Patents by Inventor Keith C. Herold

Keith C. Herold 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: 11089132
    Abstract: Techniques are described herein that are capable of providing extensibility with regard to a context-aware digital personal assistant. For instance, a description of a capability of a target (e.g., a software target) may be received. Examples of a target include but are not limited to an application (e.g., a software application), a service, a bot, and a website. In a first example, a digital personal assistant may be caused to perform operation(s) based at least in part on a context of a user. In a second example, whether the digital personal assistant performs operation(s) that are configured to be triggered by first aspect(s) of the context of the user is controlled based at least in part on second aspect(s) of the context of the user. The operation(s) include notifying the user of the capability and/or implementing the capability on behalf of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2021
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Christian Liensberger, Pauline Chao, Henrik Frystyk Nielsen, Harris Syed, Jonathan E. Hamaker, Paul S. Bloom, Keith C. Herold, Erez Altus, Hen Fitoussi
  • Publication number: 20170289305
    Abstract: Techniques are described herein that are capable of providing extensibility with regard to a context-aware digital personal assistant. For instance, a description of a capability of a target (e.g., a software target) may be received. Examples of a target include but are not limited to an application (e.g., a software application), a service, a bot, and a website. In a first example, a digital personal assistant may be caused to perform operation(s) based at least in part on a context of a user. In a second example, whether the digital personal assistant performs operation(s) that are configured to be triggered by first aspect(s) of the context of the user is controlled based at least in part on second aspect(s) of the context of the user. The operation(s) include notifying the user of the capability and/or implementing the capability on behalf of the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 27, 2016
    Publication date: October 5, 2017
    Inventors: Christian Liensberger, Pauline Chao, Henrik Frystyk Nielsen, Harris Syed, Jonathan E. Hamaker, Paul S. Bloom, Keith C. Herold, Erez Altus, Hen Fitoussi
  • Patent number: 8775183
    Abstract: Textual transcription of speech is generated and formatted according to user-specified transformation and behavior requirements for a speech recognition system having input grammars and transformations. An apparatus may include a speech recognition platform configured to receive a user-specified transformation requirement, recognize speech in speech data into recognized speech according to a set of recognition grammars; and apply transformations to the recognized speech according to the user-specified transformation requirement. The apparatus may further be configured to receive a user-specified behavior requirement and transform the recognized speech according to the behavior requirement. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Jonathan E. Hamaker, Keith C. Herold
  • Patent number: 8442826
    Abstract: Architecture for integrating application-dependent information into a constraints component at deployment time or when available. In terms of a general grammar, the constraints component can include or be a general grammar that comprises application-independent information and is structured in such a way that application-dependent information can be integrated into the general grammar without loss of fidelity. The general grammar includes a probability space and reserves a section of the probability space for the integration of application-dependent information. An integration component integrates the application-dependent information into the reserved section of the probability space for recognition processing. The application-dependent information is integrated into the reserved section of the probability space at deployment time or when available. The general grammar is structured to support the integration and improve the overall system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Jonathan E. Hamaker, Julian James Odell, Michael D. Plumpe, Sandeep Manocha, Keith C. Herold
  • Patent number: 7962331
    Abstract: Systems and methods for improving the performance of a speech recognition system. In some embodiments a tuner module and/or a tester module are configured to cooperate with a speech recognition system. The tester and tuner modules can be configured to cooperate with each other. In one embodiment, the tuner module may include a module for playing back a selected portion of a digital data audio file, a module for creating and/or editing a transcript of the selected portion, and/or a module for displaying information associated with a decoding of the selected portion, the decoding generated by a speech recognition engine. In other embodiments, the tester module can include an editor for creating and/or modifying a grammar, a module for receiving a selected portion of a digital audio file and its corresponding transcript, and a scoring module for producing scoring statistics of the decoding based at least in part on the transcript.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2011
    Assignee: Lumenvox, LLC
    Inventors: Edward S. Miller, James F. Blake, II, Keith C. Herold, Michael D. Bergman, Kyle N. Danielson, Alexandra L. Auckland
  • Publication number: 20100318359
