Patent Application
20240185856
This relates generally to dictation systems and, more specifically, to utilizing user gaze to improve dictation and editing with dictation systems.
Dictation services can provide benefits to user's who may not be able to access or type on a screen, keyboard, or other input of an electronic device. Dictating speech for transcription can also be faster than typing and provide a user with a convenient interaction to insert text while performing actions. However, dictation can also lead to mistakes in recognition of speech and determination of whether the user is intending to dictate. Accordingly, efficient ways of determining whether users are dictating and when users are intending to edit dictated speech are desirable.
Example methods are disclosed herein. An example method includes, at an electronic device having one or more processors and memory, detecting a gaze of a user, determining based on the detected gaze of the user, whether to enter a dictation mode, and in accordance with a determination to enter the dictation mode: receiving an utterance; determining, based on the detected gaze of the user and the utterance, whether to enter an editing mode; and in accordance with a determination not to enter the editing mode, displaying a textual representation of the utterance on a screen of the electronic device.
Example non-transitory computer-readable media are disclosed herein. An example non-transitory computer-readable storage medium stores one or more programs. The one or more programs comprise instructions for detecting a gaze of a user, determining based on the detected gaze of the user, whether to enter a dictation mode and in accordance with a determination to enter the dictation mode: receiving an utterance; determining, based on the detected gaze of the user and the utterance, whether to enter an editing mode; and in accordance with a determination not to enter the editing mode, displaying a textual representation of the utterance on a screen of the electronic device.
Example electronic devices are disclosed herein. An example electronic device comprises one or more processors; a memory; and one or more programs, where the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for detecting a gaze of a user, determining based on the detected gaze of the user, whether to enter a dictation mode and in accordance with a determination to enter the dictation mode: receiving an utterance; determining, based on the detected gaze of the user and the utterance, whether to enter an editing mode; and in accordance with a determination not to enter the editing mode, displaying a textual representation of the utterance on a screen of the electronic device.
An example electronic device comprises means for detecting a gaze of a user, means for determining based on the detected gaze of the user, whether to enter a dictation mode and in accordance with a determination to enter the dictation mode: means for receiving an utterance; means for determining, based on the detected gaze of the user and the utterance, whether to enter an editing mode; and in accordance with a determination not to enter the editing mode, means for displaying a textual representation of the utterance on a screen of the electronic device.
Determining, based on a detected gaze of the user, whether to enter a dictation mode allows a transcription system to accurately understand when a user is intending to dictate to the transcription system based on where the user is looking. In particular, the transcription system may determine where on a screen the user is looking and thus determine whether the user is attempting to dictate to the transcription system or requesting some other task be performed. Additionally, determining, based on the detected gaze of the user and the utterance, whether to enter an editing mode allows the transcription system to understand whether the user is intending to edit previously dictated words or provide new dictation more accurately. In particular, the transcription system may utilize the words of the utterance along with the gaze of the user to understand whether the user is focusing on something previously displayed on the screen of the electronic device or dictation. In this way the transcription system may operate more efficiently by determining the user's intent without requiring further dialog or other outputs from the transcription system, conserving the battery of the electronic device.
An example method includes, at an electronic device having one or more processors and memory, detecting a gaze of a user, determining a direction of the gaze of the user, and in accordance with a determination that the direction of the gaze of the user is focused on a first location of a first element displayed on a screen of the electronic device, displaying a second element on the screen of the electronic device.
An example non-transitory computer-readable storage medium stores one or more programs. The one or more programs comprise instructions for detecting a gaze of a user, determining a direction of the gaze of the user, and in accordance with a determination that the direction of the gaze of the user is focused on a first location of a first element displayed on a screen of the electronic device, displaying a second element on the screen of the electronic device.
An example electronic device comprises one or more processors; a memory; and one or more programs, where the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for detecting a gaze of a user, determining a direction of the gaze of the user, and in accordance with a determination that the direction of the gaze of the user is focused on a first location of a first element displayed on a screen of the electronic device, displaying a second element on the screen of the electronic device.
An example electronic device comprises means for detecting a gaze of a user, means for determining a direction of the gaze of the user, and in accordance with a determination that the direction of the gaze of the user is focused on a first location of a first element displayed on a screen of the electronic device, means for displaying a second element on the screen of the electronic device.
In accordance with a determination that the direction of the gaze of the user is focused on a first location of a first element displayed on a screen of the electronic device, displaying a second element on the screen of the electronic device allows the transcription system to interact with the user for efficient processing of user commands. In particular, the transcription system understands based on the user's gaze the user's intent and can provide the user information to fulfill that intent without confirming that intent with the user. In this way the number of outputs and inputs required to complete tasks is reduced, reducing the amount of processing required and conserving battery.
An example method includes, at an electronic device having one or more processors and memory, detecting a gaze of a user; determining one or more targeted by the gaze of the user; determining, based on the one or more words and the gaze of the user, whether a word of the one or more words is incorrect; and in accordance with a determination that the word of the one or more words is incorrect, displaying an element related to the word on a display of the electronic device.
An example non-transitory computer-readable storage medium stores one or more programs. The one or more programs comprise instructions for detecting a gaze of a user; determining one or more targeted by the gaze of the user; determining, based on the one or more words and the gaze of the user, whether a word of the one or more words is incorrect; and in accordance with a determination that the word of the one or more words is incorrect, displaying an element related to the word on a display of the electronic device.
An example electronic device comprises one or more processors; a memory; and one or more programs, where the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for detecting a gaze of a user; determining one or more targeted by the gaze of the user; determining, based on the one or more words and the gaze of the user, whether a word of the one or more words is incorrect; and in accordance with a determination that the word of the one or more words is incorrect, displaying an element related to the word on a display of the electronic device.
An example electronic device comprises means for detecting a gaze of a user; means for determining one or more targeted by the gaze of the user; means for determining, based on the one or more words and the gaze of the user, whether a word of the one or more words is incorrect; and in accordance with a determination that the word of the one or more words is incorrect, means for displaying an element related to the word on a display of the electronic device.
Determining, based on the one or more words and the gaze of the user, whether a word of the one or more words is incorrect allows for efficient correction of words that have been transcribed incorrectly by the transcription system. In particular, the transcription system is able to better understand which word the user is attempting to edit and thus correct any mistakes with less inputs required by the user. In this way, the user may provide the desired correction to the incorrect word in a single input rather than interacting with a series of menus or multiple inputs. This reduces the overall interactions required between the transcription system and the user, conserving battery.
In the following description of examples, reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which are shown by way of illustration specific examples that can be practiced. It is to be understood that other examples can be used and structural changes can be made without departing from the scope of the various examples.
Speech recognition and dictation based transcription can be advantageous for users by increasing the speed that users can write or transcribe documents, notes, e-mails, etc. while also allowing the user to engage in other activities at the same time. However, it can be difficult for a dictation system to understand the user's intent, particularly when a user may be actively engaged with the electronic device at one time and then speaking to a person in the room in the next instance. Additionally, correction of mistakes during dictation can be an obstacle as many dictation services are unable to understand when the user is trying to correct a word and instead continue to transcribe the user's speech.
Accordingly, utilizing the gaze of the user can help to manage and lessen the impact of these drawbacks on dictation based transcription services, especially when utilized with a digital assistant. Users typically look to where they believe text will appear when intending to invoke dictation services even before they have started to provide an utterance. Thus, by monitoring a user's gaze as it moves to the display of the device, as well as around the display of the device allows the dictation system to understand when the user is intending to dictate and when the user is intending to provide a different command to the system or the electronic device.
Further, when words are transcribed incorrectly, users typically fixate their gaze on those words while providing the desired correction or edit. Accordingly, by monitoring how a user's gaze moves over previously transcribed text the dictation system may better understand when the user has identified a mistake and wishes to correct it. The dictation system may also leverage spellcheck and other error detection systems to identify whether a word that the user is looking at is incorrect, to ensure that gaze is not falsely correlated to an error when one does not exist.
By combining detection of the user's gaze and the incoming speech the dictation system can use the methods above to increase the efficiency and overall effectiveness of dictation and transcription services and provide the user with a more enjoyable and interactive experience. This can allow the user to multitask by dictating while performing other activities and also results in a more seamless interaction with the dictation system, reducing the number of outputs needed to determine the user intent and thereby reducing battery usage.
Although the following description uses terms “first,” “second,” etc. to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by the terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first input could be termed a second input, and, similarly, a second input could be termed a first input, without departing from the scope of the various described examples. The first input and the second input are both inputs and, in some cases, are separate and different inputs.
The terminology used in the description of the various described examples herein is for the purpose of describing particular examples only and is not intended to be limiting. As used in the description of the various described examples and the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will also be understood that the term “and/or” as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. It will be further understood that the terms “includes,” “including,” “comprises,” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
The term “if” may be construed to mean “when” or “upon” or “in response to determining” or “in response to detecting,” depending on the context. Similarly, the phrase “if it is determined” or “if [a stated condition or event] is detected” may be construed to mean “upon determining” or “in response to determining” or “upon detecting [the stated condition or event]” or “in response to detecting [the stated condition or event],” depending on the context.
Specifically, a digital assistant is capable of accepting a user request at least partially in the form of a natural language command, request, statement, narrative, and/or inquiry. Typically, the user request seeks either an informational answer or performance of a task by the digital assistant. A satisfactory response to the user request includes a provision of the requested informational answer, a performance of the requested task, or a combination of the two. For example, a user asks the digital assistant a question, such as “Where am I right now?” Based on the user's current location, the digital assistant answers, “You are in Central Park near the west gate.” The user also requests the performance of a task, for example, “Please invite my friends to my girlfriend's birthday party next week.” In response, the digital assistant can acknowledge the request by saying “Yes, right away,” and then send a suitable calendar invite on behalf of the user to each of the user's friends listed in the user's electronic address book. During performance of a requested task, the digital assistant sometimes interacts with the user in a continuous dialogue involving multiple exchanges of information over an extended period of time. There are numerous other ways of interacting with a digital assistant to request information or performance of various tasks. In addition to providing verbal responses and taking programmed actions, the digital assistant also provides responses in other visual or audio forms, e.g., as text, alerts, music, videos, animations, etc.
As shown in
In some examples, DA server 106 includes client-facing I/O interface 112, one or more processing modules 114, data and models 116, and I/O interface to external services 118. The client-facing I/O interface 112 facilitates the client-facing input and output processing for DA server 106. One or more processing modules 114 utilize data and models 116 to process speech input and determine the user's intent based on natural language input. Further, one or more processing modules 114 perform task execution based on inferred user intent. In some examples, DA server 106 communicates with external services 120 through network(s) 110 for task completion or information acquisition. I/O interface to external services 118 facilitates such communications.
User device 104 can be any suitable electronic device. In some examples, user device 104 is a portable multifunctional device (e.g., device 200, described below with reference to
Examples of communication network(s) 110 include local area networks (LAN) and wide area networks (WAN), e.g., the Internet. Communication network(s) 110 is implemented using any known network protocol, including various wired or wireless protocols, such as, for example, Ethernet, Universal Serial Bus (USB), FIREWIRE, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE), code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Wi-MAX, or any other suitable communication protocol.
Server system 108 is implemented on one or more standalone data processing apparatus or a distributed network of computers. In some examples, server system 108 also employs various virtual devices and/or services of third-party service providers (e.g., third-party cloud service providers) to provide the underlying computing resources and/or infrastructure resources of server system 108.
In some examples, user device 104 communicates with DA server 106 via second user device 122. Second user device 122 is similar or identical to user device 104. For example, second user device 122 is similar to devices 200, 400, or 600 described below with reference to
In some examples, user device 104 is configured to communicate abbreviated requests for data to second user device 122 to reduce the amount of information transmitted from user device 104. Second user device 122 is configured to determine supplemental information to add to the abbreviated request to generate a complete request to transmit to DA server 106. This system architecture can advantageously allow user device 104 having limited communication capabilities and/or limited battery power (e.g., a watch or a similar compact electronic device) to access services provided by DA server 106 by using second user device 122, having greater communication capabilities and/or battery power (e.g., a mobile phone, laptop computer, tablet computer, or the like), as a proxy to DA server 106. While only two user devices 104 and 122 are shown in
Although the digital assistant shown in
Attention is now directed toward embodiments of electronic devices for implementing the client-side portion of a digital assistant.
As used in the specification and claims, the term “intensity” of a contact on a touch-sensitive surface refers to the force or pressure (force per unit area) of a contact (e.g., a finger contact) on the touch-sensitive surface, or to a substitute (proxy) for the force or pressure of a contact on the touch-sensitive surface. The intensity of a contact has a range of values that includes at least four distinct values and more typically includes hundreds of distinct values (e.g., at least 256). Intensity of a contact is, optionally, determined (or measured) using various approaches and various sensors or combinations of sensors. For example, one or more force sensors underneath or adjacent to the touch-sensitive surface are, optionally, used to measure force at various points on the touch-sensitive surface. In some implementations, force measurements from multiple force sensors are combined (e.g., a weighted average) to determine an estimated force of a contact. Similarly, a pressure-sensitive tip of a stylus is, optionally, used to determine a pressure of the stylus on the touch-sensitive surface. Alternatively, the size of the contact area detected on the touch-sensitive surface and/or changes thereto, the capacitance of the touch-sensitive surface proximate to the contact and/or changes thereto, and/or the resistance of the touch-sensitive surface proximate to the contact and/or changes thereto are, optionally, used as a substitute for the force or pressure of the contact on the touch-sensitive surface. In some implementations, the substitute measurements for contact force or pressure are used directly to determine whether an intensity threshold has been exceeded (e.g., the intensity threshold is described in units corresponding to the substitute measurements). In some implementations, the substitute measurements for contact force or pressure are converted to an estimated force or pressure, and the estimated force or pressure is used to determine whether an intensity threshold has been exceeded (e.g., the intensity threshold is a pressure threshold measured in units of pressure). Using the intensity of a contact as an attribute of a user input allows for user access to additional device functionality that may otherwise not be accessible by the user on a reduced-size device with limited real estate for displaying affordances (e.g., on a touch-sensitive display) and/or receiving user input (e.g., via a touch-sensitive display, a touch-sensitive surface, or a physical/mechanical control such as a knob or a button).
As used in the specification and claims, the term “tactile output” refers to physical displacement of a device relative to a previous position of the device, physical displacement of a component (e.g., a touch-sensitive surface) of a device relative to another component (e.g., housing) of the device, or displacement of the component relative to a center of mass of the device that will be detected by a user with the user's sense of touch. For example, in situations where the device or the component of the device is in contact with a surface of a user that is sensitive to touch (e.g., a finger, palm, or other part of a user's hand), the tactile output generated by the physical displacement will be interpreted by the user as a tactile sensation corresponding to a perceived change in physical characteristics of the device or the component of the device. For example, movement of a touch-sensitive surface (e.g., a touch-sensitive display or trackpad) is, optionally, interpreted by the user as a “down click” or “up click” of a physical actuator button. In some cases, a user will feel a tactile sensation such as an “down click” or “up click” even when there is no movement of a physical actuator button associated with the touch-sensitive surface that is physically pressed (e.g., displaced) by the user's movements. As another example, movement of the touch-sensitive surface is, optionally, interpreted or sensed by the user as “roughness” of the touch-sensitive surface, even when there is no change in smoothness of the touch-sensitive surface. While such interpretations of touch by a user will be subject to the individualized sensory perceptions of the user, there are many sensory perceptions of touch that are common to a large majority of users. Thus, when a tactile output is described as corresponding to a particular sensory perception of a user (e.g., an “up click,” a “down click,” “roughness”), unless otherwise stated, the generated tactile output corresponds to physical displacement of the device or a component thereof that will generate the described sensory perception for a typical (or average) user.
