US 12,135,861 B2
Voice-based virtual area navigation
David Van Wie, Eugene, OR (US)
Assigned to Sococo, Inc., Austin, TX (US)
Filed by Sococo, Inc., Austin, TX (US)
Filed on Jun. 21, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/845,981.
Application 17/845,981 is a continuation of application No. 16/842,554, filed on Apr. 7, 2020, granted, now 11,397,507.
Application 16/842,554 is a continuation of application No. 14/997,301, filed on Jan. 15, 2016, granted, now 10,649,724, issued on May 12, 2020.
Application 14/997,301 is a continuation of application No. 13/860,873, filed on Apr. 11, 2013, abandoned.
Application 14/997,301 is a continuation of application No. 13/860,801, filed on Apr. 11, 2013, abandoned.
Claims priority of provisional application 61/637,461, filed on Apr. 24, 2012.
Prior Publication US 2022/0404950 A1, Dec. 22, 2022
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06F 3/04815 (2022.01); G06F 3/16 (2006.01); G06Q 50/00 (2024.01); G10L 15/22 (2006.01); H04L 51/043 (2022.01); H04L 51/046 (2022.01); H04L 51/18 (2022.01)
CPC G06F 3/04815 (2013.01) [G06F 3/167 (2013.01); G06Q 50/01 (2013.01); G10L 15/22 (2013.01); H04L 51/043 (2013.01); H04L 51/046 (2013.01); H04L 51/18 (2013.01); G10L 2015/223 (2013.01); G10L 2015/225 (2013.01)] 26 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
a memory, coupled to the one or more processors, storing code that when executed by the one or more processors causes the system to perform operations comprising:
requesting establishment of a presence for a user in a given zone of a virtual area in a virtual communications environment, wherein the virtual area comprises multiple zones, and each of respective ones of the zones defines a respective context for realtime communications between network nodes of respective communicants who are present in the zone;
processing voice input to recognize and interpret the voice input;
based at least in part on the voice input, calling one or more services to perform a task involving navigation in the virtual area, wherein the calling one or more services comprises:
calling commands to interpret voice-based navigation input from the user; and
obtaining information to communicate audio visualization descriptions of visual aspects of visual information relating to at least one of the zones of the virtual area;
in association with the calling, receiving navigation results relating to at least one of the zones of the virtual area, wherein the navigation results include the audio visualization descriptions of visual aspects of visual information relating to at least one of the zones of the virtual area;
generating audio output comprising an audio report of the navigation results;
wherein the navigation input further includes a set of navigation commands, and the set of navigation commands include a look command and a find command, wherein in response to the user vocalizing the look command with no modifier causes one of the services to send to the user a report of who else is in the user's current virtual location of presence in the virtual area and in response to the user vocalizing the look command with a specified virtual location in the virtual area causes one of the services to send to the user a report of who is in the specified virtual location in the virtual area, wherein the user vocalizing the find command with a specified contact operand causes one of the services to send to the user a report of the current virtual location of the specified contact in the virtual area, and the user vocalizing the find command with a specified name of a meeting in the virtual area causes one of the services to send to the user a report of the virtual location of the meeting with the specified name in the virtual area, wherein the detecting comprises probabilistically scoring a set of navigation commands based on application of semantic rules that measure consistency of the navigation commands with the user's current state or activity in the virtual area and, based on the scoring, selecting one of the navigation commands.