SoundHound, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA)
Agents engage and disengage with users with a degree of intelligence. Users can inform agents to stay engaged without requiring the use of a wakeword. Engaged states are able to support modal dialogs, barge-in, and other features. Users can cause disengagement explicitly. Disengagement can be conditioned on user change, timeout or other conditions in the environment. Engagement may be continuous or one-time. Recurrent states can be locked or attentive. Conditional or unconditional locks are able to be designed to ensure user continuity. The continuity of users can be checked by comparing parameters or following the users with a variety of methods, such as cameras, microphone arrays and other sensors.
Virtual assistants, also known as virtual agents, are computer-based systems that can carry out natural language conversations with users. The agent usually provides services to a human user. It reacts (or attempts to respond) to natural languagerequests from users, such as inquiries for information or requests for action, by using a combination of software and hardware.
The concept of a virtual assistant is anthropomorphic. Common assistants like Siri, Alexa, Cortana, Nina, and others include human-like names, people-like voices, and maybe personalitiesor personalities’ of some kind. Users are encouraged to interact in anatural way with assistants as if they were partners in a human conversation. The assistant is a communication interface that is understandable to the user and blocks out of the view of the entire system whose internal workings can be extremely complex. The notion of engagement is the primary element of human-machine interaction. An agent is considered engaged when it responds to the user’s requests.
An Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system allows a user to speak to the virtual assistant via a telephone line. They are engaged in conversation. The assistant listens , and then processes (or attempts to take in) every word spoken by the user.
In more open situations speaking by a user can be directed to a individual in the room or to an agent virtual. As the agent reacts to the user’s voice and is engaged in a dialogue. If the agent is actively engaged and the user’s language is not intended for the agent, a negative behaviour could result. It’s possible for the agent to give annoying or sloppy answers. The agent could take an action that the user wasn’t planning and cause unintended consequences.
This is a signpost to a problem that has been identified in the design of user interfaces as the King Midas effect. The cause is the inability of users to stop the consequences of their interaction. The legend says that King Midas was greedy, and he wished to transform everything that he touched to gold. This was a curse as his wish was actually granted. He kissed his daughter and she turned into an image of gold. The food he ate also changed to gold as he was able to touch it.
For a more concrete example of the King Midas effect, suppose an agent is told, “Get me an Uber to SFO for 8 pm” and acts on the request correctly by accessing Uber to place an order. The agent might remain engaged when the customer asks her daughter “Can you bring me my red shoes from your closet, dear,” but she may reply with a dull response (“I don’t understand what you’re saying”) or an even more humorous one (“You called darling! . . I also like you”) or a pragmatic one (“which closet?”) However, none of these responses are appropriate. Although the request was addressed to the child of the user no response was expected by the agent. If the Uber request had been sent after the agent was asleep, this problem could be prevented. It is imperative to avoid the King Midas effect.
To stop an agent from responding to user requests during unintentional times, conventional agents disengage the agent after each request. After serving a request that the agent is unable to accept any new requests until it is required to re-engage. The user has to “wake up the agent” prior to any other request can be considered. The most common method of waking an agent is to say “Hey Siri”, “OK Google,” or “Alexa”. It can be either a single word or a phrase with multiple words. Pushes, taps , and clicks are different ways of waking up an agent. However, these can be accomplished manually.
The word “wake” is not mandatory. It’s used to attract the attention of the agent. It creates overhead, which is a waste of time when compared to regular communication between people. The equivalent of a”wakeword” is only utilized in specific situations, such as calling a specific person’s attention or switching the recipient of an exchange.
It’s inefficient and time-consuming to repeat a wakeword for each request. This is known as “wakeword fatigue”. It is a fact that people have accepted the need the fact that they have to wake their agents, every time, for lack of an alternative.
The well-known method of avoiding the King Midas effect has the price of a large amount. This makes man-machine dialogues difficult to understand, inefficient and tired. It also creates poor user experiences. Methods to facilitate natural, fluid and effective communication between humans and virtual agents are required.
This disclosure aims to enhancements in the efficiency and fluidity of man-machine dialog over current methods. Methods that don’t cause wakeword fatigue, and therefore avoid the King Midas Effect, are a way to address this problem. These engagement policies that aren’t traditional, have one common purpose: to lessen or eliminate the need for agents to be “waked up” prior to each request. There are several engagement policies which can be made public in order to make the conversation between man and machine more natural and effective.
