Patents by Inventor Mazin G. Rahim
Mazin G. Rahim 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: 8818808Abstract: Utterance data that includes at least a small amount of manually transcribed data is provided. Automatic speech recognition is performed on ones of the utterance data not having a corresponding manual transcription to produce automatically transcribed utterances. A model is trained using all of the manually transcribed data and the automatically transcribed utterances. A predetermined number of utterances not having a corresponding manual transcription are intelligently selected and manually transcribed. Ones of the automatically transcribed data as well as ones having a corresponding manual transcription are labeled. In another aspect of the invention, audio data is mined from at least one source, and a language model is trained for call classification from the mined audio data to produce a language model.Type: GrantFiled: February 23, 2005Date of Patent: August 26, 2014Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Dilek Z. Hakkani-Tur, Mazin G. Rahim, Giuseppe Riccardi, Gokhan Tur
-
Publication number: 20140222426Abstract: The invention relates to a system and method for gathering data for use in a spoken dialog system. An aspect of the invention is generally referred to as an automated hidden human that performs data collection automatically at the beginning of a conversation with a user in a spoken dialog system. The method comprises presenting an initial prompt to a user, recognizing a received user utterance using an automatic speech recognition engine and classifying the recognized user utterance using a spoken language understanding module. If the recognized user utterance is not understood or classifiable to a predetermined acceptance threshold, then the method re-prompts the user. If the recognized user utterance is not classifiable to a predetermined rejection threshold, then the method transfers the user to a human as this may imply a task-specific utterance. The received and classified user utterance is then used for training the spoken dialog system.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 7, 2014Publication date: August 7, 2014Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Giuseppe Di Fabbrizio, Dilek Z. Hakkani-Tur, Mazin G. Rahim, Bernard S. Renger, Gokhan Tur
-
Publication number: 20140207462Abstract: Disclosed is a method for training a spoken dialog service component from website data. Spoken dialog service components typically include an automatic speech recognition module, a language understanding module, a dialog management module, a language generation module and a text-to-speech module. The method includes selecting anchor texts within a website based on a term density, weighting those anchor texts based on a percent of salient words to total words, and incorporating the weighted anchor texts into a live spoken dialog interface, the weights determining a level of incorporation into the live spoken dialog interface.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 25, 2014Publication date: July 24, 2014Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Srinivas Bangalore, Junlan Feng, Mazin G. Rahim
-
Publication number: 20140188480Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for generating customized text-to-speech voices for a particular application. The method comprises generating a custom text-to-speech voice by selecting a voice for generating a custom text-to-speech voice associated with a domain, collecting text data associated with the domain from a pre-existing text data source and using the collected text data, generating an in-domain inventory of synthesis speech units by selecting speech units appropriate to the domain via a search of a pre-existing inventory of synthesis speech units, or by recording the minimal inventory for a selected level of synthesis quality. The text-to-speech custom voice for the domain is generated utilizing the in-domain inventory of synthesis speech units. Active learning techniques may also be employed to identify problem phrases wherein only a few minutes of recorded data is necessary to deliver a high quality TTS custom voice.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 4, 2014Publication date: July 3, 2014Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Srinivas BANGALORE, Junlan Feng, Mazin G. Rahim, Juergen Schroeter, Ann K. Syrdal, David Schulz
-
Publication number: 20140163988Abstract: A system and a method are provided. A speech recognition processor receives unconstrained input speech and outputs a string of words. The speech recognition processor is based on a numeric language that represents a subset of a vocabulary. The subset includes a set of words identified as being for interpreting and understanding number strings. A numeric understanding processor contains classes of rules for converting the string of words into a sequence of digits. The speech recognition processor utilizes an acoustic model database. A validation database stores a set of valid sequences of digits. A string validation processor outputs validity information based on a comparison of a sequence of digits output by the numeric understanding processor with valid sequences of digits in the validation database.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 17, 2014Publication date: June 12, 2014Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Mazin G. Rahim, Giuseppe Riccardi, Jeremy Huntley Wright, Bruce Melvin Buntschuh, Allen Louis Gorin
-
Publication number: 20140149121Abstract: A voice-enabled help desk service is disclosed. The service comprises an automatic speech recognition module for recognizing speech from a user, a spoken language understanding module for understanding the output from the automatic speech recognition module, a dialog management module for generating a response to speech from the user, a natural voices text-to-speech synthesis module for synthesizing speech to generate the response to the user, and a frequently asked questions module. The frequently asked questions module handles frequently asked questions from the user by changing voices and providing predetermined prompts to answer frequently asked questions.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 3, 2014Publication date: May 29, 2014Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Giuseppe Di Fabbrizio, Dawn L. Dutton, Narendra K. Gupta, Barbara B. Hollister, Mazin G. Rahim, Giuseppe Riccardi, Robert Elias Schapire, Juergen Schroeter
