CN117813583A

CN117813583A - Digital assistant interactions in a communication session

Info

Publication number: CN117813583A
Application number: CN202280056406.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: R·L·拉斯科; G·W·鲍尔; F·W·爱德华兹; N·曼朱纳特; K·W·皮尔索; J·H·拉塞尔; L·I·斯特雷亚; K·C·斯特里克林; G·L·韦恩伯格
Original assignee: Apple Inc
Current assignee: Apple Inc
Priority date: 2021-08-13
Filing date: 2022-08-10
Publication date: 2024-04-02

Abstract

An example process includes while an electronic device is engaged in a communication session with an external device: receiving input from a first user of the electronic device for invoking a first digital assistant; receiving natural language input corresponding to a task from the first user; generating, by the first digital assistant, a prompt for further user input regarding the task in accordance with invoking the first digital assistant; transmitting the prompt to the external device for further user input regarding the task; after transmitting the prompt for further user input, receiving a response to the prompt for further user input from one of the external devices; initiating, by the first digital assistant, the task based on the response and information stored on the electronic device corresponding to the first user; and transmitting an output to the external device indicating the initiated task.

Description

Digital assistant interactions in a communication session

Cross Reference to Related Applications

The present application claims priority from U.S. provisional application No. 63/233,001 entitled "DIGITAL ASSISTANT INTERACTION IN A COMMUNICATION SESSION" filed on day 13 8 of 2021, and U.S. non-provisional application No. 17/866,984 entitled "DIGITAL ASSISTANT INTERACTION IN A COMMUNICATION SESSION" filed on day 18 of 2022; the contents of these applications are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to intelligent automated assistants, and more particularly to interactions with intelligent automated assistants in communication sessions.

Background

An intelligent automated assistant (or digital assistant) may provide an advantageous interface between a human user and an electronic device. Such assistants may allow a user to interact with a device or system in voice form and/or text form using natural language. For example, a user may provide a voice input containing a user request to a digital assistant running on an electronic device. The digital assistant may interpret the user intent from the voice input and operate the user intent into a task. These tasks may then be performed by executing one or more services of the electronic device, and the relevant output in response to the user request may be returned to the user.

Disclosure of Invention

Example methods are disclosed herein. An example method includes: at an electronic device having one or more processors and memory: while the electronic device is engaged in a communication session with one or more external devices: receiving input from a first user of the electronic device for invoking a first digital assistant operating on the electronic device; receiving natural language input corresponding to a task from the first user; generating, by the first digital assistant, a prompt for further user input regarding the task in accordance with invoking the first digital assistant; transmitting the prompt for further user input regarding the task to the one or more external devices; after transmitting the prompt for further user input, receiving a response to the prompt for further user input from an external device of the one or more external devices; initiating, by the first digital assistant, the task based on the response and information stored on the electronic device corresponding to the first user; and transmitting an output to the one or more external devices indicating the initiated task.

Example non-transitory computer-readable media are disclosed herein. An example non-transitory computer readable storage medium stores one or more programs. The one or more programs include instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to: receiving input from a first user of the electronic device for invoking a first digital assistant operating on the electronic device; receiving natural language input corresponding to a task from the first user; generating, by the first digital assistant, a prompt for further user input regarding the task in accordance with invoking the first digital assistant; transmitting the prompt for further user input regarding the task to the one or more external devices; after transmitting the prompt for further user input, receiving a response to the prompt for further user input from an external device of the one or more external devices; initiating, by the first digital assistant, the task based on the response and information stored on the electronic device corresponding to the first user; and transmitting an output to the one or more external devices indicating the initiated task.

Example electronic devices are disclosed herein. An example electronic device includes one or more processors; a memory; and one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising instructions for: while the electronic device is engaged in a communication session with one or more external devices: receiving input from a first user of the electronic device for invoking a first digital assistant operating on the electronic device; receiving natural language input corresponding to a task from the first user; generating, by the first digital assistant, a prompt for further user input regarding the task in accordance with invoking the first digital assistant; transmitting the prompt for further user input regarding the task to the one or more external devices; after transmitting the prompt for further user input, receiving a response to the prompt for further user input from an external device of the one or more external devices; initiating, by the first digital assistant, the task based on the response and information stored on the electronic device corresponding to the first user; and transmitting an output to the one or more external devices indicating the initiated task.

An example electronic device includes means for: while the electronic device is engaged in a communication session with one or more external devices: receiving input from a first user of the electronic device for invoking a first digital assistant operating on the electronic device; receiving natural language input corresponding to a task from the first user; generating, by the first digital assistant, a prompt for further user input regarding the task in accordance with invoking the first digital assistant; transmitting the prompt for further user input regarding the task to the one or more external devices; after transmitting the prompt for further user input, receiving a response to the prompt for further user input from an external device of the one or more external devices; initiating, by the first digital assistant, the task based on the response and information stored on the electronic device corresponding to the first user; and transmitting an output to the one or more external devices indicating the initiated task.

Initiating a task in the manner described above and transmitting an output indicating the initiated task provides feedback to participants in the communication session that any participant can respond to prompts for further user input and that the task has been initiated. Thus, user-device interactions are made more efficient and flexible by allowing any participant (such as the participant with the correct and/or best response to the prompt) to have the digital assistant initiate tasks correctly. Providing improved feedback to the participants enhances the operability of the device and makes the user-device interface more efficient (e.g., by reducing the amount of user input required by the device to perform tasks, by helping the user provide appropriate input and reducing user error in interacting with the device), and, in addition, by enabling the user to use the device more quickly and efficiently, reducing power usage and extending battery life of the device.

Further, even if another participant responds to the prompt of the digital assistant, initiating a task based on information corresponding to the first user and transmitting an output provides feedback to the participant in the communication session that the digital assistant initiated the task based on information corresponding to the participant that recently invoked the digital assistant. Thus, by avoiding confusion about whose information the digital assistant uses to initiate a task and by allowing a participant to confirm that the task was initiated using the correct participant's information (or by informing the participant that the task was initiated using the incorrect participant's information so that the participant can provide corrective input), more consistent and efficient user-device interactions may be provided. Providing improved feedback to the participant and automatically initiating a task based on the first user's information (e.g., without requiring further user input after the device receives a response from an external device) enhances the operability of the device and makes the user-device interface more efficient (e.g., by helping the user provide appropriate input and reducing user errors in interacting with the device), additionally, this reduces power usage and extends the battery life of the device by enabling the user to use the device more quickly and efficiently.

Example methods are disclosed herein. An example method includes: at an electronic device having one or more processors and memory: while the electronic device is engaged in a communication session with one or more external devices: receiving input from a first user of the electronic device for invoking a first digital assistant operating on the electronic device, wherein the first digital assistant is configured to operate in a first language; receiving a first natural language input in the first language from the first user; generating, by the first digital assistant, a first response to the first natural language input in the first language in accordance with invoking the first digital assistant; transmitting the first response to the one or more external devices; receiving a second natural language input in a second language from an external device of the one or more external devices after transmitting the first response, wherein: the second natural language input is received if the external device does not receive a second input to invoke a second digital assistant operating on the external device after receiving the transmitted first response; and the second digital assistant is configured to operate in the second language; and receiving a second response to the second natural language input in the second language from the external device, wherein the second response is generated by the second digital assistant.

Example non-transitory computer-readable media are disclosed herein. An example non-transitory computer readable storage medium stores one or more programs. The one or more programs include instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the first electronic device to: while the electronic device is engaged in a communication session with one or more external devices: receiving input from a first user of the electronic device for invoking a first digital assistant operating on the electronic device, wherein the first digital assistant is configured to operate in a first language; receiving a first natural language input in the first language from the first user; generating, by the first digital assistant, a first response to the first natural language input in the first language in accordance with invoking the first digital assistant; transmitting the first response to the one or more external devices; receiving a second natural language input in a second language from an external device of the one or more external devices after transmitting the first response, wherein: the second natural language input is received if the external device does not receive a second input to invoke a second digital assistant operating on the external device after receiving the transmitted first response; and the second digital assistant is configured to operate in the second language; and receiving a second response to the second natural language input in the second language from the external device, wherein the second response is generated by the second digital assistant.

Example electronic devices are disclosed herein. An example electronic device includes one or more processors; a memory; and one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising instructions for: while the electronic device is engaged in a communication session with one or more external devices: receiving input from a first user of the electronic device for invoking a first digital assistant operating on the electronic device, wherein the first digital assistant is configured to operate in a first language; receiving a first natural language input in the first language from the first user; generating, by the first digital assistant, a first response to the first natural language input in the first language in accordance with invoking the first digital assistant; transmitting the first response to the one or more external devices; receiving a second natural language input in a second language from an external device of the one or more external devices after transmitting the first response, wherein: the second natural language input is received if the external device does not receive a second input to invoke a second digital assistant operating on the external device after receiving the transmitted first response; and the second digital assistant is configured to operate in the second language; and receiving a second response to the second natural language input in the second language from the external device, wherein the second response is generated by the second digital assistant.

An example electronic device includes means for: while the electronic device is engaged in a communication session with one or more external devices: receiving input from a first user of the electronic device for invoking a first digital assistant operating on the electronic device, wherein the first digital assistant is configured to operate in a first language; receiving a first natural language input in the first language from the first user; generating, by the first digital assistant, a first response to the first natural language input in the first language in accordance with invoking the first digital assistant; transmitting the first response to the one or more external devices; receiving a second natural language input in a second language from an external device of the one or more external devices after transmitting the first response, wherein: the second natural language input is received if the external device does not receive a second input to invoke a second digital assistant operating on the external device after receiving the transmitted first response; and the second digital assistant is configured to operate in the second language; and receiving a second response to the second natural language input in the second language from the external device, wherein the second response is generated by the second digital assistant.

Receiving a second response in the second language generated by the second digital assistant provides feedback to the participants in the communication session that any participant can successfully issue a follow-up request (e.g., a second natural language input) to the digital assistant in the language in which their own digital assistant is configured to operate. Thus, for example, even if a plurality of digital assistants in a communication session are each configured to operate in a different language, participants are informed of the correct language used to interact with the digital assistant in the communication session. Additionally, the second digital assistant may generate a second response to the follow-up request without requiring input to invoke the second digital assistant (e.g., after receiving the transmitted first response), thereby reducing the amount of user input required for successful task execution. Providing improved feedback to the participants and reducing the amount of input required by the digital assistant to perform the task enhances the operability of the device and makes the user-device interface more efficient (e.g., by helping the user provide appropriate input and reducing user error in interacting with the device), and in addition, this reduces power usage and extends battery life of the device by enabling the user to use the device more quickly and efficiently.

Example methods are disclosed herein. An example method includes: at an electronic device having one or more processors and memory: while the electronic device is engaged in a communication session with one or more external devices: receiving input from a first user of the electronic device for invoking a first digital assistant operating on the electronic device, wherein the first digital assistant is configured to operate in a first language; receiving a first natural language input in the first language from the first user; generating, by the first digital assistant, a first response to the first natural language input using the first language in accordance with invoking the first digital assistant; transmitting the first response to the one or more external devices; receiving, from an external device of the one or more external devices, a second natural language input in the first language after transmitting the first response, wherein: the second natural language input is received if the external device does not receive a second input to invoke a second digital assistant operating on the external device after receiving the transmitted first response; and the second digital assistant is configured to operate in a second language; generating, by the first digital assistant, a second response to the second natural language input in the first language; and transmitting the second response to the one or more external devices.

Example non-transitory computer-readable media are disclosed herein. An example non-transitory computer readable storage medium stores one or more programs. The one or more programs include instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the first electronic device to: while the electronic device is engaged in a communication session with one or more external devices: receiving input from a first user of the electronic device for invoking a first digital assistant operating on the electronic device, wherein the first digital assistant is configured to operate in a first language; receiving a first natural language input in the first language from the first user; generating, by the first digital assistant, a first response to the first natural language input using the first language in accordance with invoking the first digital assistant; transmitting the first response to the one or more external devices; receiving, from an external device of the one or more external devices, a second natural language input in the first language after transmitting the first response, wherein: the second natural language input is received if the external device does not receive a second input to invoke a second digital assistant operating on the external device after receiving the transmitted first response; and the second digital assistant is configured to operate in a second language; generating, by the first digital assistant, a second response to the second natural language input in the first language; and transmitting the second response to the one or more external devices.

Example electronic devices are disclosed herein. An example electronic device includes one or more processors; a memory; and one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising instructions for: receiving input from a first user of the electronic device for invoking a first digital assistant operating on the electronic device, wherein the first digital assistant is configured to operate in a first language; receiving a first natural language input in the first language from the first user; generating, by the first digital assistant, a first response to the first natural language input using the first language in accordance with invoking the first digital assistant; transmitting the first response to the one or more external devices; receiving, from an external device of the one or more external devices, a second natural language input in the first language after transmitting the first response, wherein: the second natural language input is received if the external device does not receive a second input to invoke a second digital assistant operating on the external device after receiving the transmitted first response; and the second digital assistant is configured to operate in a second language; generating, by the first digital assistant, a second response to the second natural language input in the first language; and transmitting the second response to the one or more external devices.

An example electronic device includes means for: receiving input from a first user of the electronic device for invoking a first digital assistant operating on the electronic device, wherein the first digital assistant is configured to operate in a first language; receiving a first natural language input in the first language from the first user; generating, by the first digital assistant, a first response to the first natural language input using the first language in accordance with invoking the first digital assistant; transmitting the first response to the one or more external devices; receiving, from an external device of the one or more external devices, a second natural language input in the first language after transmitting the first response, wherein: the second natural language input is received if the external device does not receive a second input to invoke a second digital assistant operating on the external device after receiving the transmitted first response; and the second digital assistant is configured to operate in a second language; generating, by the first digital assistant, a second response to the second natural language input in the first language; and transmitting the second response to the one or more external devices.

Transmitting a second response in the first language generated by the first digital assistant provides feedback to the participants in the communication session that any participant can successfully issue a follow-up request (e.g., a second natural language input) to the digital assistant using the recently invoked language in which the digital assistant is configured to operate. Thus, for example, even if a plurality of digital assistants in a communication session are each configured to operate in a different language, participants are informed of the correct language used to interact with the digital assistant in the communication session. In addition, the first digital assistant may generate a second response to the follow-up request without requiring input to invoke the digital assistant (e.g., after the external device receives the transmitted first response), thereby reducing the amount of user input required for successful task execution. Providing improved feedback to the participants and reducing the amount of input required by the digital assistant to perform the task enhances the operability of the device and makes the user-device interface more efficient (e.g., by helping the user provide appropriate input and reducing user error in interacting with the device), and in addition, this reduces power usage and extends battery life of the device by enabling the user to use the device more quickly and efficiently.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system and environment for implementing a digital assistant according to various examples.

Fig. 2A is a block diagram illustrating a portable multifunction device implementing a client-side portion of a digital assistant in accordance with various examples.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram illustrating exemplary components for event processing according to various examples.

Fig. 3 illustrates a portable multifunction device implementing a client-side portion of a digital assistant in accordance with various examples.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary multifunction device with a display and a touch-sensitive surface in accordance with various examples.

FIG. 5A illustrates an exemplary user interface of a menu of applications on a portable multifunction device in accordance with various examples.

FIG. 5B illustrates an exemplary user interface of a multi-function device having a touch-sensitive surface separate from a display according to various examples.

Fig. 6A illustrates a personal electronic device according to various examples.

Fig. 6B is a block diagram illustrating a personal electronic device in accordance with various examples.

Fig. 7A is a block diagram illustrating a digital assistant system or server portion thereof according to various examples.

Fig. 7B illustrates the functionality of the digital assistant shown in fig. 7A according to various examples.

Fig. 7C illustrates a portion of a ontology according to various examples.

Fig. 8A-8H illustrate systems and techniques for digital assistant interaction in a communication session according to various examples.

Fig. 9A-9F illustrate techniques for digital assistant interactions in a communication session when a DA of a participant in the communication session is configured to operate in a different language, according to various examples.

Fig. 10A-10D illustrate techniques for digital assistant interactions in a communication session when a DA of a participant in the communication session is configured to operate in a different language, according to various examples.

Fig. 11A-11C illustrate processes for digital assistant interaction in a communication session according to various examples.

