Adaptive Speech Pause Length for Vehicle Voice Input

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing voice interaction systems in vehicles and technical equipment struggle to accurately determine when a user intends to continue or pause voice input, leading to potential distraction and unsafe interactions, as they fail to adapt to user workload, speech complexity, and environmental factors.

Innovation Solution

A method and system that dynamically adjust the allowed speech pause length by analyzing key utterances, sentence completeness, speech melody, cognitive workload, and user profiles, extending the pause if conditions indicate the user intends to continue speaking, and terminating recording if the pause exceeds a threshold.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If the speech pause length is extended to accommodate user distraction or complex sentence formulation, then the reliability of voice input recognition is improved, but the time required for system response increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvevoice input recognition accuracyVSAvoidsystem response time
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies dynamics by making the speech pause length adaptive rather than fixed. The system dynamically adjusts the timeout duration based on real-time analysis of speech characteristics (sentence complexity, cognitive workload indicators, environmental factors) to optimize between recognition reliability and response time

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

The patent changes the parameter of speech pause length based on multiple detected conditions including sentence complexity, user distraction level, and environmental context. The system modifies this temporal parameter to match the user's current state, extending it when complexity is high and shortening it when the user is focused

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

2Productivity

If the speech pause length is shortened to improve system responsiveness, then the productivity of voice interaction is improved, but the reliability of capturing complete user intent deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvevoice interaction efficiencyVSAvoidcomplete capture of user intent
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system dynamically adapts the speech pause length to balance productivity and reliability. By continuously monitoring speech characteristics and user state, it adjusts the timeout to be short when the user is focused and complete thoughts quickly, and long when the user is distracted or formulating complex sentences

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements feedback mechanisms by analyzing speech patterns, sentence structure, and environmental context to determine whether the user intends to continue speaking. This feedback loop allows the system to adjust the speech pause length in real-time, ensuring complete capture of user intent while maintaining interaction efficiency

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

3Adaptability or versatility

If multiple factors (sentence complexity, cognitive workload, environmental conditions) are analyzed to determine speech pause length, then the adaptability of the voice system is improved, but the device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvevoice system adaptabilityVSAvoidsystem architecture complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies universality by using a single voice dialog system to perform multiple functions: speech recognition, sentence complexity analysis, cognitive workload assessment, environmental monitoring, and dynamic timeout adjustment. This multi-functional approach improves adaptability without proportionally increasing device complexity

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The system changes multiple parameters (speech pause length, analysis depth, recording duration) based on the combination of detected factors. By coordinating these parameter changes, the system achieves high adaptability through software-based adjustments rather than hardware complexity

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentEP3430615B1Transportation means, and system and method for adapting the length of a permissible speech pause in the context of a speech input
Publication Date: 2023.09.06 BAYERISCHE MOTOREN WERKE AG
  • EP3430615B1 patent drawingFigure 1~2
  • EP3430615B1 patent drawingFigure 3~5

AI summary

The invention relates to a transportation means, a system, and a method for adapting the length of a permissible speech pause (1) in the context of a speech input (2). The method has the following steps: - ascertaining that the speech input (2) - ends with a key expression and/or - contains an incomplete sentence (4) and/or - has a sentence melody which is characterized in a specified manner and/or - has a specified degree of complexity and/or - is carried out by a specified user (6) and/or - overlaps in time with a system output (7), and in response thereto - automatically lengthening a permissible speech pause (1) between the last acoustic input of a user (6) into a microphone (8) and an automatic ending of a recording of signals captured by the microphone (8).