CENTRALIZED METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR
CLARIFYING VOICE COMMANDS
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally pertains to user interaction with a computing device More specifically, the present invention pertains to user interactions with a centralized interface in the context of speech recognition
Much attention, lately, has been directed towards the improvement of speech recognition technology One such challenge in speech recognition technology lies m user interaction with a computing device using voice commands Frequently, a voice command needs further clarification before the computing device can execute such a command
A computing device can often interpret a voice command in multiple ways In one aspect, a computing device may not understand which application the voice command is directed towards For example, a voice command can include terms that are used across a plurality of application modules In another aspect, an application may not understand what the user would like to execute because the voice command contains ambiguous information For example, a voice command can include "play the Beatles" when there are multiple Beatles albums that the application could play In still another example, the voice command can contain a misrecognition error For example, the use: may recite the command "insert ice cream" while the
speech recognition system recognizes the command as "insert I scream"
Making guesses at what the user meant or taking action without consulting the user can lead to frustration for a user. There is a need to provide the user with the tools to control the clarification of voice commands and clarification of misrecognition errors without causing undue frustration and sacrificing speech recognition efficiency
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A method and system is provided for facilitating centralized interaction with a user The method and system includes providing a recognized voice command to a plurality of application modules A plurality of interpretations of the voice command are generated by at least one of the plurality of application modules A centralized interface module visually renders the plurality of interpretations of the voice command on a centralized display An indication of selection of an interpretation is received from the user
A centralized interface module that visually renders a list of interpretations to a user when there is otherwise ambiguity in a voice command avoids the arbitrary guessing of a command with which the user is referencing In addition, a centralized display panel provided by a central interface module can allow generic user interaction
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG 1 illustrates a block diagram of a general computing environment in which the present invention can be practiced
FIG 2 illustrates a block diagram of a mobile device in which the present invention can be practiced
FIG 3 illustrates a block diagram of a system for facilitating centralized user interaction
FIG 4 illustrates an example screenshot of a centralized panel
FIG 5 illustrates an example screenshot of a centralised panel
FIG 6 illustrates an example screenshot of a display of a computing device
FIG 7 illustrates a flowchart of a method for facilitating centralised user interaction
FIG 8 illustrates an example screenshot of a centralized panel
FIG 9 illustrates an example screenshot of a centralized panel
FIG 10 illustrates an example screenshot of a centralised panel
1 FIG 11 is a block diagram illustrating a method for manipulating characters displayed on a centralised panel using a speech recognizer
FIG 12 illustrates an example screenshot of a centralized panel
FIG 13 illustrates an example screenshot of a centralized panel

FIG 14 illustrates an example screenshot of a centralised panel
FIG 15 illustrates an example screenshot of a centralized panel
FIG 16 illustrates an example screenshot of a centralized panel
FIG 17 illustrates an example screenshot of a centralized panel
FIG 18 illustrates an example screenshot of a centralized panel
FIG 19 illustrates an example screenshot of a centralised panel
FIG 20 illustrates an example screenshot of a centralised panel
FIG 21 illustrates an example screenshot of a centralized panel
FIG 22 illustrates an example screenshot of a centralized panel
FIG 23 illustrates an example screenshot of a centralized panel
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS The present invention is described in the context of a computer-implemented system which uses speech recognition to recognise voice commands from a user Before describing aspects of the present invention, however, it may be useful to describe suitable computing environments that can incorporate and benefit from these aspects

FIG 1 illustrates an example of a suitable computing system environment 100 on which the invention may be implemented The computing system environment 100 is only one example of a suitable computing environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the invention Neither should the computing environment 100 be interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating to any one or combination of components illustrated in the exemplary operating environment 100
The invention is operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations. Examples of well-known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with the invention include, but are not limited to, personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, telephony systems, distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like
The invention may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc that perform particular tasks or implement particular
abstract data types The invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communication network In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote computer storage media including memory storage devices Tasks performed by the programs and modules are described below and with the aid of figures Those skilled m the art can implement the description and figures provided herein as processor executable instructions, which can be written on any form of a computer readable medium
With reference to FIG 1, an exemplary system for implementing the invention includes a general-purpose computing device in the form of a computer 110 Components of computer 110 may include, but are not limited to, a processing unit 120, a system memory 130, and a system bus 121 that couples various system components including the system memory to the processing unit System bus 121 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures By way of example, and not limitation, such architectures include Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus also known as Mezsanine bus
Computer 110 typically includes a variety of computer readable media Computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by computer 110 and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media By way of example, and not limitation, computer readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media Computer storage media includes both volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by computer 110 Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data m a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media The term "modulated data signal" means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media