Users have full control over the behavior of agents using locking engagement rules. With these policies, spoken requests or event indicators can cause an agent to enter the locked engagement, a state where the agent is engagedand able to process requests repeatedly until explicitly unlocked. Locked engagement is not necessarily unconditional; this is a very important case because, despite its simplicity, it goes far in reducing the fatigue of wake words. Unconditional locked engagementallows an undetermined number of requests to be handled without any wake-up signals until the user decides to let the agent out of its state. A variant of locked engagement lets the user specifying specific conditions for engagement, such aswho can engage, and when. A further variant of conditional locking engagement is to reserve the agent’s attention to a specific user (to the exclusion of other users) for a revolving period of time; there is no overhead for communication. Both unconditional locking, and reserved engagement are practical and easy solutions for getting rid of wakeword fatigue.
The “Attentive Agent”, another engagement policy, makes use of the agent’s intelligence to make autonomous decisions about engagement or disengagement. It is based on the agent?s perception of the situation and the user and a model for human-like interaction. An attentive agent remains active as long as it believes that the user would like to be engaged; it has to pay attention and be able, like people involved in a natural human conversation to make use of various indicators to determine the moment in time, whether the user wants to keep engaging. Finally the hybrid policy is defined, that integrate the policy of locked engagement with the attentive agent policy.
The applications range from intelligent assistants, through speech-enabled devices of all types, including isolated interne of things (IoT) devices, to intelligent spaces with potentially many sensors and effectors, such as automobiles,intelligent homes, offices, stores and shopping malls, and humanoid robots.
Click here to view the patent on USPTO website.
Get Patents with PatentPC
What is a patent?
A patent is granted by the government in order to protect the invention. The patent grants the inventor the exclusive right to create, use and sell the invention. Society benefits when new technology is brought for sale. Benefits can be realized in directly, in that it can allow people to do previously impossible things. Or indirectly, through the economic opportunities (business growth and employment) that innovation provides.
Many pharmaceutical companies and researchers at universities seek patent protection for their work and research. A patent can cover the physical or abstract nature of a product or process, or even the method or composition of material that are new to the area. Patent protection must be granted to an invention that is beneficial, novel, and not already known by others in the same field.
Patents are a way to give inventors a reward for commercially profitable inventions. They provide a motivation for inventors to create. Small companies and inventors are certain that they will receive a good return on their investment in the development of technology. They can earn a living through their work.
Patents are a crucial part of companies, and they can:
Create and protect innovative products and services;
Improve the visibility and the value of your product’s presence on the market
Make your company and your products stand out from others;
Access business and technical expertise and other information;
Avoid accidentally downloading third-party content or losing important information, innovative outputs or any other creative output.
Patents effectively transform the inventor’s information into a tradeable asset, which creates new opportunities for job creation and expansion of businesses through licensing or joint ventures.
Small companies that have patent protection will be more attractive to investors involved in the commercialization and development of technology.
Patenting can generate fresh ideas and innovative inventions. This information could be protected by patents.
Patents can be used as a deterrent against non-trustworthy third parties who profit from an invention’s efforts.
Revenues from patent-protected technology that are commercially successful can be used to fund technological research and development (R&D), which will boost the likelihood of improved technology in the near future.
Intellectual property ownership can be used to convince investors and lenders that there are legitimate chances to market your product. Sometimes, one powerful patent could open the door to numerous financing possibilities. Patents as well as other IP assets are able to be used as collateral or security for financing debt. Investors are also able to view your patent assets in order to boost their valuation of your company. Forbes and others have pointed out that every patent could add between $500,000 and a million dollars in company valuation.
A well-designed business plan is vital for start-ups. It should be founded on IP and explain what your service or product is distinctive. In addition, investors will be impressed if you demonstrate that your IP rights are secured or are in progress of being secure, and that they align with your business strategy.
It is crucial to keep patent protection applications private when you’ve invented something. Public disclosure of an invention prior to filing can often destroy its novelty and render it unpatentable. The filing of disclosures prior to filing, for example, for investors, test marketing, or any other business partners, is best done following the signing of a confidentiality agreement.
There are a variety of patents. Understanding them is crucial to safeguard your invention. Patents for utility are used to protect new processes and machine creations. Design patents cover ornamental designs. Patents for utility are the most effective because they shield the owner from copycats as well as other competition. Utility patents are often issued to improve or modify existing inventions. They can also be used to enhance or alter existing inventions. For example, a procedure patent covers acts or methods of performing a specific act, whereas chemical compositions are the combination of ingredients.
What’s the duration of a patent last? Patents for utility last for 20 years after the earliest filing dates, but their expirations can be extended because of delays in the patent office such as.