It should be appreciated that device 200 is only one example of a portable multifunction device, and that device 200 optionally has more or fewer components than shown, optionally combines two or more components, or optionally has a different configuration or arrangement of the components. The various components shown in
Memory 202 includes one or more computer-readable storage mediums. The computer-readable storage mediums are, for example, tangible and non-transitory. Memory 202 includes high-speed random access memory and also includes non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid-state memory devices. Memory controller 222 controls access to memory 202 by other components of device 200.
In some examples, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of memory 202 is used to store instructions (e.g., for performing aspects of processes described below) for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, or other system that can fetch the instructions from the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. In other examples, the instructions (e.g., for performing aspects of the processes described below) are stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (not shown) of the server system 108 or are divided between the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of memory 202 and the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of server system 108.
Peripherals interface 218 is used to couple input and output peripherals of the device to CPU 220 and memory 202. The one or more processors 220 run or execute various software programs and/or sets of instructions stored in memory 202 to perform various functions for device 200 and to process data. In some embodiments, peripherals interface 218, CPU 220, and memory controller 222 are implemented on a single chip, such as chip 204. In some other embodiments, they are implemented on separate chips.
RF (radio frequency) circuitry 208 receives and sends RF signals, also called electromagnetic signals. RF circuitry 208 converts electrical signals to/from electromagnetic signals and communicates with communications networks and other communications devices via the electromagnetic signals. RF circuitry 208 optionally includes well-known circuitry for performing these functions, including but not limited to an antenna system, an RF transceiver, one or more amplifiers, a tuner, one or more oscillators, a digital signal processor, a CODEC chipset, a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, memory, and so forth. RF circuitry 208 optionally communicates with networks, such as the Internet, also referred to as the World Wide Web (WWW), an intranet and/or a wireless network, such as a cellular telephone network, a wireless local area network (LAN) and/or a metropolitan area network (MAN), and other devices by wireless communication. The RF circuitry 208 optionally includes well-known circuitry for detecting near field communication (NFC) fields, such as by a short-range communication radio. The wireless communication optionally uses any of a plurality of communications standards, protocols, and technologies, including but not limited to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE), high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA), high-speed uplink packet access (HSUPA), Evolution, Data-Only (EV-DO), HSPA, HSPA+, Dual-Cell HSPA (DC-HSPDA), long term evolution (LTE), near field communication (NFC), wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA), code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE), Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) (e.g., IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n, and/or IEEE 802.11ac), voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Wi-MAX, a protocol for e mail (e.g., Internet message access protocol (IMAP) and/or post office protocol (POP)), instant messaging (e.g., extensible messaging and presence protocol (XMPP), Session Initiation Protocol for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE), Instant Messaging and Presence Service (IMPS)), and/or Short Message Service (SMS), or any other suitable communication protocol, including communication protocols not yet developed as of the filing date of this document.
Audio circuitry 210, speaker 211, and microphone 213 provide an audio interface between a user and device 200. Audio circuitry 210 receives audio data from peripherals interface 218, converts the audio data to an electrical signal, and transmits the electrical signal to speaker 211. Speaker 211 converts the electrical signal to human-audible sound waves. Audio circuitry 210 also receives electrical signals converted by microphone 213 from sound waves. Audio circuitry 210 converts the electrical signal to audio data and transmits the audio data to peripherals interface 218 for processing. Audio data are retrieved from and/or transmitted to memory 202 and/or RF circuitry 208 by peripherals interface 218. In some embodiments, audio circuitry 210 also includes a headset jack (e.g., 312,
I/O subsystem 206 couples input/output peripherals on device 200, such as touch screen 212 and other input control devices 216, to peripherals interface 218. I/O subsystem 206 optionally includes display controller 256, optical sensor controller 258, intensity sensor controller 259, haptic feedback controller 261, and one or more input controllers 260 for other input or control devices. The one or more input controllers 260 receive/send electrical signals from/to other input control devices 216. The other input control devices 216 optionally include physical buttons (e.g., push buttons, rocker buttons, etc.), dials, slider switches, joysticks, click wheels, and so forth. In some alternate embodiments, input controller(s) 260 are, optionally, coupled to any (or none) of the following: a keyboard, an infrared port, a USB port, and a pointer device such as a mouse. The one or more buttons (e.g., 308,
A quick press of the push button disengages a lock of touch screen 212 or begin a process that uses gestures on the touch screen to unlock the device, as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/322,549, “Unlocking a Device by Performing Gestures on an Unlock Image,” filed Dec. 23, 2005, U.S. Pat. No. 7,657,849, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. A longer press of the push button (e.g., 306) turns power to device 200 on or off. The user is able to customize a functionality of one or more of the buttons. Touch screen 212 is used to implement virtual or soft buttons and one or more soft keyboards.
Touch-sensitive display 212 provides an input interface and an output interface between the device and a user. Display controller 256 receives and/or sends electrical signals from/to touch screen 212. Touch screen 212 displays visual output to the user. The visual output includes graphics, text, icons, video, and any combination thereof (collectively termed “graphics”). In some embodiments, some or all of the visual output correspond to user-interface objects.
Touch screen 212 has a touch-sensitive surface, sensor, or set of sensors that accepts input from the user based on haptic and/or tactile contact. Touch screen 212 and display controller 256 (along with any associated modules and/or sets of instructions in memory 202) detect contact (and any movement or breaking of the contact) on touch screen 212 and convert the detected contact into interaction with user-interface objects (e.g., one or more soft keys, icons, web pages, or images) that are displayed on touch screen 212. In an exemplary embodiment, a point of contact between touch screen 212 and the user corresponds to a finger of the user.
Touch screen 212 uses LCD (liquid crystal display) technology, LPD (light emitting polymer display) technology, or LED (light emitting diode) technology, although other display technologies may be used in other embodiments. Touch screen 212 and display controller 256 detect contact and any movement or breaking thereof using any of a plurality of touch sensing technologies now known or later developed, including but not limited to capacitive, resistive, infrared, and surface acoustic wave technologies, as well as other proximity sensor arrays or other elements for determining one or more points of contact with touch screen 212. In an exemplary embodiment, projected mutual capacitance sensing technology is used, such as that found in the iPhone® and iPod Touch® from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, California.
A touch-sensitive display in some embodiments of touch screen 212 is analogous to the multi-touch sensitive touchpads described in the following U.S. Pat. No. 6,323,846 (Westerman et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 6,570,557 (Westerman et al.), and/or U.S. Pat. No. 6,677,932 (Westerman), and/or U.S. Patent Publication 2002/0015024A1, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. However, touch screen 212 displays visual output from device 200, whereas touch-sensitive touchpads do not provide visual output.
A touch-sensitive display in some embodiments of touch screen 212 is as described in the following applications: (1) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/381,313, “Multipoint Touch Surface Controller,” filed May 2, 2006; (2) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/840,862, “Multipoint Touchscreen,” filed May 6, 2004; (3) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/903,964, “Gestures For Touch Sensitive Input Devices,” filed Jul. 30, 2004; (4) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/048,264, “Gestures For Touch Sensitive Input Devices,” filed Jan. 31, 2005; (5) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/038,590, “Mode-Based Graphical User Interfaces For Touch Sensitive Input Devices,” filed Jan. 18, 2005; (6) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/228,758, “Virtual Input Device Placement On A Touch Screen User Interface,” filed Sep. 16, 2005; (7) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/228,700, “Operation Of A Computer With A Touch Screen Interface,” filed Sep. 16, 2005; (8) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/228,737, “Activating Virtual Keys Of A Touch-Screen Virtual Keyboard,” filed Sep. 16, 2005; and (9) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/367,749, “Multi-Functional Hand-Held Device,” filed Mar. 3, 2006. All of these applications are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
Touch screen 212 has, for example, a video resolution in excess of 100 dpi. In some embodiments, the touch screen has a video resolution of approximately 160 dpi. The user makes contact with touch screen 212 using any suitable object or appendage, such as a stylus, a finger, and so forth. In some embodiments, the user interface is designed to work primarily with finger-based contacts and gestures, which can be less precise than stylus-based input due to the larger area of contact of a finger on the touch screen. In some embodiments, the device translates the rough finger-based input into a precise pointer/cursor position or command for performing the actions desired by the user.
In some embodiments, in addition to the touch screen, device 200 includes a touchpad (not shown) for activating or deactivating particular functions. In some embodiments, the touchpad is a touch-sensitive area of the device that, unlike the touch screen, does not display visual output. The touchpad is a touch-sensitive surface that is separate from touch screen 212 or an extension of the touch-sensitive surface formed by the touch screen.
Device 200 also includes power system 262 for powering the various components. Power system 262 includes a power management system, one or more power sources (e.g., battery, alternating current (AC)), a recharging system, a power failure detection circuit, a power converter or inverter, a power status indicator (e.g., a light-emitting diode (LED)) and any other components associated with the generation, management and distribution of power in portable devices.
Device 200 also includes one or more optical sensors 264.
Device 200 optionally also includes one or more contact intensity sensors 265.
Device 200 also includes one or more proximity sensors 266.
Device 200 optionally also includes one or more tactile output generators 267.
Device 200 also includes one or more accelerometers 268.
In some embodiments, the software components stored in memory 202 include operating system 226, communication module (or set of instructions) 228, contact/motion module (or set of instructions) 230, graphics module (or set of instructions) 232, text input module (or set of instructions) 234, Global Positioning System (GPS) module (or set of instructions) 235, Digital Assistant Client Module 229, and applications (or sets of instructions) 236. Further, memory 202 stores data and models, such as user data and models 231. Furthermore, in some embodiments, memory 202 (
Operating system 226 (e.g., Darwin, RTXC, LINUX, UNIX, OS X, iOS, WINDOWS, or an embedded operating system such as VxWorks) includes various software components and/or drivers for controlling and managing general system tasks (e.g., memory management, storage device control, power management, etc.) and facilitates communication between various hardware and software components.
Communication module 228 facilitates communication with other devices over one or more external ports 224 and also includes various software components for handling data received by RF circuitry 208 and/or external port 224. External port 224 (e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB), FIREWIRE, etc.) is adapted for coupling directly to other devices or indirectly over a network (e.g., the Internet, wireless LAN, etc.). In some embodiments, the external port is a multi-pin (e.g., 30-pin) connector that is the same as, or similar to and/or compatible with, the 30-pin connector used on iPod® (trademark of Apple Inc.) devices.
Contact/motion module 230 optionally detects contact with touch screen 212 (in conjunction with display controller 256) and other touch-sensitive devices (e.g., a touchpad or physical click wheel). Contact/motion module 230 includes various software components for performing various operations related to detection of contact, such as determining if contact has occurred (e.g., detecting a finger-down event), determining an intensity of the contact (e.g., the force or pressure of the contact or a substitute for the force or pressure of the contact), determining if there is movement of the contact and tracking the movement across the touch-sensitive surface (e.g., detecting one or more finger-dragging events), and determining if the contact has ceased (e.g., detecting a finger-up event or a break in contact). Contact/motion module 230 receives contact data from the touch-sensitive surface. Determining movement of the point of contact, which is represented by a series of contact data, optionally includes determining speed (magnitude), velocity (magnitude and direction), and/or an acceleration (a change in magnitude and/or direction) of the point of contact. These operations are, optionally, applied to single contacts (e.g., one finger contacts) or to multiple simultaneous contacts (e.g., “multitouch”/multiple finger contacts). In some embodiments, contact/motion module 230 and display controller 256 detect contact on a touchpad.
In some embodiments, contact/motion module 230 uses a set of one or more intensity thresholds to determine whether an operation has been performed by a user (e.g., to determine whether a user has “clicked” on an icon). In some embodiments, at least a subset of the intensity thresholds are determined in accordance with software parameters (e.g., the intensity thresholds are not determined by the activation thresholds of particular physical actuators and can be adjusted without changing the physical hardware of device 200). For example, a mouse “click” threshold of a trackpad or touch screen display can be set to any of a large range of predefined threshold values without changing the trackpad or touch screen display hardware. Additionally, in some implementations, a user of the device is provided with software settings for adjusting one or more of the set of intensity thresholds (e.g., by adjusting individual intensity thresholds and/or by adjusting a plurality of intensity thresholds at once with a system-level click “intensity” parameter).
Contact/motion module 230 optionally detects a gesture input by a user. Different gestures on the touch-sensitive surface have different contact patterns (e.g., different motions, timings, and/or intensities of detected contacts). Thus, a gesture is, optionally, detected by detecting a particular contact pattern. For example, detecting a finger tap gesture includes detecting a finger-down event followed by detecting a finger-up (liftoff) event at the same position (or substantially the same position) as the finger-down event (e.g., at the position of an icon). As another example, detecting a finger swipe gesture on the touch-sensitive surface includes detecting a finger-down event followed by detecting one or more finger-dragging events, and subsequently followed by detecting a finger-up (liftoff) event.
Graphics module 232 includes various known software components for rendering and displaying graphics on touch screen 212 or other display, including components for changing the visual impact (e.g., brightness, transparency, saturation, contrast, or other visual property) of graphics that are displayed. As used herein, the term “graphics” includes any object that can be displayed to a user, including, without limitation, text, web pages, icons (such as user-interface objects including soft keys), digital images, videos, animations, and the like.
In some embodiments, graphics module 232 stores data representing graphics to be used. Each graphic is, optionally, assigned a corresponding code. Graphics module 232 receives, from applications etc., one or more codes specifying graphics to be displayed along with, if necessary, coordinate data and other graphic property data, and then generates screen image data to output to display controller 256.
Haptic feedback module 233 includes various software components for generating instructions used by tactile output generator(s) 267 to produce tactile outputs at one or more locations on device 200 in response to user interactions with device 200.
Text input module 234, which is, in some examples, a component of graphics module 232, provides soft keyboards for entering text in various applications (e.g., contacts 237, email 240, IM 241, browser 247, and any other application that needs text input).
GPS module 235 determines the location of the device and provides this information for use in various applications (e.g., to telephone 238 for use in location-based dialing; to camera 243 as picture/video metadata; and to applications that provide location-based services such as weather widgets, local yellow page widgets, and map/navigation widgets).
Digital assistant client module 229 includes various client-side digital assistant instructions to provide the client-side functionalities of the digital assistant. For example, digital assistant client module 229 is capable of accepting voice input (e.g., speech input), text input, touch input, and/or gestural input through various user interfaces (e.g., microphone 213, accelerometer(s) 268, touch-sensitive display system 212, optical sensor(s) 264, other input control devices 216, etc.) of portable multifunction device 200. Digital assistant client module 229 is also capable of providing output in audio (e.g., speech output), visual, and/or tactile forms through various output interfaces (e.g., speaker 211, touch-sensitive display system 212, tactile output generator(s) 267, etc.) of portable multifunction device 200. For example, output is provided as voice, sound, alerts, text messages, menus, graphics, videos, animations, vibrations, and/or combinations of two or more of the above. During operation, digital assistant client module 229 communicates with DA server 106 using RF circuitry 208.
User data and models 231 include various data associated with the user (e.g., user-specific vocabulary data, user preference data, user-specified name pronunciations, data from the user's electronic address book, to-do lists, shopping lists, etc.) to provide the client-side functionalities of the digital assistant. Further, user data and models 231 include various models (e.g., speech recognition models, statistical language models, natural language processing models, ontology, task flow models, service models, etc.) for processing user input and determining user intent.
In some examples, digital assistant client module 229 utilizes the various sensors, subsystems, and peripheral devices of portable multifunction device 200 to gather additional information from the surrounding environment of the portable multifunction device 200 to establish a context associated with a user, the current user interaction, and/or the current user input. In some examples, digital assistant client module 229 provides the contextual information or a subset thereof with the user input to DA server 106 to help infer the user's intent. In some examples, the digital assistant also uses the contextual information to determine how to prepare and deliver outputs to the user. Contextual information is referred to as context data.