such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media Combinations of any of the above should also be included within the scope of computer readable media
The system memory 130 includes computer storage media in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) 131 and random access memory (RAM) 132 A basic input/output system 133 (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within computer 110, such as during start-up, is typically stored in ROM 131 RAM 132 typically contains data and/or program modules that are immediately accessible to and/or presently being operated on by processing unit 120 By way of example, and not limitation, FIG 1 illustrates operating system 134, application programs 135, other program modules 136, and program data 137
The computer 110 may also include other removable/non-removable volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media By way of example only, FIG 1 illustrates a hard disk drive 141 that reads from or writes to non-removable, nonvolatile magnetic media, a magnetic disk drive 151 that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile magnetic disk 152, and an optical disk drive 155 that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile optical disk 156 such as a CD ROM or other optical media Other removable/nonremovable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage
media that can be used in the exemplary operating environment include, but are not limited to, magnetic tape cassettes, flash memory cards, digital versatile disks, digital video tape, solid state RAM, solid state ROM, and the like The hard disk drive 141 is typically connected to the system bus 121 through a non-removable memory interface such as interface 140, and magnetic disk drive 151 and optical disk drive 155 are typically connected to the system bus 121 by a removable memory interface, such as interface 150
The drives and their .associated computer storage media discussed above and illustrated in FIG 1, provide storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the computer 110 In FIG 1, for example, hard disk drive 141 is illustrated as storing operating system 144, application programs 145, other program modules 146, and program data 147 Note that these components can either be the same as or different from operating system 134, application programs 135, other program modules 136, and program data 137 Operating system 144, application programs 145, other program modules 14 6, and program data 147 are given different numbers here to illustrate that, at a minimum, they are different copies
A user may enter commands and information into the computer 110 through input devices such as a keyboard 162, a microphone 163, and a pointing device 161, such as a mouse, trackball or touch pad Other input devices (not shown) may include a joystick,
game pad, satellite dish, scanner, or the like These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit 120 through a user input interface 160 that is coupled to the system bus, but may be connected by other interface and bus structures, such as a parallel port, game port or a universal serial bus (USB) A monitor 191 or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus 121 via an interface, such as a video interface 190 In addition to the monitor, computers may also include other peripheral output devices such as speakers 197 and printer 196, which may be connected through an output peripheral interface 195
The computer 110 is operated in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer 180 The remote computer 180 may be a personal computer, a hand-held device, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to the computer 110 The logical connections depicted in FIG 1 include a local area network (LAN) 171 and a wide area network (WAN) 173, but may also include other networks Such networking environments are commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, Intranets and the Internet
When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 110 is connected to the LAN 171 through a network interface or adapter 170 When used in a WAN

networkmg environment, the computer 110 typically includes a modem 172 or other means for establishing communications over the WAN 173, such as the Internet The modem 172, which may be internal or external, may be connected to the system bus 121 via the user input interface 160, or other appropriate mechanism In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the computer 110, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device By way of example, and not limitation., FIG 1 illustrates remote application programs 185 as residing on remote computer 180 It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers may be used
FIG 2 is a block diagram of a mobile device 200, which is another applicable computing environment Mobile device 200 includes a microprocessor 202, memory 204, input/output (I/O) components 206, and a communication interface 208 for communicating with remote computers or other mobile devices In one embodiment, the aforementioned components are coupled for communication with one another over a suitable bus 210
Memory 204 is implemented as non-volatile electronic memory such as random access memory (RAM) with a battery back-up module (not shown) such that information stored in memory 204 is not lost when the general power to mobile device 200 is shut down A

