Patents by Inventor Markus Funk

Markus Funk 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: 12236947
    Abstract: A voice-based system is configured to process commands in a flexible format, for example, in which a wake word does not necessarily have to occur at the beginning of an utterance. As in natural speech, the system being addressed may be named within or at the end of a spoken utterance rather than at the beginning, or depending on the context, may not be named at all.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2023
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2025
    Assignee: Cerence Operating Company
    Inventors: Bart D'hoore, Christoph Halboth, Holger Quast, Dino Seppi, Markus Funk, Tom Claes, Christophe Ris
  • Publication number: 20250058726
    Abstract: A vehicle system for classifying spoken utterance within a vehicle cabin as one of system-directed and non-system directed, the system may include at least one microphone configured to detect at least one audio signal from at least one occupant of a vehicle, and a processor programmed to receive the at least one audio signal including at least one acoustic utterance, determine a number of vehicle occupants based at least in part on the at least one signal, determine a probability that the utterance is system directed based at least in part one the utterance and the number of vehicle occupants, determine a classification threshold based at least in part on the number of vehicle occupants, compare the classification threshold to the probability to determine whether the at least one acoustic utterance is one of a system directed utterance and a non-system directed utterance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2022
    Publication date: February 20, 2025
    Applicant: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
    Inventors: Holger QUAST, Markus FUNK, Christophe COUVREUR
  • Publication number: 20250042396
    Abstract: An emergent driving assistant for a vehicle includes a control circuitry that receives a constraint signal, a feature signal, and a motion signal. The feature signal is in a first or second state. The first state indicates that the driver exhibits a non-neutral emotional state or a non-neutral gaze state. The second state indicates that the driver exhibits neutral emotional and gaze states. The constraint signal indicates a constraint on motion of the vehicle on a section of a road. The motion signal indicates the vehicle's motion. The control circuitry determines, based on the constraint and motion signals, whether the vehicle is violating the constraint. It then relieves the driver from complete control over a vehicle subsystem when the feature signal is in the first state and when the vehicle is violating the constraint.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 15, 2024
    Publication date: February 6, 2025
    Inventors: Mark Kane, Brian Rubin, Mohammad Mehdi Moniri, Markus Funk, Daniel Mario Kindermann
  • Publication number: 20240428789
    Abstract: A method comprising causing an automotive assistant in a vehicle to disregard an utterance made by an occupant of that vehicle based on a sightline of the occupant.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 21, 2024
    Publication date: December 26, 2024
    Inventors: Brian Rubin, Markus Funk
  • Publication number: 20240386898
    Abstract: A method for applying a watermark signal to a speech signal to prevent unauthorized use of speech signals, the method may include receiving an original speech signal; determining a corresponding spectrogram of the original speech signal; selecting a phase sequence of fixed frame length and uniform distribution; and generating an encoded watermark signal based on the corresponding spectrogram and phase sequence.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 29, 2024
    Publication date: November 21, 2024
    Applicant: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
    Inventors: Friedrich FAUBEL, Jonas JUNGCLAUSSEN, Marcus GROEBER, Holger QUAST, Oliver VAN PORTEN, Markus FUNK
  • Publication number: 20240333548
    Abstract: A method for providing communication between an intravehicular conferee who is in a vehicle and first and second extravehicular conferees who are outside the vehicle includes causing speech by the first extravehicular conferee to originate from a first zone in the vehicle and causing speech by the second extravehicular conferee to originate from a second zone in the vehicle. The first and second zones are volumes of space in a cabin of the vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 18, 2024
    Publication date: October 3, 2024
    Inventors: Gabriel Haas, Markus Funk, Cristina Evangelista
  • Patent number: 12067994
    Abstract: A method for applying a watermark signal to a speech signal to prevent unauthorized use of speech signals, the method may include receiving an original speech signal; determining a corresponding spectrogram of the original speech signal; selecting a phase sequence of fixed frame length and uniform distribution; and generating an encoded watermark signal based on the corresponding spectrogram and phase sequence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2024
    Assignee: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
    Inventors: Friedrich Faubel, Jonas Jungclaussen, Marcus Groeber, Holger Quast, Oliver Van Porten, Markus Funk
  • Publication number: 20240205637
    Abstract: Disclosed are systems, methods, and other implementations, including a method for controlling a configurable audio processor, coupled via a plurality of transducers (such as the microphones 220A-C and/or the loudspeakers 224A-B of FIG. 2) to an acoustic environment, that includes determining a three-dimensional spatial variation in the acoustic environment of a processing characteristic of the audio processor based on configuration values for the audio processor, forming a three-dimensional image of the three-dimensional spatial variation of the processing characteristic, and providing the three-dimensional image for presentation to a user for controlling the configuration values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2023
    Publication date: June 20, 2024
    Inventors: Gabriel Haas, Markus Funk, Simon Graf, Tobias Wolff
  • Publication number: 20240046924
