Patents by Inventor William J. Byrne

William J. Byrne 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: 11914925
    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: July 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Brandon M. Ballinger, Johan Schalkwyk, Michael H. Cohen, William J. Byrne, Gudmundur Hafsteinsson, Michael J. Lebeau
  • Publication number: 20230385354
    Abstract: In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products for providing search results automatically to a user of a computing device. A spoken input provided by a user to a computing device is received. The spoken input is transmitted to a computer server system that is remote from the computing device. Search result information that is responsive to the spoken input is receiving by the computing device and in response to the transmitted spoken input. An alert is provided to the user that the device will connect the user to a target of the search result information if the user does not intervene to stop the connecting of the user. The user is connected to the target of the search result information based on a determination that the user has not intervened to stop the connecting of the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 9, 2023
    Publication date: November 30, 2023
    Applicant: Google LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. Lebeau, John Nicholas Jitkoff, William J. Byrne
  • Patent number: 11748430
    Abstract: In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products for providing search results automatically to a user of a computing device. A spoken input provided by a user to a computing device is received. The spoken input is transmitted to a computer server system that is remote from the computing device. Search result information that is responsive to the spoken input is receiving by the computing device and in response to the transmitted spoken input. An alert is provided to the user that the device will connect the user to a target of the search result information if the user does not intervene to stop the connecting of the user. The user is connected to the target of the search result information based on a determination that the user has not intervened to stop the connecting of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. LeBeau, John Nicholas Jitkoff, William J. Byrne
  • Publication number: 20230197070
    Abstract: A method includes obtaining an utterance from a user including a user query directed toward a digital assistant. The method includes generating, using a language model, a first prediction string based on the utterance and determining whether the first prediction string includes an application programming interface (API) call to invoke a program via an API. When the first prediction string includes the API call to invoke the program, the method includes calling, using the API call, the program via the API to retrieve a program result; receiving, via the API, the program result; updating a conversational context with the program result that includes the utterance; and generating, using the language model, a second prediction string based on the updated conversational context. When the first prediction string does not include the API call, the method includes providing an utterance response to the utterance based on the first prediction string.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2021
    Publication date: June 22, 2023
    Applicant: Google LLC
    Inventors: William J. Byrne, Karthik Krishnamoorthi, Saravanan Ganesh
  • Publication number: 20220405046
    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: Application
    Filed: July 13, 2022
    Publication date: December 22, 2022
    Applicant: Google LLC
    Inventors: Brandon M. Ballinger, Johan Schalkwyk, Michael H. Cohen, William J. Byrne, Gudmundur Hafsteinsson, Michael J. Lebeau
  • Publication number: 20220394442
    Abstract: In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products for receiving a voice query at a mobile computing device and generating data that represents content of the voice query. The data is provided to a server system. A textual query that has been determined by a speech recognizer at the server system to be a textual form of at least part of the data is received at the mobile computing device. The textual query is determined to include a carrier phrase of one or more words that is reserved by a first third-party application program installed on the computing device. The first third-party application is selected, from a group of one or more third-party applications, to receive all or a part of the textual query. All or a part of the textual query is provided to the selected first application program.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 18, 2022
    Publication date: December 8, 2022
    Applicant: Google LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. Lebeau, John Nicholas Jitkoff, William J. Byrne
  • Patent number: 11494453
    Abstract: In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products for providing search results automatically to a user of a computing device. A spoken input provided by a user to a computing device is received. The spoken input is transmitted to a computer server system that is remote from the computing device. Search result information that is responsive to the spoken input is receiving by the computing device and in response to the transmitted spoken input. An alert is provided to the user that the device will connect the user to a target of the search result information if the user does not intervene to stop the connecting of the user. The user is connected to the target of the search result information based on a determination that the user has not intervened to stop the connecting of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. LeBeau, John Nicholas Jitkoff, William J. Byrne
  • Patent number: 11438744
    Abstract: In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products for receiving s voice query at a mobile computing device and generating data that represents content of the voice query. The data is provided to a server system. A textual query that has been determined by a speech recognizer at the server system to be a textual form of at least part of the data is received at the mobile computing device. The textual query is determined to include a carrier phrase of one or more words that is reserved by a first third-party application program installed on the computing device. The first third-party application is selected, from a group of one or more third-party applications, to receive all or a part of the textual query. All or a part of the textual query is provided to the selected first application program.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2022
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. Lebeau, John Nicholas Jitkoff, William J. Byrne
  • Patent number: 11423888
    Abstract: Predicting and learning users' intended actions on an electronic device based on free-form speech input. Users' actions can be monitored to develop a list of carrier phrases having one or more actions that correspond to the carrier phrases. A user can speak a command into a device to initiate an action. The spoken command can be parsed and compared to a list of carrier phrases. If the spoken command matches one of the known carrier phrases, the corresponding action(s) can be presented to the user for selection. If the spoken command does not match one of the known carrier phrases, search results (e.g., Internet search results) corresponding to the spoken command can be presented to the user. The actions of the user in response to the presented action(s) and/or the search results can be monitored to update the list of carrier phrases.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2022
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: William J. Byrne, Alexander H. Gruenstein, Douglas H. Beeferman
  • Patent number: 11416214
    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: June 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2022
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Brandon M. Ballinger, Johan Schalkwyk, Michael H. Cohen, William J. Byrne, Gudmundur Hafsteinsson, Michael J. Lebeau
  • Patent number: 11341970