-
Publication number: 20140136507Abstract: A system and method for providing a natural language interface to a database or the Internet. The method provides a response from a database to a natural language query. The method comprises receiving a user query, extracting key data from the user query, submitting the extracted key data to a data base search engine to retrieve a top n pages from the data base, processing of the top n pages through a natural language dialog engine and providing a response based on processing the top n pages.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 23, 2014Publication date: May 15, 2014Applicant: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY II, L.P.Inventors: Richard Vandervoort COX, Hossein ESLAMBOLCHI, Behzad NADJI, Mazin G. RAHIM
-
Patent number: 8718242Abstract: A system and method provides a natural language interface to world-wide web content. Either in advance or dynamically, webpage content is parsed using a parsing algorithm. A person using a telephone interface can provide speech information, which is converted to text and used to automatically fill in input fields on a webpage form. The form is then submitted to a database search and a response is generated. Information contained on the responsive webpage is extracted and converted to speech via a text-to-speech engine and communicated to the person.Type: GrantFiled: June 11, 2013Date of Patent: May 6, 2014Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Srinivas Bangalore, Mazin G. Rahim, Junlan Feng
-
Patent number: 8694324Abstract: The invention relates to a system and method for gathering data for use in a spoken dialog system. An aspect of the invention is generally referred to as an automated hidden human that performs data collection automatically at the beginning of a conversation with a user in a spoken dialog system. The method comprises presenting an initial prompt to a user, recognizing a received user utterance using an automatic speech recognition engine and classifying the recognized user utterance using a spoken language understanding module. If the recognized user utterance is not understood or classifiable to a predetermined acceptance threshold, then the method re-prompts the user. If the recognized user utterance is not classifiable to a predetermined rejection threshold, then the method transfers the user to a human as this may imply a task-specific utterance. The received and classified user utterance is then used for training the spoken dialog system.Type: GrantFiled: May 21, 2012Date of Patent: April 8, 2014Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Giuseppe Di Fabbrizio, Dilek Z. Hakkani-Tur, Mazin G. Rahim, Bernard S. Renger, Gokhan Tur
-
Patent number: 8688456Abstract: Disclosed is a method for training a spoken dialog service component from website data. Spoken dialog service components typically include an automatic speech recognition module, a language understanding module, a dialog management module, a language generation module and a text-to-speech module. The method includes selecting anchor texts within a website based on a term density, weighting those anchor texts based on a percent of salient words to total words, and incorporating the weighted anchor texts into a live spoken dialog interface, the weights determining a level of incorporation into the live spoken dialog interface.Type: GrantFiled: May 10, 2013Date of Patent: April 1, 2014Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Srinivas Bangalore, Junlan Feng, Mazin G. Rahim
-
Publication number: 20140074477Abstract: A system and method are disclosed that improve automatic speech recognition in a spoken dialog system. The method comprises partitioning speech recognizer output into self-contained clauses, identifying a dialog act in each of the self-contained clauses, qualifying dialog acts by identifying a current domain object and/or a current domain action, and determining whether further qualification is possible for the current domain object and/or current domain action. If further qualification is possible, then the method comprises identifying another domain action and/or another domain object associated with the current domain object and/or current domain action, reassigning the another domain action and/or another domain object as the current domain action and/or current domain object and then recursively qualifying the new current domain action and/or current object. This process continues until nothing is left to qualify.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 15, 2013Publication date: March 13, 2014Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Srinivas Bangalore, Narendra K. Gupta, Mazin G. Rahim
-
Patent number: 8671088Abstract: A system and method for providing a natural language interface to a database or the Internet. The method provides a response from a database to a natural language query. The method comprises receiving a user query, extracting key data from the user query, submitting the extracted key data to a data base search engine to retrieve a top n pages from the data base, processing of the top n pages through a natural language dialog engine and providing a response based on processing the top n pages.Type: GrantFiled: April 1, 2013Date of Patent: March 11, 2014Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Richard Vandervoort Cox, Hossein Eslambolchi, Behzad Nadji, Mazin G. Rahim
-
Patent number: 8666746Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for generating customized text-to-speech voices for a particular application. The method comprises generating a custom text-to-speech voice by selecting a voice for generating a custom text-to-speech voice associated with a domain, collecting text data associated with the domain from a pre-existing text data source and using the collected text data, generating an in-domain inventory of synthesis speech units by selecting speech units appropriate to the domain via a search of a pre-existing inventory of synthesis speech units, or by recording the minimal inventory for a selected level of synthesis quality. The text-to-speech custom voice for the domain is generated utilizing the in-domain inventory of synthesis speech units. Active learning techniques may also be employed to identify problem phrases wherein only a few minutes of recorded data is necessary to deliver a high quality TTS custom voice.Type: GrantFiled: May 13, 2004Date of Patent: March 4, 2014Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Srinivas Bangalore, Junlan Feng, Mazin G. Rahim, Juergen Schroeter, David Eugene Schulz, Ann K. Syrdal