    Abstract: A voice-based system is configured to process commands in a flexible format, for example, in which a wake word does not necessarily have to occur at the beginning of an utterance. As in natural speech, the system being addressed may be named within or at the end of a spoken utterance rather than at the beginning, or depending on the context, may not be named at all.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 10, 2023
    Publication date: February 8, 2024
    Inventors: Bart D'hoore, Christoph Halboth, Holger Quast, Dino Seppi, Markus Funk, Tom Claes, Christophe Ris
  • Publication number: 20240038249
    Abstract: A method for applying a watermark signal to a speech signal to prevent unauthorized use of speech signals, the method may include receiving an original speech signal; determining a corresponding spectrogram of the original speech signal; selecting a phase sequence of fixed frame length and uniform distribution; and generating an encoded watermark signal based on the corresponding spectrogram and phase sequence.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 27, 2022
    Publication date: February 1, 2024
    Applicant: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
    Inventors: Friedrich FAUBEL, Jonas JUNGCLAUSSEN, Marcus GROEBER, Holger QUAST, Oliver VAN PORTEN, Markus FUNK
  • Publication number: 20230419965
    Abstract: A method for managing an interaction between a user and a driver interaction system in a vehicle, the method comprising presenting a first audio output to a user from an output device of the driver interaction system, and, while presenting the first audio output to the user, receiving sensed input at the driver interaction system, processing the sensed input including determining an emotional content of the driver, and controlling the interaction based at least in part on the emotional content of the sensed input.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2022
    Publication date: December 28, 2023
    Inventors: Raymond Brueckner, Daniel Mario Kindermann, Markus Funk
  • Publication number: 20230395078
    Abstract: An interface customized to a detected emotional state of a user is provided. Audio signals are received from at least one microphone, the audio signals being indicative of spoken words, phrases, or commands. A wake-up word (WuW) is detected in the audio signals. An emotion is also detected in the audio signals containing the WuW. An emotion-aware processing system is configured according to the detected emotion. A voice control session is performed using the emotion-aware processing system configured according to the detected emotion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 6, 2022
    Publication date: December 7, 2023
    Applicant: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
    Inventors: Raymond BRUECKNER, Markus FUNK
  • Patent number: 11735172
    Abstract: A voice-based system is configured to process commands in a flexible format, for example, in which a wake word does not necessarily have to occur at the beginning of an utterance. As in natural speech, the system being addressed may be named within or at the end of a spoken utterance rather than at the beginning, or depending on the context, may not be named at all.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2023
    Assignee: Cerence Operating Company
    Inventors: Bart D'hoore, Christoph Halboth, Holger Quast, Dino Seppi, Markus Funk, Tom Claes, Christophe Ris
  • Publication number: 20230103202
    Abstract: A vehicle system for classifying spoken utterance within a vehicle cabin as one of system-directed and non-system directed, the system may include at least one microphone configured to detect at least one acoustic utterance from at least one occupant of a vehicle, at least one sensor to detect user behavior data indicative of user behavior, and a processor programmed to: receive the acoustic utterance, classify the acoustic utterance as one of a system-directed utterance and a non-system directed utterance, determine whether the acoustic utterance was properly classified based on user behavior observed via data received from the sensor after the classification, and apply a mitigating adjustment to classifications of subsequent acoustic utterances based on an improper classification.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 23, 2022
    Publication date: March 30, 2023
    Applicant: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
    Inventors: Markus FUNK, Holger QUAST
  • Publication number: 20220343906
    Abstract: A voice-based system is configured to process commands in a flexible format, for example, in which a wake word does not necessarily have to occur at the beginning of an utterance. As in natural speech, the system being addressed may be named within or at the end of a spoken utterance rather than at the beginning, or depending on the context, may not be named at all.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 26, 2021
    Publication date: October 27, 2022
    Inventors: Bart D'hoore, Christoph Halboth, Holger Quast, Dino Seppi, Markus Funk, Tom Claes, Christophe Ris
  • Patent number: 11416600
    Abstract: A method of using a head-mounted display to enable the display of confidential data includes authenticating a user by placing the HMD on the user's head, moving the HMD by moving the user's head to facilitate the user looking at a series of N objects in a predefined order, and providing access to the confidential data in response to the user looking at the predefined series of N objects in the predefined order and within a predefined time frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2022
    Assignee: SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventors: Markus Funk, Mareike Kritzler
  • Publication number: 20200117789
    Abstract: A method of using a head-mounted display to enable the display of confidential data includes authenticating a user by placing the HMD on the user's head, moving the HMD by moving the user's head to facilitate the user looking at a series of N objects in a predefined order, and providing access to the confidential data in response to the user looking at the predefined series of N objects in the predefined order and within a predefined time frame.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 24, 2018
    Publication date: April 16, 2020
    Inventors: Markus Funk, Mareike Kritzler