portion of memory 204 is preferably allocated as addressable memory for program execution, while another portion of memory 204 is preferably used for storage, such as to simulate storage on a disk drive
Memory 204 includes an operating system 212, application programs 214 as well as an object store 216 During operation, operating system 212 is preferably executed by processor 202 from memory 204 Operating system 212, in one preferred embodiment, is a WINDOWS© CE brand operating system commercially available rrom Microsoft Corporation Operating system 212 is preferably designed for mobile devices, " and implements database features that can be utilised by applications 214 through a set of exposed application programming interfaces and methods The objects in object store 21G are maintained by applications 214 and operating system 212, at least partially in response to calls to the exposed application programming interfaces and methods
Communication interface 203 represents numerous devices and technologies that allow mobile device 200 to send and receive information The devices include wired and wireless modems, satellite receivers and broadcast tuners to name a few Mobile device 200 can also be directly connected to a computer to exchange data therewith In such cases, communication interface 208 can be an infrared transceiver or a serial or parallel communication connection, all of which are capable of transmitting streaming information
Input/output components 206 include a variety of input devices such as a touch-sensitive screen, buttons, rollers, and a microphone as well as a variety of output devices including an audio generator, a vibrating device, and a display The devices listed above are by way of example and need not all be present on mobile device 200 In addition, other input/output devices may be attached to or found with mobile device 200 within the scope of the present invention
FIG 3 illustrates a schematic block diagram of a computer-implemented system 300 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention System 300 can be incorporated into any of the previously discussed computing environments and includes a microphone 302, an audio capture module 304, a speech recognizer 306, a plurality of installed application modules 310 and a centralized interface module 312 Microphone 302 is configured to receive a voice command from a user Audio capture module 304 is configured to capture the voice command received by microphone 302 and convey the processed voice command to a speech recognizer 306
To recognize a voice command, speech recognizer 306 accesses a grammar 308 containing a plurality of recognizable commands A grammar generator module 309 is configured to generate grammar 308 based on input received from installed and operating application modules 310 The input received from application modules 310 populate grammar 308 and are the
executable commands with which the application modules can process and execute various actions Thus, each recognisable command located in grammar
308 corresponds to a command that executes an action
in one of the plurality of application modules 310
Grammar generator module 309 can also populate grammar 308 with alternative forms of various commands These alternative forms of commands typically are received from application modules 310 For example, if a user desires to play the Beatles on a computing device, the user should utter "play the Beatles" It is possible, however, that the user may instruct the computing device to "start the Beatles" instead of properly instructing the computing device to "play the Beatles", which would accomplish the same task
In some embodiments, grammar generator module
309 is further configured to determine which of
application modules 310 are operational at any given
time For example, grammar generator module 309 can
determine that five application modules are running
on the operating system The operational application
modules include two instances of a web browser, an
email application, a word processing application and
a spreadsheet application When grammar generator
module 309 generates grammar 308, it compresses the
commands such that only one set of commands for the
web browsing application populate grammar 308
Grammar generator 309, however, retains the notion
that there are two instances of the web browser that

are operational Therefore, grammar generator 309 realizes that ambiguity exists at the time of generating grammar 308
In other embodiments, grammar generator 309 does not retain the notion that there are two instances of the web browser that are operational In this embodiment, centralized interface module 312 can perform a status check on the operation system to determine if different instances of the same application are operational and, thus, ambiguous
After speech recognizer 306 recognizes the voice command, the recognized voice command is communicated to the plurality of application modules 310 The recognized voice command can either be communicated to the plurality of application modules via centralized interface module 312 or by speech recognizer 306 Regardless of the path of communication, the plurality of application modules 310 process the recognised voice command
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, some or all of the application modules 310 determine that they can execute the recognised voice command For example, a user utters the command "start settings" However, many of the application modules 310 that are installed in system 300 could have application aspects that include the term "settings" Therefore the recognized command 310 is ambiguous It is unclear as to which application the user is referring

