In-call virtual assistants

[0001] Voice-communication systems allow users that are remote from one another to communicate over an array of different devices. Some devices, such as mobile telephones, send voice data over networks to end-user devices. Other devices, such as laptop computers or tablets configured with webcams, send both voice and video data to end-user devices. Regardless of whether users communicate solely using audio or using both audio and video, these voice-communication systems increase connectedness amongst large populations of users.

[0008] This disclosure describes, in part, techniques for providing virtual assistants to assist users during voice communications between the users. For instance, a first user operating a device may establish a voice communication with respective devices of one or more additional users, such as with a device of a second user. For instance, the first user may utilize her device to place a telephone call or other voice communication to the device of the second user. This communication may be initiated via a public switched telephone network (PSTN), a cellular network, a voice-over-internet-protocol (VOIP) network, or the like.

[0009] After establishing the voice communication, or as part of establishing this communication, the techniques may join another computing device to the voice communication, namely a computing device that hosts a virtual assistant for performing tasks for one or both users. For instance, the users may inquire, during the voice communication, a temperature forecast for a particular area, may ask the virtual assistant to schedule a meeting or purchase movie tickets, or the like. After identifying the voice command from an audio signal representing the audio of the voice communication, the virtual assistant may obtain information pertaining to the voice command and may output the information to the user, either via the voice communication or via an out-of-band communication. For instance, if a user asks the virtual assistant for a current temperature, the computing device hosting the virtual assistant may use automatic speech recognition to identify the voice command and may thereafter obtain the information (i.e., the current temperature at the location of the user) and may use text-to-speech to output the current temperature to the users taking part in the telephone call. Additionally or alternatively, the computing device hosting the virtual assistant may provide this information via another channel, such as via text message, email, or any other type of push-notification service or protocol.

[0010] After joining the virtual assistant to a voice communication, one or both of the users on the voice communication may invoke the virtual assistant when the respective user desires the assistance of the virtual assistant. A user may invoke the assistant in a number of ways. For instance, a user may speak a predefined utterance (e.g., word, phrase, sound, or a combination thereof) that, when identified by the computing device hosting the virtual assistant, causes the computing device to begin performing speech recognition on an audio signal representing the audio of the voice communication for the purpose of identifying a voice command. For instance, when the virtual assistant is on the voice communication but not invoked, the virtual assistant may simply monitor an audio signal representing the audio of the voice communication for the predefined utterance, but might not perform further speech recognition on the audio signal representing the audio. Upon identifying a keyword match (or a similarity between a stated word or phrase and the predefined utterance that is greater than a threshold), the virtual assistant may begin performing speech recognition on the audio signal representing the audio of the voice communication to identify subsequent voice commands.

[0011] In other instances, meanwhile, a user on the telephone call may invoke the virtual assistant in a number of one or more other ways. For instance, the user may invoke the assistant by selecting a predefined soft button or physical button on a device of the user (e.g., a pound (#) symbol on the device's keypad), by moving the device in a predefined manner (as determined by an accelerometer or gyroscope of the device), or the like. In still other instances, a virtual assistant may be invoked in response to one or more other triggers, such as the placing of a phone call to a particular user, based on a current geo-location of one or more both users, or the like.

[0012] In any event, after the virtual assistant is invoked, the virtual assistant may be begin performing speech recognition to identify a voice command and may attempt to identify a user that is providing the command. The virtual assistant may identify this user in any number of ways. For instance, the virtual assistant may utilize the information provided by the communications network (e.g., the PSTN, cellular network, etc.). This information may include an automatic number identification (ANI) indicating a telephone number associated with a device that initiated the voice communication or a called party number (CPN) indicating a telephone number associated with a device that received the telephone call. The virtual assistant may look up either or both of these phone numbers and may map these numbers to a user. Thereafter, the virtual assistant may use this identification in performing a task requested by a user. For instance, if the user asks “what is the temperature outside”, the virtual assistant may reference a user profile associated with the user for the purpose of determining a currently current location of the user and a current temperature at that location. In another example, if a user asks to “please schedule a meeting between us (the people on the call)”, the virtual assistant may reference calendars associated with the people on the telephone call to determine a time and location sufficient for such a meeting.

[0013] In addition or in the alternative to using the information provided by the communications network, the virtual assistant may use voice recognition techniques to identify an invoking user. For instance, users may initially “enroll” their voice prints or signatures with the virtual assistant such that this voice print may be subsequently used to identify users based on characteristics of their speech. For instance, the virtual assistant may compare speech characteristics of an invoking user to corresponding characteristics of one or more stored voice signatures to identify the invoking user. These speech characteristics that define a user's “voice signature” may include pitch, tone, frequency, amplitude, grammar, or any other audio characteristic.

