VOICE CONTROLLED STUDIO APPARATUS

Abstract

A voice controlled studio apparatus comprising a presenter interface unit and a producer interface unit, the presenter interface unit and the producer interface unit each adapted to generate commands and each unit comprising a voice input device, the apparatus further comprising a data processing unit adapted to receive commands from the presenter interface and the producer interface, process the commands, parse them to ascertain whether the actions meet at least one pre-determined criterion and then subsequently effect one or more actions based on the commands and the or each pre-determined criterion, and wherein the data processing unit is adapted to prioritise the effecting of actions so that commands generated by the producer interface unit can override the effecting of commands generated by the presenter interface unit, the apparatus further comprising a teleprompt unit adapted to provide a display adapted to be visible by a presenter and adapted to receive actions from a data processing unit and vary the display according to the said actions.

Claims

1. A voice controlled studio apparatus comprising a presenter interface unit and a producer interface unit, the presenter interface unit and the producer interface unit each adapted to generate commands and each unit comprising a voice input device having a speech recogniser, the apparatus further comprising a data processing unit adapted to receive commands from the presenter interface and the producer interface, process the commands, parse them to ascertain whether the commands meet at least one pre-determined criterion and then subsequently effect one or more actions based on the commands and each pre-determined criterion, and wherein the data processing unit is adapted to prioritise the effecting of actions so that commands generated by the producer interface unit can override the effecting of commands generated by the presenter interface unit, the apparatus further comprising a teleprompt unit adapted to provide a display adapted to be visible by a presenter and adapted to receive actions from a data processing unit and vary the display according to the said actions, and wherein the apparatus further comprises a transcoder adapted to manage the audio input from the producer and to convert it to a correct format for the speech recogniser, a configuration and status module adapted to configure the producer interface, and a command matcher and interpreter module adapted to analyse the real time transcription from the speech recogniser, commands being selected from a group including one or more of: loading a preset configuration of the apparatus, loading specific scripts from a newsroom system, navigating within a script, turning prompting on or off, modifying the current scrolling rate, changing the configuration of the prompting display to assist the presenter, re-direction of the prompting system if the presenter interface unit has been unable to keep track of the presenter position.

2. A voice controlled studio apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a physical input device.

3. A voice controlled studio apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the producer interface has an audio input and a screen input.

4. A voice controlled studio apparatus according to claim 1, comprising more than one producer interface.

5. A voice controlled studio apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is adapted to be used in a combined automated and human mode, where the automated system provides the primary prompting control; and a human operator supervises the automated system, monitoring its performance and taking over if required in a seamless manner, and also able to hand back to the automated system at any point, the human operator being independent of both the presenter interface and the producer interface.

6. A voice controlled studio apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is adapted to receive voice inputs in more than one spoken language.

7. A voice controlled studio apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is adapted to recognise voice inputs comprising proper nouns, such as personal and/or place names.

8. A voice controlled studio apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is adapted to distinguish between voice inputs which comprise commands to be actioned and voice inputs which are not intended to result in actions.

9. A voice controlled studio apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is adapted to comprise a database comprising voice inputs which comprise commands to be actioned.

10. A voice controlled studio apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the database further comprises a representation of a script to be spoken by a presenter, the representation including markers adapted to identify particular aspects of the script.

11. A voice controlled studio apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said markers are provided such as to denote whether particular words are expected to be spoken by the presenter or not spoken by the presenter, if words are not expected to be pronounced phonetically, and the like.

Description

[0052] Further features and combinations of features of the inventive concept will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0053] As shown in FIG. 1, the producer interface unit and the presenter interface unit communicate with several of the prompting system functions. A key interface is that to the scroll engine which controls the display of text on the prompter display: including the size and colour of the text and its scrolling.

[0054] In addition to the scroll engine, the presenter interface unit communicates with the configuration manager to enable the configuration of the presenter interface unit. This includes configuration of the speech recogniser and parameters to tune the behaviour of the presenter interface (see also FIG. 2). The configuration of the presenter interface unit could be performed via a screen interface to the presenter interface unit, but it is simpler for the user if these parameters are included within a configuration interface of the system.

[0055] The producer interface unit communicates with several of the system components, not only to enable the configuration of the producer interface unit but also to modify the configuration and operation of the system in response to commands, from the producer for example. This is simplified if the system is structured with a common command manager which handles all actions such as loading new run-orders or jumping to different stories. This is shown in more detail in FIG. 3.

[0056] The scroll engine is designed such that the presenter interface unit, the producer interface unit and manual scroll controllers may co-exist. This is advantageous in an automated prompting system as the presenter interface unit may be controlling the scroll speed but can be interrupted by the producer interface unit or a manual scroll controller operated by a human operator, and can then pick up scroll control again after the intervention.