In this embodiment, centralized interface module 312 gathers the set of possible interpretations of the recognized voice command from the plurality of application modules 310 Centralized interface module 312 then visually renders the set of interpretations in a list The list of interpretations are viewed by the user on a centralized panel of display 314 An example screenshot 400 of a centralized panel visually rendering a list of possible interpretations 402 is illustrated in FIG 4
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, only one of the plurality of application modules 310 determines that it can execute the recognized voice command For example, a user utters the command "play the Indigo Girls" Only one application module 310, such as a media application, has a menu item that includes "play the Indigo Girls" However, upon the media application attempting to execute the command, it discovers that there are four possible Indigo Girls albums that can be played Therefore, the recognized command is ambiguous It is unclear to the media application what album the user meant to play
In this embodiment, centralized interface module 312 gathers the set of possible interpretations of the recognized voice command from the application module 310 Centralized interface module 312 visually renders the set of interpretations in a list The list of interpretations are viewed by the user in a centralized panel located on display 314 Example
screenshot 500 of a centralized panel visually renders a list of possible interpretations with reference to the described example is illustrated in FIG 5
In accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention and as previously discussed, there can be ambiguity in. what instance or application module of a particular application the user is referencing E'or example, a user is using a spreadsheet application and utters the command "swatch to the Internet browser" However, besides system 300 running one instance of the spreadsheet application, system 300 is also running two instances of the Internet browser application Therefore, the recognized command is ambiguous It is unclear which instance of the Internet browser the user is referring
In this embodiment, speech recognizer 306 can supply centralized interface module 312 with a set of possible interpretations of the voice command based on grammar generator 309 retaining the notion that there are more than one instance of an operational web browser In the alternative, centralized interface module 312, after performing a status check of the operating system, can supply a set of possible interpretations of the voice command Centralised interface module 312 visually renders the set of interpretations in a list The list of interpretations are viewed by the user in a centralised panel located on display 314
Each interpretation in the list of interpretations 402 and 502 are annotated with an identifier (l e "1", "2", "3", etc ) In the FIG 4 and FIG 5 embodiment, identifiers 4 04 and 504 are numeric symbols, although any form of symbol can. be used Upon viewing the list of interpretations 402 and 502, the user can determine which of the interpretations is the interpretation that corresponds to what the user meant In one embodiment, the user can select the correct command by speaking the corresponding numeric symbol In another embodiment, the user can select the correct command by using an input device 316 (illustrated m FIG 3) to select desired interpretations Input device 316 can be, but is not limited to, a selection apparatus, such as a mouse Input device 316 can also be a keypad Regardless of how the correct interpretation is selected, selection of an interpretation induces system 300 to execute the corresponding command by forwarding the command to the corresponding application
In another embodiment, the user can indicate, in reference to FIG 5, that playing all of the Indigo Girls albums is desired Communication line 506 indicates that the user can either select an interpretation from the plurality of interpretations 502 or the user can utter "Play all" to play all of the albums Regardless of what the user desired, selection of the correct interpretation induces

system 300 to take action by providing the command information to the corresponding application
Using a centralized interface module that visually renders a list of interpretations to a user when there is otherwise ambiguity in a voice command provides a way for system 300 to avoid arbitrarily guessing an appropriate command A centralized interface module also provides a simple centralized panel for graphically representing possible user interactions, provides a highly efficient means of determining what the user meant and provides a consistent interface that is located outside of the plurality of application modules In other words, each of the screenshots of a centralized panel illustrated in FIGS ,4, 5 and 8-10 (discussed below), look and operate similarly and can, therefore, be displayed in a consistent location For example, FIG 6 illustrates a screenshot 600 of a media player that is operating on an operating system The user asks to "play Indigo Girls". As discussed above, there is more than one album of Indigo Girls that could be played The centralized interface or panel 500 appears in the lower right hand corner of the screen and prompts the user to select what the user meant In this manner, the user is less confused as to how to operate with the display even though the centralized panel can be used with one or more application modules 310
FIG 7 illustrates a flowchart 700 for providing a computer-implemented method of facilitating
centralized interaction with a user Flowchart 700 includes step 702 that entails receiving a voice command from a user After receiving the voice command, flowchart 700 proceeds to step 704 to process the voice command such that it is in appropriate condition to be recognized by a speech recognizer At step 706, a speech recognizer, such as speech recognizer 306 of FIG 3 recognises the voice command The speech recognizer compares the voice command to a plurality of commands stored in an index
At step 708, the recognized command i"s conveyed to a plurality of application modules At step 710, a plurality of interpretations are received upon at least one of the plurality of application modules determining that the recognized command is ambiguous The plurality of interpretations are visually rendered to the user at step 712 For example, the plurality of interpretations can be listed with a corresponding identifier on a centralized panel of a display An indication of the user selection of one of the plurality of interpretations is received at step 714 For example, by audibly indicating the identifier, the desired interpretation can be identified as the correct command
In addition to clarifying voice commands by interacting with centralized interface module 312 in FIG 3, a user can also interact with centralized interface module 312 to correct recognition errors while the user is dictating to an application module,