[0014] In yet another example, the virtual assistant may determine the identity of the user by engaging in a dialog with the user. For instance, the virtual assistant may request that the user state his or her name along with a password, an answer to a secret question, or the like. In some instances, the virtual assistant may reside on a telephony service, or may interact with the telephony service, such that the virtual assistant may place the leg of the call with the non-invoking user on bi-directional mute while the invoking user states his or her password. Of course, the virtual assistant may also work with the invoking user in an out-of-band channel to identify and authenticate the user. For instance, upon the invoking user stating his or her name, the virtual assistant may identify a phone number, email address, or the like associated with the user and may send a communication to that number or address, asking the user to confirm his or her identity. Upon authenticating with the virtual assistant, the virtual assistant may perform the actions requested by the user.

[0015] After identifying a voice command and the identity of the requesting user (and/or the identity of the user on the other end of the call), the virtual assistant may determine an action to perform in response, which may include providing an output audio signal effective to output some audible content to the user(s) during the telephone call. For instance, the output may include informing the users of a current temperature, indicating that a meeting has been scheduled, confirming that the virtual assistant has purchased requested movie tickets for the invoking user at the requested time using the user's payment information, or the like. Furthermore, after performing the action, the virtual assistant may transition back from the “active” mode into a “standby” mode where the virtual assistant remains on the call but awaiting invocation. That is, the virtual assistant may monitor an audio signal representing the audio for the predefined utterance that, when recognized, invokes the assistant, but the assistant otherwise does not perform speech recognition on the audio signal representing the audio of the voice communication.

[0016] As used herein, a virtual assistant comprises any one or combination of software, hardware, or firmware configured to interact with one or more users during a telephone communication between the users. In some instances, a virtual assistant comprises functionality for performing speech recognition on audio between the users of the voice communication and/or functionality for performing an action in response. In addition or in the alternative, a virtual assistant may output information to one or both of the users (or more users if more than two are taking part in the voice communication). This information may be output as part of the voice communication and/or may be output in an out-of-band channel (e.g., over email, a text message, or the like). In some instances, a virtual assistant outputs this information audibly (e.g., impersonating a human voice during the voice communication), textually (e.g., over email or a text message), or in any other manner.

[0017] The devices and techniques introduced above may be implemented in a variety of different architectures and contexts. One non-limiting and illustrative implementation is described below.

[0018] FIG. 1 shows an illustrative computing architecture 100 that includes a first user 102(1) using a device 104(1) to establish a voice communication with a device 104(2) of a second user 102(2) over a network 106. The devices 104(1) and 104(2) may comprise any sort of computing device capable of maintaining a voice communication between one another, such as cellular telephones, smart phones, tablet computing devices, desktop computers, game consoles, or any other type of device executing an application enabling these devices to establish such a communication. As used herein, a “voice communication” includes any type of communication in which audio is transferred between the user devices, including voice-only communications, audio/video communications, and the like. The network 106, meanwhile, may comprise any one or a combination of wired or wireless networks for providing voice data between the user devices. For instance, the network 106 may comprise a PSTN, a VoIP network, or the like.

[0019] As illustrated, the architecture 100 may also include one or more remote computing resources 108 that may host a virtual assistant module 110, which implements a virtual assistant configured for invocation by the first user 102(1) or the second user 102(2). In response to one of these users invoking the virtual assistant during a voice communication, the virtual assistant module 110 may identify a voice command from the invoking user and perform a corresponding task in response.

[0020] As illustrated, the remote computing resources 108 may be implemented as one or more servers 112(1), 112(2), . . . , 112(P) and may, in some instances, form a portion of a network-accessible computing platform implemented as a computing infrastructure of processors, storage, software, data access, and so forth that is maintained and accessible via a network such as the Internet. The remote computing resources 108 do not require end-user knowledge of the physical location and configuration of the system that delivers the services. Common expressions associated for these remote computing resources 108 include “on-demand computing”, “software as a service (SaaS)”, “platform computing”, “network-accessible platform”, “cloud services”, “data centers”, and so forth. In some implementations, the remote computing resources 108 may form all or a portion of a telephony service that functions to establish a voice communication (e.g., phone call) between user devices and that hosts a virtual assistant for assisting in the voice communication.

