Voice activated controller for recording and retrieving audio/video programs

摘要

A speech understanding system (16) for receiving a spoken request from a user (12) and processing the request against a multimedia database of audio/visual (A/V) programming information (20) for automatically recording and/or retrieving an A/V program is disclosed. The system includes a database (20) of program records representing A/V programs which are available for recording. The system also includes an A/V recording device (40-42) for receiving a recording command and recording the A/Ö/ program. A speech recognizer (48) is provided for receiving the spoken request and translating the spoken request into a text stream having a plurality of words. A natural language processor (50) receives the text stream and processes the words for resolving a semantic content of the spoken request. The natural language processor (50) places the meaning of the words into a task frame (90) having a plurality of key word slots (92-98). A dialogue system (60) analyzes the task frame (90) for determining if a sufficient number of key word slots (92-98) have been filled and prompts the user for additional information for filling empty slots. The dialogue system (60) searches the database of program records (20) using the key words placed within the task frame (90) for selecting the A/V program and generating the recording command for use by the A/V recording device (40-42). <IMAGE>