such as a word processing application To correct recognition errors, the user can highlight a term that has been transcribed incorrectly by using an input device After highlighting, the application module transmits a plurality of alternatives to centralized interface module 312 The alternatives contain phrases that sound similar to the voice utterance Centralized interface module 312 receives and visually renders the alternative phrases on the centralized panel of display 314 Each of the alternative phrases includes a corresponding identifier Centralized interface module 312 receives an indication of selection from the user via speech or input device 316 in the form of an identifier and conveys the selection to the application module
In some instances, the centralized interface module 312 fails to visually render an alternative that is the correct alternative Failure to render a correct alternative can occur if either speech recognizer 306 made a misrecognition error or if the alternative is not recognizable because the user has never used the utterance with system 300 With these types of occurrences, centralized interface module 312 is configured to present further alternatives m addition to the alternatives previously presented One such alternative includes presenting an option to respeak the original utterance Another such further alternative includes presenting an option to allow the user to create a new alternative that is otherwise unfamiliar to system 300

For example, FIG 8 illustrates a screenshot 800 of a centralized panel that is visually rendering a list of alternatives in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention The list of alternatives include a list of alternative phrases 804 generated by a word processing application and a list of further alternatives 806 generated by centralized interface module 312 Each of the further alternatives 806 includes a corresponding identifier such that the user can make an indication of selection in the form of an identifier
- - if the user selects identifier "9", then "the centralised interface module 312 visually renders a screenshot 900 in a centralized panel as illustrated m FIG 9 The communication line 902 of screenshot 900 prompts the user to respeak the utterance Upon respeakmg the utterance, centralized interface module 312 will visually render a refreshed list of alternatives Selecting identifier "9" is useful if system 300 has made a recognition error If the user selects the identifier "10" in FIG 8, then centralized interface module 312 visually renders screenshot 1000 in a centralised panel as illustrated in FIG 10 Communication line 1002 of screenshot 1000 prompts the user to spell the utterance aloud As the user spells the utterance, the letters will appear in block 1004 In addition, it is possible that a user could also type the correct spelling of the utterance in block 1004 using an input device

In another embodiment of the present invention, FIG 11 is a block diagram illustrating a method 1100 for manipulating characters displayed on a centralized panel, such as screenshot 1000 of a centralised panel illustrated in FIG 10, after the user audibly spells a new alternative For example, in FIG 12, the user spells the following phrase, "intent" However, the speech recognizer 306 (FIG 3) has "heard" the series of entered text 1204 as "i", "n", "v", "e", "n","v" and thus, displays the word "invent" on panel 1200 The word "invent" needs to be corrected to be "intent ""
Referring to FIG 13, m order to correct this, the user invokes a spelling command to vocally communicate a command to modify "invent" Upon the system 300 receiving the spelling command, the selected word is identified and an appended word 1302 is created by appending at least one space 1304 to the selected word, wherein the appended word 1302 includes at least one character 1306 to be modified, as shown in operational block 1102 (FIG 11) Each of the characters 1308 in the appended word are then assigned and correlated with a unique numerical value 1310, as shown in operational block 1104 The appended word 1302 is then displayed via screenshot 1300 of a centralised panel to visually communicate the correlation between each of the characters 1308 in the appended word 1302 and their assigned unique numerical value 1310 This correlation may be visually communicated by drawing a box 1312 around

the appended word 1302 on screenshot 1300 and displaying each of the unique numerical values 1310 adjacent their assigned character 1308 in the appended word 1302 As such, each of the characters 1308 is "assigned" a unique numerical value 1310 to which each character 1303 is correlated For example, a user who wants to change the word "invent" 1314 to "intent", would vocally enter a command to speech recognizer 306 This would cause a box 1312 to be displayed on screenshot 1300 around the word "invent" 1314 This also causes each letter in the word "invent" 1314 to be assigned a unique numerical value 1310 which is displayed adjacent its corresponding character 1308, both of which is shown m Figure 13 This will allow the user to change and/or correct any letter in the word "invent "
At this point, a selection command and a modification command may be received by system 300, wherein the selection command is the unique numerical value 1310 corresponding to a selected character, as shown in operational block 1106 This indicates to system 300 which character in the appended word 1302 is to be changed Once system 300 receives the modification command a modified word is generated by modifying the selected character responsive to the modification command, as shown in operational block 1108 It should be appreciated that the user may enter in a plurality of modification commands, such as "delete", "insert", or the letter/character to be