[0021] The servers 112(1)-(P) may include processor(s) 114 and memory 116, which stores the virtual-assistant module 110. As illustrated, the virtual assistant module 110 stores or otherwise has access to a join module 118, an invocation module 120, a speech-recognition engine 122, a speaker-identification (ID) module 124, and a response module 126. The join module 118 functions to join the virtual assistant functionality (i.e., the components of the module 110) to a voice communication between the example user devices 104(1) and 104(2). As FIG. 1 illustrates, both user devices 104(1) and 104(2) may be associated with a particular telephone number or other endpoint identifier at which the device may be reachable. Furthermore, FIG. 1 illustrates that the computing resources 108 hosting the virtual assistant module 110 may also be associated with a telephone number (here, “800-234-7894”). As such, the join module 118 may allow the virtual assistant module 110 to join a voice communication upon a device dialing this number and conferencing in the computing resource(s) hosting the virtual assistant module 110. Of course, while FIG. 1 illustrates that the computing resources 108 and the respective client devices 104 are associated with telephone numbers, these devices may be associated with and reachable at an array of other endpoint identifiers, such as uniform resources identifiers (URIs), VoIP endpoint identifiers, session initiation protocol (SIP) identifiers, or the like.

[0022] In the illustrated example, upon the user 102(1) using the device 104(1) to dial the number associated with the device 104(2), an application running on the device 104(1) may automatically dial the number associated with the virtual assistant module 110 for joining the module 110. For instance, FIG. 1 illustrates that the device 104(1) may include the virtual assistant module 110 for automatically dialing this number. In another example, meanwhile, the user 102(1) and/or the user 102(2) may manually conference in the computing resources 108 by adding a party to the voice communication and dialing the number associated with the computing resources 108. In either instance, the virtual assistant module 110 may receive an indication of an incoming phone call and may “answer” the incoming call to join the call.

[0023] After the virtual assistant module 110 joins the call, the invocation module 120 may monitor for a trigger to invoke other components of the module 110, such as the speech-recognition engine 122. For instance, the invocation module 120 may seek to identify a predefined utterance spoken by one or both of the users and, upon identifying this predefined utterance, may invoke the speech-recognition engine 122. In other examples, the invocation module 120 may await a text message or other communication from a user to invoke the components of the virtual assistant module 110.

[0024] After receiving a request to invoke these components, the invocation module may invoke the speech-recognition engine 122. The speech-recognition engine 122 performs speech recognition on audio signals generated based on sound captured by the microphone of the user devices 104(1) and 104(2), such as utterances spoken by the users 102(1) and 102(2). The speaker-ID module 124, meanwhile, may identify an identity of a user speaking a voice command, via information provided by the voice network (e.g., ANI, CPN, etc.), voice recognition, a dialog with the user(s), an out-of-band communication with the user(s), or the like.

[0025] The response module 126, meanwhile, may perform certain actions in response to recognizing different voice commands from an audio signal representing the audio of the voice communication. This may include outputting audio to one or both of the devices 104(1) and 104(2).

[0026] While FIG. 1 illustrates, the virtual-assistant module 110 residing on computing device(s) that are remote from the devices 104(1) and 104(2) (e.g., computing resources 108), in other instances the components of the virtual assistant module 110 may reside one or both of the user devices 104(1) and 104(2), on one or more other entities, or spread across multiple other locations.

[0027] Regardless of where the speech recognition occurs, the virtual assistant module 110 may receive vocal input from the users 102(1) and 102(2) and the speech-recognition engine 122 may perform speech recognition to interpret a user's operational request or command. The requests may be for essentially any type of operation, such as database inquires, requesting and consuming entertainment (e.g., gaming, finding and playing music, movies or other content, etc.), personal management (e.g., calendaring, note taking, etc.), online shopping, financial transactions, and so forth.

[0028] To provide an example, FIG. 1 illustrates the users 102(1) and 102(2) engaging in a voice communication, which the virtual assistant module 110 joins. At 128(1), the user 102(2) states the following: “I'm excited to fly there tomorrow. What is the temperature going to be?” In response, the user 102(1) states the following at 128(2): “I don't know. Virtual assistant, what is the temperature supposed to be tomorrow?” In this example, in response to identifying the predefined phrase “virtual assistant”, the invocation module 120 invokes the speech-recognition engine 122, which identifies the voice command from 128(2). The speaker-ID module 124 identifies the user 102(1) using any of the techniques described above. The response module 126 then uses this identification to determine a geographical location at which to check the temperature (i.e., the location of the user 102(1)), checks the forecast for the following day at that location and, at 128(3), outputs the following to both devices: “The high temp in Seattle tomorrow is 72 degrees”.

