Google Inc.

Terry Tai

Matthew Nirvan Sharifi

Diego Melendo Casado

Alexander Houston Gruenstein

Kenneth Edward Mixter

Christopher Thaddeus Hughes

Michael Dennis Riley

Andrew M Rosenberg

Martin Jansche

The various implementations described herein include methods and systems for determining device leadership among voice interface devices. In one aspect, a method is performed at a first electronic device of a plurality of electronic devices, each having microphones, a speaker, processors, and memory storing programs for execution by the processors. The first device detects a voice input. It determines a device state and a relevance of the voice input. It identifies a subset of electronic devices from the plurality to which the voice input is relevant. In accordance with a determination that the subset includes the first device, the first device determines a first score of a criterion associated with the voice input and receives second scores of the criterion from other devices in the subset. In accordance with a determination that the first score is higher than the second scores, the first device responds to the detected input.

Device leadership negotiation among voice interface devices

The various implementations described herein include methods and systems for determining device leadership among voice interface devices. In one aspect, a method is performed at an electronic device that includes microphones, a speaker, processors, and memory storing one or more programs for execution by the one or more processors. The electronic device: (1) detects a voice input; (2) determines a first quality score for the detected voice input; (3) receives quality scores generated by other electronic devices for detection of the voice input by the other electronic devices; (4) in accordance with a determination that the first quality score is not the highest amongst the quality scores for the voice input, identifies a criterion associated with the voice input; and (5) in accordance with a determination that the identified criterion is the most relevant to the electronic device, responds to the detected input.

A method at a first electronic device of multiple electronic devices, each electronic device of the plurality of electronic devices including one or more microphones and a speaker, includes detecting a voice input; determining a quality score for the detected voice input; communicating the quality score to the other devices of the plurality of electronic devices; receiving quality scores generated by the other devices for detection of the voice input by the other devices; if the quality score generated by the first electronic device is the highest amongst the quality scores, outputting an audible and/or visual response to the detected voice input, where the other devices of the plurality of electronic devices forgo outputting an audible response to the detected voice input; and if the quality score generated by the first electronic device is not the highest amongst the quality scores, forgoing outputting a response to the detected voice input.

The subject matter of this specification can be implemented in a computer-implemented method that includes receiving utterances and transcripts thereof. The method includes analyzing the utterances and transcripts to determine certain attributes, such as distances between prosodic contours for pairs of utterances. A model can be generated that can be used to estimate a distance between a determined prosodic contour for a received utterance and an unknown prosodic contour for a synthesized utterance when given a distance between attributes for text associated with the received utterance and the synthesized utterance.

Generating prosodic contours for synthesized speech

The subject matter of this specification can be implemented in, among other things, a computer-implemented method including receiving text to be synthesized as a spoken utterance. The method includes analyzing the received text to determine attributes of the received text and selecting one or more utterances from a database based on a comparison between the attributes of the received text and attributes of text representing the stored utterances. The method includes determining, for each utterance, a distance between a contour of the utterance and a hypothetical contour of the spoken utterance, the determination based on a model that relates distances between pairs of contours of the utterances to relationships between attributes of text for the pairs. The method includes selecting a final utterance having a contour with a closest distance to the hypothetical contour and generating a contour for the received text based on the contour of the final utterance.

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New York, NY, United States of America

Terry Tai