added, wherein each of these situations are discussed below
For example, referring to FIG 14, consider the case above where the user would like to delete the letter "v" 1402 in the appended word "mvent_" 1404 displayed on a screenshot 1400 of a centralized panel As discussed herein, the user communicates the unique numerical value corresponding to the character to be change to system 300 It should be appreciated that although these unique numerical values 1408 start with the number 1 and increase by 1, any unique numerical values 1408 and increments may be assigned As can been seen, the letter "v" 1402 in the appended word "invent^" 1404 is assigned a unique numerical value 1408 of "3" As such, the user would vocally communicate the number "3" to system 300 This selects the letter corresponding to and correlated with the number "3" as indicated by the caret 1410, which in this case is the letter "v" 1402 in the appended word "invent" 14 04 The user may then enter the desired modification command, such as "delete" which will cause the letter "v" 1402 to be deleted from the appended word "invent" 1404, leaving the resultant "ment" 1412, as shown in screenshot 1500 of a centralized panel of FIG 15 Thus, the modification command "delete" will remove the selected letter and its corresponding space from the appended word and the selection caret 1410 will select the next subsequent character, i e "e "

On the other hand, referring to FIG 16,
consider the case where the user wants to insert a
character, such as a letter or space, between the
letter "n" 1604 and the letter "v" 160b in the word
"invent" displayed on screenshot 1600 in a
centralized panel In essence, the user wants to
insert a character into the spot corresponding to the
unique numerical value "3" As discussed herein, the
user may vocally communicate a command This causes a
space to be appended to the word "invent" to create
an appended „word "invent_" 1608 and a box 1610 to be
displayed around the appended word ""invent" 1608 and
unique numerical values 1612 to be assigned and
displayed adjacent each of the characters m the
appended word "invent_" 1608 As can be seen, the
letter *v" 1606 in the appended word "mvent_" 1608
is assigned a unique numerical value 1612 of "3" As
such, the user can vocally communicate the number "3"
to system 300 to "select" the letter corresponding to
and correlated with the number "3" as indicated by
the caret 1614, which m this case is the letter "v"
1606 in the appended word "invent_" 1608 The user
may then enter in a modification command, causing
system 300 to respond in an approprxate manner For
example if the user communicates the modification
command "insert" and then communicates the word
"space", then a space will be inserted between the
letter "n" 1604 and the letter "v" 1606, effectively
changing the appended word "invent_" 1608 to
"in vent_" 1616, as shown in screenshot 1700 in a
centralized panel illustrated in FIG 17 In this case the caret 1614 would remain in place to indicate that the space correlated with the unique numerical value "3" has been selected However, if the user communicates the command "insert" and then communicates the letter wp", then the letter wp" will be inserted between the letter "n" 1604 and the letter "v" 1606, effectively changing the appended word "mvent_" to "inpvent_" 1618, as shown in screenshot 1300 of a centralized panel illustrated in FIG 18, and the selection caret 1614 will shift to the following character to indicate that the following character (I e the character corresponding to the unique numerical value "4") has been selected
Similarly, referring to FIG 19, consider the case where the user simply wants to change a letter in the word "invent" displayed on screenshot 1900 of a centralised panel As discussed herein, the user may vocally communicate a command This causes a space to be appended to the word "invent" to create an appended word "mvent_" 1902 and a box 1904 to be displayed around the appended word "invent_" 1902 and unique numerical values 1906 to be assigned and displayed adjacent each of the characters 1908 m the appended word "invent_" 1902 As can been seen, the letter "v" 1912 in the appended word "invent" 1902 is assigned a unique numerical value 1906 of "3 " As such, the user can vocally communicate the number "3" to system 300 This causes the letter corresponding to and correlated with the number "3" to be selected