Fig. 12A-12B illustrate processes for digital assistant interaction in a communication session according to various examples.

Fig. 13A-13B illustrate processes for digital assistant interaction in a communication session according to various examples.

Detailed Description

In the following description of the examples, reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which, by way of illustration, specific examples in which the embodiments may be practiced are shown. It is to be understood that other examples may be utilized and structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of the various examples.

Although the following description uses the terms "first," "second," etc. to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by the terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another element. For example, a first input may be referred to as a second input, and similarly, a second input may be referred to as a first input, without departing from the scope of the various described examples. The first input and the second input are both inputs, and in some cases are independent and different inputs.

The terminology used in the description of the various illustrated examples herein is for the purpose of describing particular examples only and is not intended to be limiting. As used in the description of the various described examples and the appended claims, the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will also be understood that the term "and/or" as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising," when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

Depending on the context, the term "if" may be interpreted to mean "when..or" in response to a determination "or" in response to detection ". Similarly, the phrase "if a [ stated condition or event ] is detected" may be interpreted to mean "upon a determination" or "in response to a determination" or "upon a detection of a [ stated condition or event ] or" in response to a detection of a [ stated condition or event ], depending on the context.

1. System and environment

Fig. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a system 100 in accordance with various examples. In some examples, system 100 implements a digital assistant. The terms "digital assistant," "virtual assistant," "intelligent automated assistant," or "automated digital assistant" refer to any information processing system that interprets natural language input in spoken and/or textual form to infer user intent and performs an action based on the inferred user intent. For example, to act on inferred user intent, the system performs one or more of the following steps: identifying a task flow having steps and parameters designed to achieve the inferred user intent, inputting specific requirements into the task flow based on the inferred user intent; executing task flows through calling programs, methods, services, APIs and the like; and generating an output response to the user in audible (e.g., speech) and/or visual form.

In particular, the digital assistant is capable of accepting user requests in the form of, at least in part, natural language commands, requests, statements, lectures, and/or inquiries. Typically, users request that the digital assistant be asked to make informational answers or perform tasks. Satisfactory responses to user requests include providing the requested informational answer, performing the requested task, or a combination of both. For example, the user presents questions to the digital assistant such as "where is i now? ". Based on the user's current location, the digital assistant answers "you are near the central park siemens. "the user also requests to perform a task, such as" please invite my friends to take part in my girl's birthday party next week. In response, the digital assistant may acknowledge the request by speaking "good, immediate" and then send an appropriate calendar invitation on behalf of the user to each of the user's friends listed in the user's electronic address book. During execution of the requested task, the digital assistant sometimes interacts with the user in a continuous conversation involving multiple exchanges of information over a long period of time. There are many other ways to interact with a digital assistant to request information or perform various tasks. In addition to providing verbal responses and taking programmed actions, the digital assistant also provides responses in other video or audio forms, for example as text, alerts, music, video, animation, and the like.

As shown in fig. 1, in some examples, the digital assistant is implemented according to a client-server model. The digital assistant includes a client-side portion 102 (hereinafter "DA client 102") that executes on a user device 104 and a server-side portion 106 (hereinafter "DA server 106") that executes on a server system 108. DA client 102 communicates with DA server 106 through one or more networks 110. The DA client 102 provides client-side functionality such as user-oriented input and output processing, and communication with the DA server 106. The DA server 106 provides server-side functionality for any number of DA clients 102 each located on a respective user device 104.

In some examples, the DA server 106 includes a client-oriented I/O interface 112, one or more processing modules 114, a data and model 116, and an I/O interface 118 to external services. The client-oriented I/O interface 112 facilitates client-oriented input and output processing of the DA server 106. The one or more processing modules 114 process the speech input using the data and models 116 and determine user intent based on the natural language input. Further, the one or more processing modules 114 perform task execution based on the inferred user intent. In some examples, DA server 106 communicates with external services 120 over one or more networks 110 to accomplish tasks or collect information. The I/O interface 118 to external services facilitates such communication.

The user device 104 may be any suitable electronic device. In some examples, the user device 104 is a portable multifunction device (e.g., device 200 described below with reference to fig. 2A), a multifunction device (e.g., device 400 described below with reference to fig. 4), or a personal electronic device (e.g., device 600 described below with reference to fig. 6A-6B). The portable multifunction device is, for example, a mobile phone that also contains other functions such as PDA and/or music player functions. Specific examples of portable multifunction devices include Apple from Apple inc (Cupertino, california)iPod And->An apparatus. Other examples of portable multifunction devices include, but are not limited to, earbud/headphones, speakers, and laptop or tablet computers. Further, in some examples, the user device 104 is a non-portable multifunction device. In particular, the user device 104 is a desktop computer, a gaming machine, speakers, a television, or a television set-top box. In some examples, the user device 104 includes a touch-sensitive surface (e.g., a touch screen display and/or a touch pad). In addition, the user device 104 optionally includes one or more other physical user interface devices, such as a physical keyboard, mouse, and/or joystick. Various examples of electronic devices, such as multifunction devices, are described in more detail below.

Examples of one or more communication networks 110 include a Local Area Network (LAN) and a Wide Area Network (WAN), such as the Internet. One or more of the communication networks 110 are implemented using any known network protocol, including various wired or wireless protocols, such as Ethernet, universal Serial Bus (USB), FIREWIRE, global System for Mobile communications (GSM), enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE), code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), bluetooth, wi-Fi, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), wi-MAX, or any other suitable communication protocol.

The server system 108 is implemented on one or more standalone data processing devices or distributed computer networks. In some examples, the server system 108 also employs various virtual devices and/or services of a third party service provider (e.g., a third party cloud service provider) to provide potential computing resources and/or infrastructure resources of the server system 108.

In some examples, the user device 104 communicates with the DA server 106 via a second user device 122. The second user device 122 is similar or identical to the user device 104. For example, the second user device 122 is similar to the device 200, 400, or 600 described below with reference to fig. 2A, 4, and 6A-6B. The user device 104 is configured to be communicatively coupled to the second user device 122 via a direct communication connection (such as bluetooth, NFC, BTLE, etc.) or via a wired or wireless network (such as a local Wi-Fi network). In some examples, the second user device 122 is configured to act as a proxy between the user device 104 and the DA server 106. For example, the DA client 102 of the user device 104 is configured to transmit information (e.g., user requests received at the user device 104) to the DA server 106 via the second user device 122. The DA server 106 processes this information and returns relevant data (e.g., data content in response to a user request) to the user device 104 via the second user device 122.

In some examples, the user device 104 is configured to send a thumbnail request for data to the second user device 122 to reduce the amount of information transmitted from the user device 104. The second user device 122 is configured to determine supplemental information to be added to the thumbnail request to generate a complete request for transmission to the DA server 106. The system architecture may advantageously allow user devices 104 (e.g., watches or similar compact electronic devices) with limited communication capabilities and/or limited battery power to access services provided by the DA server 106 by using a second user device 122 (e.g., mobile phone, laptop, tablet, etc.) with greater communication capabilities and/or battery power as a proxy to the DA server 106. Although only two user devices 104 and 122 are shown in fig. 1, it should be understood that in some examples, system 100 may include any number and type of user devices configured to communicate with DA server system 106 in this proxy configuration.

Although the digital assistant shown in fig. 1 includes both a client-side portion (e.g., DA client 102) and a server-side portion (e.g., DA server 106), in some examples, the functionality of the digital assistant is implemented as a standalone application installed on a user device. Furthermore, the division of functionality between the client portion and the server portion of the digital assistant may vary in different implementations. For example, in some examples, the DA client is a thin client that provides only user-oriented input and output processing functions and delegates all other functions of the digital assistant to the back-end server.

2. Electronic equipment

Attention is now directed to an implementation of an electronic device for implementing a client-side portion of a digital assistant. Fig. 2A is a block diagram illustrating a portable multifunction device 200 with a touch-sensitive display system 212 in accordance with some embodiments. Touch-sensitive display 212 is sometimes referred to as a "touch screen" for convenience and is sometimes referred to or referred to as a "touch-sensitive display system". Device 200 includes memory 202 (which optionally includes one or more computer-readable storage media), memory controller 222, one or more processing units (CPUs) 220, peripheral interface 218, RF circuitry 208, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211, microphone 213, input/output (I/O) subsystem 206, other input control devices 216, and external ports 224. The device 200 optionally includes one or more optical sensors 264. The device 200 optionally includes one or more contact intensity sensors 265 for detecting the intensity of contacts on the device 200 (e.g., a touch-sensitive surface of the device 200 such as the touch-sensitive display system 212). The device 200 optionally includes one or more haptic output generators 267 for generating haptic outputs on the device 200 (e.g., generating haptic outputs on a touch-sensitive surface such as the touch-sensitive display system 212 of the device 200 or the touch pad 455 of the device 400). These components optionally communicate via one or more communication buses or signal lines 203.

As used in this specification and the claims, the term "intensity" of a contact on a touch-sensitive surface refers to the force or pressure (force per unit area) of the contact on the touch-sensitive surface (e.g., finger contact), or to an alternative to the force or pressure of the contact on the touch-sensitive surface (surrogate). The intensity of the contact has a range of values that includes at least four different values and more typically includes hundreds of different values (e.g., at least 256). The intensity of the contact is optionally determined (or measured) using various methods and various sensors or combinations of sensors. For example, one or more force sensors below or adjacent to the touch-sensitive surface are optionally used to measure forces at different points on the touch-sensitive surface. In some implementations, force measurements from multiple force sensors are combined (e.g., weighted average) to determine an estimated contact force. Similarly, the pressure sensitive tip of the stylus is optionally used to determine the pressure of the stylus on the touch sensitive surface. Alternatively, the size of the contact area and/or its variation detected on the touch-sensitive surface, the capacitance of the touch-sensitive surface and/or its variation in the vicinity of the contact and/or the resistance of the touch-sensitive surface and/or its variation in the vicinity of the contact are optionally used as a substitute for the force or pressure of the contact on the touch-sensitive surface. In some implementations, surrogate measurements of contact force or pressure are directly used to determine whether an intensity threshold has been exceeded (e.g., the intensity threshold is described in units corresponding to surrogate measurements). In some implementations, surrogate measurements of contact force or pressure are converted to an estimated force or pressure, and the estimated force or pressure is used to determine whether an intensity threshold has been exceeded (e.g., the intensity threshold is a pressure threshold measured in units of pressure). The intensity of the contact is used as an attribute of the user input, allowing the user to access additional device functions that are not otherwise accessible to the user on a smaller sized device of limited real estate for displaying affordances and/or receiving user input (e.g., via a touch-sensitive display, touch-sensitive surface, or physical/mechanical control, such as a knob or button).

As used in this specification and in the claims, the term "haptic output" refers to a physical displacement of a device relative to a previous position of the device, a physical displacement of a component of the device (e.g., a touch sensitive surface) relative to another component of the device (e.g., a housing), or a displacement of a component relative to a centroid of the device, to be detected by a user with a user's feel. For example, in the case where the device or component of the device is in contact with a touch-sensitive surface of the user (e.g., a finger, palm, or other portion of the user's hand), the haptic output generated by the physical displacement will be interpreted by the user as a haptic sensation corresponding to a perceived change in a physical characteristic of the device or component of the device. For example, movement of a touch-sensitive surface (e.g., a touch-sensitive display or touch pad) is optionally interpreted by a user as a "press click" or "click-down" of a physically actuated button. In some cases, the user will feel a tactile sensation, such as "press click" or "click down", even when the physical actuation button associated with the touch-sensitive surface that is physically pressed (e.g., displaced) by the user's movement is not moved. As another example, movement of the touch-sensitive surface may optionally be interpreted or sensed by a user as "roughness" of the touch-sensitive surface, even when the smoothness of the touch-sensitive surface is unchanged. While such interpretation of touches by a user will be limited by the user's individualized sensory perception, many sensory perceptions of touches are common to most users. Thus, when a haptic output is described as corresponding to a particular sensory perception of a user (e.g., "click down," "click up," "roughness"), unless stated otherwise, the haptic output generated corresponds to a physical displacement of the device or component thereof that would generate that sensory perception of a typical (or ordinary) user.

It should be understood that the device 200 is only one example of a portable multifunction device, and that the device 200 optionally has more or fewer components than shown, optionally combines two or more components, or optionally has a different configuration or arrangement of the components. The various components shown in fig. 2A are implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of both hardware and software, including one or more signal processing circuits and/or application specific integrated circuits.

Memory 202 includes one or more computer-readable storage media. These computer readable storage media are, for example, tangible and non-transitory. Memory 202 includes high-speed random access memory, and also includes non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid-state memory devices. The memory controller 222 controls other components of the device 200 to access the memory 202.

In some examples, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of memory 202 is used to store instructions (e.g., for performing aspects of the processes described below) for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, or other system that can fetch the instructions from the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. In other examples, the instructions (e.g., for performing aspects of the processes described below) are stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (not shown) of the server system 108 or divided between a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of the memory 202 and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of the server system 108.

Peripheral interface 218 is used to couple the input and output peripherals of the device to CPU 220 and memory 202. The one or more processors 220 run or execute various software programs and/or sets of instructions stored in the memory 202 to perform various functions of the device 200 and process data. In some embodiments, peripheral interface 218, CPU 220, and memory controller 222 are implemented on a single chip, such as chip 204. In some other embodiments, they are implemented on separate chips.

The RF (radio frequency) circuit 208 receives and transmits RF signals, also referred to as electromagnetic signals. RF circuitry 208 converts/converts electrical signals to/from electromagnetic signals and communicates with communication networks and other communication devices via electromagnetic signals. RF circuitry 208 optionally includes well known circuitry for performing these functions including, but not limited to, an antenna system, an RF transceiver, one or more amplifiers, a tuner, one or more oscillators, a digital signal processor, a codec chipset, a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card, memory, and the like. RF circuitry 208 optionally communicates via wireless communication with networks such as the internet (also known as the World Wide Web (WWW)), intranets, and/or wireless networks such as cellular telephone networks, wireless Local Area Networks (LANs), and/or Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs), and other devices. The RF circuitry 208 optionally includes well-known circuitry for detecting a Near Field Communication (NFC) field, such as by a short-range communication radio. Wireless communications optionally use any of a variety of communication standards, protocols, and technologies including, but not limited to, global system for mobile communications (GSM), enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE), high Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), high Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), evolution, pure data (EV-DO), HSPA, hspa+, dual cell HSPA (DC-HSPDA), long Term Evolution (LTE), near Field Communications (NFC), wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA), code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), bluetooth low energy (BTLE), wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) (e.g., IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n, and/or IEEE 802.11 ac), voice over internet protocol (VoIP), wi-MAX, email protocols (e.g., internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) and/or Post Office Protocol (POP)), messages (e.g., extensible messaging and presence protocol (XMPP), protocols for instant messaging and presence initiation with extended session initiation (sime), messages and presence (pls), or other fashionable communications protocols, or any other suitable fashion-oriented protocols, or non-compliant communications including, such as may be developed on the date of any other suitable date.

Audio circuitry 210, speaker 211, and microphone 213 provide an audio interface between the user and device 200. Audio circuit 210 receives audio data from peripheral interface 218, converts the audio data into an electrical signal, and transmits the electrical signal to speaker 211. The speaker 211 converts electrical signals into sound waves that are audible to humans. The audio circuit 210 also receives electrical signals converted from sound waves by the microphone 213. Audio circuitry 210 converts the electrical signals to audio data and transmits the audio data to peripheral interface 218 for processing. The audio data is retrieved from and/or transmitted to the memory 202 and/or the RF circuitry 208 via the peripheral interface 218. In some embodiments, the audio circuit 210 also includes a headset jack (e.g., 312 in fig. 3). The headset jack provides an interface between the audio circuit 210 and a removable audio input/output peripheral, such as an output-only earphone or a headset having both an output (e.g., a monaural earphone or a binaural earphone) and an input (e.g., a microphone).

