TECHNICAL FIELD

One or more embodiments generally relate to voice command devices, in particular, a method and system for emergent multi-modal interaction with intelligent assistants in voice command devices.

BACKGROUND

A voice user interface provides a way of interacting with an intelligent personal assistant (IPA) or a virtual assistant (VA) operating on a voice command device. Colloquially, an IPA or a VA is called an “intelligent assistant”. A voice command device is a device controllable with a voice user interface (i.e., a voice controlled device). A voice user interface makes spoken human interaction with devices possible, using speech recognition to understand voice commands (i.e., spoken commands) and questions, and text-to-speech to output replies. With advances in automatic speech recognition (ASR) and natural language understanding (NLU), voice user interfaces are becoming increasingly popular in devices such as, but not limited to, automobiles, mobile devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, watches, etc.), appliances (e.g., washers, dryers, etc.), entertainment devices (e.g., televisions, smart speakers, etc.), etc.

SUMMARY

One embodiment provides a method comprising detecting an activation of an intelligent assistant on an electronic device, waking up the intelligent assistant from a sleep mode in response to the activation, and determining an amount of vocabulary the intelligent assistant acts upon during a listening mode based on a type of the activation.

Another embodiment provides an electronic device comprising at least one sensor unit, at least one input/output (I/O) unit, at least one processor, and a non-transitory processor-readable memory device storing instructions that when executed by the at least one processor causes the at least one processor to perform operations. The operations include detecting a physical interaction with the electronic device via the at least one sensor unit, and activating an intelligent assistant on the electronic device from a sleep mode in response to the physical interaction.

One embodiment provides a non-transitory processor-readable medium that includes a program that when executed by a processor performing a method comprising detecting an activation of an intelligent assistant on an electronic device, waking up the intelligent assistant from a sleep mode in response to the activation, and determining an amount of vocabulary the intelligent assistant acts upon during a listening mode based on a type of the activation.

These and other aspects and advantages of one or more embodiments will become apparent from the following detailed description, which, when taken in conjunction with the drawings, illustrate by way of example the principles of the one or more embodiments.