as indicated by the caret 1910, which in this case is the letter "v" 1912 in the appended word "mvent_" 1902 The user may then enter in a modification command (in this case the command is simply a letter) causing system 300 to respond in an appropriate manner For example if the user communicates the modification command "t" after the number "3", then the letter "v" 1912 will be replaced with the letter "t", effectively changing the appended word "invent_" 1902 to the word "intent" 1914, as shown in screenshot 2000 ot a centralised panel illustrated in FIG 20 At this point the selection caret 1910 will shift to the following character to indicate that the following character (i e the character corresponding to the unique numerical value "4") has been selected
It should be appreciated that once a user enters the unique numerical value corresponding to the letter to be changed, a menu of suggested modification commands may be displayed, such as a dropdown menu, where each suggested action would be assigned is own unique numerical value For example, referring to FIG 21, consider the case where the user wants to change a letter in the word "invent" displayed on screenshot 2100 of a centralised panel The user vocally communicates a command This causes a space to be appended to the selected word "invent" to create an appended word "invent" 2102 and a box 2104 to be displayed around the appended word "invent_" 2102 and unique numerical values 2106 to be displayed adjacent each of the letters in the
appended word "mvent_" 2102 As can been seen, the letter "v" 2108 in the appended word "invent_" 2102 is assigned a unique numerical value 2106 of "3 " As such, the user would vocally communicate the number "3" to system 300 to "select" the character corresponding to and correlated with the unique numerical value "3" as indicated by the caret 2110, which in this case is the letter "v" 2108 in the appended word "mvent_" 2102 Referring to FIG 22, a menu 2112 may be displayed on centralized panel shot 2200 giving the user a number of modification -command choices, each of which is assigned a second unique numerical value 2114 The user may then enter a modification command which is the second unique numerical value 2114 correlated with the desired modification command causing the speech recognition software application to respond in an appropriate manner For example, if the user communicates the numerical value "4" after the number "3" then the letter "v" 2108 will be replaced with the letter "d" 2116, effectively changing the appended word "mvent_" 2102 to the word "indent" 2118, as shown in screenshot 2300 of a centralized panel in FIG 23 As above, the selection caret 2110 will shift to the following character to indicate that the following character (l e the character corresponding to the unique numerical value "4") has been selected
It should be appreciated that the menu 2112 of suggested modification commands may include any modification commands suitable to the desired end