In some examples, the contextual information that accompanies the user input includes sensor information, e.g., lighting, ambient noise, ambient temperature, images or videos of the surrounding environment, etc. In some examples, the contextual information can also include the physical state of the device, e.g., device orientation, device location, device temperature, power level, speed, acceleration, motion patterns, cellular signals strength, etc. In some examples, information related to the software state of DA server 106, e.g., running processes, installed programs, past and present network activities, background services, error logs, resources usage, etc., and of portable multifunction device 200 is provided to DA server 106 as contextual information associated with a user input.
In some examples, the digital assistant client module 229 selectively provides information (e.g., user data 231) stored on the portable multifunction device 200 in response to requests from DA server 106. In some examples, digital assistant client module 229 also elicits additional input from the user via a natural language dialogue or other user interfaces upon request by DA server 106. Digital assistant client module 229 passes the additional input to DA server 106 to help DA server 106 in intent deduction and/or fulfillment of the user's intent expressed in the user request.
A more detailed description of a digital assistant is described below with reference to
Applications 236 include the following modules (or sets of instructions), or a subset or superset thereof:
Examples of other applications 236 that are stored in memory 202 include other word processing applications, other image editing applications, drawing applications, presentation applications, JAVA-enabled applications, encryption, digital rights management, voice recognition, and voice replication.
In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, contacts module 237 are used to manage an address book or contact list (e.g., stored in application internal state 292 of contacts module 237 in memory 202 or memory 470), including: adding name(s) to the address book; deleting name(s) from the address book; associating telephone number(s), e-mail address(es), physical address(es) or other information with a name; associating an image with a name; categorizing and sorting names; providing telephone numbers or e-mail addresses to initiate and/or facilitate communications by telephone 238, video conference module 239, e-mail 240, or IM 241; and so forth.
In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211, microphone 213, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, telephone module 238 are used to enter a sequence of characters corresponding to a telephone number, access one or more telephone numbers in contacts module 237, modify a telephone number that has been entered, dial a respective telephone number, conduct a conversation, and disconnect or hang up when the conversation is completed. As noted above, the wireless communication uses any of a plurality of communications standards, protocols, and technologies.
In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211, microphone 213, touch screen 212, display controller 256, optical sensor 264, optical sensor controller 258, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, contacts module 237, and telephone module 238, video conference module 239 includes executable instructions to initiate, conduct, and terminate a video conference between a user and one or more other participants in accordance with user instructions.
In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, e-mail client module 240 includes executable instructions to create, send, receive, and manage e-mail in response to user instructions. In conjunction with image management module 244, e-mail client module 240 makes it very easy to create and send e-mails with still or video images taken with camera module 243.
In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, the instant messaging module 241 includes executable instructions to enter a sequence of characters corresponding to an instant message, to modify previously entered characters, to transmit a respective instant message (for example, using a Short Message Service (SMS) or Multimedia Message Service (MMS) protocol for telephony-based instant messages or using XMPP, SIMPLE, or IMPS for Internet-based instant messages), to receive instant messages, and to view received instant messages. In some embodiments, transmitted and/or received instant messages include graphics, photos, audio files, video files and/or other attachments as are supported in an MMS and/or an Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS). As used herein, “instant messaging” refers to both telephony-based messages (e.g., messages sent using SMS or MMS) and Internet-based messages (e.g., messages sent using XMPP, SIMPLE, or IMPS).
In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, GPS module 235, map module 254, and music player module, workout support module 242 includes executable instructions to create workouts (e.g., with time, distance, and/or calorie burning goals); communicate with workout sensors (sports devices); receive workout sensor data; calibrate sensors used to monitor a workout; select and play music for a workout; and display, store, and transmit workout data.
In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, optical sensor(s) 264, optical sensor controller 258, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and image management module 244, camera module 243 includes executable instructions to capture still images or video (including a video stream) and store them into memory 202, modify characteristics of a still image or video, or delete a still image or video from memory 202.
In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, and camera module 243, image management module 244 includes executable instructions to arrange, modify (e.g., edit), or otherwise manipulate, label, delete, present (e.g., in a digital slide show or album), and store still and/or video images.
In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, browser module 247 includes executable instructions to browse the Internet in accordance with user instructions, including searching, linking to, receiving, and displaying web pages or portions thereof, as well as attachments and other files linked to web pages.
In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, e-mail client module 240, and browser module 247, calendar module 248 includes executable instructions to create, display, modify, and store calendars and data associated with calendars (e.g., calendar entries, to-do lists, etc.) in accordance with user instructions.
In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, and browser module 247, widget modules 249 are mini-applications that can be downloaded and used by a user (e.g., weather widget 249-1, stocks widget 249-2, calculator widget 249-3, alarm clock widget 249-4, and dictionary widget 249-5) or created by the user (e.g., user-created widget 249-6). In some embodiments, a widget includes an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) file, a CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) file, and a JavaScript file. In some embodiments, a widget includes an XML (Extensible Markup Language) file and a JavaScript file (e.g., Yahoo! Widgets).
In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, and browser module 247, the widget creator module 250 are used by a user to create widgets (e.g., turning a user-specified portion of a web page into a widget).
In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, search module 251 includes executable instructions to search for text, music, sound, image, video, and/or other files in memory 202 that match one or more search criteria (e.g., one or more user-specified search terms) in accordance with user instructions.
In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211, RF circuitry 208, and browser module 247, video and music player module 252 includes executable instructions that allow the user to download and play back recorded music and other sound files stored in one or more file formats, such as MP3 or AAC files, and executable instructions to display, present, or otherwise play back videos (e.g., on touch screen 212 or on an external, connected display via external port 224). In some embodiments, device 200 optionally includes the functionality of an MP3 player, such as an iPod (trademark of Apple Inc.).
In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, notes module 253 includes executable instructions to create and manage notes, to-do lists, and the like in accordance with user instructions.
In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, GPS module 235, and browser module 247, map module 254 are used to receive, display, modify, and store maps and data associated with maps (e.g., driving directions, data on stores and other points of interest at or near a particular location, and other location-based data) in accordance with user instructions.
In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211, RF circuitry 208, text input module 234, e-mail client module 240, and browser module 247, online video module 255 includes instructions that allow the user to access, browse, receive (e.g., by streaming and/or download), play back (e.g., on the touch screen or on an external, connected display via external port 224), send an e-mail with a link to a particular online video, and otherwise manage online videos in one or more file formats, such as H.264. In some embodiments, instant messaging module 241, rather than e-mail client module 240, is used to send a link to a particular online video. Additional description of the online video application can be found in U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/936,562, “Portable Multifunction Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Playing Online Videos,” filed Jun. 20, 2007, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/968,067, “Portable Multifunction Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Playing Online Videos,” filed Dec. 31, 2007, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Each of the above-identified modules and applications corresponds to a set of executable instructions for performing one or more functions described above and the methods described in this application (e.g., the computer-implemented methods and other information processing methods described herein). These modules (e.g., sets of instructions) need not be implemented as separate software programs, procedures, or modules, and thus various subsets of these modules can be combined or otherwise rearranged in various embodiments. For example, video player module can be combined with music player module into a single module (e.g., video and music player module 252,
In some embodiments, device 200 is a device where operation of a predefined set of functions on the device is performed exclusively through a touch screen and/or a touchpad. By using a touch screen and/or a touchpad as the primary input control device for operation of device 200, the number of physical input control devices (such as push buttons, dials, and the like) on device 200 is reduced.
The predefined set of functions that are performed exclusively through a touch screen and/or a touchpad optionally include navigation between user interfaces. In some embodiments, the touchpad, when touched by the user, navigates device 200 to a main, home, or root menu from any user interface that is displayed on device 200. In such embodiments, a “menu button” is implemented using a touchpad. In some other embodiments, the menu button is a physical push button or other physical input control device instead of a touchpad.
Event sorter 270 receives event information and determines the application 236-1 and application view 291 of application 236-1 to which to deliver the event information. Event sorter 270 includes event monitor 271 and event dispatcher module 274. In some embodiments, application 236-1 includes application internal state 292, which indicates the current application view(s) displayed on touch-sensitive display 212 when the application is active or executing. In some embodiments, device/global internal state 257 is used by event sorter 270 to determine which application(s) is (are) currently active, and application internal state 292 is used by event sorter 270 to determine application views 291 to which to deliver event information.
In some embodiments, application internal state 292 includes additional information, such as one or more of: resume information to be used when application 236-1 resumes execution, user interface state information that indicates information being displayed or that is ready for display by application 236-1, a state queue for enabling the user to go back to a prior state or view of application 236-1, and a redo/undo queue of previous actions taken by the user.
Event monitor 271 receives event information from peripherals interface 218. Event information includes information about a sub-event (e.g., a user touch on touch-sensitive display 212, as part of a multi-touch gesture). Peripherals interface 218 transmits information it receives from I/O subsystem 206 or a sensor, such as proximity sensor 266, accelerometer(s) 268, and/or microphone 213 (through audio circuitry 210). Information that peripherals interface 218 receives from I/O subsystem 206 includes information from touch-sensitive display 212 or a touch-sensitive surface.
In some embodiments, event monitor 271 sends requests to the peripherals interface 218 at predetermined intervals. In response, peripherals interface 218 transmits event information. In other embodiments, peripherals interface 218 transmits event information only when there is a significant event (e.g., receiving an input above a predetermined noise threshold and/or for more than a predetermined duration).
In some embodiments, event sorter 270 also includes a hit view determination module 272 and/or an active event recognizer determination module 273.
Hit view determination module 272 provides software procedures for determining where a sub-event has taken place within one or more views when touch-sensitive display 212 displays more than one view. Views are made up of controls and other elements that a user can see on the display.
Another aspect of the user interface associated with an application is a set of views, sometimes herein called application views or user interface windows, in which information is displayed and touch-based gestures occur. The application views (of a respective application) in which a touch is detected correspond to programmatic levels within a programmatic or view hierarchy of the application. For example, the lowest level view in which a touch is detected is called the hit view, and the set of events that are recognized as proper inputs is determined based, at least in part, on the hit view of the initial touch that begins a touch-based gesture.
Hit view determination module 272 receives information related to sub events of a touch-based gesture. When an application has multiple views organized in a hierarchy, hit view determination module 272 identifies a hit view as the lowest view in the hierarchy which should handle the sub-event. In most circumstances, the hit view is the lowest level view in which an initiating sub-event occurs (e.g., the first sub-event in the sequence of sub-events that form an event or potential event). Once the hit view is identified by the hit view determination module 272, the hit view typically receives all sub-events related to the same touch or input source for which it was identified as the hit view.
Active event recognizer determination module 273 determines which view or views within a view hierarchy should receive a particular sequence of sub-events. In some embodiments, active event recognizer determination module 273 determines that only the hit view should receive a particular sequence of sub-events. In other embodiments, active event recognizer determination module 273 determines that all views that include the physical location of a sub-event are actively involved views, and therefore determines that all actively involved views should receive a particular sequence of sub-events. In other embodiments, even if touch sub-events were entirely confined to the area associated with one particular view, views higher in the hierarchy would still remain as actively involved views.
Event dispatcher module 274 dispatches the event information to an event recognizer (e.g., event recognizer 280). In embodiments including active event recognizer determination module 273, event dispatcher module 274 delivers the event information to an event recognizer determined by active event recognizer determination module 273. In some embodiments, event dispatcher module 274 stores in an event queue the event information, which is retrieved by a respective event receiver 282.
In some embodiments, operating system 226 includes event sorter 270. Alternatively, application 236-1 includes event sorter 270. In yet other embodiments, event sorter 270 is a stand-alone module, or a part of another module stored in memory 202, such as contact/motion module 230.
In some embodiments, application 236-1 includes a plurality of event handlers 290 and one or more application views 291, each of which includes instructions for handling touch events that occur within a respective view of the application's user interface. Each application view 291 of the application 236-1 includes one or more event recognizers 280. Typically, a respective application view 291 includes a plurality of event recognizers 280. In other embodiments, one or more of event recognizers 280 are part of a separate module, such as a user interface kit (not shown) or a higher level object from which application 236-1 inherits methods and other properties. In some embodiments, a respective event handler 290 includes one or more of: data updater 276, object updater 277, GUI updater 278, and/or event data 279 received from event sorter 270. Event handler 290 utilizes or calls data updater 276, object updater 277, or GUI updater 278 to update the application internal state 292. Alternatively, one or more of the application views 291 include one or more respective event handlers 290. Also, in some embodiments, one or more of data updater 276, object updater 277, and GUI updater 278 are included in a respective application view 291.
A respective event recognizer 280 receives event information (e.g., event data 279) from event sorter 270 and identifies an event from the event information. Event recognizer 280 includes event receiver 282 and event comparator 284. In some embodiments, event recognizer 280 also includes at least a subset of: metadata 283, and event delivery instructions 288 (which include sub-event delivery instructions).
Event receiver 282 receives event information from event sorter 270. The event information includes information about a sub-event, for example, a touch or a touch movement. Depending on the sub-event, the event information also includes additional information, such as location of the sub-event. When the sub-event concerns motion of a touch, the event information also includes speed and direction of the sub-event. In some embodiments, events include rotation of the device from one orientation to another (e.g., from a portrait orientation to a landscape orientation, or vice versa), and the event information includes corresponding information about the current orientation (also called device attitude) of the device.
Event comparator 284 compares the event information to predefined event or sub-event definitions and, based on the comparison, determines an event or sub event, or determines or updates the state of an event or sub-event. In some embodiments, event comparator 284 includes event definitions 286. Event definitions 286 contain definitions of events (e.g., predefined sequences of sub-events), for example, event 1 (287-1), event 2 (287-2), and others. In some embodiments, sub-events in an event (287) include, for example, touch begin, touch end, touch movement, touch cancellation, and multiple touching. In one example, the definition for event 1 (287-1) is a double tap on a displayed object. The double tap, for example, comprises a first touch (touch begin) on the displayed object for a predetermined phase, a first liftoff (touch end) for a predetermined phase, a second touch (touch begin) on the displayed object for a predetermined phase, and a second liftoff (touch end) for a predetermined phase. In another example, the definition for event 2 (287-2) is a dragging on a displayed object. The dragging, for example, comprises a touch (or contact) on the displayed object for a predetermined phase, a movement of the touch across touch-sensitive display 212, and liftoff of the touch (touch end). In some embodiments, the event also includes information for one or more associated event handlers 290.
In some embodiments, event definition 287 includes a definition of an event for a respective user-interface object. In some embodiments, event comparator 284 performs a hit test to determine which user-interface object is associated with a sub-event. For example, in an application view in which three user-interface objects are displayed on touch-sensitive display 212, when a touch is detected on touch-sensitive display 212, event comparator 284 performs a hit test to determine which of the three user-interface objects is associated with the touch (sub-event). If each displayed object is associated with a respective event handler 290, the event comparator uses the result of the hit test to determine which event handler 290 should be activated. For example, event comparator 284 selects an event handler associated with the sub-event and the object triggering the hit test.
In some embodiments, the definition for a respective event (287) also includes delayed actions that delay delivery of the event information until after it has been determined whether the sequence of sub-events does or does not correspond to the event recognizer's event type.
When a respective event recognizer 280 determines that the series of sub-events do not match any of the events in event definitions 286, the respective event recognizer 280 enters an event impossible, event failed, or event ended state, after which it disregards subsequent sub-events of the touch-based gesture. In this situation, other event recognizers, if any, that remain active for the hit view continue to track and process sub-events of an ongoing touch-based gesture.
In some embodiments, a respective event recognizer 280 includes metadata 283 with configurable properties, flags, and/or lists that indicate how the event delivery system should perform sub-event delivery to actively involved event recognizers. In some embodiments, metadata 283 includes configurable properties, flags, and/or lists that indicate how event recognizers interact, or are enabled to interact, with one another. In some embodiments, metadata 283 includes configurable properties, flags, and/or lists that indicate whether sub-events are delivered to varying levels in the view or programmatic hierarchy.
