed on the digital processor causes the mobile voice communication device to provide predetermined functionality to the user of the mobile voice communication device. The predetermined functionality includes basic features and it includes enhanced features that are in addition to the basic features. The application program code has a deactivated state in which the mobile voice communication device provides the basic features to the user without providing the enhanced features and an activated state in which the mobile voice communication device provides the enhanced features.

Abstract: A method of operating a mobile communication device having a set of one or more applications, each with its own associated user-configurable customization, the method comprising detecting whether the user-configurable customization of any of the applications has changed since an earlier time, and for all applications for which the user-configurable customization has changed since said earlier time, wirelessly transmitting those changes to a remote server. The method further comprises maintaining a set of flags indicating whether changes have occurred to the user-configurable customization, wherein detecting whether the user-configurable customization of any of the applications has changed since said earlier time includes reading the set of flags. The remote server is one of a carrier server and a third party provider server.

Abstract: Channel normalization for automatic speech recognition is provided. Statistics are measured from an initial portion of a speech utterance. Feature normalization parameters are estimated based on the measured statistics and a statistically derived mapping relating measured statistics and feature normalization parameters. In some examples, the measured statistics comprise measures of an energy from the initial portion of the speech utterance. In some examples, measures of the energy comprise extreme values of the energy.

Abstract: A method and a system for testing a voice enabled application on a target device, the method including conducting one or more interactions with the target device, at least some of the interactions including presenting an acoustic utterance in an acoustic environment to the target device, receiving an output of the target device in response to the acoustic utterance, and comparing the output to an output expected from the acoustic utterance.

Abstract: A refrigerator includes a sensing system for detecting a level and quality of ice cubes in an ice cube storage bin. The sensing system employs a digital image capture device that is coupled to a digital image analyzing system which scans digital images of the ice cube storage bin captured by the digital image capture device to determine a level of ice cubes in the ice cube storage bin. Digital images of the ice cubes are contrasted against a reference image which provides a point of comparison for determining the level of ice cubes in the ice cube storage bin and controlling ice production cycles of the ice maker. The sensing system also analyzes edge portions of the ice cubes to determine ice cube quality.

Abstract: In one aspect, a method of processing a voice signal to extract information to facilitate training a speech synthesis model is provided. The method comprises acts of detecting a plurality of candidate features in the voice signal, performing at least one comparison between one or more combinations of the plurality of candidate features and the voice signal, and selecting a set of features from the plurality of candidate features based, at least in part, on the at least one comparison. In another aspect, the method is performed by executing a program encoded on a computer readable medium. In another aspect, a speech synthesis model is provided by, at least in part, performing the method.

Abstract: A method of improving the performance of a speech recognizer, the method involving: providing a lexicon for the speech recognizer; monitoring a user's interaction with a network; accessing a plurality of words associated with the monitored interaction; and including the plurality of words in the lexicon.

Abstract: A mobile device, such as a cellular telephone includes a voice interface that includes one part that may not be specific to a particular carrier, and a second part that provides an interface to services that are specific to a carrier or to service or information providers that are not necessarily available with all carriers. A voice command interface provides easy access to the carrier services. The set of carrier services is optionally extendible by the carrier.

Abstract: A method and a system for testing a voice enabled application on a target device, the method including conducting one or more interactions with the target device, at least some of the interactions including presenting an acoustic utterance in an acoustic environment to the target device, receiving an output of the target device in response to the acoustic utterance, and comparing the output to an output expected from the acoustic utterance.

Abstract: Statistics are measured from an initial portion of a speech utterance. Feature normalization parameters are estimated based on the measured statistics and a statistically derived mapping relating measured statistics and feature normalization parameters.

Abstract: A method of operating a mobile communication device having a set of one or more applications, each with its own associated user-configurable customization, the method comprising detecting whether the user-configurable customization of any of the applications has changed since an earlier time, and for all applications for which the user-configurable customization has changed since said earlier time, wirelessly transmitting those changes to a remote server. The method further comprises maintaining a set of flags indicating whether changes have occurred to the user-configurable customization, wherein detecting whether the user-configurable customization of any of the applications has changed since said earlier time includes reading the set of flags. The remote server is one of a carrier server and a third party provider server.

