Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Tellme Networks, Inc.

Marcello Typrin

Soniya Jobanputra

Mallory Trudell

Steve Hoonsuck Yum

Chris Stewart Hagler

Kurt W Piersol

Aimee Piercy

Shamitha Somashekar

Shirin Saleem

Gregory Michael Hart

Ian W Freed

Kyle A Oppenheim

Susan Jeanne Boyce

Adam Frederick Borelli

Grady Thomas Karp

Andrew Ryan Cooper

Laura Marino

Devices and methods for routing content are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method for routing content include receiving audio data representing a command from a first electronic device, determining content that is associated with the command, sending responsive audio data to the first electronic device, and sending instructions to the second electronic device to output the content associated with the command. In some embodiments, a method for routing contents includes determining a state of the second electronic device and sending instructions to output the content to a selected one of the first and second electronic devices based on the state of the second electronic device.

Systems and methods for routing content to an associated output device

A speech-based service platform includes a local device in a user premises and a network-based control service that directs the local device to perform actions for a user. The user may at times request that the service schedule a notification or other action at a specified future time or in response to other stimuli that may occur in the future. Upon receiving a request from the user, the control service immediately instructs the local device to schedule the notification or other action. If the control service is unable to contact the local device, however, the request is canceled and the user is notified that the action has not been scheduled. Non-priority actions requested by the user may be accepted and implemented at the local device when communications become available.

Network scheduling of stimulus-based actions

Apparatuses and methods for routing content are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method for routing content include receiving audio data representing a command from a first electronic device, determining content that is associated with the command, sending responsive audio data to the first electronic device, and sending instructions to the second electronic device to output the content associated with the command. In some embodiments, a method for routing contents includes determining a state of the second electronic device and sending instructions to output the content to a selected one of the first and second electronic devices based on the state of the second electronic device.

Techniques for providing virtual assistants to assist users during a voice communication between the users. For instance, a first user operating a device may establish a voice communication with respective devices of one or more additional users, such as with a device of a second user. For instance, the first user may utilize her device to place a telephone call to the device of the second user. A virtual assistant may also join the call and, upon invocation by a user on the call, may identify voice commands from the call and may perform corresponding tasks for the users in response.

In-call virtual assistants

An electronic device may operate in different modes of operations. In a first mode of operation, the electronic device may receive user speech via a microphone, generate audio data that represents the user speech, and then send the audio data to one or more remote computing device for analysis. In a second mode of operation, the electronic device may receive user speech via the microphone, generate audio data that represents the user speech, and then analyze the audio data using speech processing. In some instances, the electronic device may operate in the first mode of operation and/or the second mode of operation based on whether the electronic device is receiving power from an external source.

Speech-responsive portable speaker

Systems, devices, and techniques may provide asynchronous audio messaging. Asynchronous audio messaging may enable a user to quickly and easily create and transmit a message to a recipient. The user may simply record a message for a recipient. The message may include an indication of the recipient of the message, an action (e.g., to send a message, etc.) and/or other types of information. A messaging module may modify the message to create a modified version of the message and then generate an additional version of the modified message in a different media type. The modified message and the addition version of the modified message may be transmitted to the recipient. In some embodiments, the messaging module may transmit other information such as location information, an expiration, or other information derived from the message to enhance the message.

Asynchronous audio messaging

An electronic device may operate in different modes of operations. In a first mode of operation, the electronic device may receive user speech via a microphone, generate an audio signal that represents the user speech, and then send the audio signal to one or more remote computing device for analysis. In a second mode of operation, the electronic device may receive audio data from a peripheral device and then output audible content represented by the audio data. In some instances, the electronic device may operate in the first mode of operation and/or the second mode of operation based on whether the electronic device can communicate with the one or more computing devices over a wide-area network.

A speech system may be configured to operate in conjunction with a stationary base device and a handheld remote device to receive voice commands from a user. A user may direct speech either to the base device or to the handheld device. In order to direct speech to the base device, the user first speaks a keyword. In order to direct speech to the handheld device, the user presses a talk control on the handheld device. A dialog may be conducted with the user in multiple turns, where each turn comprises user speech and a speech response by the speech system. The user speech in any given dialog turn may be provided from the base device and/or the handheld device.

Multiple-source speech dialog input

A device that includes a microphone and a speaker may capture audio uttered by a user. The device, or another device, may then perform a particular operation in response to the captured audio. A user's cell phone number may be associated with the device. When an incoming call is directed to the user's cell phone, the device may generate a notification. The user may utter a command that causes the device to establish an audio connection with a cellular carrier network, thereby facilitating the phone conversation while bypassing the cell phone. Similarly, a user may make an outgoing call associated with the user's cell phone. The outgoing call is facilitated through an audio connection between the device and the cellular carrier network, bypassing the cell phone.

Phone communication via a voice-controlled device

A portable music device may operate in response to user speech. In situations in which the music device is operating primarily from battery power, a push-to-talk (PTT) button may be used to indicate when the user is directing speech to the device. When the music device is receiving external power, the music device may continuously monitor a microphone signal to detect a user utterance of a wakeword, which may be used to indicate that subsequent speech is directed to the device. When operating from battery power, the device may send audio to a network-based support service for speech recognition and natural language understanding. When operating from external power, the speech recognition and/or natural language understanding may be performed by the music device itself.

A speech system may be configured to operate in conjunction with a stationary base device and a handheld remote device to receive voice commands from a user. Voice commands may be directed either to the base device or to the handheld device. When performing automatic speech recognition (ASR), natural language understanding (NLU), dialog management, text-to-speech (TTS) conversion, and other speech-related tasks, the system may utilize various models, including ASR models, NLU models, dialog models, and TTS models. Different models may be used depending on whether the user has chosen to speak into the base device or the handheld audio device. The different models may be designed to accommodate the different characteristics of audio and speech that are present in audio provided by the two different components and the different characteristics of the environmental situation of the user.

Source-specific speech interactions

Methods and systems to facilitate communications between users via different modalities. A method includes identifying, by a first user device, a voice call originating from a second user device, and presenting a user interface to a user of the first user device, where the user interface provides an option to respond to the voice call by voice and an option to respond to the voice call in a text form. The method further includes detecting that the user of the first user device has selected the option to respond to the voice call in the text form, and causing a user response to the voice call to be converted into voice data for the second user device.

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Menlo Park, CA, United States of America

Marcello Typrin