Hand Held Products, Inc.

Vocollect, Inc.

John Pecorari

Duane Littleton

James Hendrickson

Arkadiusz Slusarczyk

Mark Mellott

Justin Volz

Christopher Lofty

Debra Drylie Stiffey

Kwong Wing Au

Mark David Murawski

Duff Halart Gold

James Geisler

Steven Thomas

Keith Braho

Kurt Charles Miller

Tonya Custis

Navaneetha Myaka

George Joshue Karabin

Vanessa Cassandra Sanchez

Kartik Suchindra Babu

Surya K Tanneru

Jared John Schmidt

Brian Matthew Connelly

Brent Alan Nichols

Michael Naughton

Ronald Shane Fazzio

Arup Suprakash Mukherjee

Adam Jack Hertzman

Brian Bender

Paul Edward Kolonay

Heather Viszlay

Craig George

Debra Drylie Scott

A method and apparatus that dynamically adjust operational parameters of a text-to-speech engine in a speech-based system are disclosed. A voice engine or other application of a device provides a mechanism to alter the adjustable operational parameters of the text-to-speech engine. In response to one or more environmental conditions, the adjustable operational parameters of the text-to-speech engine are modified to increase the intelligibility of synthesized speech.

Systems and methods for dynamically improving user intelligibility of synthesized speech in a work environment

Provided is an improved apparatus and method for identifying inefficient workers in a workplace. The apparatus receives voice commands from a worker in the workplace and transforms the voice commands into text commands by converting audio signals associated with the voice commands to one or more points in data that are stored in a database. The apparatus further creates a dialogue-stream including the text commands and a time of receipt of each voice command associated with the respective text command. Further, a workflow record may be created from the dialogue-stream and may be used to generate an efficiency metric for the worker. Both the dialogue-stream and workflow record can be used to monitor the efficiency of the worker and implement effective changes to the workflow process.

System for analyzing workflow and detecting inactive operators and methods of using the same

A workflow management system for managing the storage, retrieval, and transport of items in a warehouse includes a voice-directed mobile terminal. The system also includes a server computer in communication with the voice-directed mobile terminal. The server computer includes a tasking module for transmitting task data to the voice-directed mobile terminal. The server computer also includes a workflow-analysis module for generating, based at least in part upon an analysis of workflow dialog between the voice-directed mobile terminal and the user, performance data relating to the performance of tasks associated with the storage, retrieval, and/or transport of the items.

System and method for workflow management

A system and method include providing product location information to a user; prompting a user to provide check digits; receiving a subset of digits from a set of digits associated with a product that are used for a purpose different than for check digits; and comparing the subset of digits to product check digits to confirm the user has located the product.

Confirming product location using a subset of a product identifier

Logistical operations (e.g., warehouses) may use a voice-enabled workflow to facilitate the work tasks of a staff (i.e., population) of workers. Typically, it is necessary for a worker to travel from location-to-location to complete assigned work tasks. As such, a worker's time spent travelling often correlates with the worker's overall work performance. Understanding the worker's travel performance is highly desirable, but computing a fair and accurate travel-performance metric is difficult. One reason for this is that the distance a worker travels is often unknown. The present invention embraces a system and method for accurately and fairly assessing a worker's travel performance by analyzing the worker's voice dialog.

System and method for assessing worker performance

A method of product location identification includes receiving an indication of a product to be located in a retail environment; identifying a product location using the product as a key; determining associated visual symbols from the product location; and communicating the associated visual symbols to a worker to guide the worker to the product location.

Visual graphic aided location identification

A method includes obtaining primary workflow having a list of activities being performed by a worker; obtaining a surprise activity; comparing a context of the worker to contextual needs of the surprise activity; and interleaving the surprise activity in the list of activities based on a best fit context of the worker.

Interleaving surprise activities in workflow

A mobile device can receive information from a computer; at least partially in response to the receiving of the information from the computer, the mobile device can communicate with a worker regarding a product type; the mobile device can receive information from the worker via voice, wherein the information received from the worker can identify a date or other product information associated with a product of the product type; and the mobile device can provide the product information to the computer. The mobile device can provide a second voice prompt to the worker, wherein the second voice prompt can request a quantity of products of the product type that are marked with the product information; then the mobile device can receive a quantity from the worker via voice; and the mobile device can report to the computer.

Systems and methods for managing dated products

An exemplary system and method allowing for dynamic verification that cargo is being placed onto the correct carrier for transit is disclosed. The system may employ voice recognition to capture dynamically generated check digits from a display to verify the digits against a cargo record, thereby confirming that the cargo is being placed on the correct carrier. A voice enabled workflow allows a worker loading cargo to speak the last 'n' digits on the identifying label of a piece of cargo to first uniquely identify the piece of cargo being handled. Once the cargo is identified, the system can direct the worker to the proper carrier into which the cargo should be placed. The worker then reads a unique 'check digit' code generated on an electronic tag located in the carrier. The code is then verified by the system to confirm the carrier onto which the cargo was placed.

Dynamic check digit utilization via electronic tag

A system using voice recognition is provided to assist in restocking shelving while simultaneously creating an accurate product-to-location mapping of the overall environment. The creation of such a product-to-location mapping enhances many in-store tasks, such as stocking, picking, and cycle counting. The system allows store based task-management software systems to efficiently direct users to precise locations, to reduce product search time, to improve worker travel paths throughout the store to save time, and to free workers to perform other tasks. Workers use a voice-recognition restocking application to record, via voice-entry, the location where each restocked product is stored. The voice capturing of the product-to-location mapping is conducted over time to provide a seamless and sustainable way to maintain product-to-location store maps.

Product and location management via voice recognition

Speech recognition systems that use voice templates may create (or update) voice templates for a particular user by training (or re-training). If a training results in a vocabulary with similar voice templates, then the speech recognition system's performance may suffer. The present invention provides embraces methods for training a speech recognition system to prevent voice template similarity. In these methods, a trained word's voice template may be evaluated for similarity to other vocabulary templates prior to enrolling the voice template into the vocabulary. If template similarity is found, then a user may be prompted to retrain the system using an alternate word. Alternatively, the user may be prompted to retrain the system with the word spoken more clearly. This dynamic enrollment training analysis insures that all templates in the vocabulary are distinct.

Methods for training a speech recognition system

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Harrison City, PA, United States of America

John Pecorari