BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present disclosure relates generally to computer science, and, more specifically, to verbal cues for high-speed control of a software application.

Description of the Related Art

Computing devices, such as home automation systems, smart speakers, and gaming consoles, are now equipped with microphones, powerful processors, and advanced speech recognition algorithms. As a result, voice-enabled software applications have come into widespread use. These applications are configured to perform tasks based on voice commands, thereby circumventing the need for a user to provide manual input via a button, control knob, touchscreen, keyboard, mouse, or other input device. For example, using voice commands in conjunction with a voice-enabled software application, a user can modify an audio output volume of a device, select a song to be played by a smart speaker, control a voice-enabled home appliance, etc. Thus, devices configured with voice-enabled software applications (referred to herein as “voice-enabled devices”) are well-suited for situations where the user is unable to perform a manual input, or the use of a manual input device is inconvenient.

Despite the positive aspects of voice-enabled devices, trying to control devices using voice input has certain drawbacks. Specifically, the use of complete words or phrases to provide input to a voice-enabled device can be much slower than providing input through other means. For example, when providing commands to a system running an action-based video game using spoken words or phrases, such as “turn left” or “move forward,” a user may take up to a second to convey each separate command to the system. Thus, issuing and processing voice commands can be many times slower than repeatedly depressing a mechanical button or turning a joystick on a controller. Accordingly, in situations where interactions with a device need to be fast and/or repetitive, voice-based control can be frustratingly slow or altogether impractical. These downsides can quickly outweigh any conveniences gained in being able to interact with a system or device without using a manual input device.

As the foregoing illustrates, what is needed in the art are more effective techniques for controlling voice-enabled devices.

SUMMARY

One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for controlling a voice-enabled device using voice commands. The technique includes receiving an audio signal that is generated in response to a verbal utterance, generating a verbal utterance indicator for the verbal utterance based on the audio signal, selecting a first command for a voice-controlled application residing within the voice-enabled device based on the verbal utterance indicator, and transmitting the first command to the voice-controlled application as an input.

At least one advantage of the disclosed techniques is that they allow a user of a computing device to quickly input commands via verbal cues to a software application executing on the computing device. A further advantage is that verbal cues that are particularly well-suited for inputting commands can be mapped to multiple different commands, depending on the context in which the verbal cue is received by the computing device.