purpose, such as a menu of characters/words that are acoustically similar to the selected letter or word, eg if "v" is selected, then the menu 2112 will contain "d", "t", "e", "g", "3" Additionally, the menu 1012 may also contain the capitalized form of the characters, e g. "V", as well as an auto-complete list from a spell checker As such, for this example the menu 1012 may include the words "indent", "intent", "amend " Furthermore, it should be appreciated that the present invention may include voice commands that pe-rforming multiple functions simultaneously, e g "Change 3 to "e" as in eagle," or "Change t to g" may change the letter "t" to the letter "g" if there were only one letter "t" in the selected word If there were two letters "t" in the selected word, feedback may be provided to the user to be more precise. Moreover, other commands may also be provided such as "undo" which may revert previously changed characters to their previous state, eg if the user says "cap that" (to capitalise the selected letter), but the input is recognised as "caret", then the user may say "undo" to revert the letter to the previous state
With reference to FIGS 3-23, these figures are discussed in the context of a user dictating to a word processing application However, those skilled in the art will recognise that the embodiments discussed in FIGS 8-23 can also apply to a user uttering a voice command to system 300 If a voice command is ambiguous, centralized interface module
312 will visually render a list of interpretations and also visually render a list of further alternatives The list of further alternatives include an alternative to respeak the coirimand and an alternative to create a new command For example, if the user would like to send email to David White, the user can audibly issue the command "insert the name David" However, if the user has previously sent email to David Black and David Green, but never has sent email to David White, there is an ambiguity as to what David to insert Centralized interface module 312 visually renders a list of David interpretations The list of interpretations includes David Black and David Green In addition, centralized interface module 312 visually renders a list of further alternatives that includes an alternative to respeak the voice command and an alternative to create a new voice command In this example, the user would choose to create a new command because the user desires to email David White, which is unfamiliar to system 300
In addition to clarifying commands and correcting misrscogmtion errors by interacting with a centralized interface module 312, a user can also interact with centralized interface module 312 to receive feedback from the plurality of application modules 310. Centralized interface module 312 is configured to visually render what system 300 is listening for For example, the centralized panel can display that system 300 is listening for nothing because microphone 302 is turned off In addition,
centralized interface module 312 is also configured to visually render the status of system 300 For example, the centralized panel can display the last command recognized by system 300 In another embodiment, the centralized panel can display that a particular application module is opening or closing
Although the present invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments, workers skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS
1 A computer-implemented method of facilitating
centralized interaction with a user, the method
comprising
providing a recognized voice command to a plurality of application modules,
receiving a plurality of interpretations of the voice command, the plurality of interpretations generated by at least one of the plurality of application modules
visuaLly rendering the plurality of interpretations of the voice command on a centralized display, and
receiving an indication of selection of an interpretation from the user
2 The method of claim 1, wherein visually rendering the plurality of interpretations comprises visually rendering the plurality of interpretations m a list, each of the plurality of interpretations having a corresponding identifier
3 The method of claim 1, wherein receiving an indication of selection of an interpretation comprises receiving a speech signal indicating an identifier that corresponds to the selected interpretation
4 The method of claim 1, wherein receiving an indication of selection of an interpretation comprises receiving an input device signal indicating an identifier that corresponds to the selection of mterpretat ion
5 The method of claim 1, further comprising visually rendering an alternative that allows the user to choose to respeak the voice command
6 The method of claim 5, further comprising visually rendering a plurality of refreshed interpretations when the user chooses to respeak the voice command
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising visually rendering an alternative that allows the user to choose to create a new interpretation that is not included in the plurality of interpretations
8 The method of claim 7, wherein allowing the user to choose to create a new interpretation further comprises receiving an audible spelling of the new interpretation
9 The method of claim 1, further comprising conveying the selected interpretation to the at least one application module after the indication of selection is received
10 The method of claim 1, wherein the centralised display comprises a centralised panel that is displayed in a consistent location on a computing device display
11 The method of claim 1, further comprising visually rendering a list of alternative spellings for a misrecognized utterance on the centralized display
12 The method, of claim 1, further comprising visually rendering feedback from the plurality of application modules on the centralized display
13 A computer-implemented system for facilitating centralised interaction with a user, the system comprising
an audio capture module configured to capture a
voice command. a speech recognizer configured to recognize the voice command by accessing a plurality of commands in a grammar, a centralized interface module configured to
visually render a plurality of interpretations from at least one of a plurality of application modules when the recognized voice command is ambiguous, and receive an indication of selection of one of the plurality of interpretations
14 The computer-implemented system of claim 13, wherein, the centralized interface is adapted to convey the indication of selection to the at least one of a plurality of application modules
15 The computer-implemented system of claim 13, further comprising a centralized display configured to display a centralized panel that visually renders the list of interpretations
16 The computer-implemented system of claim 13, wherein the centralized interface module is adapted to visually render an alternative that allows the user to choose to respeak the voice command
17 The computer-implemented system of claim 16, wherein the centralized interface module is adapted to refresh the visually rendered list of interpretations when the user chooses to respeak. the voice command
18 The computer-implemented system of claim 13, wherein the centralized interface module is adapted to visually render an alternative that allows the user to choose to create a voice command that is not visually rendered in the list of interpretations
19 The computer-implemented system of claim 18, wherein the centralized interface module is adapted to receive the created voice command in the form of a spelled command
20 The computer-implemented system of claim 13, wherein the centralized interface module is adapted to visually render a list of alternative phrases for a dictated phrase that includes a recognition error
21 The computer-impLemented system of claim 20, wherein the centralized interface module is adapted to visually render an alternative that allows the user to choose to respeak the dictated phrase
22 The computer-implemented system of claim 20, wherein the centralised interface module is adapted to visually render an alternative that allows the user to choose to create a word not shown in the list of alternative spellings
23 The computer-implemented system of claim 13, wherein the centralized interface module is adapted to visually render feedback from the plurality of application modules
2 4 The computer-implemented system of claim 13, further comprising a grammar generator module configured to generate the grammar based on commands received from the plurality of application modules
25 The computer-implemented system of claim 13, wherein the recognised voice command is ambiguous when the recognized voice command can be processed by at least some of the plurality of application modules
26 The computer-implemented system of claim 13, wherein the recognized voice command is ambiguous when one of the application modules determines that more than one action can be executed based on-, the recognized voice command
27 A computer-implemented method of facilitating centralized interaction with a user, the method comprising
capturing a voice command,
recognizing the voice command by accessing a
grammar of recognizable commands, determining that the recognized voice command is
ambiguous, and visually rendering a list of interpretations of
the recognized voice command on a
centralized display, receiving an indication of selection of one of
the interpretations
28 The method of claim 27, wherein the list of
interpretations are generated by a plurality of
application modules
29 The method of claim 27, wherein the list of interpretations are based on a notion that more than one instance of an application is operating
30 The method of claim 27, further comprising visually rendering an alternative that allows the user to choose to respeak the voice command
31 The method of claim 27, further comprising visually rendering an alternative that allows the user to choose to create a voice command that does not correspond to an interpretation in the list of interpretations
32 The method of claim 31, wherein allowing the user to choose to create a new interpretation comprises receiving an audible spelling of the new interpretation