In some embodiments, a respective event recognizer 280 activates event handler 290 associated with an event when one or more particular sub-events of an event are recognized. In some embodiments, a respective event recognizer 280 delivers event information associated with the event to event handler 290. Activating an event handler 290 is distinct from sending (and deferred sending) sub-events to a respective hit view. In some embodiments, event recognizer 280 throws a flag associated with the recognized event, and event handler 290 associated with the flag catches the flag and performs a predefined process.
In some embodiments, event delivery instructions 288 include sub-event delivery instructions that deliver event information about a sub-event without activating an event handler. Instead, the sub-event delivery instructions deliver event information to event handlers associated with the series of sub-events or to actively involved views. Event handlers associated with the series of sub-events or with actively involved views receive the event information and perform a predetermined process.
In some embodiments, data updater 276 creates and updates data used in application 236-1. For example, data updater 276 updates the telephone number used in contacts module 237, or stores a video file used in video player module. In some embodiments, object updater 277 creates and updates objects used in application 236-1. For example, object updater 277 creates a new user-interface object or updates the position of a user-interface object. GUI updater 278 updates the GUI. For example, GUI updater 278 prepares display information and sends it to graphics module 232 for display on a touch-sensitive display.
In some embodiments, event handler(s) 290 includes or has access to data updater 276, object updater 277, and GUI updater 278. In some embodiments, data updater 276, object updater 277, and GUI updater 278 are included in a single module of a respective application 236-1 or application view 291. In other embodiments, they are included in two or more software modules.
It shall be understood that the foregoing discussion regarding event handling of user touches on touch-sensitive displays also applies to other forms of user inputs to operate multifunction devices 200 with input devices, not all of which are initiated on touch screens. For example, mouse movement and mouse button presses, optionally coordinated with single or multiple keyboard presses or holds; contact movements such as taps, drags, scrolls, etc. on touchpads; pen stylus inputs; movement of the device; oral instructions; detected eye movements; biometric inputs; and/or any combination thereof are optionally utilized as inputs corresponding to sub-events which define an event to be recognized.
Device 200 also includes one or more physical buttons, such as “home” or menu button 304. As described previously, menu button 304 is used to navigate to any application 236 in a set of applications that is executed on device 200. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the menu button is implemented as a soft key in a GUI displayed on touch screen 212.
In one embodiment, device 200 includes touch screen 212, menu button 304, push button 306 for powering the device on/off and locking the device, volume adjustment button(s) 308, subscriber identity module (SIM) card slot 310, headset jack 312, and docking/charging external port 224. Push button 306 is, optionally, used to turn the power on/off on the device by depressing the button and holding the button in the depressed state for a predefined time interval; to lock the device by depressing the button and releasing the button before the predefined time interval has elapsed; and/or to unlock the device or initiate an unlock process. In an alternative embodiment, device 200 also accepts verbal input for activation or deactivation of some functions through microphone 213. Device 200 also, optionally, includes one or more contact intensity sensors 265 for detecting intensity of contacts on touch screen 212 and/or one or more tactile output generators 267 for generating tactile outputs for a user of device 200.
Each of the above-identified elements in
Attention is now directed towards embodiments of user interfaces that can be implemented on, for example, portable multifunction device 200.
Signal strength indicator(s) 502 for wireless communication(s), such as cellular and Wi-Fi signals;
It should be noted that the icon labels illustrated in
Although some of the examples which follow will be given with reference to inputs on touch screen display 212 (where the touch-sensitive surface and the display are combined), in some embodiments, the device detects inputs on a touch-sensitive surface that is separate from the display, as shown in
Additionally, while the following examples are given primarily with reference to finger inputs (e.g., finger contacts, finger tap gestures, finger swipe gestures), it should be understood that, in some embodiments, one or more of the finger inputs are replaced with input from another input device (e.g., a mouse-based input or stylus input). For example, a swipe gesture is, optionally, replaced with a mouse click (e.g., instead of a contact) followed by movement of the cursor along the path of the swipe (e.g., instead of movement of the contact). As another example, a tap gesture is, optionally, replaced with a mouse click while the cursor is located over the location of the tap gesture (e.g., instead of detection of the contact followed by ceasing to detect the contact). Similarly, when multiple user inputs are simultaneously detected, it should be understood that multiple computer mice are, optionally, used simultaneously, or a mouse and finger contacts are, optionally, used simultaneously.
Techniques for detecting and processing touch intensity are found, for example, in related applications: International Patent Application Serial No. PCT/US2013/040061, titled “Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Displaying User Interface Objects Corresponding to an Application,” filed May 8, 2013, and International Patent Application Serial No. PCT/US2013/069483, titled “Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Transitioning Between Touch Input to Display Output Relationships,” filed Nov. 11, 2013, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
In some embodiments, device 600 has one or more input mechanisms 606 and 608. Input mechanisms 606 and 608, if included, are physical. Examples of physical input mechanisms include push buttons and rotatable mechanisms. In some embodiments, device 600 has one or more attachment mechanisms. Such attachment mechanisms, if included, can permit attachment of device 600 with, for example, hats, eyewear, earrings, necklaces, shirts, jackets, bracelets, watch straps, chains, trousers, belts, shoes, purses, backpacks, and so forth. These attachment mechanisms permit device 600 to be worn by a user.
Input mechanism 608 is a microphone, in some examples. Personal electronic device 600 includes, for example, various sensors, such as GPS sensor 632, accelerometer 634, directional sensor 640 (e.g., compass), gyroscope 636, motion sensor 638, and/or a combination thereof, all of which are operatively connected to I/O section 614.
Memory 618 of personal electronic device 600 is a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, for storing computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by one or more computer processors 616, for example, cause the computer processors to perform the techniques and processes described below. The computer-executable instructions, for example, are also stored and/or transported within any non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, or other system that can fetch the instructions from the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. Personal electronic device 600 is not limited to the components and configuration of
As used here, the term “affordance” refers to a user-interactive graphical user interface object that is, for example, displayed on the display screen of devices 200, 400, 600, and 900 (
As used herein, the term “focus selector” refers to an input element that indicates a current part of a user interface with which a user is interacting. In some implementations that include a cursor or other location marker, the cursor acts as a “focus selector” so that when an input (e.g., a press input) is detected on a touch-sensitive surface (e.g., touchpad 455 in
As used in the specification and claims, the term “characteristic intensity” of a contact refers to a characteristic of the contact based on one or more intensities of the contact. In some embodiments, the characteristic intensity is based on multiple intensity samples. The characteristic intensity is, optionally, based on a predefined number of intensity samples, or a set of intensity samples collected during a predetermined time period (e.g., 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10 seconds) relative to a predefined event (e.g., after detecting the contact, prior to detecting liftoff of the contact, before or after detecting a start of movement of the contact, prior to detecting an end of the contact, before or after detecting an increase in intensity of the contact, and/or before or after detecting a decrease in intensity of the contact). A characteristic intensity of a contact is, optionally based on one or more of: a maximum value of the intensities of the contact, a mean value of the intensities of the contact, an average value of the intensities of the contact, a top 10 percentile value of the intensities of the contact, a value at the half maximum of the intensities of the contact, a value at the 90 percent maximum of the intensities of the contact, or the like. In some embodiments, the duration of the contact is used in determining the characteristic intensity (e.g., when the characteristic intensity is an average of the intensity of the contact over time). In some embodiments, the characteristic intensity is compared to a set of one or more intensity thresholds to determine whether an operation has been performed by a user. For example, the set of one or more intensity thresholds includes a first intensity threshold and a second intensity threshold. In this example, a contact with a characteristic intensity that does not exceed the first threshold results in a first operation, a contact with a characteristic intensity that exceeds the first intensity threshold and does not exceed the second intensity threshold results in a second operation, and a contact with a characteristic intensity that exceeds the second threshold results in a third operation. In some embodiments, a comparison between the characteristic intensity and one or more thresholds is used to determine whether or not to perform one or more operations (e.g., whether to perform a respective operation or forgo performing the respective operation) rather than being used to determine whether to perform a first operation or a second operation.
In some embodiments, a portion of a gesture is identified for purposes of determining a characteristic intensity. For example, a touch-sensitive surface receives a continuous swipe contact transitioning from a start location and reaching an end location, at which point the intensity of the contact increases. In this example, the characteristic intensity of the contact at the end location is based on only a portion of the continuous swipe contact, and not the entire swipe contact (e.g., only the portion of the swipe contact at the end location). In some embodiments, a smoothing algorithm is applied to the intensities of the swipe contact prior to determining the characteristic intensity of the contact. For example, the smoothing algorithm optionally includes one or more of: an unweighted sliding-average smoothing algorithm, a triangular smoothing algorithm, a median filter smoothing algorithm, and/or an exponential smoothing algorithm. In some circumstances, these smoothing algorithms eliminate narrow spikes or dips in the intensities of the swipe contact for purposes of determining a characteristic intensity.
The intensity of a contact on the touch-sensitive surface is characterized relative to one or more intensity thresholds, such as a contact-detection intensity threshold, a light press intensity threshold, a deep press intensity threshold, and/or one or more other intensity thresholds. In some embodiments, the light press intensity threshold corresponds to an intensity at which the device will perform operations typically associated with clicking a button of a physical mouse or a trackpad. In some embodiments, the deep press intensity threshold corresponds to an intensity at which the device will perform operations that are different from operations typically associated with clicking a button of a physical mouse or a trackpad. In some embodiments, when a contact is detected with a characteristic intensity below the light press intensity threshold (e.g., and above a nominal contact-detection intensity threshold below which the contact is no longer detected), the device will move a focus selector in accordance with movement of the contact on the touch-sensitive surface without performing an operation associated with the light press intensity threshold or the deep press intensity threshold. Generally, unless otherwise stated, these intensity thresholds are consistent between different sets of user interface figures.
An increase of characteristic intensity of the contact from an intensity below the light press intensity threshold to an intensity between the light press intensity threshold and the deep press intensity threshold is sometimes referred to as a “light press” input. An increase of characteristic intensity of the contact from an intensity below the deep press intensity threshold to an intensity above the deep press intensity threshold is sometimes referred to as a “deep press” input. An increase of characteristic intensity of the contact from an intensity below the contact-detection intensity threshold to an intensity between the contact-detection intensity threshold and the light press intensity threshold is sometimes referred to as detecting the contact on the touch-surface. A decrease of characteristic intensity of the contact from an intensity above the contact-detection intensity threshold to an intensity below the contact-detection intensity threshold is sometimes referred to as detecting liftoff of the contact from the touch-surface. In some embodiments, the contact-detection intensity threshold is zero. In some embodiments, the contact-detection intensity threshold is greater than zero.
In some embodiments described herein, one or more operations are performed in response to detecting a gesture that includes a respective press input or in response to detecting the respective press input performed with a respective contact (or a plurality of contacts), where the respective press input is detected based at least in part on detecting an increase in intensity of the contact (or plurality of contacts) above a press-input intensity threshold. In some embodiments, the respective operation is performed in response to detecting the increase in intensity of the respective contact above the press-input intensity threshold (e.g., a “down stroke” of the respective press input). In some embodiments, the press input includes an increase in intensity of the respective contact above the press-input intensity threshold and a subsequent decrease in intensity of the contact below the press-input intensity threshold, and the respective operation is performed in response to detecting the subsequent decrease in intensity of the respective contact below the press-input threshold (e.g., an “up stroke” of the respective press input).
In some embodiments, the device employs intensity hysteresis to avoid accidental inputs sometimes termed “jitter,” where the device defines or selects a hysteresis intensity threshold with a predefined relationship to the press-input intensity threshold (e.g., the hysteresis intensity threshold is X intensity units lower than the press-input intensity threshold or the hysteresis intensity threshold is 75%, 90%, or some reasonable proportion of the press-input intensity threshold). Thus, in some embodiments, the press input includes an increase in intensity of the respective contact above the press-input intensity threshold and a subsequent decrease in intensity of the contact below the hysteresis intensity threshold that corresponds to the press-input intensity threshold, and the respective operation is performed in response to detecting the subsequent decrease in intensity of the respective contact below the hysteresis intensity threshold (e.g., an “up stroke” of the respective press input). Similarly, in some embodiments, the press input is detected only when the device detects an increase in intensity of the contact from an intensity at or below the hysteresis intensity threshold to an intensity at or above the press-input intensity threshold and, optionally, a subsequent decrease in intensity of the contact to an intensity at or below the hysteresis intensity, and the respective operation is performed in response to detecting the press input (e.g., the increase in intensity of the contact or the decrease in intensity of the contact, depending on the circumstances).
For ease of explanation, the descriptions of operations performed in response to a press input associated with a press-input intensity threshold or in response to a gesture including the press input are, optionally, triggered in response to detecting either: an increase in intensity of a contact above the press-input intensity threshold, an increase in intensity of a contact from an intensity below the hysteresis intensity threshold to an intensity above the press-input intensity threshold, a decrease in intensity of the contact below the press-input intensity threshold, and/or a decrease in intensity of the contact below the hysteresis intensity threshold corresponding to the press-input intensity threshold. Additionally, in examples where an operation is described as being performed in response to detecting a decrease in intensity of a contact below the press-input intensity threshold, the operation is, optionally, performed in response to detecting a decrease in intensity of the contact below a hysteresis intensity threshold corresponding to, and lower than, the press-input intensity threshold.
Digital assistant system 700 includes memory 702, one or more processors 704, input/output (I/O) interface 706, and network communications interface 708. These components can communicate with one another over one or more communication buses or signal lines 710.
In some examples, memory 702 includes a non-transitory computer-readable medium, such as high-speed random access memory and/or a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium (e.g., one or more magnetic disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid-state memory devices).
In some examples, I/O interface 706 couples input/output devices 716 of digital assistant system 700, such as displays, keyboards, touch screens, and microphones, to user interface module 722. I/O interface 706, in conjunction with user interface module 722, receives user inputs (e.g., voice input, keyboard inputs, touch inputs, etc.) and processes them accordingly. In some examples, e.g., when the digital assistant is implemented on a standalone user device, digital assistant system 700 includes any of the components and I/O communication interfaces described with respect to devices 200, 400, 600, or 900 in
In some examples, the network communications interface 708 includes wired communication port(s) 712 and/or wireless transmission and reception circuitry 714. The wired communication port(s) receives and send communication signals via one or more wired interfaces, e.g., Ethernet, Universal Serial Bus (USB), FIREWIRE, etc. The wireless circuitry 714 receives and sends RF signals and/or optical signals from/to communications networks and other communications devices. The wireless communications use any of a plurality of communications standards, protocols, and technologies, such as GSM, EDGE, CDMA, TDMA, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, VoIP, Wi-MAX, or any other suitable communication protocol. Network communications interface 708 enables communication between digital assistant system 700 with networks, such as the Internet, an intranet, and/or a wireless network, such as a cellular telephone network, a wireless local area network (LAN), and/or a metropolitan area network (MAN), and other devices.
In some examples, memory 702, or the computer-readable storage media of memory 702, stores programs, modules, instructions, and data structures including all or a subset of: operating system 718, communications module 720, user interface module 722, one or more applications 724, and digital assistant module 726. In particular, memory 702, or the computer-readable storage media of memory 702, stores instructions for performing the processes described below. One or more processors 704 execute these programs, modules, and instructions, and reads/writes from/to the data structures.
Operating system 718 (e.g., Darwin, RTXC, LINUX, UNIX, iOS, OS X, WINDOWS, or an embedded operating system such as VxWorks) includes various software components and/or drivers for controlling and managing general system tasks (e.g., memory management, storage device control, power management, etc.) and facilitates communications between various hardware, firmware, and software components.
Communications module 720 facilitates communications between digital assistant system 700 with other devices over network communications interface 708. For example, communications module 720 communicates with RF circuitry 208 of electronic devices such as devices 200, 400, and 600 shown in
User interface module 722 receives commands and/or inputs from a user via I/O interface 706 (e.g., from a keyboard, touch screen, pointing device, controller, and/or microphone), and generate user interface objects on a display. User interface module 722 also prepares and delivers outputs (e.g., speech, sound, animation, text, icons, vibrations, haptic feedback, light, etc.) to the user via the I/O interface 706 (e.g., through displays, audio channels, speakers, touch-pads, etc.).