Are you considering patenting your ideas? Patents are only granted to applicants who are the first to file, which is why you need to file fast. Call PatentPC today to get your patent application submitted!
When you are writing your patent application when you are writing a patent application, it is recommended that you conduct an internet search for patents, since the search can provide some insight into other people’s concepts. It will help you reduce the scope of your invention. It is also possible to discover the current state of the art within the field you’re inventing. This will assist you in comprehend the scope of your invention as well as prepare you for filing your patent application.
How to Search for Patents
The first step to obtain the patent you want is to perform the patent search. You can do a google patent search or do a USPTO search. After the patent application has been submitted, the product that is that is covered by the patent application could be called patent-pending, and you can locate the patent application on a public pair. When the patent office approves the patent application, you will be able to conduct a patent number search to find the patent issued, and your product is now patented. It is also possible to use the USPTO search engine. Check out the following article for more information. For assistance, consult an attorney who specializes in patents. In the US patents are issued by the US patent and trademark office or the United States patent and trademark office, which is also responsible for examining trademark applications.
Are you interested in similar patents? These are the steps:
1. Brainstorm terms to describe your invention, based on its purpose and composition or use.
Write down a short and precise explanation of your invention. Be sure to avoid using terms that are generic such as “device,” “process,” and “system.” Think about synonyms for the terms you initially chose. Next, note important technical terms and key words.
Use the questions below to help you determine key words or concepts.
- What’s the goal of this invention? Is it a utilitarian device or an ornamental design?
- Does the invention consist of a method of creating something or performing some function? Does it constitute a product?
- What is the composition and function of the invention? What is the physical structure of the invention?
- What is the goal of the invention?
- What are the technical terms and keywords used to define the nature of an invention? A technical dictionary will help you identify the correct terms.
2. These terms let you look up pertinent Cooperative Patent Classifications on the Classification Search Tool. To determine the most suitable classification for your invention, look through the classification’s class Schemes (class schedules). Consider substituting the words that you’ve used to describe your invention if you do not receive any results from your Classification Text Search with synonyms like the ones you used in the first step.
3. Examine 3. Check the CPC Classification Definition to confirm the validity of the CPC classification you found. The link to a CPC classification definition will be provided in the event that the title of the classification contains a blue box with “D” to its left. CPC classification definitions will aid you in determining the classification’s scope , so you can choose the one that is most appropriate. These definitions may also include search tips or other suggestions that could be helpful for further study.
4. The Patents Full-Text Database and the Image Database allow you to search for patent documents that have the CPC classification. You can search and narrow down the most relevant patent documents by taking a look at the abstract and the drawings that are representative.
5. This collection of patent publications is the best to examine for similarities with your invention. Be sure to read the specifications and claims. It is possible to find additional patents by consulting the patent examiner and the applicant.
6. You can find published patent applications that fit the CPC classification you picked in Step 3. It is possible to use the same method of search in Step 4 to narrow your results to the relevant patent application through the abstract as well as the drawings that appear on each page. After that, you must review the patent applications that have been published carefully with particular attention paid to the claims and other drawings.
7. Locate additional US patent publications using keywords searching in PatFT and AppFT databases, classification search of non-U.S. patents as per below, and searching non-patent patent disclosures in the literature of inventions using internet search engines. For instance:
- Add keywords to your search. Keyword searches may turn up documents that are not well-categorized or have missed classifications during Step 2. For example, US patent examiners often supplement their classification searches with keyword searches. Think about the use of technical engineering terminology rather than everyday words.
- Search for foreign patents using the CPC classification. Then, re-run the search using international patent office search engines such as Espacenet, the European Patent Office’s worldwide patent publication database of over 130 million patent publications. Other national databases include:
- European Patent Office (EPO) provides esp@cenet to access a network of Europe’s patent databases with access to machine translation of European patents.
- Japan Patent Office (JPO) – with access to machine translations of Japanese patents.
- World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) offers PATENTSCOPE with a full-text search of published international patent applications and machine translations for some documents, as well as a list of international patent databases.
- Korean Intellectual Property Rights Information Service (KIPRIS)
- State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) with machine translation of Chinese patents.
- Other International Intellectual Property Offices with online patent databases include Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Taiwan.
- Search non-patent literature. Inventions can be made public in many non-patent publications. It is recommended that you search journals, books, websites, technical catalogs, conference proceedings, and other print and electronic publications.
To review your search, you can hire a registered patent attorney to assist. A preliminary search will help one better prepare to talk about their invention and other related inventions with a professional patent attorney. In addition, the attorney will not spend too much time or money on patenting basics.