-
Patent number: 8655658Abstract: A system and a method are provided. A speech recognition processor receives unconstrained input speech and outputs a string of words. The speech recognition processor is based on a numeric language that represents a subset of a vocabulary. The subset includes a set of words identified as being for interpreting and understanding number strings. A numeric understanding processor contains classes of rules for converting the string of words into a sequence of digits. The speech recognition processor utilizes an acoustic model database. A validation database stores a set of valid sequences of digits. A string validation processor outputs validity information based on a comparison of a sequence of digits output by the numeric understanding processor with valid sequences of digits in the validation database.Type: GrantFiled: October 25, 2011Date of Patent: February 18, 2014Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Mazin G. Rahim, Giuseppe Riccardi, Jeremy Huntley Wright, Bruce Melvin Buntschuh, Allen Louis Gorin
-
Patent number: 8645122Abstract: A voice-enabled help desk service is disclosed. The service comprises an automatic speech recognition module for recognizing speech from a user, a spoken language understanding module for understanding the output from the automatic speech recognition module, a dialog management module for generating a response to speech from the user, a natural voices text-to-speech synthesis module for synthesizing speech to generate the response to the user, and a frequently asked questions module. The frequently asked questions module handles frequently asked questions from the user by changing voices and providing predetermined prompts to answer frequently asked questions.Type: GrantFiled: December 19, 2002Date of Patent: February 4, 2014Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Giuseppe Di Fabbrizio, Dawn L Dutton, Narendra K. Gupta, Barbara B. Hollister, Mazin G Rahim, Giuseppe Riccardi, Robert Elias Schapire, Juergen Schroeter
-
Patent number: 8612232Abstract: A system and method are disclosed that improve automatic speech recognition in a spoken dialog system. The method comprises partitioning speech recognizer output into self-contained clauses, identifying a dialog act in each of the self-contained clauses, qualifying dialog acts by identifying a current domain object and/or a current domain action, and determining whether further qualification is possible for the current domain object and/or current domain action. If further qualification is possible, then the method comprises identifying another domain action and/or another domain object associated with the current domain object and/or current domain action, reassigning the another domain action and/or another domain object as the current domain action and/or current domain object and then recursively qualifying the new current domain action and/or current object. This process continues until nothing is left to qualify.Type: GrantFiled: February 25, 2013Date of Patent: December 17, 2013Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Srinivas Bangalore, Narendra K. Gupta, Mazin G. Rahim
-
Patent number: 8589172Abstract: A method and system for reporting data from a spoken dialog service is disclosed. The method comprises extracting data regarding user dialogs using a dialog logging module in the spoken dialog service, analyzing the data to identify trends and reporting the trends. The data may be presented in a visual form for easier consumption. The method may also relate to identifying data within the control or outside the control of a service provider that is used to adjust the spoken dialog service to maximize customer retention.Type: GrantFiled: November 28, 2011Date of Patent: November 19, 2013Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Tirso M. Alonso, Shona Douglas, Mazin G. Rahim, Benjamin J. Stern
-
Patent number: 8566102Abstract: A system and method of generating and operating a spoken dialog service for a web-site are disclosed. The system parses web-site data and organizes the web-site data in a task knowledge data bank. The system receives text associated with a user query; processes the received text in a spoken language understanding (SLU) module, the SLU module using the web-site data from the task knowledge data bank; generates a ranked list of relevant responses to the user query; generates a hierarchical tree using the web-site data and the ranked list of relevant responses to the user query, generates a response to the user query using the hierarchical tree; and presents the response to the user.Type: GrantFiled: November 6, 2002Date of Patent: October 22, 2013Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Srinivas Bangalore, Junlan Feng, Mazin G Rahim
-
Publication number: 20130275132Abstract: A system and method provides a natural language interface to world-wide web content. Either in advance or dynamically, webpage content is parsed using a parsing algorithm. A person using a telephone interface can provide speech information, which is converted to text and used to automatically fill in input fields on a webpage form. The form is then submitted to a database search and a response is generated. Information contained on the responsive webpage is extracted and converted to speech via a text-to-speech engine and communicated to the person.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 11, 2013Publication date: October 17, 2013Inventors: Srinivas Bangalore, Mazin G. Rahim, Junlan Feng
-
Publication number: 20130246069Abstract: Disclosed is a method for training a spoken dialog service component from website data. Spoken dialog service components typically include an automatic speech recognition module, a language understanding module, a dialog management module, a language generation module and a text-to-speech module. The method includes selecting anchor texts within a website based on a term density, weighting those anchor texts based on a percent of salient words to total words, and incorporating the weighted anchor texts into a live spoken dialog interface, the weights determining a level of incorporation into the live spoken dialog interface.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 10, 2013Publication date: September 19, 2013Applicant: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.Inventors: Srinivas Bangalore, Junlan Feng, Mazin G. Rahim