Applications 724 include programs and/or modules that are configured to be executed by one or more processors 704. For example, if the digital assistant system is implemented on a standalone user device, applications 724 include user applications, such as games, a calendar application, a navigation application, or an email application. If digital assistant system 700 is implemented on a server, applications 724 include resource management applications, diagnostic applications, or scheduling applications, for example.
Memory 702 also stores digital assistant module 726 (or the server portion of a digital assistant). In some examples, digital assistant module 726 includes the following sub-modules, or a subset or superset thereof: input/output processing module 728, speech-to-text (STT) processing module 730, natural language processing module 732, dialogue flow processing module 734, task flow processing module 736, service processing module 738, and speech synthesis processing module 740. Each of these modules has access to one or more of the following systems or data and models of the digital assistant module 726, or a subset or superset thereof: ontology 760, vocabulary index 744, user data 748, task flow models 754, service models 756, and ASR systems 758.
In some examples, using the processing modules, data, and models implemented in digital assistant module 726, the digital assistant can perform at least some of the following: converting speech input into text; identifying a user's intent expressed in a natural language input received from the user; actively eliciting and obtaining information needed to fully infer the user's intent (e.g., by disambiguating words, games, intentions, etc.); determining the task flow for fulfilling the inferred intent; and executing the task flow to fulfill the inferred intent.
In some examples, as shown in
STT processing module 730 includes one or more ASR systems 758. The one or more ASR systems 758 can process the speech input that is received through I/O processing module 728 to produce a recognition result. Each ASR system 758 includes a front-end speech pre-processor. The front-end speech pre-processor extracts representative features from the speech input. For example, the front-end speech pre-processor performs a Fourier transform on the speech input to extract spectral features that characterize the speech input as a sequence of representative multi-dimensional vectors. Further, each ASR system 758 includes one or more speech recognition models (e.g., acoustic models and/or language models) and implements one or more speech recognition engines. Examples of speech recognition models include Hidden Markov Models, Gaussian-Mixture Models, Deep Neural Network Models, n-gram language models, and other statistical models. Examples of speech recognition engines include the dynamic time warping based engines and weighted finite-state transducers (WFST) based engines. The one or more speech recognition models and the one or more speech recognition engines are used to process the extracted representative features of the front-end speech pre-processor to produce intermediate recognitions results (e.g., phonemes, phonemic strings, and sub-words), and ultimately, text recognition results (e.g., words, word strings, or sequence of tokens). In some examples, the speech input is processed at least partially by a third-party service or on the user's device (e.g., device 104, 200, 400, or 600) to produce the recognition result. Once STT processing module 730 produces recognition results containing a text string (e.g., words, or sequence of words, or sequence of tokens), the recognition result is passed to natural language processing module 732 for intent deduction. In some examples, STT processing module 730 produces multiple candidate text representations of the speech input. Each candidate text representation is a sequence of words or tokens corresponding to the speech input. In some examples, each candidate text representation is associated with a speech recognition confidence score. Based on the speech recognition confidence scores, STT processing module 730 ranks the candidate text representations and provides the n-best (e.g., n highest ranked) candidate text representation(s) to natural language processing module 732 for intent deduction, where n is a predetermined integer greater than zero. For example, in one example, only the highest ranked (n=1) candidate text representation is passed to natural language processing module 732 for intent deduction. In another example, the five highest ranked (n=5) candidate text representations are passed to natural language processing module 732 for intent deduction.
More details on the speech-to-text processing are described in U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 13/236,942 for “Consolidating Speech Recognition Results,” filed on Sep. 20, 2011, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
In some examples, STT processing module 730 includes and/or accesses a vocabulary of recognizable words via phonetic alphabet conversion module 731. Each vocabulary word is associated with one or more candidate pronunciations of the word represented in a speech recognition phonetic alphabet. In particular, the vocabulary of recognizable words includes a word that is associated with a plurality of candidate pronunciations. For example, the vocabulary includes the word “tomato” that is associated with the candidate pronunciations of and
. Further, vocabulary words are associated with custom candidate pronunciations that are based on previous speech inputs from the user. Such custom candidate pronunciations are stored in STT processing module 730 and are associated with a particular user via the user's profile on the device. In some examples, the candidate pronunciations for words are determined based on the spelling of the word and one or more linguistic and/or phonetic rules. In some examples, the candidate pronunciations are manually generated, e.g., based on known canonical pronunciations.
In some examples, the candidate pronunciations are ranked based on the commonness of the candidate pronunciation. For example, the candidate pronunciation is ranked higher than
, because the former is a more commonly used pronunciation (e.g., among all users, for users in a particular geographical region, or for any other appropriate subset of users). In some examples, candidate pronunciations are ranked based on whether the candidate pronunciation is a custom candidate pronunciation associated with the user. For example, custom candidate pronunciations are ranked higher than canonical candidate pronunciations. This can be useful for recognizing proper nouns having a unique pronunciation that deviates from canonical pronunciation. In some examples, candidate pronunciations are associated with one or more speech characteristics, such as geographic origin, nationality, or ethnicity. For example, the candidate pronunciation
is associated with the United States, whereas the candidate pronunciation
is associated with Great Britain. Further, the rank of the candidate pronunciation is based on one or more characteristics (e.g., geographic origin, nationality, ethnicity, etc.) of the user stored in the user's profile on the device. For example, it can be determined from the user's profile that the user is associated with the United States. Based on the user being associated with the United States, the candidate pronunciation
(associated with the United States) is ranked higher than the candidate pronunciation
(associated with Great Britain). In some examples, one of the ranked candidate pronunciations is selected as a predicted pronunciation (e.g., the most likely pronunciation).
When a speech input is received, STT processing module 730 is used to determine the phonemes corresponding to the speech input (e.g., using an acoustic model), and then attempt to determine words that match the phonemes (e.g., using a language model). For example, if STT processing module 730 first identifies the sequence of phonemes corresponding to a portion of the speech input, it can then determine, based on vocabulary index 744, that this sequence corresponds to the word “tomato.”
In some examples, STT processing module 730 uses approximate matching techniques to determine words in an utterance. Thus, for example, the STT processing module 730 determines that the sequence of phonemes corresponds to the word “tomato,” even if that particular sequence of phonemes is not one of the candidate sequence of phonemes for that word.
Natural language processing module 732 (“natural language processor”) of the digital assistant takes the n-best candidate text representation(s) (“word sequence(s)” or “token sequence(s)”) generated by STT processing module 730, and attempts to associate each of the candidate text representations with one or more “actionable intents” recognized by the digital assistant. An “actionable intent” (or “user intent”) represents a task that can be performed by the digital assistant, and can have an associated task flow implemented in task flow models 754. The associated task flow is a series of programmed actions and steps that the digital assistant takes in order to perform the task. The scope of a digital assistant's capabilities is dependent on the number and variety of task flows that have been implemented and stored in task flow models 754, or in other words, on the number and variety of “actionable intents” that the digital assistant recognizes. The effectiveness of the digital assistant, however, also dependents on the assistant's ability to infer the correct “actionable intent(s)” from the user request expressed in natural language.
In some examples, in addition to the sequence of words or tokens obtained from STT processing module 730, natural language processing module 732 also receives contextual information associated with the user request, e.g., from I/O processing module 728. The natural language processing module 732 optionally uses the contextual information to clarify, supplement, and/or further define the information contained in the candidate text representations received from STT processing module 730. The contextual information includes, for example, user preferences, hardware, and/or software states of the user device, sensor information collected before, during, or shortly after the user request, prior interactions (e.g., dialogue) between the digital assistant and the user, and the like. As described herein, contextual information is, in some examples, dynamic, and changes with time, location, content of the dialogue, and other factors.
In some examples, the natural language processing is based on, e.g., ontology 760. Ontology 760 is a hierarchical structure containing many nodes, each node representing either an “actionable intent” or a “property” relevant to one or more of the “actionable intents” or other “properties.” As noted above, an “actionable intent” represents a task that the digital assistant is capable of performing, i.e., it is “actionable” or can be acted on. A “property” represents a parameter associated with an actionable intent or a sub-aspect of another property. A linkage between an actionable intent node and a property node in ontology 760 defines how a parameter represented by the property node pertains to the task represented by the actionable intent node.
In some examples, ontology 760 is made up of actionable intent nodes and property nodes. Within ontology 760, each actionable intent node is linked to one or more property nodes either directly or through one or more intermediate property nodes. Similarly, each property node is linked to one or more actionable intent nodes either directly or through one or more intermediate property nodes. For example, as shown in
In addition, property nodes “cuisine,” “price range,” “phone number,” and “location” are sub-nodes of the property node “restaurant,” and are each linked to the “restaurant reservation” node (i.e., the actionable intent node) through the intermediate property node “restaurant.” For another example, as shown in
An actionable intent node, along with its linked property nodes, is described as a “domain.” In the present discussion, each domain is associated with a respective actionable intent, and refers to the group of nodes (and the relationships there between) associated with the particular actionable intent. For example, ontology 760 shown in
While
In some examples, ontology 760 includes all the domains (and hence actionable intents) that the digital assistant is capable of understanding and acting upon. In some examples, ontology 760 is modified, such as by adding or removing entire domains or nodes, or by modifying relationships between the nodes within the ontology 760.
In some examples, nodes associated with multiple related actionable intents are clustered under a “super domain” in ontology 760. For example, a “travel” super-domain includes a cluster of property nodes and actionable intent nodes related to travel. The actionable intent nodes related to travel includes “airline reservation,” “hotel reservation,” “car rental,” “get directions,” “find points of interest,” and so on. The actionable intent nodes under the same super domain (e.g., the “travel” super domain) have many property nodes in common. For example, the actionable intent nodes for “airline reservation,” “hotel reservation,” “car rental,” “get directions,” and “find points of interest” share one or more of the property nodes “start location,” “destination,” “departure date/time,” “arrival date/time,” and “party size.”
In some examples, each node in ontology 760 is associated with a set of words and/or phrases that are relevant to the property or actionable intent represented by the node. The respective set of words and/or phrases associated with each node are the so-called “vocabulary” associated with the node. The respective set of words and/or phrases associated with each node are stored in vocabulary index 744 in association with the property or actionable intent represented by the node. For example, returning to
Natural language processing module 732 receives the candidate text representations (e.g., text string(s) or token sequence(s)) from STT processing module 730, and for each candidate representation, determines what nodes are implicated by the words in the candidate text representation. In some examples, if a word or phrase in the candidate text representation is found to be associated with one or more nodes in ontology 760 (via vocabulary index 744), the word or phrase “triggers” or “activates” those nodes. Based on the quantity and/or relative importance of the activated nodes, natural language processing module 732 selects one of the actionable intents as the task that the user intended the digital assistant to perform. In some examples, the domain that has the most “triggered” nodes is selected. In some examples, the domain having the highest confidence value (e.g., based on the relative importance of its various triggered nodes) is selected. In some examples, the domain is selected based on a combination of the number and the importance of the triggered nodes. In some examples, additional factors are considered in selecting the node as well, such as whether the digital assistant has previously correctly interpreted a similar request from a user.
User data 748 includes user-specific information, such as user-specific vocabulary, user preferences, user address, user's default and secondary languages, user's contact list, and other short-term or long-term information for each user. In some examples, natural language processing module 732 uses the user-specific information to supplement the information contained in the user input to further define the user intent. For example, for a user request “invite my friends to my birthday party,” natural language processing module 732 is able to access user data 748 to determine who the “friends” are and when and where the “birthday party” would be held, rather than requiring the user to provide such information explicitly in his/her request.
It should be recognized that in some examples, natural language processing module 732 is implemented using one or more machine learning mechanisms (e.g., neural networks). In particular, the one or more machine learning mechanisms are configured to receive a candidate text representation and contextual information associated with the candidate text representation. Based on the candidate text representation and the associated contextual information, the one or more machine learning mechanisms are configured to determine intent confidence scores over a set of candidate actionable intents. Natural language processing module 732 can select one or more candidate actionable intents from the set of candidate actionable intents based on the determined intent confidence scores. In some examples, an ontology (e.g., ontology 760) is also used to select the one or more candidate actionable intents from the set of candidate actionable intents.
Other details of searching an ontology based on a token string are described in U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 12/341,743 for “Method and Apparatus for Searching Using An Active Ontology,” filed Dec. 22, 2008, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
In some examples, once natural language processing module 732 identifies an actionable intent (or domain) based on the user request, natural language processing module 732 generates a structured query to represent the identified actionable intent. In some examples, the structured query includes parameters for one or more nodes within the domain for the actionable intent, and at least some of the parameters are populated with the specific information and requirements specified in the user request. For example, the user says “Make me a dinner reservation at a sushi place at 7.” In this case, natural language processing module 732 is able to correctly identify the actionable intent to be “restaurant reservation” based on the user input. According to the ontology, a structured query for a “restaurant reservation” domain includes parameters such as {Cuisine}, {Time}, {Date}, {Party Size}, and the like. In some examples, based on the speech input and the text derived from the speech input using STT processing module 730, natural language processing module 732 generates a partial structured query for the restaurant reservation domain, where the partial structured query includes the parameters {Cuisine=“Sushi” } and {Time=“7 pm” }. However, in this example, the user's utterance contains insufficient information to complete the structured query associated with the domain. Therefore, other necessary parameters such as {Party Size} and {Date} are not specified in the structured query based on the information currently available. In some examples, natural language processing module 732 populates some parameters of the structured query with received contextual information. For example, in some examples, if the user requested a sushi restaurant “near me,” natural language processing module 732 populates a {location} parameter in the structured query with GPS coordinates from the user device.
In some examples, natural language processing module 732 identifies multiple candidate actionable intents for each candidate text representation received from STT processing module 730. Further, in some examples, a respective structured query (partial or complete) is generated for each identified candidate actionable intent. Natural language processing module 732 determines an intent confidence score for each candidate actionable intent and ranks the candidate actionable intents based on the intent confidence scores. In some examples, natural language processing module 732 passes the generated structured query (or queries), including any completed parameters, to task flow processing module 736 (“task flow processor”). In some examples, the structured query (or queries) for the m-best (e.g., m highest ranked) candidate actionable intents are provided to task flow processing module 736, where m is a predetermined integer greater than zero. In some examples, the structured query (or queries) for the m-best candidate actionable intents are provided to task flow processing module 736 with the corresponding candidate text representation(s).
Other details of inferring a user intent based on multiple candidate actionable intents determined from multiple candidate text representations of a speech input are described in U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 14/298,725 for “System and Method for Inferring User Intent From Speech Inputs,” filed Jun. 6, 2014, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Task flow processing module 736 is configured to receive the structured query (or queries) from natural language processing module 732, complete the structured query, if necessary, and perform the actions required to “complete” the user's ultimate request. In some examples, the various procedures necessary to complete these tasks are provided in task flow models 754. In some examples, task flow models 754 include procedures for obtaining additional information from the user and task flows for performing actions associated with the actionable intent.
As described above, in order to complete a structured query, task flow processing module 736 needs to initiate additional dialogue with the user in order to obtain additional information, and/or disambiguate potentially ambiguous utterances. When such interactions are necessary, task flow processing module 736 invokes dialogue flow processing module 734 to engage in a dialogue with the user. In some examples, dialogue flow processing module 734 determines how (and/or when) to ask the user for the additional information and receives and processes the user responses. The questions are provided to and answers are received from the users through I/O processing module 728. In some examples, dialogue flow processing module 734 presents dialogue output to the user via audio and/or visual output, and receives input from the user via spoken or physical (e.g., clicking) responses. Continuing with the example above, when task flow processing module 736 invokes dialogue flow processing module 734 to determine the “party size” and “date” information for the structured query associated with the domain “restaurant reservation,” dialogue flow processing module 734 generates questions such as “For how many people?” and “On which day?” to pass to the user. Once answers are received from the user, dialogue flow processing module 734 then populates the structured query with the missing information, or pass the information to task flow processing module 736 to complete the missing information from the structured query.