[0029] FIG. 2A illustrates an example sequence of the user 102(1) dialing the user 102(2) and an application on the device 104(1) of the user 102(1) automatically dialing a telephone number or other endpoint identifier associated with the computing resources 108 that implement a virtual assistant. At “1”, the user dials the telephone number associated with the device 104(2) of the user 102(2). At “2”, the application (e.g., the virtual-assistant module 110) automatically dials both the telephone number associated with the device 104(2) (444-555-1245) and the telephone number associated with the virtual-assistant module 110 (800-234-7894). At “3”, the user 102(2) answers the phone call and both the user 102(2) and the virtual assistant are now on the telephone call. The virtual assistant remains on the call awaiting invocation as described above and illustrated below with reference to FIG. 3.

[0030] FIG. 2B illustrates another example sequence of the user 102(1) joining the virtual assistant module to the voice communication. At “1”, the user 102(1) dials the telephone number associated with the device 104(2). At “2”, the user 102(2) answers the call, establishing a voice communication between the device 104(1) and the device 104(2). At “3”, the user 102(1) (or the user 102(2)) conferences in the virtual assistant module 110 by dialing the associated number. At “4”, the virtual assistant answers the call and conferences into the voice communication, creating a multi-way conference call. In some instances, the virtual assistant may be automatically invoked in response to being joined to a call (regardless of whether the join occurs using the embodiment of FIG. 2A or 2B), while in other instances the virtual assistant may be joined but not invoked. Furthermore, while the illustrated examples describe two mobile devices along with the described with the virtual assistant, in some instances any number of user devices may be joined to the voice communication.

[0031] FIG. 3 illustrates an example sequence of the user 102(1) invoking the virtual assistant and one example of the virtual assistant of the identifying and authenticating the user 102(1). At “1”, the user 102(1) invokes a virtual assistant that has already joined a voice communication. This invocation may include the user 102(1) speaking a predefined utterance, selecting a predefined soft or physical button on the device 104(1), or the like. In the latter instances, the virtual assistant receives an indication of the selection of the button made by one of the users. At “2”, the virtual assistant instructs the user 102(1) to provide a passcode of the user and may also inform the user 102(1) that the other user on the call (user 102(2)) will not hear the passcode exchange. At “3”, the virtual assistant performs a bi-directional mute of the leg of the call corresponding to the user 102(2) such that the user 102(2) cannot hear the exchange between the virtual assistant and the user 102(1). At “4”, the user 102(2) is in fact muted and cannot hear the exchange. Finally, at “5”, the user 102(1) provides the passcode (e.g., audibly), which if correct may invoke the virtual assistant, causing the assistant to un-mute the leg of the call corresponding to the user 102(2) and causing the assistant to begin performing speech recognition on an audio signal representing audio from the voice communication for the purpose of identifying and responding to voice commands therein.

[0032] FIG. 4 depicts a flow diagram of an example process 400 that the virtual assistant module 110 may implement. Each process described herein is illustrated as a logical flow graph, each operation of which represents a sequence of operations that can be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof. In the context of software, the operations represent computer-executable instructions stored on one or more computer-readable media that, when executed by one or more processors, perform the recited operations. Generally, computer-executable instructions include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, and the like that perform particular functions or implement particular abstract data types.

[0033] The computer-readable media may include non-transitory computer-readable storage media, which may include hard drives, floppy diskettes, optical disks, CD-ROMs, DVDs, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, flash memory, magnetic or optical cards, solid-state memory devices, or other types of storage media suitable for storing electronic instructions. In addition, in some embodiments the computer-readable media may include a transitory computer-readable signal (in compressed or uncompressed form). Examples of computer-readable signals, whether modulated using a carrier or not, include, but are not limited to, signals that a computer system hosting or running a computer program can be configured to access, including signals downloaded through the Internet or other networks. Finally, the order in which the operations are described is not intended to be construed as a limitation, and any number of the described operations can be combined in any order and/or in parallel to implement the process.

[0034] The process 400 includes, at 402, joining a virtual assistant to a voice communication established between a device of a first user and a device of a second user. At 404, the virtual assistant may identify a predefined utterance from within audio of the voice communication and, in response, may invoke itself at 406, thus readying itself to identify subsequent voice commands within the audio of the voice communication.

[0035] At 408, the virtual assistant may begin performing speech recognition on an audio signal representing audio of the voice communication, given that the virtual assistant has been invoked. At 410, the assistant may identify a voice command from the audio signal representing the audio. In response, the virtual assistant may, at 412, perform a task associated with the voice command and may provide an audio signal effective to output audible content to both user devices at 414. For instance, the virtual assistant may identify a temperature and output the temperature, purchase an item and output an indication of the purchase, schedule an appointment and output a time, date, and location of the meeting, or the like.

[0036] Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features described. Rather, the specific features are disclosed as illustrative forms of implementing the claims.