System And Method For Enhancing Voice-Enabled Search Based On Automated Demographic Identification

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for approximating responses to a user speech query in voice-enabled search based on metadata that include demographic features of the speaker. A system practicing the method recognizes received speech from a speaker to generate recognized speech, identifies metadata about the speaker from the received speech, and feeds the recognized speech and the metadata to a question-answering engine. Identifying the metadata about the speaker is based on voice characteristics of the received speech. The demographic features can include age, gender, socio-economic group, nationality, and/or region. The metadata identified about the speaker from the received speech can be combined with or override self-reported speaker demographic information.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving recognized speech;   identifying information about a speaker of the recognized speech from the recognized speech;   identifying other users associated with the speech recognition system;   identifying metadata characteristics of the other users; and   submitting the recognized speech, the information, and the identified metadata characteristics to an engine which outputs a response associated with the recognized speech using the recognized speech, the information, and the identified metadata characteristics.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the information comprises demographic features. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the demographic features comprise one of age, gender, socio-economic group, nationality, and origin. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein identifying of the information is based on voice characteristics of the recognized speech. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the engine is integrated with the speech recognition system. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising storing the information for future use. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the storing of the information is performed in accordance with a privacy policy. 
     
     
         8 . A system comprising:
 a processor; and   a computer-readable storage medium having instruction stored which, when executed by the processor, result in the processor performing operations comprising:
 receiving recognized speech; 
 identifying information about a speaker of the recognized speech from the recognized speech; 
 identifying other users associated with the speech recognition system; 
 identifying metadata characteristics of the other users; and 
 submitting the recognized speech, the information, and the identified metadata characteristics to an engine which outputs a response associated with the recognized speech using the recognized speech, the information, and the identified metadata characteristics. 
   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the information comprises demographic features. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the demographic features comprise one of age, gender, socio-economic group, nationality, and origin. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein identifying of the information is based on voice characteristics of the recognized speech. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the engine is integrated with the speech recognition system. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 8 , the computer-readable storage medium having additional instructions which result in the operations further comprising storing the information for future use. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the storing of the information is performed in accordance with a privacy policy. 
     
     
         15 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instruction stored which, when executed by a computing device, result in the computing device performing operations comprising:
 receiving recognized speech;   identifying information about a speaker of the recognized speech from the recognized speech;   identifying other users associated with the speech recognition system;   identifying metadata characteristics of the other users; and   submitting the recognized speech, the information, and the identified metadata characteristics to an engine which outputs a response associated with the recognized speech using the recognized speech, the information, and the identified metadata characteristics.   
     
     
         16 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 15 , wherein the information comprises demographic features. 
     
     
         17 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 16 , wherein the demographic features comprise one of age, gender, socio-economic group, nationality, and origin. 
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 15 , wherein identifying of the information is based on voice characteristics of the recognized speech. 
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 15 , wherein the engine is integrated with the speech recognition system. 
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 15 , the computer-readable storage medium having additional instructions which result in the operations further comprising storing the information for future use.