Once task flow processing module 736 has completed the structured query for an actionable intent, task flow processing module 736 proceeds to perform the ultimate task associated with the actionable intent. Accordingly, task flow processing module 736 executes the steps and instructions in the task flow model according to the specific parameters contained in the structured query. For example, the task flow model for the actionable intent of “restaurant reservation” includes steps and instructions for contacting a restaurant and actually requesting a reservation for a particular party size at a particular time. For example, using a structured query such as: {restaurant reservation, restaurant=ABC Café, date=3/12/2012, time=7 pm, party size=5}, task flow processing module 736 performs the steps of: (1) logging onto a server of the ABC Café or a restaurant reservation system such as OPENTABLE®, (2) entering the date, time, and party size information in a form on the website, (3) submitting the form, and (4) making a calendar entry for the reservation in the user's calendar.
In some examples, task flow processing module 736 employs the assistance of service processing module 738 (“service processing module”) to complete a task requested in the user input or to provide an informational answer requested in the user input. For example, service processing module 738 acts on behalf of task flow processing module 736 to make a phone call, set a calendar entry, invoke a map search, invoke or interact with other user applications installed on the user device, and invoke or interact with third-party services (e.g., a restaurant reservation portal, a social networking website, a banking portal, etc.). In some examples, the protocols and application programming interfaces (API) required by each service are specified by a respective service model among service models 756. Service processing module 738 accesses the appropriate service model for a service and generates requests for the service in accordance with the protocols and APIs required by the service according to the service model.
For example, if a restaurant has enabled an online reservation service, the restaurant submits a service model specifying the necessary parameters for making a reservation and the APIs for communicating the values of the necessary parameter to the online reservation service. When requested by task flow processing module 736, service processing module 738 establishes a network connection with the online reservation service using the web address stored in the service model, and sends the necessary parameters of the reservation (e.g., time, date, party size) to the online reservation interface in a format according to the API of the online reservation service.
In some examples, natural language processing module 732, dialogue flow processing module 734, and task flow processing module 736 are used collectively and iteratively to infer and define the user's intent, obtain information to further clarify and refine the user intent, and finally generate a response (i.e., an output to the user, or the completion of a task) to fulfill the user's intent. The generated response is a dialogue response to the speech input that at least partially fulfills the user's intent. Further, in some examples, the generated response is output as a speech output. In these examples, the generated response is sent to speech synthesis processing module 740 (e.g., speech synthesizer) where it can be processed to synthesize the dialogue response in speech form. In yet other examples, the generated response is data content relevant to satisfying a user request in the speech input.
In examples where task flow processing module 736 receives multiple structured queries from natural language processing module 732, task flow processing module 736 initially processes the first structured query of the received structured queries to attempt to complete the first structured query and/or execute one or more tasks or actions represented by the first structured query. In some examples, the first structured query corresponds to the highest ranked actionable intent. In other examples, the first structured query is selected from the received structured queries based on a combination of the corresponding speech recognition confidence scores and the corresponding intent confidence scores. In some examples, if task flow processing module 736 encounters an error during processing of the first structured query (e.g., due to an inability to determine a necessary parameter), the task flow processing module 736 can proceed to select and process a second structured query of the received structured queries that corresponds to a lower ranked actionable intent. The second structured query is selected, for example, based on the speech recognition confidence score of the corresponding candidate text representation, the intent confidence score of the corresponding candidate actionable intent, a missing necessary parameter in the first structured query, or any combination thereof.
Speech synthesis processing module 740 is configured to synthesize speech outputs for presentation to the user. Speech synthesis processing module 740 synthesizes speech outputs based on text provided by the digital assistant. For example, the generated dialogue response is in the form of a text string. Speech synthesis processing module 740 converts the text string to an audible speech output. Speech synthesis processing module 740 uses any appropriate speech synthesis technique in order to generate speech outputs from text, including, but not limited, to concatenative synthesis, unit selection synthesis, diphone synthesis, domain-specific synthesis, formant synthesis, articulatory synthesis, hidden Markov model (HMM) based synthesis, and sinewave synthesis. In some examples, speech synthesis processing module 740 is configured to synthesize individual words based on phonemic strings corresponding to the words. For example, a phonemic string is associated with a word in the generated dialogue response. The phonemic string is stored in metadata associated with the word. Speech synthesis processing module 740 is configured to directly process the phonemic string in the metadata to synthesize the word in speech form.
In some examples, instead of (or in addition to) using speech synthesis processing module 740, speech synthesis is performed on a remote device (e.g., the server system 108), and the synthesized speech is sent to the user device for output to the user. For example, this can occur in some implementations where outputs for a digital assistant are generated at a server system. And because server systems generally have more processing power or resources than a user device, it is possible to obtain higher quality speech outputs than would be practical with client-side synthesis.
Additional details on digital assistants can be found in the U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 12/987,982, entitled “Intelligent Automated Assistant,” filed Jan. 10, 2011, and U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 13/251,088, entitled “Generating and Processing Task Items That Represent Tasks to Perform,” filed Sep. 30, 2011, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
4. System and Process for Utilizing Gaze with Dictation
Speech recognition and dictation based transcription can be advantageous for users by increasing the speed that users can write or transcribe documents, notes, e-mails, etc. while also allowing the user to engage in other activities at the same time. However, it can be difficult for a dictation system to understand the user's intent, particularly when a user may be actively engaged with the electronic device at one time and then speaking to a person in the room in the next instance. Additionally, correction of mistakes during dictation can be an obstacle as many dictation services are unable to understand when the user is trying to correct a word and instead continue to transcribe the user's speech.
Users typically look to where they believe text will appear when intending to invoke dictation services even before they have started to provide an utterance. Thus, by monitoring a user's gaze as it moves to the display of the device, as well as around the display of the device allows the dictation system to understand when the user is intending to dictate. Further, when words are transcribed incorrectly, users typically fixate their gaze on those words while providing the desired correction or edit. Accordingly, by monitoring how a user's gaze moves over previously transcribed text the dictation system may better understand when the user has identified a mistake and wishes to correct it.
By combining detection of the user's gaze and the incoming speech the dictation system can use the methods above to increase the efficiency and overall effectiveness of dictation and transcription services and provide the user with a more enjoyable and interactive experience. This can allow the user to multitask by dictating while performing other activities and also results in a more seamless interaction with the dictation system, reducing the number of outputs needed to determine the user intent and thereby reducing battery usage.
In some examples, the sub-modules or a subset or superset of the sub-modules described with regard to system 800 may include one or more of the components discussed above including components for automatic speech recognition, natural language processing, or speech to text capabilities.
It should be noted that system 800 is exemplary, and thus system 800 can have more or fewer components than shown, can combine two or more components, or can have a different configuration or arrangement of the components. Further, although the below discussion describes functions being performed at a single component of system 800, it is to be understood that such functions can be performed at other components of system 800 and that such functions can be performed at more than one component of system 800.
As illustrated in
System 800 detects user gaze 802 and utterance 801. In some examples, user gaze 802 is detected with a sensor of an electronic device (e.g., electronic device 900) such as a camera capable of tracking the user's eyes to determine what the user is looking at. In some examples, detecting user gaze 802 includes determining whether the user is looking at the screen of the electronic device. For example, as shown in
After detecting user gaze 802, system 800 provides data representing user gaze 802 to invocation classifier 810. Invocation classifier 810 then processes the data representing user gaze 802 in several different ways to determine the user's intent (e.g., to enter a dictation mode, to enter an edit mode, etc.). In particular, as discussed below, invocation classifier 810 determines whether to enter a dictation mode and then, in combination with other components of system 800, whether to enter an editing mode.
Invocation classifier 810 determines whether to enter a dictation mode based on user gaze 802. In particular, invocation classifier 810 determines whether user gaze 802 is directed at one or more locations on the screen of the electronic device that indicates that the user is likely to start dictation. In some examples, invocation classifier 810 determines whether user gaze 802 is directed at a text field (e.g., an element) displayed on the screen of the electronic device. For example, as shown in
In some examples, invocation classifier 810 determines whether user gaze 802 is directed at a specific location on an element displayed on the screen of the electronic device. In particular, when user gaze 802 is directed at the beginning or the middle of a text field, user gaze 802 indicates that the user is intending to provide speech for dictation and thus that system 800 should enter a dictation mode. Accordingly, when invocation classifier 810 determines that user gaze 902 is directed to the beginning of the text field displayed on screen 901, invocation classifier 810 may determine to enter a dictation mode.
In some examples, the specific location on the element displayed on the screen of the electronic device includes the end of text that is displayed in the element. For example, if text was previously input and displayed on the element of the screen then user gaze 802 may be directed to the end of the text and thus indicate that the user is intending to provide speech for dictation and thus that system 800 should enter a dictation mode. Thus, in some examples, when invocation classifier 810 determines that user gaze 802 is directed to the end of text being display then invocation classifier 810 may determine to enter the dictation mode.
Importantly, as discussed further below, system 800 considers factors such as the direction of user gaze 802, the proximity of user gaze 802 to words or elements displayed on the screen of the electronic device, the gaze spread of user gaze 802, dwell time of user gaze 802, utterance 801, previous interactions between the user and system 800, and the context of words displayed on the screen of the electronic device to determine the user's intent to dictate or edit text. In this way system 800 does not make simple determinations of whether to transcribe text and instead may consider speech input holistically to determine the user's actual intent and provide the correct output. This leverages the gaze of the user to better understand the user intent and provide the user with a more enjoyable and responsive experience.
In some examples, invocation classifier 810 determines whether user gaze 802 is directed at text displayed on the screen of the electronic device. For example, as shown in
In some examples, invocation classifier 810 determines a time that user gaze 802 is directed to the location or element being displayed on the screen and determines whether the time exceeds a predetermined threshold. For example, when invocation classifier 810 determines that user gaze 902 is directed at the beginning of text field 903, invocation classifier 810 can determine that user gaze 902 dwells there for at least 5 seconds. Further, invocation classifier 810 determines that the dwell time of 5 seconds is over a predetermined threshold of 2 seconds. Thus, invocation classifier 810 determines that system 800 should enter dictation mode.
Similarly, invocation classifier 810 may determine a time that user gaze 802 is directed at the entire text field, even if user gaze 802 does not fixate on one point of the text field. Thus, when user gaze 902 does not fixate at the beginning of text field 903 but instead moves around text field 903 for longer than the 2 second threshold, invocation classifier 810 may also determine that the user is likely to start dictation and thus system 800 should enter the dictation mode.
In some examples, invocation classifier 810 determines a gaze spread of user 802. For example, invocation classifier 810 may determine that user gaze 802 is generally directed to the beginning of text field 903 but is spread over a few different points near the beginning of text field 903. Accordingly, even though user gaze 802 is moving invocation classifier 810 determines that the gaze spread of user 802 is generally directed to the beginning of the text field and thus that system 800 should enter the dictation mode.
Accordingly, invocation classifier 810 considers factors including the direction of user gaze 802, the proximity of user gaze 802 to words or elements displayed on the screen of the electronic device, dwell time of user gaze 802, and the gaze spread of user gaze 802 to determine whether the user is likely to provide speech for dictation and thus to enter a dictation mode.
After determining that one or more of these factors indicate that the user is likely to start dictation, invocation classifier 810 determines to enter a dictation mode and prompts system 800 to enter the dictation mode. System 800, invocation classifier 810, and edit intent detector 820 then process utterance 801 to determine whether to transcribe utterance 801 as dictation or to enter an editing mode.
In some examples, invocation classifier 810 includes a machine learning model trained to determine whether to enter a dictation mode based on factors such as the direction of user gaze 802, the proximity of user gaze 802 to words or elements displayed on the screen of the electronic device, dwell time of user gaze 802, utterance 801, previous interactions between the user and system 800, and the context of words displayed on the screen of the electronic device. Accordingly, invocation classifier 810 associates various inputs related to user gaze 802 with instances when the user begins to provide dictation. This results in a machine learning model that can receive these factors and provide system 800 with the determination to enter the dictation mode.
In some examples, upon determining to enter the dictation mode, system 800 and invocation classifier 810 determine that the direction of user gaze 802 is focused on a first location of the screen of the electronic device. For example, invocation classifier 810 may determine that the direction of user gaze 902 is focused on the middle of text field 903, as shown in
Thus, while user gaze 802 indicates that the user intends to start dictation and thus system 800 should enter the dictation mode, user gaze 802 is not directed at a second location of the screen of the electronic device and in particular, at where the text will appear on the screen as system 800 transcribes the user speech. Accordingly, system 800 displays a second element on the screen of the electronic device providing information related to the dictation mode and user gaze 802. For example, as shown in
In some examples, the second element is displayed at the first location on the first element. For example, as shown in
In some examples, the second element includes text directing the user to change user gaze 802 to the second location. For example, as shown in
In some examples, system 800 provides an audio output including the information to help the user direct gaze 802 to the correct location. For example, system 800 may provide the audio output “when starting dictation, look at the beginning of the text field.” In some examples, the audio output is provided in addition to the element or notification (e.g., notification 904). In some examples, the audio output is provided as an alternative to displaying the element or notification.
In some examples, the second element is displayed at the second location on the first element different from the first location. For example, as shown in
In some examples, the second element includes a graphic directing the user to change user gaze 802 to the second location. For example, as shown in
In some examples, the second element includes a link. For example, as shown in
In some examples, the link is selected by tapping, pushing, or a similar motion, as seen in
In some examples, the link is selected by detecting a gesture from the user directed towards the link. The gesture may be detected with one or more sensors of the electronic device including one or more cameras (e.g., a front facing or back facing camera), a gyrometer, a gyroscope, an accelerometer, or any other device capable of detecting user movement. For example, the user may gesture towards the link displayed on the screen of the electronic device by waving their hand or pointing their finger. Thus, system 800 may detect selection of the link and provide information in response, as discussed further below.
In some examples, the content of the second element is determined based on the location that the second element is displayed in. For example, when notification 904 is displayed at the first location in the middle of text field 903, notification 904 may include an arrow directing the user to change user gaze 902 to the beginning of text field 903, as shown in
In some examples, a cursor is displayed at the second location in addition to the second element. For example, as shown in 9H, cursor 908 is displayed at the beginning of the text field in addition to notification 904 directing the user to move user gaze 902.
In some examples, the second element is displayed at a third location on the first element different from the first location and second location. In some examples, the third location is the end of text that is already being displayed on the display of the electronic device. For example, when text field 903 includes text already, as shown in
In some examples, system 800 and invocation classifier 810 determine that user gaze 802 is directed to a fourth location on a third element displayed on the screen of the electronic device. In some examples, the third element is a second text field. For example, as shown in
Accordingly, system 800 provides a fourth element at the third location. In some examples, the fourth element provides text or graphics indicating that the user should look at a different location on the same text field. For example, as shown in
In some examples, the fourth element provides text or graphics indicating that the user should look at a different location on a different text field (e.g., the first element). For example, while user gaze 902 is directed to location 910 in the middle of text field 909, the user may have previously selected text field 903 for entering new text when next entering dictation mode. Accordingly, system 800 displays notification 904 including the text “When dictation mode begins, text will appear in the field above,” to direct the user to look at text field 903, as shown in
In some examples, the fourth element includes a disambiguation request to determine which text field the user wishes text to be transcribed in. For example, as shown in
In some examples, system 800 detects that user gaze 802 has changed location from the first location to the second location and transcribes (e.g., displays) text in response to detecting the change in location of user gaze 802. For example, system 902 may detect that user gaze 902 has shifted from text field 909 to the beginning of text field 903, as shown in
In some examples, system 800 ceases display of the second element in response to detecting the change in location of user gaze 802. For example, as shown in
In some examples, system 800 does not transcribe (e.g., display) text when user gaze 802 does not change location from the first location to the second location. For example, as shown in
While in dictation mode, edit intent detector 820 further determines whether to enter an editing mode based on utterance 801 and user gaze 802. In particular, while receiving user speech including utterance 801, system 800 and edit intent detector 820 monitor the user speech and user gaze 802 to determine whether the user has decided to stop dictating and instead is trying to edit one or more words that have previously been displayed as text on the screen of the electronic device.