I/O subsystem 206 couples input/output peripheral devices on device 200, such as touch screen 212 and other input control devices 216 to peripheral interface 218. The I/O subsystem 206 optionally includes a display controller 256, an optical sensor controller 258, an intensity sensor controller 259, a haptic feedback controller 261, and one or more input controllers 260 for other input or control devices. One or more input controllers 260 receive electrical signals from/send electrical signals to other input control devices 216. Other input control devices 216 optionally include physical buttons (e.g., push buttons, rocker buttons, etc.), dials, slider switches, joysticks, click wheels, and the like. In some alternative implementations, the input controller 260 is optionally coupled to (or not coupled to) any of the following: a keyboard, an infrared port, a USB port, and a pointing device such as a mouse. One or more buttons (e.g., 308 in fig. 3) optionally include an up/down button for volume control of speaker 211 and/or microphone 213. The one or more buttons optionally include a push button (e.g., 306 in fig. 3).

A quick press of the push button may disengage the lock of the touch screen 212 or begin the process of unlocking the device using gestures on the touch screen, as described in U.S. patent application No. 11/322549 to U.S. patent 7657849, entitled "Unlocking a Device by Performing Gestures on an Unlock Image," filed 12-23, 2005, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Longer presses of the push button (e.g., 306) cause the device 200 to power on or off. The user is able to customize the functionality of one or more buttons. Touch screen 212 is used to implement virtual buttons or soft buttons and one or more soft keyboards.

The touch sensitive display 212 provides an input interface and an output interface between the device and the user. Display controller 256 receives electrical signals from and/or transmits electrical signals to touch screen 212. Touch screen 212 displays visual output to a user. Visual output includes graphics, text, icons, video, and any combination thereof (collectively, "graphics"). In some implementations, some or all of the visual output corresponds to a user interface object.

Touch screen 212 has a touch-sensitive surface, sensor or set of sensors that receives input from a user based on haptic and/or tactile contact. Touch screen 212 and display controller 256 (along with any associated modules and/or sets of instructions in memory 202) detect contact (and any movement or interruption of the contact) on touch screen 212 and translate the detected contact into interactions with user interface objects (e.g., one or more soft keys, icons, web pages, or images) displayed on touch screen 212. In an exemplary embodiment, the point of contact between touch screen 212 and the user corresponds to a user's finger.

Touch screen 212 uses LCD (liquid crystal display) technology, LPD (light emitting polymer display) technology, or LED (light emitting diode) technology, but other display technologies may be used in other embodiments. Touch screen 212 and display controller 256 detect contact and any movement or interruption thereof using any of a variety of touch sensing technologies now known or later developed, including but not limited to capacitive, resistive, infrared, and surface acoustic wave technologies, as well as other proximity sensor arrays or other elements for determining one or more points of contact with touch screen 212. In an exemplary embodiment, projected mutual capacitance sensing technology is usedSurgery, such as in the environment from Apple inc (Cupertino, california)And iPod->Techniques used in the above.

In some implementations, the touch sensitive display of touch screen 212 is similar to the following U.S. patents: 6,323,846 (Westerman et al), 6,570,557 (Westerman et al) and/or 6,677,932 (Westerman) and/or a multi-touch-sensitive touch pad as described in U.S. patent publication 2002/0015024A1, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. However, touch screen 212 displays visual output from device 200, while the touch sensitive touchpad does not provide visual output.

Touch sensitive displays in some implementations of touch screen 212 are described in the following applications: (1) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/381,313, "Multipoint Touch Surface Controller", filed on 5/2/2006; (2) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/840,862, "Multipoint Touchscreen", filed 5/6/2004; (3) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/903,964, "Gestures For Touch Sensitive Input Devices", filed 7/30/2004; (4) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/048,264, "Gestures For Touch Sensitive Input Devices", filed 1/31/2005; (5) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/038,590, "Mode-Based Graphical User Interfaces For Touch Sensitive Input Devices", filed 1/18/2005; (6) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/228,758, "Virtual Input Device Placement On A Touch Screen User Interface", filed 9/16/2005; (7) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/228,700, "Operation Of A Computer With A Touch Screen Interface", filed 9/16/2005; (8) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/228,737, "Activating Virtual Keys Of A Touch-Screen Virtual Keyboard", filed on 9/16/2005; and (9) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/367,749, "Multi-Functional Hand-Held Device," filed 3/2006. All of these applications are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

Touch screen 212 has, for example, a video resolution in excess of 100 dpi. In some implementations, the touch screen has a video resolution of about 160 dpi. The user makes contact with touch screen 212 using any suitable object or appendage, such as a stylus, finger, or the like. In some embodiments, the user interface is designed to work primarily through finger-based contact and gestures, which may not be as accurate as stylus-based input due to the large contact area of the finger on the touch screen. In some embodiments, the device translates the finger-based coarse input into a precise pointer/cursor position or command for performing the action desired by the user.

In some embodiments, the device 200 includes a touch pad (not shown) for activating or deactivating a specific function in addition to the touch screen. In some embodiments, the touch pad is a touch sensitive area of the device that, unlike the touch screen, does not display visual output. The touch pad is a touch sensitive surface separate from the touch screen 212 or an extension of the touch sensitive surface formed by the touch screen.

The device 200 also includes a power system 262 for powering the various components. The power system 262 includes a power management system, one or more power sources (e.g., batteries, alternating Current (AC)), a recharging system, a power failure detection circuit, a power converter or inverter, a power status indicator (e.g., light Emitting Diode (LED)), and any other components associated with the generation, management, and distribution of power in the portable device.

The device 200 also includes one or more optical sensors 264. Fig. 2A shows an optical sensor coupled to an optical sensor controller 258 in the I/O subsystem 206. The optical sensor 264 includes a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) or a Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) phototransistor. The optical sensor 264 receives light projected through one or more lenses from the environment and converts the light into data representing an image. In conjunction with an imaging module 243 (also called a camera module), the optical sensor 264 captures still images or video. In some embodiments, the optical sensor is located at the back of the device 200, opposite the touch screen display 212 at the front of the device, such that the touch screen display is used as a viewfinder for still image and/or video image acquisition. In some embodiments, the optical sensor is located at the front of the device such that the user's image is acquired for the video conference while the user views other video conference participants on the touch screen display. In some implementations, the position of the optical sensor 264 can be changed by the user (e.g., by rotating a lens and sensor in the device housing) such that a single optical sensor 264 is used with the touch screen display for both video conferencing and still image and/or video image acquisition.

The device 200 optionally further includes one or more contact strength sensors 265. Fig. 2A shows a contact intensity sensor coupled to an intensity sensor controller 259 in the I/O subsystem 206. The contact strength sensor 265 optionally includes one or more piezoresistive strain gauges, capacitive force sensors, electrical force sensors, piezoelectric force sensors, optical force sensors, capacitive touch-sensitive surfaces, or other strength sensors (e.g., sensors for measuring force (or pressure) of a contact on a touch-sensitive surface). The contact strength sensor 265 receives contact strength information (e.g., pressure information or a surrogate for pressure information) from the environment. In some implementations, at least one contact intensity sensor is juxtaposed or adjacent to a touch-sensitive surface (e.g., touch-sensitive display system 212). In some embodiments, at least one contact intensity sensor is located on the rear of the device 200, opposite the touch screen display 212 located on the front of the device 200.

The device 200 also includes one or more proximity sensors 266. Fig. 2A shows a proximity sensor 266 coupled to the peripheral interface 218. Alternatively, the proximity sensor 266 is coupled to the input controller 260 in the I/O subsystem 206. The proximity sensor 266 performs as described in the following U.S. patent applications: 11/241,839, entitled "Proximity Detector In Handheld Device";11/240,788, entitled "Proximity Detector In Handheld Device";11/620,702, entitled "Using Ambient Light Sensor To Augment Proximity Sensor Output";11/586,862, entitled "Automated Response To And Sensing Of User Activity In Portable Devices"; and 11/638,251, entitled "Methods And Systems For Automatic Configuration Of Peripherals," which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. In some implementations, the proximity sensor turns off and disables the touch screen 212 when the multifunction device is placed near the user's ear (e.g., when the user is making a telephone call).

The device 200 optionally further comprises one or more tactile output generators 267. Fig. 2A illustrates a haptic output generator coupled to a haptic feedback controller 261 in I/O subsystem 206. The tactile output generator 267 optionally includes one or more electroacoustic devices such as speakers or other audio components; and/or electromechanical devices for converting energy into linear motion such as motors, solenoids, electroactive polymers, piezoelectric actuators, electrostatic actuators, or other tactile output generating means (e.g., means for converting an electrical signal into a tactile output on a device). The contact strength sensor 265 receives haptic feedback generation instructions from the haptic feedback module 233 and generates a haptic output on the device 200 that can be perceived by a user of the device 200. In some embodiments, at least one tactile output generator is juxtaposed or adjacent to a touch-sensitive surface (e.g., touch-sensitive display system 212), and optionally generates tactile output by moving the touch-sensitive surface vertically (e.g., inward/outward of the surface of device 200) or laterally (e.g., backward and forward in the same plane as the surface of device 200). In some embodiments, at least one tactile output generator sensor is located on the rear of the device 200, opposite the touch screen display 212 located on the front of the device 200.

The device 200 also includes one or more accelerometers 268. Fig. 2A shows accelerometer 268 coupled to peripheral interface 218. Alternatively, accelerometer 268 is coupled to input controller 260 in I/O subsystem 206. Accelerometer 268 performs as described in the following U.S. patent publications: U.S. patent publication 20050190059, "acception-based Theft Detection System for Portable Electronic Devices" and U.S. patent publication 20060017692, "Methods And Apparatuses For Operating A Portable Device Based On An Accelerometer," both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. In some implementations, information is displayed in a portrait view or a landscape view on a touch screen display based on analysis of data received from one or more accelerometers. The device 200 optionally includes a magnetometer (not shown) and a GPS (or GLONASS or other global navigation system) receiver (not shown) in addition to the one or more accelerometers 268 for obtaining information regarding the position and orientation (e.g., longitudinal or lateral) of the device 200.

In some embodiments, the software components stored in memory 202 include an operating system 226, a communication module (or set of instructions) 228, a contact/motion module (or set of instructions) 230, a graphics module (or set of instructions) 232, a text input module (or set of instructions) 234, a Global Positioning System (GPS) module (or set of instructions) 235, a digital assistant client module 229, and an application program (or set of instructions) 236. In addition, the memory 202 stores data and models, such as user data and models 231. Further, in some embodiments, memory 202 (fig. 2A) or 470 (fig. 4) stores device/global internal state 257, as shown in fig. 2A and 4. The device/global internal state 257 includes one or more of the following: an active application state indicating which applications (if any) are currently active; display status, indicating what applications, views, or other information occupy various areas of the touch screen display 212; sensor status, including information obtained from the various sensors of the device and the input control device 216; and location information relating to the device location and/or pose.

Operating system 226 (e.g., darwin, RTXC, LINUX, UNIX, OS X, iOS, WINDOWS, or embedded operating systems such as VxWorks) includes various software components and/or drivers for controlling and managing general system tasks (e.g., memory management, storage device control, power management, etc.), and facilitates communication between the various hardware components and software components.

The communication module 228 facilitates communication with other devices via one or more external ports 224,and also includes various software components for processing data received by the RF circuitry 208 and/or the external port 224. External port 224 (e.g., universal Serial Bus (USB), firewire, etc.) is adapted to be coupled directly to other devices or indirectly via a network (e.g., the internet, wireless LAN, etc.). In some embodiments, the external port is in communication withThe 30-pin connector used on the (Apple inc. Trademark) device is the same or similar and/or compatible with a multi-pin (e.g., 30-pin) connector.

The contact/motion module 230 optionally detects contact with the touch screen 212 (in conjunction with the display controller 256) and other touch sensitive devices (e.g., a touch pad or physical click wheel). The contact/motion module 230 includes various software components for performing various operations related to contact detection, such as determining whether contact has occurred (e.g., detecting a finger press event), determining the strength of the contact (e.g., the force or pressure of the contact, or a substitute for the force or pressure of the contact), determining whether there is movement of the contact and tracking movement across the touch-sensitive surface (e.g., detecting one or more finger drag events), and determining whether the contact has stopped (e.g., detecting a finger lift event or a contact break). The contact/motion module 230 receives contact data from the touch-sensitive surface. Determining movement of the point of contact optionally includes determining a velocity (magnitude), a speed (magnitude and direction), and/or an acceleration (change in magnitude and/or direction) of the point of contact, the movement of the point of contact being represented by a series of contact data. These operations are optionally applied to single point contacts (e.g., single finger contacts) or simultaneous multi-point contacts (e.g., "multi-touch"/multiple finger contacts). In some embodiments, the contact/motion module 230 and the display controller 256 detect contact on the touch pad.

In some implementations, the contact/motion module 230 uses a set of one or more intensity thresholds to determine whether an operation has been performed by a user (e.g., to determine whether the user has "clicked" on an icon). In some embodiments, at least a subset of the intensity thresholds are determined according to software parameters (e.g., the intensity thresholds are not determined by activation thresholds of specific physical actuators and may be adjusted without changing the physical hardware of the device 200). For example, without changing the touchpad or touch screen display hardware, the mouse "click" threshold of the touchpad or touch screen may be set to any of a wide range of predefined thresholds. Additionally, in some implementations, a user of the device is provided with software settings for adjusting one or more intensity thresholds in a set of intensity thresholds (e.g., by adjusting individual intensity thresholds and/or by adjusting multiple intensity thresholds at once with a system-level click on an "intensity" parameter).

The contact/motion module 230 optionally detects gesture input by the user. Different gestures on the touch-sensitive surface have different contact patterns (e.g., different movements, timings, and/or intensities of the detected contacts). Thus, gestures are optionally detected by detecting a particular contact pattern. For example, detecting a finger tap gesture includes detecting a finger press event, and then detecting a finger lift (lift off) event at the same location (or substantially the same location) as the finger press event (e.g., at the location of an icon). As another example, detecting a finger swipe gesture on the touch-sensitive surface includes detecting a finger-down event, then detecting one or more finger-dragging events, and then detecting a finger-up (lift-off) event.

Graphics module 232 includes various known software components for rendering and displaying graphics on touch screen 212 or other display, including components for changing the visual impact (e.g., brightness, transparency, saturation, contrast, or other visual characteristics) of the displayed graphics. As used herein, the term "graphic" includes any object that may be displayed to a user, including without limitation text, web pages, icons (such as user interface objects including soft keys), digital images, video, animation, and the like.

In some embodiments, graphics module 232 stores data representing graphics to be used. Each graphic is optionally assigned a corresponding code. The graphic module 232 receives one or more codes designating graphics to be displayed from an application program or the like, and also receives coordinate data and other graphic attribute data together if necessary, and then generates screen image data to output to the display controller 256.

Haptic feedback module 233 includes various software components for generating instructions for use by one or more haptic output generators 267 to generate haptic output at one or more locations on device 200 in response to user interaction with device 200.

The text input module 234, which in some examples is a component of the graphics module 232, provides a soft keyboard for entering text in various applications (e.g., contacts 237, email 240, IM 241, browser 247, and any other application requiring text input).

The GPS module 235 determines the location of the device and provides this information for use in various applications (e.g., to the phone 238 for use in location-based dialing, to the camera 243 as picture/video metadata, and to applications that provide location-based services, such as weather gadgets, local page gadgets, and map/navigation gadgets).

The digital assistant client module 229 includes various client-side digital assistant instructions to provide client-side functionality of the digital assistant. For example, the digital assistant client module 229 is capable of accepting acoustic input (e.g., voice input), text input, touch input, and/or gesture input through various user interfaces of the portable multifunction device 200 (e.g., microphone 213, one or more accelerometers 268, touch-sensitive display system 212, one or more optical sensors 264, other input control devices 216, etc.). The digital assistant client module 229 is also capable of providing output in audio form (e.g., voice output), visual form, and/or tactile form through various output interfaces of the portable multifunction device 200 (e.g., speaker 211, touch-sensitive display system 212, one or more tactile output generators 267, etc.). For example, the output is provided as voice, sound, an alert, a text message, a menu, graphics, video, animation, vibration, and/or a combination of two or more of the foregoing. During operation, the digital assistant client module 229 communicates with the DA server 106 using the RF circuitry 208.

The user data and model 231 includes various data associated with the user (e.g., user-specific vocabulary data, user preference data, user-specified name pronunciations, data from a user electronic address book, backlog, shopping list, etc.) to provide client-side functionality of the digital assistant. Further, the user data and models 231 include various models (e.g., speech recognition models, statistical language models, natural language processing models, ontologies, task flow models, service models, etc.) for processing user inputs and determining user intent.

