According to some aspects, a method of monitoring an acoustic environment of a mobile device, at least one computer readable medium encoded with instructions that, when executed, perform such a method and/or a mobile device configured to perform such a method is provided. The method comprises receiving acoustic input from the environment of the mobile device while the mobile device is operating in the low power mode, detecting whether the acoustic input includes a voice command based on performing a plurality of processing stages on the acoustic input, wherein at least one of the plurality of processing stages is performed while the mobile device is operating in the low power mode, and using at least one contextual cue to assist in detecting whether the acoustic input includes a voice command.

Systems and methods for obfuscating and/or omitting potentially sensitive information in a spoken query before providing the query to a secondary automated assistant. A general automated assistant may be invoked by a user, followed by a query. The audio data can be processed to omit and/or obfuscate potentially sensitive information before providing one or more processed queries to secondary automated assistants based on a trust metric associated with each of the secondary automated assistants. The trust metric for a secondary automated assistant is indicative of trust in being provided with sensitive information. In response, the automated assistants can generate responses, which can be filtered to provide a response to the user.

The application describe a data processing system and associated methods for processing received speech data. The data processing system comprises: a classification unit configured to receive data derived from an audio signal and, based on the received data, to determine a classification state of an acoustic environment; wherein access to a subsequent processing unit is controlled based on the classification state of the acoustic environment. The classification state may be derived based on a pre-trained model, wherein the representation comprises a representation of the direct to reverberant ratio (DRR) of the audio signal.

A method at an electronic device with an audio input device and an audio output device includes: receiving through the audio input device a verbal input from a user; transmitting information corresponding to the verbal input to a remote system; receiving from the remote system a response responsive to the verbal input, the response including information in accordance with one or more criteria; and outputting the response through the audio output device.

Methods and systems are provided for managing speech of a speech system. In one embodiment, a method includes: receiving, by a processor, relative information comprising graph data from at least one relative data datasource; processing, by a processor, the graph data of the relative information to determine at least one of an association and a relationship associated with an element defined in the speech system; and storing, by a processor, the at least one of association and relationship as relative slot data for use by at least one of a speech recognition method and a dialog management method.

A vehicle personal assistant to engage a user in a conversational dialog about vehicle-related topics, such as those commonly found in a vehicle owner's manual, includes modules to interpret spoken natural language input, search a vehicle knowledge base and/or other data sources for pertinent information, and respond to the user's input in a conversational fashion. The dialog may be initiated by the user or more proactively by the vehicle personal assistant based on events that may be currently happening in relation to the vehicle. The vehicle personal assistant may use real-time inputs obtained from the vehicle and/or non-verbal inputs from the user to enhance its understanding of the dialog and assist the user in a variety of ways.

Artificial intelligence systems and methods providing enhanced prediction of information relevant to a conversation are disclosed. The method includes monitoring a conversation between a requestor and a provider. The method also includes determining metadata and text of the conversation. The method further includes determining a regional status of the requestor based on the metadata and text of the conversation, regional information, and regional classification rules. Additionally, the method includes determining a local status of the requestor based on the text of the conversation, the regional status, local information, and local classification rules. Moreover, the method includes determining suggestions based on the regional status, the local status, transactional status information, and transactional classification rules. Further, the method includes providing the suggestions to a user-interface device of the provider.

A system and method for performing speech recognition. A speech recognition engine includes a plurality of grammar paths each defining a recognized phrase. The grammar paths each have at least two nodes that are connected by a recognized word. An input device receives a user specified input that corresponds to the recognized word. A microphone receives a user phrase and a processor excludes grammar paths from the speech recognition engine based on an absence of the user specified input. The processor selects the recognized phrase from the non-excluded grammar paths based on the user phrase.

An information processing terminal of one embodiment is configured to set at least one of a first operation mode and a second operation mode as an operation mode. The information processing terminal includes a microphone, a touchscreen and at least one processor. The at least one processor is configured to execute a function of a touchable object displayed on the touchscreen when the touchable object is operated by a user in the first operation mode. The at least one processor is configured to execute the function of the touchable object when a voice input through the microphone indicates the touchable object in the second operation mode.

Techniques for analyzing long-term audio recordings are provided. In one embodiment, a computing device can record audio captured from an environment of a user on a long-term basis (e.g., on the order of weeks, months, or years). The computing device can store the recorded audio on a local or remote storage device. The computing device can then analyze the recorded audio based one or more predefined rules and can enable one or more actions based on that analysis.