    Abstract: A method of providing navigation directions includes receiving, at a user terminal, a query spoken by a user, wherein the query spoken by the user includes a speech utterance indicating (i) a category of business, (ii) a name of the business, and (iii) a location at which or near which the business is disposed; identifying, by processing hardware, the business based on the speech utterance; and providing navigation directions to the business via the user terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Brian Strope, Francoise Beaufays, William J. Byrne
  • Patent number: 11216522
    Abstract: In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products for receiving user input that defines a search query, and providing the search query to a server system. Information that a search engine system determined was responsive to the search query is received at a computing device. The computing device is identified as in a first state, and a first output mode for audibly outputting at least a portion of the information is selected. The first output mode is selected from a collection of the first output mode and a second output mode. The second output mode is selected in response to the computing device being in a second state and is for visually outputting at least the portion of the information and not audibly outputting the at least portion of the information. At least the portion of information is audibly output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: John Nicholas Jitkoff, Michael J. Lebeau, William J. Byrne, David P. Singleton
  • Publication number: 20210295842
    Abstract: The subject matter of this specification can be implemented in, among other things, a computer-implemented method for correcting words in transcribed text including receiving speech audio data from a microphone. The method further includes sending the speech audio data to a transcription system. The method further includes receiving a word lattice transcribed from the speech audio data by the transcription system. The method further includes presenting one or more transcribed words from the word lattice. The method further includes receiving a user selection of at least one of the presented transcribed words. The method further includes presenting one or more alternate words from the word lattice for the selected transcribed word. The method further includes receiving a user selection of at least one of the alternate words. The method further includes replacing the selected transcribed word in the presented transcribed words with the selected alternate word.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 7, 2021
    Publication date: September 23, 2021
    Applicant: Google LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. LeBeau, William J. Byrne, John Nicholas Jitkoff, Brandon M. Ballinger, Trausti T. Kristjansson
  • Patent number: 11037566
    Abstract: The subject matter of this specification can be implemented in, among other things, a computer-implemented method for correcting words in transcribed text including receiving speech audio data from a microphone. The method further includes sending the speech audio data to a transcription system. The method further includes receiving a word lattice transcribed from the speech audio data by the transcription system. The method further includes presenting one or more transcribed words from the word lattice. The method further includes receiving a user selection of at least one of the presented transcribed words. The method further includes presenting one or more alternate words from the word lattice for the selected transcribed word. The method further includes receiving a user selection of at least one of the alternate words. The method further includes replacing the selected transcribed word in the presented transcribed words with the selected alternate word.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2021
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. Lebeau, William J. Byrne, John Nicholas Jitkoff, Brandon M. Ballinger, Trausti T. Kristjansson
  • Publication number: 20210117495
    Abstract: In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products for providing search results automatically to a user of a computing device. A spoken input provided by a user to a computing device is received. The spoken input is transmitted to a computer server system that is remote from the computing device. Search result information that is responsive to the spoken input is receiving by the computing device and in response to the transmitted spoken input. An alert is provided to the user that the device will connect the user to a target of the search result information if the user does not intervene to stop the connecting of the user. The user is connected to the target of the search result information based on a determination that the user has not intervened to stop the connecting of the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2020
    Publication date: April 22, 2021
    Applicant: Google LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. LeBeau, John Nicholas Jitkoff, William J. Byrne
  • Patent number: 10909199
    Abstract: In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products for providing search results automatically to a user of a computing device. A spoken input provided by a user to a computing device is received. The spoken input is transmitted to a computer server system that is remote from the computing device. Search result information that is responsive to the spoken input is receiving by the computing device and in response to the transmitted spoken input. An alert is provided to the user that the device will connect the user to a target of the search result information if the user does not intervene to stop the connecting of the user. The user is connected to the target of the search result information based on a determination that the user has not intervened to stop the connecting of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2021
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. LeBeau, John Nicholas Jitkoff, William J. Byrne
  • Publication number: 20200302931
    Abstract: A method of providing navigation directions includes receiving, at a user terminal, a query spoken by a user, wherein the query spoken by the user includes a speech utterance indicating (i) a category of business, (ii) a name of the business, and (iii) a location at which or near which the business is disposed; identifying, by processing hardware, the business based on the speech utterance; and providing navigation directions to the business via the user terminal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 8, 2020
    Publication date: September 24, 2020
    Inventors: Brian Strope, Francoise Beaufays, William J. Byrne
  • Publication number: 20200293276
    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: Application
    Filed: June 4, 2020
    Publication date: September 17, 2020
    Applicant: Google LLC
    Inventors: Brandon M. Ballinger, Johan Schalkwyk, Michael H. Cohen, William J. Byrne, Gudmundur Hafsteinsson, Michael J. Lebeau
  • Publication number: 20200251113
    Abstract: The subject matter of this specification can be implemented in, among other things, a computer-implemented method for correcting words in transcribed text including receiving speech audio data from a microphone. The method further includes sending the speech audio data to a transcription system. The method further includes receiving a word lattice transcribed from the speech audio data by the transcription system. The method further includes presenting one or more transcribed words from the word lattice. The method further includes receiving a user selection of at least one of the presented transcribed words. The method further includes presenting one or more alternate words from the word lattice for the selected transcribed word. The method further includes receiving a user selection of at least one of the alternate words. The method further includes replacing the selected transcribed word in the presented transcribed words with the selected alternate word.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 21, 2020
    Publication date: August 6, 2020
    Applicant: Google LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. LeBeau, William J. Byrne, John Nicholas Jitkoff, Brandon M. Ballinger, Trausti T. Kristjansson
  • Patent number: 10713010
    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: October 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2020
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Brandon M. Ballinger, Johan Schalkwyk, Michael H. Cohen, William J. Byrne, Gudmundur Hafsteinsson, Michael J. Lebeau