In some examples, the digital assistant client module 229 utilizes the various sensors, subsystems, and peripherals of the portable multifunction device 200 to gather additional information from the surrounding environment of the portable multifunction device 200 to establish a context associated with a user, current user interaction, and/or current user input. In some examples, the digital assistant client module 229 provides contextual information, or a subset thereof, along with user input to the DA server 106 to help infer user intent. In some examples, the digital assistant also uses the context information to determine how to prepare the output and communicate it to the user. The context information is referred to as context data.

In some examples, the contextual information accompanying the user input includes sensor information such as lighting, ambient noise, ambient temperature, images or videos of the surrounding environment, and the like. In some examples, the contextual information may also include a physical state of the device, such as device orientation, device location, device temperature, power level, speed, acceleration, movement pattern, cellular signal strength, and the like. In some examples, information related to the software state of the DA server 106, such as the running process of the portable multifunction device 200, installed programs, past and current network activities, background services, error logs, resource usage, etc., is provided to the DA server 106 as contextual information associated with user input.

In some examples, the digital assistant client module 229 selectively provides information (e.g., user data 231) stored on the portable multifunction device 200 in response to a request from the DA server 106. In some examples, the digital assistant client module 229 also brings up additional input from the user via a natural language dialog or other user interface upon request by the DA server 106. The digital assistant client module 229 communicates this additional input to the DA server 106 to assist the DA server 106 in intent inference and/or to implement user intent expressed in the user request.

The digital assistant is described in more detail below with reference to fig. 7A-7C. It should be appreciated that the digital assistant client module 229 may include any number of sub-modules of the digital assistant module 726 described below.

The application 236 includes the following modules (or instruction sets) or a subset or superset thereof:

contact module 237 (sometimes referred to as an address book or contact list);

a telephone module 238;

video conferencing module 239;

email client module 240;

an Instant Messaging (IM) module 241;

a fitness support module 242;

a camera module 243 for still and/or video images;

an image management module 244;

a video player module;

a music player module;

browser module 247;

calendar module 248;

a desktop applet module 249 that in some examples includes one or more of the following: weather desktop applet 249-1, stock desktop applet 249-2, calculator desktop applet 249-3, alarm desktop applet 249-4, dictionary desktop applet 249-5 and other desktop applet obtained by user and user created desktop applet 249-6;

a desktop applet creator module 250 for forming the user-created desktop applet 249-6;

Search module 251;

a video and music player module 252 that incorporates the video player module and the music player module;

notepad module 253;

map module 254; and/or

An online video module 255.

Examples of other applications 236 stored in the memory 202 include other word processing applications, other image editing applications, drawing applications, presentation applications, JAVA-enabled applications, encryption, digital rights management, voice recognition, and voice replication.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, contacts module 237 is used to manage an address book or contact list (e.g., in application internal state 292 of contacts module 237 stored in memory 202 or memory 470), including: adding one or more names to the address book; deleting the name from the address book; associating a telephone number, email address, physical address, or other information with the name; associating the image with the name; classifying and classifying names; providing a telephone number or email address to initiate and/or facilitate communications through telephone 238, video conferencing module 239, email 240 or IM 241; etc.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211, microphone 213, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, telephone module 238 is used to input a sequence of characters corresponding to a telephone number, access one or more telephone numbers in contact module 237, modify telephone numbers that have been entered, dial a corresponding telephone number, conduct a conversation, and disconnect or hang-up when the conversation is completed. As described above, wireless communication uses any of a variety of communication standards, protocols, and technologies.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211, microphone 213, touch screen 212, display controller 256, optical sensor 264, optical sensor controller 258, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, contacts module 237, and telephony module 238, videoconferencing module 239 includes executable instructions to initiate, conduct, and terminate a videoconference between a user and one or more other parties according to user instructions.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, email client module 240 includes executable instructions for creating, sending, receiving, and managing emails in response to user instructions. In conjunction with the image management module 244, the email client module 240 makes it very easy to create and send emails with still or video images captured by the camera module 243.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, instant message module 241 includes executable instructions for: inputting a character sequence corresponding to an instant message, modifying previously inputted characters, transmitting a corresponding instant message (e.g., using a Short Message Service (SMS) or Multimedia Message Service (MMS) protocol for phone-based instant messages or using XMPP, SIMPLE, or IMPS for internet-based instant messages), receiving an instant message, and viewing the received instant message. In some embodiments, the transmitted and/or received instant messages include graphics, photographs, audio files, video files, and/or other attachments as supported in MMS and/or Enhanced Messaging Services (EMS). As used herein, "instant message" refers to both telephony-based messages (e.g., messages sent using SMS or MMS) and internet-based messages (e.g., messages sent using XMPP, SIMPLE, or IMPS).

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, GPS module 235, map module 254, and music player module, workout support module 242 includes executable instructions for: creating workouts (e.g., with time, distance, and/or calorie burn targets); communicate with a fitness sensor (exercise device); receiving fitness sensor data; calibrating a sensor for monitoring fitness; selecting and playing music for exercise; and displaying, storing and transmitting the fitness data.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, one or more optical sensors 264, optical sensor controller 258, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and image management module 244, camera module 243 includes executable instructions for: capturing still images or videos (including video streams) and storing them in the memory 202, modifying features of still images or videos, or deleting still images or videos from the memory 202.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, and camera module 243, image management module 244 includes executable instructions for arranging, modifying (e.g., editing), or otherwise manipulating, tagging, deleting, presenting (e.g., in a digital slide or album), and storing still and/or video images.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, browser module 247 includes executable instructions for browsing the internet according to user instructions, including searching, linking to, receiving, and displaying web pages or portions thereof, as well as attachments and other files linked to web pages.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, email client module 240, and browser module 247, calendar module 248 includes executable instructions to create, display, modify, and store calendars and data associated with calendars (e.g., calendar entries, to-do items, etc.) according to user instructions.

In conjunction with the RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, and browser module 247, gadget module 249 is a mini-application (e.g., weather gadget 249-1, stock market gadget 249-2, calculator gadget 249-3, alarm gadget 249-4, and dictionary gadget 249-5) or a mini-application created by a user (e.g., user created gadget 249-6) that can be downloaded and used by a user. In some embodiments, gadgets include HTML (hypertext markup language) files, CSS (cascading style sheet) files, and JavaScript files. In some embodiments, gadgets include XML (extensible markup language) files and JavaScript files (e.g., yahoo | gadgets).

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, and browser module 247, gadget creator module 250 is used by a user to create gadgets (e.g., to make user-specified portions of web pages into gadgets).

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, search module 251 includes executable instructions for searching memory 202 for text, music, sound, images, video, and/or other files matching one or more search criteria (e.g., one or more user-specified search terms) according to user instructions.

In conjunction with the touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, audio circuit 210, speaker 211, RF circuit 208, and browser module 247, the video and music player module 252 includes executable instructions that allow a user to download and playback recorded music and other sound files stored in one or more file formats (such as MP3 or AAC files), as well as executable instructions for displaying, rendering, or otherwise playing back video (e.g., on the touch screen 212 or on an external display connected via the external port 224). In some embodiments, the device 200 optionally includes the functionality of an MP3 player such as an iPod (trademark of Apple inc.).

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, notepad module 253 includes executable instructions for creating and managing notepads, backlog, etc. in accordance with user instructions.

In conjunction with the RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234, GPS module 235, and browser module 247, map module 254 is configured to receive, display, modify, and store maps and data associated with maps (e.g., driving directions, data related to shops and other points of interest at or near a particular location, and other location-based data) according to user instructions.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, audio circuit 210, speaker 211, RF circuit 208, text input module 234, email client module 240, and browser module 247, online video module 255 includes instructions that allow a user to access, browse, receive (e.g., by streaming and/or downloading), play back (e.g., on a touch screen or on a connected external display via external port 224), send emails with links to particular online videos, and otherwise manage online videos in one or more file formats (such as h.264). In some embodiments, the instant messaging module 241 is used instead of the email client module 240 to send links to particular online videos. Additional descriptions of online video applications can be found in U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/936,562, entitled "Portable Multifunction Device, method, and Graphical User Interface for Playing Online Videos," filed on even 20, 6, 2007, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/968,067, entitled "Portable Multifunction Device, method, and Graphical User Interface for Playing Online Videos," filed on even 31, 12, 2007, the contents of both of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

Each of the modules and applications described above corresponds to a set of executable instructions for performing one or more of the functions described above, as well as the methods described in this patent application (e.g., the computer-implemented methods and other information processing methods described herein). These modules (e.g., sets of instructions) need not be implemented as separate software programs, procedures or modules, and thus various subsets of these modules may be combined or otherwise rearranged in various embodiments. For example, the video player module may be combined with the music player module into a single module (e.g., video and music player module 252 in fig. 2A). In some embodiments, memory 202 stores a subset of the modules and data structures described above. Further, the memory 202 stores additional modules and data structures not described above.

In some embodiments, device 200 is a device on which the operation of a predefined set of functions is performed exclusively by a touch screen and/or touch pad. By using a touch screen and/or a touch pad as the primary input control device for operation of the device 200, the number of physical input control devices (such as push buttons, dials, etc.) on the device 200 is reduced.

A predefined set of functions performed solely by the touch screen and/or touch pad optionally includes navigation between user interfaces. In some embodiments, the touch pad, when touched by a user, navigates the device 200 from any user interface displayed on the device 200 to a main menu, home menu, or root menu. In such implementations, a touch pad is used to implement a "menu button". In some other embodiments, the menu buttons are physical push buttons or other physical input control devices, rather than touch pads.

Fig. 2B is a block diagram illustrating exemplary components for event processing according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, memory 202 (fig. 2A) or memory 470 (fig. 4) includes event sorter 270 (e.g., in operating system 226) and corresponding applications 236-1 (e.g., any of the aforementioned applications 237-251, 255, 480-490).

Event classifier 270 receives event information and determines an application view 291 of application 236-1 and application 236-1 to which to deliver the event information. Event sorter 270 includes event monitor 271 and event dispatcher module 274. In some embodiments, the application 236-1 includes an application internal state 292 that indicates one or more current application views that are displayed on the touch-sensitive display 212 when the application is active or executing. In some embodiments, the device/global internal state 257 is used by the event classifier 270 to determine which application(s) are currently active, and the application internal state 292 is used by the event classifier 270 to determine the application view 291 to which to deliver event information.

In some implementations, the application internal state 292 includes additional information, such as one or more of the following: restoration information to be used when the application 236-1 resumes execution, user interface state information indicating that the information is being displayed or ready for display by the application 236-1, a state queue for enabling the user to return to a previous state or view of the application 236-1, and a repeat/undo queue of previous actions taken by the user.

Event monitor 271 receives event information from peripheral interface 218. The event information includes information about sub-events (e.g., user touches on the touch sensitive display 212 as part of a multi-touch gesture). Peripheral interface 218 transmits information it receives from I/O subsystem 206 or sensors, such as proximity sensor 266, one or more accelerometers 268, and/or microphone 213 (via audio circuitry 210). The information received by the peripheral interface 218 from the I/O subsystem 206 includes information from the touch-sensitive display 212 or touch-sensitive surface.

In some embodiments, event monitor 271 sends requests to peripheral interface 218 at predetermined intervals. In response, peripheral interface 218 transmits the event information. In other embodiments, the peripheral interface 218 transmits event information only if there is a significant event (e.g., an input above a predetermined noise threshold is received and/or an input exceeding a predetermined duration is received).

In some implementations, the event classifier 270 also includes a hit view determination module 272 and/or an active event identifier determination module 273.

When the touch sensitive display 212 displays more than one view, the hit view determination module 272 provides a software process for determining where within one or more views a sub-event has occurred. The view is made up of controls and other elements that the user can see on the display.

Another aspect of the user interface associated with an application is a set of views, sometimes referred to herein as application views or user interface windows, in which information is displayed and touch-based gestures occur. The application view (of the respective application) in which the touch is detected corresponds to a level of programming within the application's programming hierarchy or view hierarchy. For example, the lowest horizontal view in which a touch is detected is referred to as the hit view, and the set of events that are considered to be correct inputs is determined based at least in part on the hit view of the initial touch that begins a touch-based gesture.

Hit view determination module 272 receives information related to sub-events of touch-based gestures. When an application has multiple views organized in a hierarchy, hit view determination module 272 identifies the hit view as the lowest view in the hierarchy that should process sub-events. In most cases, the hit view is the lowest level view in which the initiating sub-event (e.g., the first sub-event in a sequence of sub-events that form an event or potential event) occurs. Once the hit view is identified by the hit view determination module 272, the hit view typically receives all sub-events related to the same touch or input source for which it was identified as a hit view.

The activity event recognizer determination module 273 determines which view or views within the view hierarchy should receive a particular sequence of sub-events. In some implementations, the active event identifier determination module 273 determines that only the hit view should receive a particular sequence of sub-events. In other embodiments, the activity event recognizer determination module 273 determines that all views that include the physical location of the sub-event are actively engaged views and, thus, that all actively engaged views should receive a particular sequence of sub-events. In other embodiments, even if the touch sub-event is completely localized to an area associated with one particular view, the higher view in the hierarchy will remain the actively engaged view.

Event dispatcher module 274 dispatches event information to an event recognizer (e.g., event recognizer 280). In embodiments that include an active event recognizer determination module 273, the event dispatcher module 274 delivers event information to the event recognizer determined by the active event recognizer determination module 273. In some embodiments, the event dispatcher module 274 stores event information in event queues that is retrieved by the corresponding event receiver 282.

In some embodiments, operating system 226 includes event classifier 270. Alternatively, application 236-1 includes event classifier 270. In yet another embodiment, the event classifier 270 is a stand-alone module or part of another module stored in the memory 202 (such as the contact/motion module 230).

In some embodiments, the application 236-1 includes a plurality of event handlers 290 and one or more application views 291, each of which includes instructions for processing touch events that occur within a corresponding view of the user interface of the application. Each application view 291 of the application 236-1 includes one or more event recognizers 280. Typically, the respective application view 291 includes a plurality of event recognizers 280. In other embodiments, one or more of the event recognizers 280 are part of a separate module, which is a higher level object such as a user interface toolkit (not shown) or application 236-1 from which to inherit methods and other properties. In some implementations, the respective event handlers 290 include one or more of the following: the data updater 276, the object updater 277, the GUI updater 278, and/or the event data 279 received from the event classifier 270. Event handler 290 utilizes or invokes data updater 276, object updater 277 or GUI updater 278 to update the application internal state 292. Alternatively, one or more of the application views 291 include one or more corresponding event handlers 290. Additionally, in some implementations, one or more of the data updater 276, the object updater 277, and the GUI updater 278 are included in the respective application view 291.

The corresponding event identifier 280 receives event information (e.g., event data 279) from the event classifier 270 and identifies events from the event information. Event recognizer 280 includes event receiver 282 and event comparator 284. In some embodiments, event recognizer 280 further includes at least a subset of metadata 283 and event transfer instructions 288 (which include sub-event transfer instructions).

Event receiver 282 receives event information from event sorter 270. The event information includes information about sub-events such as touches or touch movements. The event information also includes additional information, such as the location of the sub-event, according to the sub-event. When a sub-event relates to the motion of a touch, the event information also includes the rate and direction of the sub-event. In some embodiments, the event includes rotation of the device from one orientation to another orientation (e.g., from a portrait orientation to a landscape orientation, or vice versa), and the event information includes corresponding information about a current orientation of the device (also referred to as a device pose).

Event comparator 284 compares the event information to predefined event or sub-event definitions and, based on the comparison, determines an event or sub-event, or determines or updates the state of the event or sub-event. In some embodiments, event comparator 284 includes event definition 286. Event definition 286 includes definitions of events (e.g., a predefined sequence of sub-events), such as event 1 (287-1), event 2 (287-2), and other events. In some embodiments, sub-events in event (287) include, for example, touch start, touch end, touch move, touch cancel, and multi-touch. In one example, the definition of event 1 (287-1) is a double click on the displayed object. For example, a double click includes a first touch on the displayed object for a predetermined length of time (touch start), a first lift-off on the displayed object for a predetermined length of time (touch end), a second touch on the displayed object for a predetermined length of time (touch start), and a second lift-off on the displayed object for a predetermined length of time (touch end). In another example, the definition of event 2 (287-2) is a drag on the displayed object. For example, dragging includes touching (or contacting) on the displayed object for a predetermined period of time, movement of the touch on the touch-sensitive display 212, and lifting of the touch (touch end). In some embodiments, the event also includes information for one or more associated event handlers 290.