In some examples, edit intent detector 820 determines whether to enter an editing mode based on text or the absence of text displayed on the screen of the electronic device. For example, when text is displayed on the screen, as shown in
In some examples, edit intent detector 820 determines whether to enter the editing mode based on the location of user gaze 802. For example, when user gaze 902 is directed to location 912 on the word “I” as shown in
In some examples, edit intent detector 820 determines whether to enter the editing mode based on the velocity of user gaze 802. For example, when the user is dragging user gaze 902 slowly over the words “dogs,” “I,” and “definitely,” as shown in
In some examples, edit intent detector 820 determines whether to enter the editing mode based on an area covered by user gaze 802. For example, when the user is focused on area 913 including the words “dogs I definitely,” with user gaze 902 as shown in
In some examples, edit intent detector 820 determines whether to enter the editing mode based on the gaze spread of user gaze 802. For example, as shown in
In some examples, edit intent detector 820 determines whether to enter the editing mode based on a determination that utterance 801 includes a predetermined word. In particular, edit intent detector 820 may process utterance 801 to determine whether it includes one or more of words like “add,” “delete,” “move,” “replace,” “change,” “edit,” “get rid of,” “not that,” “that's wrong,” “no I meant,” “capitalize,” etc. Accordingly, edit intent detector 820 will look for words or phrases that indicate that the user is unhappy or would like to alter something that was previously done. For example, as shown in
In some examples, edit intent detector 820 determines whether to enter the editing mode by determining an intent of utterance 801 using natural language understanding. Accordingly, by processing utterance 801 using the systems of ontologies and other natural language understanding components described herein, edit intent detector 820 may determine that utterance 914 of “No, not I,” indicates that the user is intending to edit the word “I” and thus that the editing mode should be entered.
In some examples, system 800 is part of or is connected to a digital assistant system, such as the digital assistant systems described herein (e.g., digital assistant system 100). Accordingly, system 800 may utilize the digital assistant to aid in natural language understanding and the processing of user utterances to determine the intent of the user. In this way, dictation system 800 may be incorporated or used with a digital assistant to increase the responsiveness to the user and provide the user with a more complete assistant experience.
In some examples, edit intent detector 820 determines whether to enter the editing mode based on the location of user gaze 802 and one or more words included in utterance 801. For example, as shown in
In this way, user gaze 802 can be leveraged to better understand the user intent by determining on what area of the screen the user is focusing when ambiguous commands are received. Further, user gaze 802 can help system 800 understand the user intent even before the utterance is received by indicating an area that the user is fixating on and thus notifying system 800 that there is something of interest to the user in that area, typically an error. This improves the functionality of dictation services with the system, as rather than transcribing words like “wait,” system 800 can respond to the user and start the editing process.
In some examples, edit intent detector 820 includes a machine learning model trained to determine whether to enter an editing mode based on the factors such as the direction of user gaze 802, the proximity of user gaze 802 to words or elements displayed on the screen of the electronic device, dwell time of user gaze 802, utterance 801, previous interactions between the user and system 800, and the context of words displayed on the screen of the electronic device.
Accordingly, edit intent detector 820 associates various inputs related to user gaze 802 and utterance 801 with instances when the user intends to edit words that have been previously transcribed. This results in a machine learning model that can receive these factors and provide system 800 with the determination to enter the editing mode. In some examples, edit intent detector 820 includes a machine learning model different from the machine learning model for invocation classifier 810. In some examples, both edit intent detector 820 and invocation classifier 810, and optionally other components of the system, are implemented in a single machine learning model.
When edit intent detector 820 determines not to enter the editing mode based on the factors discussed above, including the location of user gaze 802 and the contents of utterance 801, system 800 causes a textual representation of utterance 801 to be displayed on the screen of the electronic device. Accordingly, system 800 transcribes utterance 801 because system 800 is in the dictation mode and has determined that the user is not trying to edit a previously transcribed word.
In some examples, system 800 determines where to display the textual representation based on user gaze 802. For example, as shown in
In some examples, system 800 determines where to display the textual representation based on the end of a text field displayed on the screen of the electronic device. For example, as shown in
In some examples, system 800 determines where to display the textual representation based on the end of a text field displayed on the screen of the electronic device and the location of user gaze 802. For example, as shown in
This process may continue for each utterance received by system 800 from the user. That is, system 800 will detect user gaze 802 and if user gaze 802 no longer indicates that the user intends to provide speech to be transcribed, system 800 will exit dictation mode. However, if user gaze 802 continues to indicate that the user intends to provide speech to be transcribed (e.g., by following the end of the displayed text where new text is to be displayed) system 800 will provide the utterances to edit intent detector 820 along with user gaze 802 for analysis to determine whether to enter an editing mode. Accordingly, when user gaze 802 shifts from the end of the displayed text to focus on a word displayed on the screen, edit intent detector 820 can determine to enter the editing mode.
When edit intent detector 820 determines to enter the editing mode, target selector 830 determines a word displayed on the screen of the electronic device to edit and payload re-recognizer 840 determines an edit (e.g., change) to make to the word.
In some examples, target selector 830 determines the word displayed on the screen of the electronic device to edit based on user gaze 802. For example, when user gaze 902 is focused on the word “I” as shown in
In some examples, target selector 830 determines the word displayed on the screen of the electronic device to edit based on a distance between the location of user gaze 802 and the word. For example, when user gaze 902 is focused on location 921, as shown in
In some examples, target selector 830 determines the word displayed on the screen of the electronic device to edit based on a dwell time of the detected gaze of the user. For example, when user gaze 902 is focused on the word “I” as shown in
In some examples, target selector 830 determines the word displayed on the screen of the electronic device to edit based on utterance 801. For example, as shown in
In some examples, target selector 830 determines a word to edit based on prior interaction history. For example, target selector 830 may determine that the word “I” was previously changed to “I” from “our” and thus determine that if a word is to be edited, it is likely that “I” needs to be edited again.
In some examples, target selector 830 determines the word displayed on the screen of the electronic device to edit based a linguistic characteristic of the word. Linguistic characteristics of the word include the part of speech, whether the word is a part of a phrase, the language of the word, the location of a word in a sentence, etc. For example, target selector 830 may determine that “I” is a noun and thus that it does not make sense in the context of the currently displayed sentence. Accordingly, target selector 830 may determine to edit the word “I.”
In some examples, target selector 830 considers a combination of user gaze 802, the distance between the location of user gaze 802 and the word, the dwell time, and utterance 801 when determining the word to edit. For example, as shown in
In some examples, target selector 830 assigns a weight to each of the factors discussed above (e.g., user gaze 802, the distance between the location of user gaze 802 and the word, the dwell time, and utterance 801) and determines based on the assigned weights the word to edit. For example, user gaze 902 may be weighted more heavily because user gaze 902 heavily indicates what word the user wishes to edit. Accordingly, target selector 830 may assign a high weight to the word “I” based on user gaze 902 and select “I” even when the received utterance does not include “I.”
Payload re-recognizer 840 similarly considers several different factors when determining the edit (e.g., change) to make to the word. Payload re-recognizer 840 determines a context of the word based on the words prior to and after the determined word which is leveraged to determine which edits a user will likely request. For example, when the word to edit is “I,” as shown in
Payload re-recognizer 840 also considers utterance 801, and prior interaction history between the user and system 800, particularly prior interaction history concerning the same word. For example, payload re-recognizer 840 may determine that the word “I” was previously changed from “our” and thus may determine that a likely edit will be to change “I” to “are” because “are” and “our” sound similar.
In some examples, payload re-recognizer 840 determines multiple edits (or changes) to make to a word. For example, as discussed above, based on the context of the sentence, payload re-recognizer determines that likely edits include changing “I” to “are” or changing “I” to “will.”
In some examples, payload re-recognizer 840 determines that the edit (or change) includes inserting a word. For example, when payload re-recognizer 840 receives the utterance “add myself” while user gaze 802 is focused on a word or the spaces between words, it may determine that the user intends to add the word “myself” to the sentence and thus insert “myself” into the sentence.
In some examples, payload re-recognizer 840 determines that the edit (or change) includes deleting a word. For example, when payload re-recognizer 840 receives the utterance “delete I” while user gaze 801 is focused on the word I, it may determine that the user intends to delete the word “I” from the sentence and thus remove “I.”.
In some examples, after payload re-recognizer 840 determines one or more edits to make to a word, system 800 displays the one or more edits in an element on the display of the electronic device. For example, as shown in
In some examples, in addition to showing the element on the display of the electronic device, system 800 highlights the word to be edited. For example, as shown in
In some examples, the element includes several different suggested changes. For example, as shown in
In some examples, the element includes a link. For example, as shown in
In some examples, the element includes information about how to edit a word including possible commands that can be used. For example, as shown in
In some examples, the element includes information about how user gaze 802 can be adjusted to help determine what word to edit. For example, as show in
In some examples, an element including information about editing is displayed after a predetermined condition is met. The predetermined condition can include the dwell time of user gaze 802 on a word exceeding a predetermined threshold, a delay of time exceeding a predetermined threshold after an edit command is detected in utterance 801, or any other type of condition that indicates that the user would like to edit a word.
For example, as shown in
As another example, as shown in
Once the word and the edit to the word have been determined the word is edited by applying the change to the word and displaying the updated word. For example, as shown in
In some examples, the edit is applied automatically once it is determined. For example, “I” may be changed to “are” without prompting the user or providing any sort of feedback once it is determined.
In some examples, the edit is applied after detecting selection of the change displayed in the element. In some examples, the edit is applied after detecting selection of the change from the plurality of proposed changes displayed in the element. For example, as discussed above, the user may provide tap 925 on the proposed edit of changing “I” to “are” provided in notification 922 as shown in
Simultaneous to system 800 determining whether to enter the dictation mode and the editing mode as described above, error detector 850 analyzes the previously transcribed text to determine whether the text includes any errors. Further, error detector 850 leverages user gaze 802 to aid in this error detection by determining which words to check for errors based on user gaze.
In particular, when user gaze 802 is detected error detector 850 along with invocation classifier 810 determine a location of user gaze 802 and based on the location of user gaze 802, one or more words targeted by user gazer 802. For example, as discussed above, when user gaze 902 is directed to location 912 on the word “I,” as shown in
In some examples, the group of words around the word that user gaze 802 is directed to are selected to be checked for errors. For example, as shown in
In some examples, the one or more words targeted by user gaze 802 are determined based on a dwell time of user gaze 802, as discussed above. Accordingly, when user gaze 802 is directed to a word or group of words for a predetermined time (e.g., 2 seconds, 3 seconds, 5 seconds) then the word or group of words can be selected to check for errors.
In some examples, the one or more words targeted by user gaze 802 are determined based on a gaze pattern of user gaze 802. For example, as discussed above with respect to
In some examples, the one or more words targeted by user gaze 802 are determined based on a distance between the location of user gaze 802 and words displayed by the electronic device. In particular, when the distance between the location of user gaze 802 and a word displayed by the electronic device is below a predetermined threshold, the word is selected. For example, as shown in
In some examples, system 800 determines a number of pixels between user gaze 802 and a word displayed by the electronic device and if the number of pixels is below a predetermined threshold, the word is selected. For example, as shown in
In some examples, multiple words are selected based on the distance between the location of user gaze 802 and the multiple words. For example, as shown in
As another example, as shown in
In some examples, the one or more words are determined based on the context of the words and the words preceding and following words that user gaze 802 is directed at. For example, when user gaze 902 is focused on the word “I,” system 800 and error detector 850 may automatically select the word preceding and the word following “I” to better understand the context of the word “I”. In some examples, the preceding and following words are selected when the word that user gaze 902 is focused on does not appear to have an error. Thus, when “I” is selected alone, error detector 850 may determine that it does not include any errors and may expand to process “dogs” and “definitely” as well as the entire phrase “dogs I definitely,” to determine whether there is an error.
In some examples, the one or more words are determined based on previous interaction history with the words, including if the words have previously been corrected or otherwise targeted by the user. For example, when the word “I” was previously changed from “our” error detector 850 may access this interaction history to select the word “I” and also to determine which changes were previously made. By accessing which changes were previously made error detector 850 avoids offering to make the same change and further, can consider this additional context when determine new corrections to propose to the user.
Error detector 850 then checks the word or words being targeted by user gaze 802 for errors, to determine whether the word or words is incorrect. In particular, error detector 850 may determine whether the words are incorrect by using error detection methods such as spell check, grammar check, etc. For example, error detector 850 may evaluate the word “I” in isolation and determine that there is no spelling error, but also evaluate the phrase “dogs I definitely,” and recognize that there could be a grammar error. Error detector 850 may then further expand the context considered to include the words “my favorite” and determine that the phrase “dogs I definitely my favorite,” contains at least one grammatical error.
In some examples, error detector 850 determines whether the words are incorrect based on user gaze 802. For example, if error detector 850 implements a change to a word, such as changing “our” to “I” and the user continues to gaze at the corrected word, error detector 850 may determine that the word is still incorrect or that the user would like to change it further. Accordingly, error detector 850 determines that “I” is incorrect based on the user continuing to look at it.
In some examples, error detector 850 determines whether the words are incorrect based on the context of the words surrounding the word. For example, as discussed above error detector 850 may determine that the word “I” alone is correct, but after expanding consideration to a larger portion of the sentence error detector 850 determines that “I” is incorrect as it creates a grammatical error.
In some examples, error detector 850 determines whether the word or words are incorrect based on previous interaction history with the word and whether the word was previously corrected. For example, in the previous example where “our” was changed to “I” error detector 850 may recognize based on the multiple changes and the grammatical errors that persisted through those changes that “I” is also incorrect and needs to be changed again.
In some examples, error detector 850 includes a machine learning model trained to recognize words that are incorrect based on the factors such as the direction of user gaze 802, the proximity of user gaze 802 to words or elements displayed on the screen of the electronic device, dwell time of user gaze 802, utterance 801, previous interactions between the user and system 800, and the context of words displayed on the screen of the electronic device. For example, the machine learning model may be trained on a set of training data including various incorrect words and the corresponding user gaze that is detected in relation to those incorrect words. Accordingly, by iteratively training the machine learning model based on this training data, the machine learning model learns to correspond the user gaze on specific words as an indication that the word is incorrect, as well as other correlations based on the factors above to identify incorrect words.
If error detector 850 determines that the word or words is incorrect, an element related to the word is provided on the display of the electronic device. For example, as shown in
In some examples, in addition to showing the element on the display of the electronic device, system 800 highlights the word to be edited. For example, as shown in
In some examples, the element includes several different suggested changes. For example, as shown in
In some examples, the element includes an interface for the user to enter a correction. For example, when error detector 850 determines that a word is spelled incorrectly, but cannot provide a correction, error detector 850 displays an element with a field for the user to provide the correct spelling. Thus, when error detector 850 determines that the word “halp” is misspelled but cannot determine a correct spelling, error detector 850 may provide an element including “please provide the correct spelling” and an entry field for the user to type into.
In some examples, the element includes a link. For example, as shown in
In some examples, the element includes information about how to edit a word including possible commands that can be used. For example, as shown in
In some examples, the element includes information about how user gaze 802 can be adjusted to help determine what word to edit. For example, as show in
In some examples, the element is displayed above the word or words. For example, as shown in
In some examples, the suggested edit or change is an action to perform on the word such as delete. For example, as discussed above, system 800 can provide commands such as “delete,” “add,” “change,” “swap,” etc. to the user so that the user better understand commands that could be interpreted by system 800.
