The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 11, 2022
Filed:
Dec. 20, 2017
Microsoft Technology Licensing, Llc, Redmond, WA (US);
Ryen William White, Woodinville, WA (US);
Andrew David Wilson, Seattle, WA (US);
Gregg Robert Wygonik, Duvall, WA (US);
Nirupama Chandrasekaran, Seattle, WA (US);
Sean Edward Andrist, Seattle, WA (US);
Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
Systems and methods related to engaging with a virtual assistant via ancillary input are provided. Ancillary input may refer to non-verbal, non-tactile input based on eye-gaze data and/or eye-gaze attributes, including but not limited to, facial recognition data, motion or gesture detection, eye-contact data, head-pose or head-position data, and the like. Thus, to initiate and/or maintain interaction with a virtual assistant, a user need not articulate an attention word or words. Rather the user may initiate and/or maintain interaction with a virtual assistant more naturally and may even include the virtual assistant in a human conversation with multiple speakers. The virtual assistant engagement system may utilize at least one machine-learning algorithm to more accurately determine whether a user desires to engage with and/or maintain interaction with a virtual assistant. Various hardware configurations associated with a virtual assistant device may allow for both near-field and/or far-field engagement.