In some embodiments, event definition 287 includes a definition of an event for a corresponding user interface object. In some implementations, event comparator 284 performs hit testing to determine which user interface object is associated with the sub-event. For example, in an application view that displays three user interface objects on touch-sensitive display 212, when a touch is detected on touch-sensitive display 212, event comparator 284 performs a hit test to determine which of the three user interface objects is associated with the touch (sub-event). If each displayed object is associated with a respective event handler 290, the event comparator uses the results of the hit test to determine which event handler 290 should be activated. For example, event comparator 284 selects the event handler associated with the sub-event and the object that triggered the hit test.

In some embodiments, the definition of the respective event (287) further includes a delay action that delays delivery of the event information until it has been determined that the sequence of sub-events does or does not correspond to an event type of the event recognizer.

When the respective event recognizer 280 determines that the sequence of sub-events does not match any of the events in the event definition 286, the respective event recognizer 280 enters an event impossible, event failed, or event end state after which subsequent sub-events of the touch-based gesture are ignored. In this case, the other event recognizers (if any) that remain active for the hit view continue to track and process sub-events of the ongoing touch-based gesture.

In some embodiments, the respective event recognizer 280 includes metadata 283 having configurable properties, flags, and/or lists that indicate how the event delivery system should perform sub-event delivery to the actively engaged event recognizer. In some embodiments, metadata 283 includes configurable attributes, flags, and/or lists that indicate how event recognizers interact or are able to interact with each other. In some embodiments, metadata 283 includes configurable attributes, flags, and/or lists that indicate whether sub-events are delivered to different levels in the view or programmatic hierarchy.

In some embodiments, when one or more particular sub-events of an event are identified, the corresponding event recognizer 280 activates an event handler 290 associated with the event. In some implementations, the respective event identifier 280 delivers event information associated with the event to the event handler 290. The activation event handler 290 is different from sending (and deferring) sub-events to the corresponding hit view. In some embodiments, event recognizer 280 throws a marker associated with the recognized event, and event handler 290 associated with the marker obtains the marker and performs a predefined process.

In some implementations, the event delivery instructions 288 include sub-event delivery instructions that deliver event information about the sub-event without activating the event handler. Instead, the sub-event delivery instructions deliver the event information to an event handler associated with the sub-event sequence or to an actively engaged view. Event handlers associated with the sequence of sub-events or with the actively engaged views receive the event information and perform a predetermined process.

In some embodiments, the data updater 276 creates and updates data used in the application 236-1. For example, the data updater 276 updates a telephone number used in the contact module 237, or stores a video file used in the video player module. In some embodiments, object updater 277 creates and updates objects used in application 236-1. For example, the object updater 277 creates a new user interface object or updates the location of the user interface object. GUI updater 278 updates the GUI. For example, the GUI updater 278 prepares display information and sends the display information to the graphics module 232 for display on a touch-sensitive display.

In some embodiments, event handler 290 includes or has access to data updater 276, object updater 277, and GUI updater 278. In some embodiments, the data updater 276, the object updater 277, and the GUI updater 278 are included in a single module of the respective application 236-1 or application view 291. In other embodiments, they are included in two or more software modules.

It should be appreciated that the above discussion regarding event handling of user touches on a touch sensitive display also applies to other forms of user inputs that utilize an input device to operate the multifunction device 200, not all of which are initiated on a touch screen. For example, mouse movements and mouse button presses optionally in conjunction with single or multiple keyboard presses or holds; contact movement on the touchpad, such as tap, drag, scroll, etc.; inputting by a touch pen; movement of the device; verbal instructions; detected eye movement; inputting biological characteristics; and/or any combination thereof is optionally used as input corresponding to sub-events defining the event to be distinguished.

Fig. 3 illustrates a portable multifunction device 200 with a touch screen 212 in accordance with some embodiments. The touch screen optionally displays one or more graphics within a User Interface (UI) 300. In this and other embodiments described below, a user can select one or more of these graphics by making a gesture on the graphics, for example, with one or more fingers 302 (not drawn to scale in the figures) or one or more styluses 303 (not drawn to scale in the figures). In some embodiments, selection of one or more graphics will occur when a user breaks contact with the one or more graphics. In some embodiments, the gesture optionally includes one or more taps, one or more swipes (left to right, right to left, up and/or down), and/or scrolling of a finger that has been in contact with the device 200 (right to left, left to right, up and/or down). In some implementations or in some cases, inadvertent contact with the graphic does not select the graphic. For example, when the gesture corresponding to the selection is a tap, a swipe gesture that swipes over an application icon optionally does not select the corresponding application.

The device 200 also includes one or more physical buttons, such as a "home" or menu button 304. As previously described, menu button 304 is used to navigate to any application 236 in a set of applications executing on device 200. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the menu buttons are implemented as soft keys in a GUI displayed on touch screen 212.

In some embodiments, device 200 includes a touch screen 212, menu buttons 304, a press button 306 for powering the device on/off and for locking the device, one or more volume adjustment buttons 308, a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card slot 310, a headset jack 312, and a docking/charging external port 224. Pressing button 306 is optionally used to turn on/off the device by pressing the button and holding the button in the pressed state for a predefined time interval; locking the device by depressing the button and releasing the button before the predefined time interval has elapsed; and/or unlock the device or initiate an unlocking process. In an alternative embodiment, the device 200 also accepts verbal input through the microphone 213 for activating or deactivating certain functions. The device 200 also optionally includes one or more contact intensity sensors 265 for detecting the intensity of contacts on the touch screen 212 and/or one or more haptic output generators 267 for generating haptic outputs for a user of the device 200.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary multifunction device with a display and a touch-sensitive surface in accordance with some embodiments. The device 400 need not be portable. In some embodiments, the device 400 is a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a tablet computer, a multimedia player device, a navigation device, an educational device (such as a child learning toy), a gaming system, or a control device (e.g., a home controller or an industrial controller). Device 400 typically includes one or more processing units (CPUs) 410, one or more network or other communication interfaces 460, memory 470, and one or more communication buses 420 for interconnecting these components. Communication bus 420 optionally includes circuitry (sometimes referred to as a chipset) that interconnects and controls communications between system components. The device 400 includes an input/output (I/O) interface 430 with a display 440, typically a touch screen display. The I/O interface 430 also optionally includes a keyboard and/or mouse (or other pointing device) 450 and a touch pad 455, a tactile output generator 457 (e.g., similar to one or more tactile output generators 267 described above with reference to fig. 2A), a sensor 459 (e.g., an optical sensor, an acceleration sensor, a proximity sensor, a touch-sensitive sensor, and/or a contact intensity sensor (similar to one or more contact intensity sensors 265 described above with reference to fig. 2A)), for generating a tactile output on the device 400. Memory 470 includes high-speed random access memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, DDRRAM or other random access solid state memory device; and optionally includes non-volatile memory such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, optical disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid state storage devices. Memory 470 optionally includes one or more storage devices located remotely from CPU 410. In some embodiments, memory 470 stores programs, modules, and data structures, or a subset thereof, similar to those stored in memory 202 of portable multifunction device 200 (fig. 2A). In addition, the memory 470 optionally stores additional programs, modules, and data structures not present in the memory 202 of the portable multifunction device 200. For example, the memory 470 of the device 400 optionally stores the drawing module 480, the presentation module 482, the word processing module 484, the website creation module 486, the disk editing module 488, and/or the spreadsheet module 490, while the memory 202 of the portable multifunction device 200 (fig. 2A) optionally does not store these modules.

Each of the above-described elements in fig. 4 are in some examples stored in one or more of the previously mentioned memory devices. Each of the above-described modules corresponds to a set of instructions for performing the above-described functions. The above-described modules or programs (e.g., sets of instructions) need not be implemented as separate software programs, procedures or modules, and thus various subsets of these modules are combined or otherwise rearranged in various embodiments. In some embodiments, memory 470 stores a subset of the modules and data structures described above. Further, the memory 470 stores additional modules and data structures not described above.

Attention is now directed to embodiments of user interfaces that may be implemented on, for example, portable multifunction device 200.

Fig. 5A illustrates an exemplary user interface of an application menu on the portable multifunction device 200 in accordance with some embodiments. A similar user interface is implemented on device 400. In some embodiments, user interface 500 includes the following elements, or a subset or superset thereof:

one or more wireless communications, such as one or more signal strength indicators 502 of cellular signals and Wi-Fi signals;

time 504;

Bluetooth indicator 505;

battery status indicator 506;

tray 508 with icons of common applications such as:

an icon 516 labeled "phone" of the o phone module 238, optionally including an indicator 514 of the number of missed calls or voice messages;

an icon 518 labeled "mail" of the o email client module 240, optionally including an indicator 510 of the number of unread emails;

an icon 520 labeled "browser" of the omicron browser module 247; and

an icon 522 labeled "iPod" of the omicron video and music player module 252 (also referred to as iPod (trademark of Apple inc. Module 252); and

icons of other applications, such as:

icon 524 of omicron IM module 241 labeled "message"; the method comprises the steps of carrying out a first treatment on the surface of the

Icon 526 labeled "calendar" of o calendar module 248; the method comprises the steps of carrying out a first treatment on the surface of the

Icon 528 of image management module 244 labeled "photo"; the method comprises the steps of carrying out a first treatment on the surface of the

An icon 530 labeled "camera" of the omicron camera module 243; the method comprises the steps of carrying out a first treatment on the surface of the

Icon 532 labeled "online video" of online video module 255; the method comprises the steps of carrying out a first treatment on the surface of the

Icon 534 labeled "stock market" of the o stock market desktop applet 249-2; the method comprises the steps of carrying out a first treatment on the surface of the

Icon 536 labeled "map" of the omicron map module 254; the method comprises the steps of carrying out a first treatment on the surface of the

Icon 538 labeled "weather" for the o weather desktop applet 249-1; the method comprises the steps of carrying out a first treatment on the surface of the

Icon 540 labeled "clock" for alarm desktop applet 249-4; the method comprises the steps of carrying out a first treatment on the surface of the

An icon 542 labeled "fitness support" for the omicron fitness support module 242; the method comprises the steps of carrying out a first treatment on the surface of the

Icon 544 labeled "notepad" of notepad module 253; and

an icon 546 labeled "set" for setting applications or modules, which provides access to the settings of device 200 and its various applications 236.

It should be noted that the iconic labels shown in fig. 5A are merely exemplary. For example, the icon 522 of the video and music player module 252 is optionally labeled "music" or "music player". Other labels are optionally used for various application icons. In some embodiments, the label of the respective application icon includes a name of the application corresponding to the respective application icon. In some embodiments, the label of a particular application icon is different from the name of the application corresponding to the particular application icon.

Fig. 5B illustrates an exemplary user interface on a device (e.g., device 400 of fig. 4) having a touch-sensitive surface 551 (e.g., tablet or touch pad 455 of fig. 4) separate from a display 550 (e.g., touch screen display 212). The device 400 also optionally includes one or more contact intensity sensors (e.g., one or more of the sensors 459) for detecting the intensity of contacts on the touch-sensitive surface 551 and/or one or more tactile output generators 457 for generating tactile outputs for a user of the device 400.

While some of the examples that follow will be given with reference to inputs on touch screen display 212 (where the touch sensitive surface and the display are combined), in some embodiments the device detects inputs on a touch sensitive surface that is separate from the display, as shown in fig. 5B. In some implementations, the touch-sensitive surface (e.g., 551 in fig. 5B) has a primary axis (e.g., 552 in fig. 5B) that corresponds to the primary axis (e.g., 553 in fig. 5B) on the display (e.g., 550). According to these embodiments, the device detects contact (e.g., 560 and 562 in fig. 5B) with the touch-sensitive surface 551 at a location (e.g., 560 corresponds to 568 and 562 corresponds to 570 in fig. 5B) corresponding to the respective location on the display. In this way, user inputs (e.g., contacts 560 and 562 and their movements) detected by the device on the touch-sensitive surface (e.g., 551 in FIG. 5B) are used by the device to manipulate a user interface on the display (e.g., 550 in FIG. 5B) of the multifunction device when the touch-sensitive surface is separated from the device. It should be appreciated that similar approaches are optionally used for other user interfaces described herein.

Additionally, while the following examples are primarily given with reference to finger inputs (e.g., finger contacts, single-finger flick gestures, finger swipe gestures), it should be understood that in some embodiments one or more of these finger inputs are replaced by input from another input device (e.g., mouse-based input or stylus input). For example, a swipe gesture is optionally replaced with a mouse click (e.g., rather than a contact), followed by movement of the cursor along the path of the swipe (e.g., rather than movement of the contact). As another example, a flick gesture is optionally replaced by a mouse click (e.g., instead of detection of contact, followed by ceasing to detect contact) when the cursor is over the position of the flick gesture. Similarly, when multiple user inputs are detected simultaneously, it should be appreciated that multiple computer mice are optionally used simultaneously, or that the mice and finger contacts are optionally used simultaneously.

Fig. 6A illustrates an exemplary personal electronic device 600. The device 600 includes a body 602. In some embodiments, device 600 includes some or all of the features described with respect to devices 200 and 400 (e.g., fig. 2A-4). In some implementations, the device 600 has a touch sensitive display 604, hereinafter referred to as a touch screen 604. In addition to or in lieu of the touch screen 604, the device 600 has a display and a touch-sensitive surface. As with devices 200 and 400, in some implementations, touch screen 604 (or touch-sensitive surface) has one or more intensity sensors for detecting the intensity of a contact (e.g., touch) being applied. One or more intensity sensors of the touch screen 604 (or touch sensitive surface) provide output data representative of the intensity of the touch. The user interface of device 600 responds to touches based on touch strength, meaning that touches of different strengths may invoke different user interface operations on device 600.

Techniques for detecting and processing touch intensity may exist, for example, in related applications: international patent application serial number PCT/US2013/040061, filed 5/8 a 2013, method, and Graphical User Interface for Displaying User Interface Objects Corresponding to an Application, and international patent application serial number PCT/US2013/069483, filed 11 a 2013, method, and Graphical User Interface for Transitioning Between Touch Input to Display Output Relationships, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

In some embodiments, the device 600 has one or more input mechanisms 606 and 608. Input mechanisms 606 and 608 (if included) are in physical form. Examples of physical input mechanisms include push buttons and rotatable mechanisms. In some embodiments, the device 600 has one or more attachment mechanisms. Such attachment mechanisms, if included, may allow for attachment of the device 600 to, for example, a hat, glasses, earrings, necklace, shirt, jacket, bracelet, watchband, bracelet, pants, leash, shoe, purse, backpack, or the like. These attachment mechanisms allow the user to wear the device 600.

Fig. 6B illustrates an exemplary personal electronic device 600. In some embodiments, the apparatus 600 includes some or all of the components described with respect to fig. 2A, 2B, and 4. The device 600 has a bus 612 that operatively couples an I/O section 614 to one or more computer processors 616 and memory 618. The I/O section 614 is connected to a display 604, which may have a touch sensitive member 622 and optionally also a touch intensity sensitive member 624. In addition, the I/O portion 614 is connected to a communication unit 630 for receiving application and operating system data using Wi-Fi, bluetooth, near Field Communication (NFC), cellular, and/or other wireless communication technologies. The device 600 includes input mechanisms 606 and/or 608. For example, input mechanism 606 is a rotatable input device or a depressible input device and a rotatable input device. In some examples, input mechanism 608 is a button.

In some examples, input mechanism 608 is a microphone. The personal electronic device 600 includes, for example, various sensors, such as a GPS sensor 632, an accelerometer 634, an orientation sensor 640 (e.g., a compass), a gyroscope 636, a motion sensor 638, and/or combinations thereof, all of which are operatively connected to the I/O section 614.