In some examples, the suggested edit or change is a correction to a letter of the word. For example, if system 800 mistakenly transcribes the word “bogs,” instead of “dogs,” the suggested edit can include changing the letter b to d. This correction can also be provided as a suggested replacement word, including deleting the word “bogs” and adding the word “dogs.”
In some examples, the suggested edit is a replacement word. For example, based on the examples described above, system 800 may determine that “I” should be corrected to “are.” Accordingly, the suggested edit includes replacing the word “I” with the word “are.”
In some examples, the suggested edit is a change to punctuation. For example, system 800 may recommend adding an oxford comma when one is missing, changing a question mark that is not at the end of a question to a period, or adding semicolons to a list.
After displaying the element on the display of the electronic device, system 800 detects selection of the element or data provided in the element such as the suggested edit. Accordingly, in response to detecting selection of the element or the suggested edit, the suggested edit is made to the word and the corrected word is displayed (e.g., replaces the incorrect word).
In some examples, system 800 receives utterance 801 including one or more ambiguous words or references. Accordingly, system 800 determines what the ambiguous word or reference is directed to based on the factors above such as the direction of user gaze 802, the proximity of user gaze 802 to words or elements displayed on the screen of the electronic device, dwell time of user gaze 802, utterance 801, previous interactions between the user and system 800, and the context of words displayed on the screen of the electronic device. For example, as shown in
As another example, when utterance 930 “on Tuesday evening” is received, as shown in
In some examples, system 800 interacts with a digital assistant or an application of the electronic device to determine the user intent when a voice command includes an ambiguous word or reference. For example, as shown in
As discussed above, system 800 may continue to monitor user gaze 802 as multiple utterances 801 are received and determine the user's intent to dictate text, edit text, or otherwise interact with the system accordingly. In this way, system 800 may smoothly transition from dictation to editing to performing tasks for the user without requiring the user to engage in complicated menus or provide other feedback. Rather the user can speak to system 800 in a natural manner and provide indications to the system based on their gaze.
At block 1002, a gaze (e.g., user gaze 802, 902) of a user is detected.
At block 1004, whether to enter a dictation mode is determined based on the detected gaze (e.g., user gaze 802, 902) of the user. In some examples, determining whether to enter the dictation mode is determined with a first machine learning model and determining whether to enter the editing mode is determined with a second machine learning model different from the first machine learning model. In some examples, determining whether to enter the dictation mode and determining whether to enter the editing mode are determined with a third machine learning model.
In some examples, determining, based on the detected gaze (e.g., user gaze 802, 902) of the user, whether to enter a dictation mode further comprises determining whether the detected gaze of the user is directed at a text field (e.g., text field 903, 909) displayed on a screen (e.g., display 901) of the electronic device (e.g., electronic device 900). In some examples, determining, based on the detected gaze of the user, whether to enter a dictation mode further comprises determining a first location (e.g., location 905, 910, 912, 913, 915, 917, 918, 919, 920, 921, 927) on the text field where the detected gaze of the user is directed.
In some examples, determining whether the detected gaze of the user is directed at the text field displayed on a screen of the electronic device further comprises determining a time that the detected gaze of the user is directed at the text field (e.g., text field 903, 909), and determining that the detected gaze of the user is directed at the text field in accordance with a determination that the time exceeds a predetermined threshold.
At block 1006, in accordance with a determination to enter the dictation mode an utterance (e.g., utterance 801, 914, 916, 924) is received.
At block 1008, whether to enter an editing mode is determined based on the detected gaze (e.g., user gaze 802, 902) of the user and the utterance (e.g., utterance 801, 914, 916, 924).
In some examples, determining, based on the detected gaze (e.g., user gaze 802, 902) of the user and the utterance (e.g., utterance 801, 914, 916, 924), whether to enter an editing mode further comprises determining a second location (e.g., location 905, 910, 912, 913, 915, 917, 918, 919, 920, 921, 927) on the text field (e.g., text field 903, 909) where the detected gaze of the user is directed, and determining not to enter the editing mode in accordance with a determination that the second location is at the end of text displayed in the text field. In some examples, determining, based on the detected gaze of the user and the utterance, whether to enter an editing mode further comprises determining to enter the editing mode in accordance with a determination that the second location is on a word of text displayed in the text field.
In some examples, determining, based on the detected gaze (e.g., user gaze 802, 902) of the user and the utterance (e.g., utterance 801, 914, 916, 924), whether to enter an editing mode further comprises determining whether the utterance (e.g., utterance 801, 914, 916, 924) includes one or more predetermined words, and determining to enter the editing mode in accordance with a determination that the utterance includes one or more predetermined words.
At block 1010, in accordance with a determination not to enter the editing mode, a textual representation of the utterance (e.g., utterance 801, 914, 916, 924) is displayed on a screen (e.g., display 901) of the electronic device (e.g., electronic device 900). In some examples, a third location (e.g., location 905, 910, 912, 913, 915, 917, 918, 919, 920, 921, 927) to display the textual representation of the utterance on the screen of the electronic device is determined. In some examples, the third location to display the textual representation of the utterance on the screen of the electronic device is determined based on the location of the user's gaze (e.g., user gaze 802, 902) on the screen. In some examples, the third location to display the textual representation of the utterance on the screen of the electronic device is determined based on the end of text displayed on the screen of the electronic device.
In some examples, in accordance with a determination to enter the editing mode, a word displayed on the screen (e.g., display 901) of the electronic device (e.g., electronic device 900) to edit is determined and a change to be made to the word is determined. In some examples, the word is edited by applying the change to the word. In some examples, determining the word displayed on the screen of the electronic device to edit is based on one or more of the detected gaze (e.g., user gaze 802, 902) of the user, the distance between a location (e.g., location 905, 910, 912, 913, 915, 917, 918, 919, 920, 921, 927) of the detected gaze of the user and the word, a dwell time of the detected gaze of the user, and the utterance (e.g., utterance 801, 914, 916, 924). In some examples, determining the change to be made to the word displayed on the screen of the electronic device is based on the utterance and a context of the words displayed on the screen of the electronic device. In some examples, in accordance with a determination that a first distance between a location of the detected gaze of the user and a first word is equal to a second distance between a location of the detected gaze of the user and a second word, both the first word and the second word are edited.
The operations described above with reference to
At block 1102, a gaze (e.g., user gaze 802, 902) of a user is detected.
At block 1104, a direction of the gaze (e.g., user gaze 802, 902) of the user is determined.
At block 1106, in accordance with a determination that the direction of the gaze (e.g., user gaze 802, 902) of the user is focused on a first location (e.g., location 905, 910, 912, 913, 915, 917, 918, 919, 920, 921, 927) of a first element (e.g., text field 903, 909, notification 904, 922) displayed on a screen (e.g., display 901) of the electronic device (e.g., electronic device 900), displaying a second element (e.g., text field 903, 909, notification 904, 922) on the screen of the electronic device. In some examples, the second element is displayed at the first location on the first element.
In some examples, the second element (e.g., text field 903, 909, notification 904, 922) is displayed at a second location (e.g., location 905, 910, 912, 913, 915, 917, 918, 919, 920, 921, 927) on the first element (e.g., text field 903, 909, notification 904, 922) different from the first location (e.g., location 905, 910, 912, 913, 915, 917, 918, 919, 920, 921, 927). In some examples, the second element includes a graphic directing the user to change the gaze (e.g., user gaze 802, 902) of the user to the second location.
In some examples, in accordance with a determination that the direction of the gaze of the user is focused on a second location (e.g., location 905, 910, 912, 913, 915, 917, 918, 919, 920, 921, 927) of the first element (e.g., text field 903, 909, notification 904, 922) displayed on the screen (e.g., display 901) of the electronic device (e.g., electronic device 900), the second element (e.g., text field 903, 909, notification 904, 922) is displayed at the second location. In some examples, the second element includes a link. In some examples, a third element (e.g., text field 903, 909, notification 904, 922) including information about a dictation mode is displayed in response to detecting selection of the link.
In some examples, in accordance with a determination that the electronic device (e.g., electronic device 900) is in an editing mode, displaying a fourth element (e.g., text field 903, 909, notification 904, 922) on the screen (e.g., display 901) of the electronic device (e.g., electronic device 900) at the first location (e.g., location 905, 910, 912, 913, 915, 917, 918, 919, 920, 921, 927). In some examples, the fourth element includes one or more possible changes to a word displayed at the first location. In some examples, the one or more possible changes to the word displayed at the first location include one or more alternate words to replace the word displayed at the first location. In some examples, in response to detecting selection of a possible change of the one or more possible changes to the word, the word is edited by applying the possible change to the word. In some examples, the fourth element is displayed in response to determining that a predetermined condition is met, wherein the predetermined condition includes a dwell time of the gaze of the user on the word displayed at the first location exceeds a predetermined threshold.
The operations described above with reference to
At block 1202, a gaze (e.g., user gaze 802, 902) of a user is detected.
At block 1204, one or more words targeted by the gaze (e.g., user gaze 802, 902) of the user are determined. In some examples, determining one or more words targeted by the gaze of the user further comprises in accordance with a determination that the time that the gaze of the user dwells on the one or more words exceeds a first predetermined threshold, selecting the one or more words as the one or more words targeted by the gaze of the user. In some examples, determining one or more words targeted by the gaze of the user further comprises determining a distance between the location of the gaze of the user and the one or more words, and selecting the one or more words in accordance with a determination that the distance between the location of the gaze of the user and the one or more words is below a second predetermined threshold.
In some examples, determining one or more words targeted by the gaze (e.g., user gaze 802, 902) of the user further comprises determining a context of the words, and selecting the one or more words based on the context. In some examples, determining one or more words targeted by the gaze of the user further comprises selecting one or more words based on words that have previously been corrected.
At block 1206, whether a word of the one or more words is incorrect is determined based on the one or more words and the gaze of the user (e.g., user gaze 802, 902). In some examples, whether the word of the one or more words is incorrect is determined with a machine learning model trained to recognize incorrect words based on the gaze of the user. In some examples, determining, based on the one or more words and the gaze of the user, whether a word of the one or more words is incorrect further comprises in accordance with a determination that the time that the gaze of the user dwells on the word exceeds a third predetermined threshold, determining that the word is incorrect. In some examples, determining whether the word is incorrect is based on the context of words surrounding the word and whether the word was previously corrected.
At block 1208 in accordance with a determination that the word of the one or more words is incorrect, an element (e.g., text field 903, 909, notification 904, 922) related to the word is displayed on a screen (e.g., display 901) of the electronic device (e.g., electronic device 900). In some examples, the element is displayed above the word. In some examples, the element includes a suggested change to the word. In some examples, the suggested change is an action to perform on the word. In some examples, the suggested change is a replacement word. In some examples, a selection of the element is detected and in response to detecting selection of the element the suggested change is made to the word.
The operations described above with reference to
In accordance with some implementations, a computer-readable storage medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer readable storage medium) is provided, the computer-readable storage medium storing one or more programs for execution by one or more processors of an electronic device, the one or more programs including instructions for performing any of the methods or processes described herein.
In accordance with some implementations, an electronic device (e.g., a portable electronic device) is provided that comprises means for performing any of the methods or processes described herein.
In accordance with some implementations, an electronic device (e.g., a portable electronic device) is provided that comprises a processing unit configured to perform any of the methods or processes described herein.
In accordance with some implementations, an electronic device (e.g., a portable electronic device) is provided that comprises one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs for execution by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for performing any of the methods or processes described herein.
The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has been described with reference to specific embodiments. However, the illustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the techniques and their practical applications. Others skilled in the art are thereby enabled to best utilize the techniques and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
Although the disclosure and examples have been fully described with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications are to be understood as being included within the scope of the disclosure and examples as defined by the claims.
As described above, one aspect of the present technology is the gathering and use of data available from various sources to improve dictation based services. The present disclosure contemplates that in some instances, this gathered data may include personal information data that uniquely identifies or can be used to contact or locate a specific person. Such personal information data can include demographic data, location-based data, telephone numbers, email addresses, twitter IDs, home addresses, data or records relating to a user's health or level of fitness (e.g., vital signs measurements, medication information, exercise information), date of birth, or any other identifying or personal information.
The present disclosure recognizes that the use of such personal information data, in the present technology, can be used to the benefit of users. For example, the personal information data can be used to provide dictation services to the user. Accordingly, use of such personal information data enables users to calculated control response to speech inputs. Further, other uses for personal information data that benefit the user are also contemplated by the present disclosure. For instance, health and fitness data may be used to provide insights into a user's general wellness, or may be used as positive feedback to individuals using technology to pursue wellness goals.
The present disclosure contemplates that the entities responsible for the collection, analysis, disclosure, transfer, storage, or other use of such personal information data will comply with well-established privacy policies and/or privacy practices. In particular, such entities should implement and consistently use privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmental requirements for maintaining personal information data private and secure. Such policies should be easily accessible by users, and should be updated as the collection and/or use of data changes. Personal information from users should be collected for legitimate and reasonable uses of the entity and not shared or sold outside of those legitimate uses. Further, such collection/sharing should occur after receiving the informed consent of the users. Additionally, such entities should consider taking any needed steps for safeguarding and securing access to such personal information data and ensuring that others with access to the personal information data adhere to their privacy policies and procedures. Further, such entities can subject themselves to evaluation by third parties to certify their adherence to widely accepted privacy policies and practices. In addition, policies and practices should be adapted for the particular types of personal information data being collected and/or accessed and adapted to applicable laws and standards, including jurisdiction-specific considerations. For instance, in the US, collection of or access to certain health data may be governed by federal and/or state laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA); whereas health data in other countries may be subject to other regulations and policies and should be handled accordingly. Hence different privacy practices should be maintained for different personal data types in each country.
Despite the foregoing, the present disclosure also contemplates embodiments in which users selectively block the use of, or access to, personal information data. That is, the present disclosure contemplates that hardware and/or software elements can be provided to prevent or block access to such personal information data. For example, in the case of gaze based dictation, the present technology can be configured to allow users to select to “opt in” or “opt out” of participation in the collection of personal information data during registration for services or anytime thereafter. In another example, users can select not to provide personal data for use with dictation. In yet another example, users can select to limit the length of time dictation da is maintained. In addition to providing “opt in” and “opt out” options, the present disclosure contemplates providing notifications relating to the access or use of personal information. For instance, a user may be notified upon downloading an app that their personal information data will be accessed and then reminded again just before personal information data is accessed by the app.
Moreover, it is the intent of the present disclosure that personal information data should be managed and handled in a way to minimize risks of unintentional or unauthorized access or use. Risk can be minimized by limiting the collection of data and deleting data once it is no longer needed. In addition, and when applicable, including in certain health related applications, data de-identification can be used to protect a user's privacy. De-identification may be facilitated, when appropriate, by removing specific identifiers (e.g., date of birth, etc.), controlling the amount or specificity of data stored (e.g., collecting location data at a city level rather than at an address level), controlling how data is stored (e.g., aggregating data across users), and/or other methods.
Therefore, although the present disclosure broadly covers use of personal information data to implement one or more various disclosed embodiments, the present disclosure also contemplates that the various embodiments can also be implemented without the need for accessing such personal information data. That is, the various embodiments of the present technology are not rendered inoperable due to the lack of all or a portion of such personal information data. For example, dictation services can be delivered to users by inferring preferences based on non-personal information data or a bare minimum amount of personal information, such as the content being requested by the device associated with a user, other non-personal information available to the dictation services, or publicly available information.
This application is a continuation of PCT Application PCT/US2022/042331, titled “GAZE BASED DICTATION” filed Sep. 1, 2022, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application 63/240,696, titled “GAZE BASED DICTATION” filed Sep. 3, 2021; and to U.S. Provisional Patent Application 63/335,649, titled “GAZE BASED DICTATION,” filed Apr. 27, 2022. The contents of each of these applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63240696 | Sep 2021 | US | |
| 63335649 | Apr 2022 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCT/US22/42331 | Sep 2022 | WO |
| Child | 18442910 | US |