Abstract: A handheld device with both large-vocabulary speech recognition and audio recoding allows users to switch between at least two of the following three modes: (1) recording audio without corresponding speech recognition; (2) recording with speech recognition; and (3) speech recognition without audio recording. A handheld device with both large-vocabulary speech recognition and audio recoding enables a user to select a portion of previously recorded sound and have speech recognition performed upon it. A system enables a user to search for a text label associated with portions of unrecognized recorded sound by uttering the label's words. A large-vocabulary system allows users to switch between playing back recorded audio and speech recognition with a single input, with successive audio playbacks automatically starting slightly before the end of prior playback. And a cell phone that allows both large-vocabulary speech recognition and audio recording and playback.

Abstract: The present invention relates to speech recognition that enables a user to perform re-utterance recognition, in which speech recognition is performed upon both a second saying of a sequence of one or more words and upon an earlier saying of the same sequence to help the speech recognition better select one or more best scoring text sequences for the utterances.

Abstract: A method of operating a mobile communication device that includes a speaker independent recognizer and a memory storing phonebook including a plurality of names, the method involving: generating a first voice signal from a first voice input received from a user, the first voice input specifying a selected one of a plurality of names; comparing the first voice signal to a plurality of voice tags that are stored in the device to identify the selected name in the phonebook; generating a second voice signal from a second speech input received from the user, the second voice input specifying a selected one of a plurality of phone number types; using the speaker independent recognizer to identify the selected phone number type; retrieving a phone number that is stored in association with the identified type for the identified name; and initiating a call to the phone number associated with the identified type for the identified name.

Abstract: A method of constructing a text message on a mobile communications device, the method involving: storing a plurality of text phrases; for each of the text phrases, storing a representation that is derived from that text phrase; receiving a spoken phrase from a user; from the received spoken phrase generating an acoustic representation thereof; based on the acoustic representation, searching among the stored representations to identify a stored text phrase that best matches the spoken phrase; and inserting into an electronic document the text phrase that is identified from searching.

Abstract: A method of operating a device that includes speech recognition capabilities includes implementing on a device a plurality of user interfaces, wherein at least one said user interfaces is a voice interface. The method also includes launching a first application, and as part of launching the first application, launching a second application, the second application optionally presenting to a user at least one query using the voice interface and populating an address field in the first application in response to the query using the speech recognition capabilities. The second application is launched either simultaneously or subsequent to the launching of the first application. Populating the address field comprises accessing address information from a plurality of databases resident in the device.

Abstract: A method including: providing a mobile device (e.g. cellular phone) with a core engine for performing speech recognition; providing a plurality of sets of language-specific modules, each set of the plurality of sets for enabling the core engine to recognize a different language; selecting one set of language-specific modules among the plurality of sets of language-specific modules; and loading into memory within the mobile communication device the selected set of language-specific modules so as to enable the mobile communication device to recognize speech spoken in the language of the selected set.

Abstract: The apparatus and methods for using earcons as user prompts in mobile communication devices described herein are directed to implementing a mode of communication in these communication devices having speech recognition capabilities wherein spoken prompts are disabled and replaced with short identifiable sound prompts such as the earcons.

Abstract: A method of transferring phone book information from one cell phone to another cell phone includes compiling the phone book information relating to one or more cell phone users into a data transmission package, and sending the data transmission package from the first cell phone to the second cell phone, via a communication channel native to the first and second cell phones.

Abstract: The present invention relates to speech recognition using selectable recognition modes. This includes innovations such as: large vocabulary speech recognition programming that supplies recognized words to external program as they are recognized, and allows a user to select between large vocabulary recognition of an utterance with and without language context from the prior utterance independently of state of the external program; allowing a user to select between continuous and discrete speech recognition that use substantially the same vocabulary; allowing a user to select between continuous and discrete large-vocabulary speech recognition modes; allowing a user to select between at least two different alphabetic entry speech recognition modes; and allowing a user to select from among four or more of the following recognitions modes when creating text: a large-vocabulary mode, an alphabetic entry mode, a number entry mode, and a punctuation entry mode.