The memory 618 of the personal electronic device 600 is a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more computer processors 616, for example, cause the computer processors to perform the techniques and processes described above. The computer-executable instructions are also stored and/or transmitted, for example, within any non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, or other system that can fetch the instructions from the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. The personal electronic device 600 is not limited to the components and configuration of fig. 6B, but may include other components or additional components in a variety of configurations.

As used herein, the term "affordance" refers to a user-interactive graphical user interface object displayed, for example, on a display screen of devices 200, 400, 600, 800, and/or 900 (fig. 2A, 4, 6A-6B, 8A-8H, 9A-9F, and 10A-10D). For example, images (e.g., icons), buttons, and text (e.g., hyperlinks) each constitute an affordance.

As used herein, the term "focus selector" refers to an input element for indicating the current portion of a user interface with which a user is interacting. In some implementations that include a cursor or other position marker, the cursor acts as a "focus selector" such that when the cursor detects an input (e.g., presses an input) on a touch-sensitive surface (e.g., touch pad 455 in fig. 4 or touch-sensitive surface 551 in fig. 5B) above a particular user interface element (e.g., a button, window, slider, or other user interface element), the particular user interface element is adjusted according to the detected input. In some implementations including a touch screen display (e.g., touch sensitive display system 212 in fig. 2A or touch screen 212 in fig. 5A) that enables direct interaction with user interface elements on the touch screen display, the contact detected on the touch screen acts as a "focus selector" such that when an input (e.g., a press input by a contact) is detected on the touch screen display at the location of a particular user interface element (e.g., a button, window, slider, or other user interface element), the particular user interface element is adjusted in accordance with the detected input. In some implementations, the focus is moved from one area of the user interface to another area of the user interface without a corresponding movement of the cursor or movement of contact on the touch screen display (e.g., by moving the focus from one button to another using a tab key or arrow key); in these implementations, the focus selector moves according to movement of the focus between different areas of the user interface. Regardless of the particular form that the focus selector takes, the focus selector is typically controlled by the user in order to deliver a user interface element (or contact on the touch screen display) that is interactive with the user of the user interface (e.g., by indicating to the device the element with which the user of the user interface desires to interact). For example, upon detection of a press input on a touch-sensitive surface (e.g., a touchpad or touch screen), the position of a focus selector (e.g., a cursor, contact, or selection box) over a respective button will indicate that the user desires to activate the respective button (rather than other user interface elements shown on the device display).

As used in the specification and claims, the term "characteristic intensity" of a contact refers to the characteristic of a contact based on one or more intensities of the contact. In some embodiments, the characteristic intensity is based on a plurality of intensity samples. The characteristic intensity is optionally based on a predefined number of intensity samples or a set of intensity samples acquired during a predetermined period of time (e.g., 0.05 seconds, 0.1 seconds, 0.2 seconds, 0.5 seconds, 1 second, 2 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds) relative to a predefined event (e.g., after detection of contact, before or after detection of lift-off of contact, before or after detection of start of movement of contact, before or after detection of end of contact, and/or before or after detection of decrease in intensity of contact). The characteristic intensity of the contact is optionally based on one or more of: maximum value of contact strength, average value of contact strength, value at the first 10% of contact strength, half maximum value of contact strength, 90% maximum value of contact strength, etc. In some embodiments, the duration of the contact is used in determining the characteristic intensity (e.g., when the characteristic intensity is an average of the intensity of the contact over time). In some embodiments, the characteristic intensity is compared to a set of one or more intensity thresholds to determine whether the user has performed an operation. For example, the set of one or more intensity thresholds includes a first intensity threshold and a second intensity threshold. In this example, contact of the feature strength that does not exceed the first threshold results in a first operation, contact of the feature strength that exceeds the first strength threshold but does not exceed the second strength threshold results in a second operation, and contact of the feature strength that exceeds the second threshold results in a third operation. In some implementations, a comparison between the feature strength and one or more thresholds is used to determine whether to perform one or more operations (e.g., whether to perform the respective operation or to forgo performing the respective operation) instead of being used to determine whether to perform the first operation or the second operation.

In some implementations, a portion of the gesture is identified for determining a feature strength. For example, the touch-sensitive surface receives a continuous swipe contact that transitions from a starting position and to an ending position where the intensity of the contact increases. In this example, the characteristic intensity of the contact at the end position is based only on a portion of the continuous swipe contact, rather than the entire swipe contact (e.g., the portion of the swipe contact located only at the end position). In some embodiments, a smoothing algorithm is applied to the intensity of the swipe contact before determining the characteristic intensity of the contact. For example, the smoothing algorithm optionally includes one or more of the following: an unweighted moving average smoothing algorithm, a triangular smoothing algorithm, a median filter smoothing algorithm, and/or an exponential smoothing algorithm. In some cases, these smoothing algorithms eliminate narrow spikes or depressions in the intensity of the swipe contact for the purpose of determining the characteristic intensity.

The intensity of the contact on the touch-sensitive surface is characterized relative to one or more intensity thresholds, such as a contact detection intensity threshold, a light press intensity threshold, a deep press intensity threshold, and/or one or more other intensity thresholds. In some embodiments, the tap strength threshold corresponds to a strength of: at this intensity the device will perform the operations normally associated with clicking a button of a physical mouse or touch pad. In some embodiments, the deep compression intensity threshold corresponds to an intensity of: at this intensity the device will perform an operation that is different from the operation normally associated with clicking a physical mouse or a button of a touch pad. In some implementations, when a contact is detected with a characteristic intensity below a light press intensity threshold (e.g., and above a nominal contact detection intensity threshold, a contact below the nominal contact detection intensity threshold is no longer detected), the device will move the focus selector according to movement of the contact over the touch-sensitive surface without performing an operation associated with the light press intensity threshold or the deep press intensity threshold. Generally, unless otherwise stated, these intensity thresholds are consistent across different sets of user interface drawings.

The increase in contact characteristic intensity from an intensity below the light press intensity threshold to an intensity between the light press intensity threshold and the deep press intensity threshold is sometimes referred to as a "light press" input. The increase in contact characteristic intensity from an intensity below the deep-press intensity threshold to an intensity above the deep-press intensity threshold is sometimes referred to as a "deep-press" input. The increase in the contact characteristic intensity from an intensity below the contact detection intensity threshold to an intensity between the contact detection intensity threshold and the light press intensity threshold is sometimes referred to as detecting a contact on the touch surface. The decrease in the contact characteristic intensity from an intensity above the contact detection intensity threshold to an intensity below the contact detection intensity threshold is sometimes referred to as detecting a lift-off of contact from the touch surface. In some embodiments, the contact detection intensity threshold is zero. In some embodiments, the contact detection intensity threshold is greater than zero.

In some implementations described herein, one or more operations are performed in response to detecting a gesture that includes a respective press input or in response to detecting a respective press input performed with a respective contact (or contacts), wherein a respective press input is detected based at least in part on detecting an increase in intensity of the contact (or contacts) above a press input intensity threshold. In some implementations, the respective operation is performed in response to detecting that the intensity of the respective contact increases above a press input intensity threshold (e.g., a "downstroke" of the respective press input). In some embodiments, the press input includes an increase in intensity of the respective contact above a press input intensity threshold and a subsequent decrease in intensity of the contact below the press input intensity threshold, and the respective operation is performed in response to detecting the subsequent decrease in intensity of the respective contact below the press input threshold (e.g., an "upstroke" of the respective press input).

In some implementations, the device employs intensity hysteresis to avoid accidental inputs, sometimes referred to as "jitter," in which the device defines or selects a hysteresis intensity threshold that has a predefined relationship to the compression input intensity threshold (e.g., the hysteresis intensity threshold is X intensity units lower than the compression input intensity threshold, or the hysteresis intensity threshold is 75%, 90%, or some reasonable proportion of the compression input intensity threshold). Thus, in some embodiments, the press input includes an increase in the intensity of the respective contact above a press input intensity threshold and a subsequent decrease in the intensity of the contact below a hysteresis intensity threshold corresponding to the press input intensity threshold, and the respective operation is performed in response to detecting that the intensity of the respective contact subsequently decreases below the hysteresis intensity threshold (e.g., an "upstroke" of the respective press input). Similarly, in some embodiments, a press input is detected only when the device detects an increase in contact intensity from an intensity at or below the hysteresis intensity threshold to an intensity at or above the press input intensity threshold and optionally a subsequent decrease in contact intensity to an intensity at or below the hysteresis intensity, and a corresponding operation is performed in response to detecting a press input (e.g., an increase in contact intensity or a decrease in contact intensity depending on the circumstances).

For ease of explanation, optionally, a description of operations performed in response to a press input associated with a press input intensity threshold or in response to a gesture comprising a press input is triggered in response to detecting any of the following: the contact strength increases above the compression input strength threshold, the contact strength increases from an intensity below the hysteresis strength threshold to an intensity above the compression input strength threshold, the contact strength decreases below the compression input strength threshold, and/or the contact strength decreases below the hysteresis strength threshold corresponding to the compression input strength threshold. In addition, in examples where the operation is described as being performed in response to the intensity of the detected contact decreasing below a press input intensity threshold, the operation is optionally performed in response to the intensity of the detected contact decreasing below a hysteresis intensity threshold that corresponds to and is less than the press input intensity threshold.

3. Digital assistant system

Fig. 7A illustrates a block diagram of a digital assistant system 700, according to various examples. In some examples, the digital assistant system 700 is implemented on a standalone computer system. In some examples, digital assistant system 700 is distributed across multiple computers. In some examples, some of the modules and functions of the digital assistant are divided into a server portion and a client portion, where the client portion is located on one or more user devices (e.g., devices 104, 122, 200, 400, 600, 800, or 900) and communicates with the server portion (e.g., server system 108) over one or more networks, for example, as shown in fig. 1. In some examples, digital assistant system 700 is a specific implementation of server system 108 (and/or DA server 106) shown in fig. 1. It should be noted that digital assistant system 700 is only one example of a digital assistant system, and that digital assistant system 700 has more or fewer components than shown, combines two or more components, or may have a different configuration or layout of components. The various components shown in fig. 7A are implemented in hardware, in software instructions for execution by one or more processors, in firmware (including one or more signal processing integrated circuits and/or application specific integrated circuits), or in combinations thereof.

The digital assistant system 700 includes a memory 702, an input/output (I/O) interface 706, a network communication interface 708, and one or more processors 704. These components may communicate with each other via one or more communication buses or signal lines 710.

In some examples, memory 702 includes non-transitory computer-readable media such as high-speed random access memory and/or non-volatile computer-readable storage media (e.g., one or more disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid state memory devices).

In some examples, the I/O interface 706 couples input/output devices 716 of the digital assistant system 700, such as a display, a keyboard, a touch screen, and a microphone, to the user interface module 722. The I/O interface 706, along with the user interface module 722, receives user input (e.g., voice input, keyboard input, touch input, etc.) and processes the input accordingly. In some examples, for example, when the digital assistant is implemented on a standalone user device, the digital assistant system 700 includes any of the components and I/O communication interfaces described with respect to the devices 200, 400, 600, 800, or 900 in fig. 2A, 4, 6A-6B, 8A-8H, 9A-9F, and 10A-10D. In some examples, digital assistant system 700 represents a server portion of a digital assistant implementation and may interact with a user through a client-side portion located on a user device (e.g., device 104, 200, 400, 600, 800, or 900).

In some examples, the network communication interface 708 includes one or more wired communication ports 712 and/or wireless transmit and receive circuitry 714. One or more wired communication ports receive and transmit communication signals via one or more wired interfaces, such as ethernet, universal Serial Bus (USB), FIREWIRE, etc. The wireless circuitry 714 receives and transmits RF signals and/or optical signals from and to a communication network and other communication devices. The wireless communication uses any of a variety of communication standards, protocols, and technologies, such as GSM, EDGE, CDMA, TDMA, bluetooth, wi-Fi, voIP, wi-MAX, or any other suitable communication protocol. Network communication interface 708 enables communication between digital assistant system 700 and other devices via a network, such as the internet, an intranet, and/or a wireless network, such as a cellular telephone network, a wireless Local Area Network (LAN), and/or a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN).

In some examples, memory 702 or a computer-readable storage medium of memory 702 stores programs, modules, instructions, and data structures, including all or a subset of the following: an operating system 718, a communication module 720, a user interface module 722, one or more application programs 724, and a digital assistant module 726. In particular, the memory 702 or a computer readable storage medium of the memory 702 stores instructions for performing the processes described above. One or more processors 704 execute these programs, modules, and instructions and read data from and write data to the data structures.

Operating system 718 (e.g., darwin, RTXC, LINUX, UNIX, iOS, OS X, WINDOWS, or an embedded operating system such as VxWorks) includes various software components and/or drivers for controlling and managing general system tasks (e.g., memory management, storage device control, power management, etc.), and facilitates communication between the various hardware, firmware, and software components.

The communication module 720 facilitates communication between the digital assistant system 700 and other devices via the network communication interface 708. For example, the communication module 720 communicates with the RF circuitry 208 of an electronic device (such as the device 200, 400, or 600 shown in fig. 2A, 4, 6A-6B, respectively). The communication module 720 also includes various components for processing data received by the wireless circuit 714 and/or the wired communication port 712.

The user interface module 722 receives commands and/or input from a user (e.g., from a keyboard, touch screen, pointing device, controller, and/or microphone) via the I/O interface 706 and generates user interface objects on a display. The user interface module 722 also prepares and communicates output (e.g., voice, sound, animation, text, icons, vibration, haptic feedback, illumination, etc.) to the user via the I/O interface 706 (e.g., through a display, audio channel, speaker, touch pad, etc.).

Application programs 724 include programs and/or modules configured to be executed by the one or more processors 704. For example, if the digital assistant system is implemented on a standalone user device, the applications 724 include user applications such as games, calendar applications, navigation applications, or mail applications. If the digital assistant system 700 is implemented on a server, the applications 724 include, for example, a resource management application, a diagnostic application, or a scheduling application.

The memory 702 also stores a digital assistant module 726 (or server portion of the digital assistant). In some examples, digital assistant module 726 includes the following sub-modules, or a subset or superset thereof: an input/output processing module 728, a Speech To Text (STT) processing module 730, a natural language processing module 732, a dialog flow processing module 734, a task flow processing module 736, a services processing module 738, and a speech synthesis processing module 740. Each of these modules has access to one or more of the following systems or data and models of digital assistant module 726, or a subset or superset thereof: ontology 760, vocabulary index 744, user data 748, task flow model 754, service model 756, and ASR system 758.

In some examples, using the processing modules, data, and models implemented in digital assistant module 726, the digital assistant may perform at least some of the following: converting the speech input into text; identifying a user intent expressed in natural language input received from a user; actively elicit and obtain information needed to fully infer the user's intent (e.g., by disambiguating words, games, intent, etc.); determining a task flow for satisfying the inferred intent; and executing the task flow to satisfy the inferred intent.

In some examples, as shown in fig. 7B, I/O processing module 728 may interact with a user via I/O device 716 in fig. 7A or interact with a user device (e.g., device 104, device 200, device 400, or device 600) via network communication interface 708 in fig. 7A to obtain user input (e.g., voice input) and provide a response to the user input (e.g., as voice output). The I/O processing module 728 optionally obtains contextual information associated with the user input from the user device along with or shortly after receiving the user input. The contextual information includes user-specific data, vocabulary, and/or preferences related to user input. In some examples, the context information further includes software state and hardware state of the user device at the time the user request is received, and/or information related to the user's surroundings at the time the user request is received. In some examples, the I/O processing module 728 also sends follow-up questions related to the user request to the user and receives answers from the user. When a user request is received by the I/O processing module 728 and the user request includes a voice input, the I/O processing module 728 forwards the voice input to the STT processing module 730 (or speech recognizer) for voice-to-text conversion.

