RSSGoogle Granted Voice Search Patent
By Ed Oswald | Published April 13, 2006, 1:50 PM
Google may be working towards providing a method for users to make searches on the Web simply by speaking commands, according to a recent patent filing. Although filed in February 2001, the voice search patent was approved and published on Tuesday.
According to the patent abstract, Google's system would use voice recognition technology to build keywords that are entered into the search engine. "The system then provides the weighted boolean query to a search system and provides the results of the search system to a user," the filing states.
A demo of "Google Voice Search" was available through Google Labs, the company's online testbed, although it had been removed as of Thursday. That service allowed a user to call a telephone number, state a query, and then receive the results through their Web browser.
It is not clear if the technology behind the demo is what Google was patenting. Also, Google warned about reading too much into the filing, as it said it frequently patents ideas that employees come up with. Not all inventions make it to a final product, the company notes.
However, Google executives have publicly discussed using voice recognition to enhance the service in the past, which hints that some kind of speech technology could be coming to Google in the near future.
Additionally, Kai-Fu Lee, the executive Google hired away from Microsoft last year, worked at the Redmond giant in the area of speech recognition. Competitor Yahoo is also hiring people to work on voice-related projects, resulting in a lawsuit from Nuance Communications.
Decades ago, I first watched James T. Kirk use voice search technology.
On the other hand, he was living in the 23rd century, so I guess this wouldn't represent "prior art"...
Score: 0
Google Talk v2, the perfect place to put the voice recognition into and be connected to the web browser
Score: 0
I love Google, they are the best!!
Score: 0
ha, ha, heh, heh, let's all chant: hah, hah, he, he........
Those of you stating Google is the Devil will now be able to much more easily communicate & interACT with IT.
Please post for us what those voices in your head are telling you: if it's not too graphic & embarassing that is.....
Score: 0
*Having a baby is a patent violation because the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office routinely grants patents on human gene sequences found in all humans*
ITs True!
Score: 0
Crap, 3 counts...what's that gonna get me?
Score: 0
Wow you have 3 kids? How old?
Score: 0
8 year old boy, and two girls, ages 5 and 2.
Score: 0
So, before it even happens--does this patent mean that no search engine other than google can ever search based on voice commands? So when computers will not even use keyboards but strictly microphones in 30 years or whatever, you cannot search the internet because only google can use microphones to give voice commands online? If so...how come Mac didn't patent the mouse? Why can't Apple sue MS for using the "GUI patent"? Sharp, why not patent 64-bit color too, so that no other vendor can support 64-bit color mode if/when it comes out? WHERE IS THE LINE DRAWN? I truly want to understand the rules, they can't be as bad as my scenarios so what are they?
I want to understand the patent system and what is and is not infringement. Please, anybody, explain this to me. What entitles Google to have a lawsuit filed against another search company in this situation?
Score: 0
Here's the bad part - if Google didn't file for the patent someone else could and would, and then Google could be sued. So even if someone is completely against patents, there will always be the competition that doesn't care. It really does suck.
Score: 0
*Why can't Apple sue MS for using the "GUI patent"?*
Because APPLE didn't make it either. Xerox made the GUI, so Xerox can sue both of them. So there!
*If so...how come Mac didn't patent the mouse?*
for the same reason Microsoft couldn't pattent the word "windows" its too ambiguous. You can patent the laser mouse, if you can prove YOU designed a revolutionary idea.
*WHERE IS THE LINE DRAWN?
We know its not perfect, we already agreed the patent office needs an overhaul...
google did come up with an original idea. So I think they deserve it. It doesn't mean no one else can use it, you just have to give credit to Google before you can, and get their permission.
Score: 0
*A patent is a document, issued by the federal government, that grants to its owner a legally enforceable right to exclude others from making, using or selling the invention claimed in the document in the United States for a term of 17 years*
So in 30 years, since Google will be GONE by then, someone else can use it.. haha..
Score: 0
I really don't have any problem for company suing another company for patent infringement if and only if the company actually have a product. I only find it's a problem, when a company who just own the patents with no product, and all they do is sue for income.
Score: 0
Apple cannot sue MS for using the "GUI patent" or whatever because Apple signed a license agreement with MS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_v._Microsoft
Score: 0
Cleared up some of my questions. So...can "MSN Live Search" ever implement voice commands for internet searches? Or did google just oust them for the next 17 years?
Score: 0
Hmm.. now they are going to record voice overs!
Score: 0
"We're sorry, the term you searched for is no longer in service. Please check your dictionary and try again"
*click*
Score: 0
You forgot the generic system message at the end..
Score: 0