[0057] The overall scroll engine system architecture is shown in FIG. 4, which shows that in addition to manual scroll controllers, there are a number of software-based scroll controllers, some part of the producer interface unit and some part of the presenter interface unit, and each of which performs a particular automated scrolling function.

[0058] Each software-based scroll controller performs a specific function: [0059] Fixed speed controller—calculates and requests a single scroll speed. Until there are any further controller commands, the scroll engine will continue to scroll the text at this speed. This controller is part of the producer interface unit and implements the Producer commands of “forwards”, “backwards”, “faster”, “slower” and “stop”. [0060] Line Skip controller (shown in further detail in FIG. 11)— calculates and requests a scroll speed, then after a calculated time requests that the scrolling stops. This controller is part of the producer interface unit and used to implement producer commands of “skip” to scroll over a number of lines or a specific block in the script. [0061] Voice controller—sends a stream of requests of scroll speeds to maintain the correct place in the script with respect to what the presenter is speaking. This controller is the core of the presenter interface unit and implements the automated tracking of the presenter relative to the script. [0062] Automated skipping controller (shown in further detail in FIG. 10)— identifies that the presenter has reached a block of text in the script which should be ignored, such as embedded directions, and skips over the block to the next section of script which the presenter will read. This controller is similar to the line skip controller described before but is operating continuously as part of the presenter interface unit. [0063] Special case controller—additional controllers can be designed and added to meet specific studio workflow requirements, such as scrolling at a fixed speed over certain types of block in the script which the presenter needs to see (e.g. special directions or messages) but which they do not read out.

[0064] It is worth noting that that scroll navigation commands, such as “Next story”, “previous story” are sent to the command manager in the system, which then actions them with the scroll engine. These commands may originate from the producer interface unit or may be tied to specific buttons on the manual scroll controllers.

[0065] The overall presenter interface unit architecture is shown in FIG. 5.

[0066] In use: [0067] A transcoder manages the audio input from the presenter and converts it to the correct format for the speech recogniser. [0068] A configuration and status module manages the configuration of the presenter interface unit. [0069] A number of presenter interface unit scroll controllers control the scroll speed in response to the transcription coming from the speech recogniser. A key software scroll controller is the voice controller which implements the control of scroll speed to match the prompter output to the presenter's audio.

[0070] The overall Producer Interface architecture is shown in FIG. 6.

[0071] In use: [0072] A transcoder manages the audio input from the producer and converts it to the correct format for the speech recogniser. [0073] A configuration and status module manages the configuration of the producer interface unit. This is a key component as the producer interface unit is highly configurable to match the voice commands or screen display to the preferences of the producer. [0074] A command matcher and interpreter module analyses the real time transcription coming back from the recogniser and matches it to one of the pre-defined commands. Techniques similar to that used in the presenter interface unit script matcher can be used to achieve this. [0075] Producer interface unit scroll controllers control the scroll speed in response to particular commands recognised by the command matcher, such as “speed up”, “slow down” and “skip lines”.

[0076] Each producer will likely have preferred phrases and workflows within their shows, and so the producer interface unit commands are designed to be flexible enough to accommodate this. This can be achieved by providing means adapted to enable or disable each possible action, and to define one or more phrases to trigger each action. Multiple phrases can be associated with the same action. An example of this configuration is shown in FIG. 7.

[0077] In FIG. 7 for example, the action “live prompt on” has been enabled and may be triggered by the producer saying either “prompt on” or “prompting on”.

[0078] The configuration screens are displayed by the system configuration manager, and the configuration module in the producer interface unit uses the data to construct valid strings that the command matcher can match against. It also can generate a custom dictionary for the speech recogniser to maximise the recognition performance for the configured phrases.

[0079] Another example of the configuration is shown in FIG. 8, which shows how valid story numbers can be defined to enable the producer to tell the system to jump to a specific story. Shown in the example story numbers starting with the letter A to F are valid, and numbers between 0 and 25 or the number 99 are valid. A suffix of “X” is also valid. The producer may say “jump to A25” or they may use the phonetic alphabet and say “jump to Alpha 25”.

[0080] An example producer screen input is shown in FIG. 13.

[0081] This screen exemplified in FIG. 13 is displaying the current run order of stories as delivered in real time by the newsroom on the left hand side, and the story in that run order which is currently being prompted to the presenter will be highlighted. The producer can jump to any other story by touching that story with their finger or pointing with a mouse. On the right hand side is a set of buttons which implement specific commands. At the bottom of the right hand side is a window showing the status of the producer and presenter voice interfaces. The contents of the screen and their positioning and the number, size, position, function and labelling of the buttons is configurable.