The STT processing module 730 includes one or more ASR systems 758. The one or more ASR systems 758 may process speech input received through the I/O processing module 728 to produce recognition results. Each ASR system 758 includes a front-end speech pre-processor. The front-end speech pre-processor extracts representative features from the speech input. For example, the front-end speech pre-processor performs a fourier transform on the speech input to extract spectral features characterizing the speech input as a sequence of representative multidimensional vectors. In addition, each ASR system 758 includes one or more speech recognition models (e.g., acoustic models and/or language models) and implements one or more speech recognition engines. Examples of speech recognition models include hidden Markov models, gaussian mixture models, deep neural network models, n-gram language models, and other statistical models. Examples of speech recognition engines include dynamic time warping based engines and Weighted Finite State Transducer (WFST) based engines. The extracted representative features of the front-end speech pre-processor are processed using one or more speech recognition models and one or more speech recognition engines to produce intermediate recognition results (e.g., phonemes, phoneme strings, and sub-words), and ultimately text recognition results (e.g., words, word strings, or symbol sequences). In some examples, the voice input is processed at least in part by a third party service or on a device of the user (e.g., device 104, device 200, device 400, or device 600) to produce the recognition result. Once STT processing module 730 generates a recognition result that includes a text string (e.g., a word, or a sequence of words, or a sequence of symbols), the recognition result is passed to natural language processing module 732 for intent inference. In some examples, the STT processing module 730 generates a plurality of candidate text representations of the speech input. Each candidate text representation is a sequence of words or symbols corresponding to a speech input. In some examples, each candidate text representation is associated with a speech recognition confidence score. Based on the speech recognition confidence scores, the STT processing module 730 ranks the candidate text representations and provides the n best (e.g., the n highest ranked) candidate text representations to the natural language processing module 732 for intent inference, where n is a predetermined integer greater than zero. For example, in one example, only the highest ranked (n=1) candidate text representations are delivered to the natural language processing module 732 for intent inference. In another example, the five highest ranked (n=5) candidate text representations are passed to the natural language processing module 732 for intent inference.

Further details regarding speech-to-text processing are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/236942, entitled "Consolidating Speech Recognition Results," filed on even date 20 at 9 and 2011, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

In some examples, the STT processing module 730 includes a vocabulary of recognizable words and/or a passed wordThe vocabulary is accessed by the phonetic alphabet conversion module 731. Each vocabulary word is associated with one or more candidate pronunciations for the word represented in the speech recognition phonetic alphabet. In particular, the vocabulary of recognizable words includes words associated with a plurality of candidate pronunciations. For example, the vocabulary includes andand->The word "match" associated with the candidate pronunciation of (c). In addition, the vocabulary words are associated with custom candidate pronunciations based on previous speech input from the user. Such custom candidate pronunciations are stored in the STT processing module 730 and are associated with a particular user via a user profile on the device. In some examples, the candidate pronunciation of the word is determined based on the spelling of the word and one or more linguistic and/or phonetic rules. In some examples, the candidate pronunciation is generated manually, e.g., based on a known standard pronunciation.

In some examples, candidate pronunciations are ranked based on their popularity. For example, candidate pronunciationRanking of (2) is higher than +.>As the former is a more common pronunciation (e.g., for users in a particular geographic region, or for any other suitable subset of users, among all users). In some examples, candidate pronunciations are ranked based on whether the candidate pronunciations are custom candidate pronunciations associated with the user. For example, custom candidate pronunciations are ranked higher than standard candidate pronunciations. This can be used to identify proper nouns having unique pronunciations that deviate from the canonical pronunciation. In some examples, the candidate pronunciation is associated with one or more speech features such as geographic origin, country, or race. For example, candidate pronunciation +.>Associated with the United states, and candidate pronunciation +.> Associated with the uk. Further, the ranking of candidate pronunciations is based on one or more characteristics (e.g., geographic origin, country, race, etc.) of the user in a user profile stored on the device. For example, the user may be determined from a user profile to be associated with the united states. Candidate pronunciation +.>Comparable candidate pronunciation +. >The ranking (associated with the uk) is higher. In some examples, one of the ranked candidate pronunciations may be selected as a predicted pronunciation (e.g., the most likely pronunciation).

Upon receiving a speech input, the STT processing module 730 is used to determine a phoneme corresponding to the speech input (e.g., using a voice model) and then attempt to determine a word that matches the phoneme (e.g., using a voice model). For example, if the STT processing module 730 first identifies a phoneme sequence corresponding to a portion of the speech inputIt may then determine that the sequence corresponds to the word "match" based on the vocabulary index 744.

In some examples, STT processing module 730 uses fuzzy matching techniques to determine words in the utterance. Thus, for example, the STT processing module 730 determines a phoneme sequenceCorresponding to words'A match ", even if the particular phoneme sequence is not a candidate phoneme sequence for the word.

The natural language processing module 732 of the digital assistant ("natural language processor") obtains the n best candidate textual representations ("word sequences" or "symbol sequences") generated by the STT processing module 730 and attempts to associate each candidate textual representation with one or more "actionable intents" identified by the digital assistant. "actionable intent" (or "user intent") represents a task that may be executed by a digital assistant and that may have an associated task flow implemented in task flow model 754. An associated task flow is a series of programmed actions and steps taken by the digital assistant to perform a task. The scope of the capabilities of the digital assistant depends on the number and variety of task flows that have been implemented and stored in the task flow model 754, or in other words, the number and variety of "actionable intents" identified by the digital assistant. However, the effectiveness of a digital assistant also depends on the ability of the assistant to infer the correct "one or more actionable intents" from user requests expressed in natural language.

In some examples, the natural language processing module 732 receives contextual information associated with the user request, for example, from the I/O processing module 728, in addition to the sequence of words or symbols obtained from the STT processing module 730. The natural language processing module 732 optionally uses the contextual information to clarify, supplement, and/or further define the information contained in the candidate text representations received from the STT processing module 730. The context information includes, for example, user preferences, hardware and/or software status of the user device, sensor information collected before, during, or shortly after a user request, previous interactions (e.g., conversations) between the digital assistant and the user, and so forth. As described herein, in some examples, the contextual information is dynamic and varies with time, location, content, and other factors of the conversation.

In some examples, natural language processing is based on, for example, ontology 760. Ontology 760 is a hierarchical structure that contains a number of nodes, each representing an "actionable intent" or "attribute" that is related to one or more of the "actionable intents" or other "attributes. As described above, "executable intent" refers to a task that a digital assistant is capable of performing, i.e., that the task is "executable" or can be performed. An "attribute" represents a parameter associated with a sub-aspect of an actionable intent or another attribute. The connections between the actionable intent nodes and the attribute nodes in ontology 760 define how the parameters represented by the attribute nodes pertain to the tasks represented by the actionable intent nodes.

In some examples, ontology 760 is composed of actionable intent nodes and attribute nodes. Within ontology 760, each actionable intent node is connected directly to or through one or more intermediate attribute nodes to one or more attribute nodes. Similarly, each attribute node is connected directly to or through one or more intermediate attribute nodes to one or more actionable intent nodes. For example, as shown in fig. 7C, ontology 760 includes a "restaurant reservation" node (i.e., an actionable intent node). The attribute nodes "restaurant", "date/time" (for reservation) and "party size" are each directly connected to the executable intent node (i.e., the "restaurant reservation" node).

Further, the attribute nodes "cuisine", "price section", "telephone number", and "location" are child nodes of the attribute node "restaurant", and are each connected to the "restaurant reservation" node (i.e., executable intention node) through the intermediate attribute node "restaurant". As another example, as shown in fig. 7C, ontology 760 also includes a "set reminder" node (i.e., another actionable intent node). The attribute nodes "date/time" (for setting reminders) and "topic" (for reminders) are both connected to the "set reminders" node. Since the attribute "date/time" is related to both the task of making a restaurant reservation and the task of setting a reminder, the attribute node "date/time" is connected to both the "restaurant reservation" node and the "set reminder" node in the ontology 760.

The actionable intent node, along with its linked attribute nodes, is described as a "domain". In this discussion, each domain is associated with a respective actionable intent and refers to a set of nodes (and relationships between those nodes) associated with a particular actionable intent. For example, ontology 760 shown in fig. 7C includes an example of restaurant reservation field 762 and an example of reminder field 764 within ontology 760. The restaurant reservation domain includes executable intent nodes "restaurant reservation," attribute nodes "restaurant," date/time, "and" party number, "and sub-attribute nodes" cuisine, "" price range, "" phone number, "and" location. The reminder field 764 includes executable intent nodes "set reminder" and attribute nodes "subject" and "date/time". In some examples, ontology 760 is composed of a plurality of domains. Each domain shares one or more attribute nodes with one or more other domains. For example, in addition to the restaurant reservation field 762 and the reminder field 764, a "date/time" attribute node is associated with many different fields (e.g., a travel reservation field, a movie ticket field, etc.).

Although fig. 7C shows two exemplary fields within ontology 760, other fields include, for example, "find movie," "initiate phone call," "find direction," "schedule meeting," "send message," and "provide answer to question," "read list," "provide navigation instructions," "provide instructions for task," and so forth. The "send message" field is associated with a "send message" actionable intent node and further includes attribute nodes such as "one or more recipients", "message type", and "message body". The attribute node "recipient" is further defined, for example, by sub-attribute nodes such as "recipient name" and "message address".

In some examples, ontology 760 includes all domains (and thus executable intents) that the digital assistant can understand and work with. In some examples, ontology 760 is modified, such as by adding or removing an entire domain or node, or by modifying relationships between nodes within ontology 760.

In some examples, nodes associated with multiple related actionable intents are clustered under a "superdomain" in ontology 760. For example, a "travel" super domain includes a cluster of travel-related attribute nodes and actionable intent nodes. Executable intent nodes associated with travel include "airline reservations," "hotel reservations," "car rentals," "route planning," "finding points of interest," and so forth. An actionable intent node under the same super domain (e.g., a "travel" super domain) has multiple attribute nodes in common. For example, executable intent nodes for "airline reservations," hotel reservations, "" car rentals, "" get routes, "and" find points of interest "share one or more of the attribute nodes" start location, "" destination, "" departure date/time, "" arrival date/time, "and" party number.

In some examples, each node in ontology 760 is associated with a set of words and/or phrases that are related to the attribute or actionable intent represented by the node. The respective set of words and/or phrases associated with each node is a so-called "vocabulary" associated with the node. A respective set of words and/or phrases associated with each node is stored in a vocabulary index 744 associated with the attribute or actionable intent represented by the node. For example, returning to FIG. 7B, the vocabulary associated with the node of the "restaurant" attribute includes words such as "food," "drink," "cuisine," "hunger," "eat," "pizza," "fast food," "meal," and the like. As another example, words associated with a node that "initiates a telephone call" may perform intent include words and phrases such as "call," "make a call to … …," "call the number," "make a phone call," and the like. The vocabulary index 744 optionally includes words and phrases in different languages.

The natural language processing module 732 receives the candidate text representations (e.g., one or more text strings or one or more symbol sequences) from the STT processing module 730 and, for each candidate representation, determines which nodes the words in the candidate text representation relate to. In some examples, a word or phrase in the candidate text representation "triggers" or "activates" those nodes if it is found to be associated (via the vocabulary index 744) with one or more nodes in the ontology 760. Based on the number and/or relative importance of activated nodes, the natural language processing module 732 selects one of the executable intents as a task that the user intends the digital assistant to perform. In some examples, the domain with the most "triggered" nodes is selected. In some examples, the domain with the highest confidence (e.g., based on the relative importance of its respective triggered node) is selected. In some examples, the domain is selected based on a combination of the number and importance of triggered nodes. In some examples, additional factors are also considered in selecting the node, such as whether the digital assistant has previously properly interpreted a similar request from the user.

The user data 748 includes user-specific information such as user-specific vocabulary, user preferences, user addresses, user's default second language, user's contact list, and other short-term or long-term information for each user. In some examples, the natural language processing module 732 uses user-specific information to supplement information contained in the user input to further define the user intent. For example, for a user request "invite my friends to my birthday party," the natural language processing module 732 can access the user data 748 to determine what the "friends" are and when and where the "birthday party" will be held without requiring the user to explicitly provide such information in his request.

It should be appreciated that in some examples, the natural language processing module 732 is implemented with one or more machine learning mechanisms (e.g., a neural network). In particular, the one or more machine learning mechanisms are configured to receive a candidate text representation and context information associated with the candidate text representation. Based on the candidate text representations and the associated context information, the one or more machine learning mechanisms are configured to determine an intent confidence score based on a set of candidate executable intents. The natural language processing module 732 may select one or more candidate actionable intents from a set of candidate actionable intents based on the determined intent confidence scores. In some examples, an ontology (e.g., ontology 760) is also utilized to select one or more candidate actionable intents from a set of candidate actionable intents.

Additional details of searching for ontologies based on symbol strings are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/347743, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Searching Using An Active Ontology," filed on 12/22 of 2008, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

In some examples, once the natural language processing module 732 identifies an actionable intent (or domain) based on a user request, the natural language processing module 732 generates a structured query to represent the identified actionable intent. In some examples, the structured query includes parameters for one or more nodes within the domain of the actionable intent, and at least some of the parameters are populated with specific information and requirements specified in the user request. For example, the user says "help me reserve a seat at 7 pm at sushi store. "in this case, the natural language processing module 732 is able to correctly identify the actionable intent as" restaurant reservation "based on user input. According to the ontology, the structured query of the "restaurant reservation" field includes parameters such as { cuisine }, { time }, { date }, { party number }, and the like. In some examples, based on the speech input and text derived from the speech input using STT processing module 730, natural language processing module 732 generates a partially structured query for the restaurant reservation domain, where the partially structured query includes parameters { cuisine = "sushi class" }, and { time = "7 pm" }. However, in this example, the user utterance contains insufficient information to complete the structured query associated with the domain. Thus, based on the currently available information, other necessary parameters such as { party number } and { date } are not specified in the structured query. In some examples, the natural language processing module 732 populates some parameters of the structured query with the received contextual information. For example, in some examples, if the user requests a "nearby" sushi store, the natural language processing module 732 populates { location } parameters in the structured query with GPS coordinates from the user device.

In some examples, the natural language processing module 732 identifies a plurality of candidate actionable intents for each candidate text representation received from the STT processing module 730. Additionally, in some examples, a respective structured query is generated (partially or wholly) for each identified candidate executable intent. The natural language processing module 732 determines an intent confidence score for each candidate actionable intent and ranks the candidate actionable intents based on the intent confidence scores. In some examples, the natural language processing module 732 communicates the generated one or more structured queries (including any completed parameters) to the task flow processing module 736 ("task flow processor"). In some examples, one or more structured queries for the m best (e.g., m highest ranked) candidate executable intents are provided to the task flow processing module 736, where m is a predetermined integer greater than zero. In some examples, one or more structured queries for the m best candidate actionable intents are provided to the task flow processing module 736 along with the corresponding one or more candidate text representations.

Additional details for inferring user intent based on a plurality of candidate actionable intents determined from a plurality of candidate textual representations of a speech input are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/298725, entitled "System and Method for Inferring User Intent From Speech Inputs," filed 6/2014, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

Task flow processing module 736 is configured to receive one or more structured queries from natural language processing module 732, complete the structured queries (if necessary), and perform the actions required to "complete" the user's final request. In some examples, the various processes necessary to accomplish these tasks are provided in the task flow model 754. In some examples, the task flow model 754 includes a process for obtaining additional information from a user, as well as a task flow for performing actions associated with executable intents.

As described above, to complete a structured query, task flow processing module 736 needs to initiate additional conversations with the user in order to obtain additional information and/or ascertain possibly ambiguous utterances. When such interactions are necessary, the task flow processing module 736 invokes the dialog flow processing module 734 to engage in a dialog with the user. In some examples, the dialog flow processor module 734 determines how (and/or when) to request additional information from the user and receives and processes user responses. Questions are provided to and answers are received from users through I/O processing module 728. In some examples, the dialog flow processing module 734 presents dialog outputs to the user via audible and/or visual outputs and receives input from the user via verbal or physical (e.g., click) responses. Continuing with the example above, when task flow processing module 736 invokes dialog flow processing module 734 to determine "party number" and "date" information for a structured query associated with the domain "restaurant reservation," dialog flow processing module 734 generates a query such as "several digits in a row? "and" what day to subscribe? "and the like. Upon receipt of an answer from the user, the dialog flow processing module 734 populates the structured query with missing information or passes information to the task flow processing module 736 to complete the missing information based on the structured query.