    Abstract: Architecture for integrating application-dependent information into a constraints component at deployment time or when available. In terms of a general grammar, the constraints component can include or be a general grammar that comprises application-independent information and is structured in such a way that application-dependent information can be integrated into the general grammar without loss of fidelity. The general grammar includes a probability space and reserves a section of the probability space for the integration of application-dependent information. An integration component integrates the application-dependent information into the reserved section of the probability space for recognition processing. The application-dependent information is integrated into the reserved section of the probability space at deployment time or when available. The general grammar is structured to support the integration and improve the overall system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 10, 2009
    Publication date: December 16, 2010
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Jonathan E. Hamaker, Julian James Odell, Michael D. Plumpe, Sandeep Manocha, Keith C. Herold
  • Publication number: 20100318356
    Abstract: Textual transcription of speech is generated and formatted according to user-specified transformation and behavior requirements for a speech recognition system having input grammars and transformations. An apparatus may include a speech recognition platform configured to receive a user-specified transformation requirement, recognize speech in speech data into recognized speech according to a set of recognition grammars; and apply transformations to the recognized speech according to the user-specified transformation requirement. The apparatus may further be configured to receive a user-specified behavior requirement and transform the recognized speech according to the behavior requirement. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2009
    Publication date: December 16, 2010
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Jonathan E. Hamaker, Keith C. Herold
  • Publication number: 20090043576
    Abstract: Systems and methods for improving the performance of a speech recognition system. In some embodiments a tuner module and/or a tester module are configured to cooperate with a speech recognition system. The tester and tuner modules can be configured to cooperate with each other. In one embodiment, the tuner module may include a module for playing back a selected portion of a digital data audio file, a module for creating and/or editing a transcript of the selected portion, and/or a module for displaying information associated with a decoding of the selected portion, the decoding generated by a speech recognition engine. In other embodiments, the tester module can include an editor for creating and/or modifying a grammar, a module for receiving a selected portion of a digital audio file and its corresponding transcript, and a scoring module for producing scoring statistics of the decoding based at least in part on the transcript.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 21, 2008
    Publication date: February 12, 2009
    Applicant: LumenVox, LLC
    Inventors: Edward S. Miller, James F. Blake, II, Keith C. Herold, Michael D. Bergman, Kyle N. Danielson, Alexandra L. Auckland
  • Patent number: 7440895
    Abstract: Systems and methods for improving the performance of a speech recognition system. In some embodiments a tuner module and/or a tester module are configured to cooperate with a speech recognition system. The tester and tuner modules can be configured to cooperate with each other. In one embodiment, the tuner module may include a module for playing back a selected portion of a digital data audio file, a module for creating and/or editing a transcript of the selected portion, and/or a module for displaying information associated with a decoding of the selected portion, the decoding generated by a speech recognition engine. In other embodiments, the tester module can include an editor for creating and/or modifying a grammar, a module for receiving a selected portion of a digital audio file and its corresponding transcript, and a scoring module for producing scoring statistics of the decoding based at least in part on the transcript.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: Lumenvox, LLC.
    Inventors: Edward S. Miller, James F. Blake, II, Keith C. Herold, Michael D. Bergman, Kyle N. Danielson, Alexandra L. Auckland
  • Patent number: 7324940
    Abstract: Systems and methods for determining a confidence score associated with a decoding output of a speech recognition engine. In one embodiment, a method of determining the confidence score comprises arranging time frame and acoustic score data into an array, determining a phoneme sequence in the array that yields the highest sum of acoustic scores under certain constraints, e.g., minimum number of time frames and order of phonemes in a phoneme string. A relative score is derived by applying a functional relationship between the acoustic score and different sums comprising acoustic scores from the array. The confidence score, in some embodiments, depends at least in part on the relative score and a measure of ambiguity associated with similar sounding phrases being included in different concepts of a specified grammar.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2008
    Assignee: Lumen Vox, LLC
    Inventors: Edward S. Miller, James F. Blake, II, Kyle N. Danielson, Keith C. Herold
  • Publication number: 20040111259
    Abstract: A system and method for a speech recognition system application program interface (API). The system and method additionally enable the application programmer to generate multiple grammars and voice channels, such that the audio data in any voice channel may be decoded utilizing any active grammar. The system and method enable the dynamic updating of grammars without reloading or rebooting the system. Additionally, the grammar can be implemented to include multiple grammars having multiple concepts. Still further, each concept can be implemented to include multiple phrases, and the system and method are configured to decode flexible phrase formats.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 10, 2002
    Publication date: June 10, 2004
    Inventors: Edward S. Miller, James F. Blake, Kyle N. Danielson, Michael D. Bergman, Keith C. Herold