Apple Inc.

Harry Joseph Saddler

Thomas R Gruber

Didier Rene Guzzoni

Adam John Cheyer

Christopher Dean Brigham

Lia T Napolitano

Richard Donald Giuli

Marcello Bastea-Forte

Marcel Van Os

Elizabeth Caroline Cranfill

Aram David Kudurshian

Rohit Dasari

Bronwyn Anne Jones

Patrick M Lister

Jonathan H Russell

Dag Kittlaus

Garrett L Weinberg

Alessandro Francesco Sabatelli

Jerome Rene Bellegarda

Bryce H Nyeggen

Thomas Robert Gruber

Stephen Olivier Lemay

Donald Walter Pitschel

Daniel S Keen

Susan L Booker

David A Carson

Marco Iacono

Evan S Dibiase

Emily Clark Schubert

Matthias Paulik

Aimee Piercy

Robert A Walker

Ashish Garg

Rushin N Shah

Matthew S Seigel

Shweta Grampurohit

Brian Conrad Sumner

Devrim Varoglu

Gencer Cili

Jessica J Peck

David L Martin

Lynn I Streja

Nicolas Zeitlin

Lily Shuting Zhang

Andrew J Roberts

Robert A Walker, Ii

The intelligent automated assistant system engages with the user in an integrated, conversational manner using natural language dialog, and invokes external services when appropriate to obtain information or perform various actions. The system can be implemented using any of a number of different platforms, such as the web, email, smartphone, and the like, or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, the system is based on sets of interrelated domains and tasks, and employs additional functionally powered by external services with which the system can interact.

Task flow identification based on user intent

Systems and processes for operating an intelligent automated assistant are provided. For example, a first speech input directed to a digital assistant is received from a user. A first response is provided based on the first speech input. A session window is initiated, wherein the session window is associated with a variable speech threshold. A second speech input is received during the session window. In accordance with a determination that the second speech input includes speech directed to the digital assistant, a duration associated with the session window is increased. In accordance with a determination that the variable speech threshold does not exceed a predetermined speech threshold, the session window is ended.

Continuous dialog with a digital assistant

Devices and methods for invoking digital assistants are provided. An example method includes displaying, on a display, a virtual reality ('VR') environment, wherein the VR environment includes a first avatar representing a domain-specific digital assistant, and wherein the domain-specific digital assistant corresponds to a first domain; and while displaying the first avatar within the VR environment: receiving a user voice input; determining whether the user voice input represents an intent to invoke the domain-specific digital assistant or an intent to invoke a second digital assistant; and in accordance with a determination that the user voice input represents an intent to invoke the second digital assistant: invoking the second digital assistant; determining, based on the user voice input, a first digital assistant response using the second digital assistant; and outputting, via a speaker, the first digital assistant response.

Devices and methods for invoking digital assistants

Systems and processes are disclosed for controlling television user interactions using a virtual assistant. In an example process, a virtual assistant can interact with a television set-top box to control content shown on a television display. Speech input for the virtual assistant can be received from a device with a microphone. The speech input can comprise a query associated with content shown on the television display. A user intent of the query can be determined based on one or more of the content shown on the television display and a viewing history of media content. A result of the query can be caused to be displayed based on the determined user intent.

Intelligent automated assistant for TV user interactions

Systems and processes for operating a digital assistant are provided. In one example, a method includes receiving a first speech input from a user. The method further includes identifying context information and determining a user intent based on the first speech input and the context information. The method further includes determining whether the user intent is to perform a task using a searching process or an object managing process. The searching process is configured to search data, and the object managing process is configured to manage objects. The method further includes, in accordance with a determination the user intent is to perform the task using the searching process, performing the task using the searching process; and in accordance with the determination that the user intent is to perform the task using the object managing process, performing the task using the object managing process.

Intelligent digital assistant in a multi-tasking environment

Intelligent automated assistant

An electronic device with one or more processors and memory includes a procedure for enabling conversation persistence across two or more instances of a digital assistant. In some embodiments, the device displays a first dialogue in a first instance of a digital assistant user interface. In response to a request to display a user interface different from the digital assistant user interface, the device displays the user interface different from the digital assistant user interface. In response to a request to invoke the digital assistant, the device displays a second instance of the digital assistant user interface, including displaying a second dialogue in the second instance of the digital assistant user interface, where the first dialogue remains available for display in the second instance of the digital assistant user interface.

Device, method, and graphical user interface for enabling conversation persistence across two or more instances of a digital assistant

Systems and processes are disclosed for handling a multi-part voice command for a virtual assistant. Speech input can be received from a user that includes multiple actionable commands within a single utterance. A text string can be generated from the speech input using a speech transcription process. The text string can be parsed into multiple candidate substrings based on domain keywords, imperative verbs, predetermined substring lengths, or the like. For each candidate substring, a probability can be determined indicating whether the candidate substring corresponds to an actionable command. Such probabilities can be determined based on semantic coherence, similarity to user request templates, querying services to determine manageability, or the like. If the probabilities exceed a threshold, the user intent of each substring can be determined, processes associated with the user intents can be executed, and an acknowledgment can be provided to the user.

Multi-command single utterance input method

Growing community of inventors

Berkeley, CA, United States of America

Harry Joseph Saddler