April 11th, 2006
Google Wins Patent on Voice-Based Search
By Alice Hill
RealTechNews
Google just landed an interesting patent today, number #7,027,987 to be exact, and it covers a “Voice interface for a search engine” According to the patent:
“A system provides search results from a voice search query. The system receives a voice search query from a user, derives one or more recognition hypotheses, each being associated with a weight, from the voice search query, and constructs a weighted boolean query using the recognition hypotheses. The system then provides the weighted boolean query to a search system and provides the results of the search system to a user.” US Patent and Trademark Office Via Ars Technica
We Ask: How is this possible? The phone company must be doing something similar with its automated 411 information system. And the 411 system has been in place for years. Once again, patents are getting in under the radar of some people who can’t tell a telephone from a search engine.
Shane A. Kennedy says:
The patent requires quite a bit more than just searching for the terms in the voice query. To infringe the patent, one must meet every element of at least one claim. Claim 1 reads:
1. A method for providing search results, comprising:
receiving a voice search query from a user;
deriving one or more recognition hypotheses from the voice search query, each recognition hypothesis being associated with a weight and including one or more terms;
constructing a weighted boolean query using the recognition hypotheses, the constructing including:
determining a length of a shortest recognition hypothesis,
pruning a length of each recognition hypothesis up to the length of the shortest recognition hypothesis,
determining a length of a longest pruned recognition hypothesis,
selecting a number of recognition hypotheses based on one or more query parameters,
determining term weights, and
forming a weighted boolean query;
providing the weighted boolean query to a search system; and
providing results of the search system.
Pretty wordy! If any one of these elements isn’t met, then no infringement occurs.
April 12th, 2006 at 6:48 am
Lewie says:
Shane: Maybe no infringment occurs, but it would probably require litigation to determine that, correct? And that, it seems to me, is the point - the threat of litigation can quite effectively deter innovation.
April 12th, 2006 at 9:11 am
Lockergnome's Tech News Watch says:
Google Wins Patent On Voice-Based Search
Alice Hill of RealTechNews writes: Google just landed an interesting patent today, number #7,027,987 to be exact, and it covers a “Voice interface for a search engine” According to the patent: “A system provides search results from a voice search qu…
April 12th, 2006 at 2:56 pm
Sam says:
Nothing really new here. Google had been working on voice-enabled search since 2001. It already filed a patent on voice search in February 2001 (http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7027987.PN.&OS=PN/7027987&RS=PN/7027987) and had a beta voice search interface from 2003 to 2005 within Google Labs (http://labs1.google.com/gvs.html).
The earlier demo was taking search queries and returned results only over the phone. Most promising real-world applications would have results sent to a mobile phone screen or in-car system, especially for local search. In a 2004 interview, Google said it envisioned a voice interface to aid in “everything from driving directions to finding groceries in a supermarket”.
The latest patent does go one step further though. Beside mentioning “receiving a voice search query from a user” like in the 2001 patent, it also mentions “providing the weighted boolean query to a search system”, probably to deal with high word error rates and limited sets of word choices used in some voice interfaces.
In short, Google is still building up its infrastructure for voice recognition applied to search. Their focus is now to reduce the error rate. When they will be satisfied with the result, expect to see voice interfaces leveraged across multiple products. Barry Schnitt from Google commented on the latest patent: “Some of those ideas later mature into real products or services, some don’t. Prospective product announcements should not be inferred from our patent applications.”
Sam.
April 13th, 2006 at 10:27 am