Once the task flow processing module 736 has completed the structured query for the executable intent, the task flow processing module 736 begins executing the final tasks associated with the executable intent. Accordingly, the task flow processing module 736 performs the steps and instructions in the task flow model according to the specific parameters contained in the structured query. For example, a task flow model for an actionable intent "restaurant reservation" includes steps and instructions for contacting a restaurant and actually requesting a reservation for a particular party number at a particular time. For example, using structured queries such as: { restaurant reservation, restaurant=abc cafe, date=3/12/2012, time=7pm, party number=5 }, the task flow processing module 736 can perform the following steps: (1) Logging into a server of an ABC cafe or such as(2) entering date, time, and dispatch information in the form of a web site, (3) submitting a form, and (4) forming calendar entries for reservations in the user's calendar.

In some examples, the task flow processing module 736 completes the tasks requested in the user input or provides the informational answers requested in the user input with the aid of a service processing module 738 ("service processing module"). For example, the service processing module 738 initiates a telephone call, sets up a calendar entry, invokes a map search, invokes or interacts with other user applications installed on the user device, and invokes or interacts with third party services (e.g., restaurant reservation portals, social networking sites, banking portals, etc.) on behalf of the task flow processing module 736. In some examples, the protocols and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) required for each service are specified by a corresponding service model in service models 756. The service processing module 738 accesses an appropriate service model for a service and generates requests for the service according to the service model in accordance with the protocols and APIs required for the service.

For example, if a restaurant has enabled an online booking service, the restaurant submits a service model that specifies the necessary parameters to make the booking and communicates the values of the necessary parameters to the API of the online booking service. Upon request by the task flow processing module 736, the service processing module 738 can use the Web address stored in the service model to establish a network connection with the online booking service and send the necessary parameters of the booking (e.g., time, date, party number) to the online booking interface in a format according to the API of the online booking service.

In some examples, the natural language processing module 732, the dialog flow processing module 734, and the task flow processing module 736 are used collectively and repeatedly to infer and define a user's intent, to obtain information to further clarify and refine the user's intent, and to ultimately generate a response (i.e., output to the user, or complete a task) to satisfy the user's intent. The generated response is a dialog response to the voice input that at least partially satisfies the user's intent. Additionally, in some examples, the generated response is output as a speech output. In these examples, the generated response is sent to a speech synthesis processing module 740 (e.g., a speech synthesizer), where the generated response can be processed to synthesize the dialog response in speech form. In other examples, the generated response is data content related to satisfying a user request in a voice input.

In examples where the task flow processing module 736 receives a plurality of structured queries from the natural language processing module 732, the task flow processing module 736 first processes a first structured query of the received structured queries in an attempt to complete the first structured query and/or perform one or more tasks or actions represented by the first structured query. In some examples, the first structured query corresponds to the highest ranked executable intent. In other examples, the first structured query is selected from structured queries received based on a combination of the corresponding speech recognition confidence score and the corresponding intent confidence score. In some examples, if task flow processing module 736 encounters an error during processing of the first structured query (e.g., due to an inability to determine the necessary parameters), task flow processing module 736 can continue to select and process a second one of the received structured queries that corresponds to a lower-ranked executable intent. The second structured query is selected, for example, based on a speech recognition confidence score for the corresponding candidate text representation, an intent confidence score for the corresponding candidate actionable intent, a requisite parameter for a miss in the first structured query, or any combination thereof.

The speech synthesis processing module 740 is configured to synthesize speech output for presentation to a user. The speech synthesis processing module 740 synthesizes a speech output based on text provided by the digital assistant. For example, the generated dialog response is in the form of a text string. The speech synthesis processing module 740 converts the text string into audible speech output. The speech synthesis processing module 740 uses any suitable speech synthesis technique to generate speech output from text, including but not limited to: stitching synthesis, unit selection synthesis, diphone synthesis, domain-specific synthesis, formant synthesis, pronunciation synthesis, hidden Markov Model (HMM) based synthesis, and sine wave synthesis. In some examples, the speech synthesis processing module 740 is configured to synthesize individual words based on the phoneme strings corresponding to the words. For example, the phoneme string is associated with a word in the generated dialog response. The phoneme string is stored in metadata associated with the word. The speech synthesis processing module 740 is configured to directly process the phoneme strings in the metadata to synthesize words in speech form.

In some examples, instead of (or in addition to) using the speech synthesis processing module 740, speech synthesis is performed on a remote device (e.g., server system 108) and the synthesized speech is sent to a user device for output to a user. For example, this may occur in some implementations in which the output of the digital assistant is generated at a server system. And since the server system typically has more processing power or more resources than the user equipment, it is possible to obtain a higher quality speech output than would be achieved by the client-side synthesis.

Additional details regarding digital assistants can be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/987982, entitled "Intelligent Automated Assistant," filed 1/10/2011, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/251088, entitled "Generating and Processing Task Items That Represent Tasks to Perform," filed 9/30/2011, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

4. Digital assistant interactions in a communication session

Fig. 8A-8H illustrate systems and techniques for Digital Assistant (DA) interaction in a communication session according to various examples.

Fig. 8A shows a block diagram of a device 800 and an external device 900. As discussed below, each of the devices 800 and 900 is configured to handle DA interactions in a communication session.

Device 800 is implemented as, for example, device 200, 400, or 600. Similarly, external device 900 is implemented as another instance of device 200, 400, or 600, for example. Although fig. 8B-8H below illustrate the device 800 and the external device 900 each implemented as a smart phone device, the devices 800 and 900 may each be implemented as another type of device, such as a smart watch, a smart speaker, a smart home appliance, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a tablet device, a head-mounted device, and the like.

The device 800 is implemented in memory 802, first DA 804, audio control module 806, and display control module 808 (e.g., as computer-executable instructions). The first DA 804 is configured to provide DA services to the device 800, as discussed with respect to fig. 7A-7C. In some examples, first DA 804 includes, at least in part, components of DA module 726 discussed above with respect to fig. 7A-7B.

The audio control module 806 is configured to manage an audio experience of the device 800 while the device 800 is engaged in a communication session. For example, in conjunction with other components of device 800 configured to provide audio communications (e.g., communication module 228, RF circuitry 208, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211, peripheral interface 218), audio control module 806 is configured to cause device 800 to transmit audio output generated by first DA 804 to other devices in a communication session, and/or to cause device 800 to output received audio generated by other DA operating on the other devices, respectively.

The display control module 808 is configured to manage a displayed experience of the device 800 while the device 800 is engaged in a communication session. For example, in conjunction with other components of device 800 (e.g., communication module 228, RF circuitry 208, display controller 256, touch-sensitive display system 212, peripheral interface 218), display control module 808 is configured to cause device 800 to display DA information (e.g., a displayed output generated by first DA 804 and a displayed indication of a state of first DA 804) and information about participants in a communication session (e.g., information identifying participants in the communication session), to cause device 800 to transmit instructions to other devices to display DA information, to cause device 800 to receive instructions to display DA information from other devices, and/or to cause device 800 to display DA information based on the received instructions.

Similarly, the external device 900 is implemented with a memory 902, a second DA 904, an audio control module 906, and a display control module 908. The second DA 904, the audio control module 906, and the display control module 908 are each similar or substantially identical to the first DA 804, the audio control module 806, and the display control module 808, respectively. For example, the second DA 904 includes, at least in part, components of the DA module 726. The audio control module 906 is configured to manage an audio experience of the external device 900 while the external device 900 is engaged in a communication session, e.g., as described with respect to the audio control module 806. The display control module 908 is configured to manage a displayed experience of the external device 900 while the external device 900 is engaged in a communication session, e.g., as described with respect to the display control module 808.

While the description herein describes individual DA's involved in a communication session, in some examples, the present disclosure provides each participant in the communication session with a user experience consistent with the individual DA's involved in the communication session. For example, even though the first DA 804 and the second DA 904 may each generate a respective response in the communication session, the first DA 804 and the second DA 904 may provide the response using the same voice characteristics. Further, each device in the communication session may display only a single DA representation (e.g., DA indicator 812 discussed below), and the manner of display of the DA representations (e.g., indicating whether the DA is speaking) may be synchronized across devices. Thus, it may be that a single DA processes a user request and generates/provides a response to the user request. In other examples, the present disclosure provides each participant in a communication session with a user experience consistent with a plurality of DA's involved in the communication session. For example, the respective responses generated by DA 804 and 904 may have different voice characteristics and/or each device may indicate which DA provides each response.

Fig. 8B illustrates device 800 engaged in a communication session with external device 900. Although fig. 8B-8H below illustrate device 800 participating in a communication session with a single external device 900, in other examples device 800 participates in a communication session with multiple external devices. It should be appreciated that the techniques discussed below apply when device 800 is engaged in a communication session with one or more external devices (e.g., each external device is implemented as a separate instance of external device 900).

The communication session is provided by a plurality of electronic devices and allows participants in the session to share communications, such as text, audio, and/or video communications. For example, the communication session corresponds to an audio communication session (e.g., a telephone call), a video communication session (e.g., a video conference), a text communication session (e.g., a group text message session), and/or a virtual or mixed reality communication session. For example, in a virtual or mixed reality communication session, the respective devices of the participants each provide an audiovisual experience to simulate the simultaneous presence of each participant (or their respective avatars) in a shared location. For example, a virtual or mixed reality communication session may simulate each participant being present in a physical or virtual room of a house. In some examples, the communication session includes different types of communication experiences (e.g., audio, video, text, virtual, or mixed reality) provided by the respective devices of the participants. For example, in a communication session, a first device may provide a virtual or mixed reality communication experience (e.g., by displaying virtual representations of other participants in a virtual setting), while a second device may provide a video communication experience (e.g., by displaying videos of other participants). Thus, a communication session may be provided by multiple devices having different capabilities, e.g., by a device having virtual reality capabilities and a device having limited or no virtual reality capabilities, and by a device having video capabilities and a device having no video capabilities.

In fig. 8B, device 800 displays a representation 810 indicating that a user (e.g., rae) of external device 900 is engaged in a communication session. Similarly, the external device 900 displays a representation 910 indicating that the user (e.g., tim) of the device 800 is engaged in a communication session. Although fig. 8B shows representations 810 and 910 each indicating a name of a respective user, in other examples representations 810 and 910 each include live video of the respective user and/or each include a respective physical representation (e.g., avatar) of the respective user.

When the device 800 is engaged in a communication session with the external device 900, the device 800 receives an input from Tim to invoke the first DA 804. In some examples, some types of inputs call the DA, while other types of inputs indicate whether natural language input is for the DA without calling the DA, as discussed below. In some examples, the input to invoke the DA includes a spoken trigger input, such as a voice input including a predetermined word or phrase to invoke the DA, e.g., "Hey Siri", "assistant", "awake", etc. In some examples, the input to invoke the DA includes a selection of a button of a corresponding device (e.g., device 800), such as a selection of a physical button of the device or a selection of an affordance displayed by the device. In some examples, the input to invoke the DA includes a detected user gaze input, e.g., an input indicating that the user gaze is directed to a particular displayed affordance for a predetermined duration. In some examples, the device determines that the user gaze input is an input for invoking the DA based on a timing of the natural language input relative to the user gaze input. For example, if the user gaze points to the affordance at a start time of the natural language input and/or at an end time of the natural language input, the device determines that the user gaze input is to invoke the DA. In some examples, when the communication session does not include any currently invoked DA, the device interprets the user gaze input as input for invoking the DA. When the communication session includes a currently invoked DA (e.g., the DA has been invoked on any device in the communication session without being dismissed), the device interprets the user gaze input as indicating that the natural language input is for the DA, but does not interpret the user gaze input as input to invoke the DA.

In fig. 8B, tim provides a verbal trigger input "Hey Siri" to device 800. In some examples, the device 800 transmits the spoken trigger input to the external device 900, and the external device 900 outputs the spoken trigger input.

In some examples, the device 800 invokes the first DA 804 in response to receiving an input to invoke the first DA 804. For example, the device 800 displays a DA indicator 812 to indicate the invoked DA and to begin executing certain processes and/or threads corresponding to the first DA 804. In some examples, invoking the first DA 804 in the communication session includes the device 800 causing the external device 900 (and any other devices in the communication session) to display a DA indicator 812. For example, using display control module 808, device 800 causes external device 900 to display DA indicator 812 simultaneously with device 800.

In some examples, device 800 synchronizes the display state of DA indicator 812 across each device in the communication session (e.g., using display control module 808). Thus, each device in the communication session simultaneously displays the DA indicator 812 in the same state. For example, the device 800 displays the DA indicator 812 in different states corresponding to respective different visualizations to indicate different states of the first DA 804. For example, the first display state of the DA indicator 812 indicates that the first DA 804 is ready to accept (e.g., listen to) natural language input, the second display state indicates that the first DA 804 is currently receiving natural language input, the third display state indicates that the first DA 804 is currently processing natural language input, and the fourth display state indicates that the first DA 804 is currently responding to natural language input.

While device 800 is engaged in a communication session with external device 900, device 800 receives natural language input corresponding to a task from Tim. For example, in fig. 8B, after Tim provides the spoken trigger input "Hey Siri", tim provides the voice input "send a message saying 'hello'" intended for the first DA 804 to send the message. In some examples, device 800 transmits natural language input to external device 900 (and to any other external devices in the communication session), and the external devices each output natural language input. For example, the external device 900 outputs "send a message saying 'hello,'", thereby informing Rae that Tim intends to send a message using the first DA 804.

In some examples, upon invoking the first DA 804, the first DA 804 generates a prompt for further user input regarding the task. For example, the first DA 804 processes natural language input (e.g., as described with respect to fig. 7A-7C) to generate hints. In the example of fig. 8B, in response to the natural language input "send a message saying 'hello,'", the first DA 804 generates the hint "who would you like to send the message to? ". In some examples, device 800 outputs a prompt and transmits the prompt to external device 900 (and to any other devices in the communication session), for example, using audio control module 806. Upon receiving the transmitted prompt, the external device 900 outputs "who would you like to send the message to? "to notify Rae of the hint generated by the first DA 804.

The first DA 804 may allow any participant in the communication session to respond to the prompt. Operating the first DA 804 in this manner may thus increase the flexibility and efficiency with which the DA may meet the requested task. For example, a participant with a correct and/or optimal response to a prompt may provide that response by not limiting the response to the prompt to a particular participant. Operating the DA in this manner may also provide for more intuitive DA participation in a communication session, for example, because any participant may respond to questions or prompts from another participant in a communication session between human participants.

Turning to fig. 8C, after transmitting the prompt for further user input, device 800 receives a response to the prompt from external device 900. In some examples, the response is received at the external device 900 without the external device 900 receiving an input to invoke the second DA 904 after outputting the prompt. In fig. 8C, rae prompts "who would you like to send the message to by speaking" Qingwei "? "respond". The external device 900 receives the response "Qingwei" and transmits the response to the device 800 (and to any other devices in the communication session). In some examples, device 800 outputs a received response to the prompt.

Upon receiving a response to the prompt, the first DA 804 initiates a task based on the response and information stored on the device 800 that corresponds to the user of the device 800. The stored information includes, for example, information about the contacts of Tim (e.g., identities, phone numbers, and email addresses of contacts stored on the devices of Tim), calendar information, videos, photos, notepads, documents, text and email messages, health information, financial information, household appliance information (e.g., on or off, locked or unlocked, temperature settings, etc.), applications installed on the device 800, settings of the device 800, etc. In some examples, the first DA 804 initiates the task by using the user information processing response as described with respect to fig. 7A-7C. In fig. 8C, for example, the first DA 804 initiates a task of sending a message saying "hello" to Qingwei, which is a contact of Tim (not of Rae).

In some examples, the first DA 804 generates an output indicative of the initiated task and the device 800 transmits the output to the external device 900 (and to any other devices in the communication session). In some examples, a user is output indicating that his information is used to initiate a task. For example, the first DA 804 generates the output "your message to Tim's contact Qingwei says ' hello ', ready to send? "where" Tim's contact Qinqwei "indicates that Tim's contact information is used to initiate a task. Upon receiving the output, the external device 900 provides the output. As another example, consistent with the techniques discussed above, if Tim requests the first DA 804"create a new note", the first DA 804 generates the hint "what do you want your note to say? "and Rae responds to" grocery list ", the first DA 804 generates an output" ok Tim's note understanding' grocery list ".

Thus, even if another user (e.g., rae) responds to the prompt of the first DA 804 for further input, the first DA 804 may initiate a task using information of the user that recently invoked the DA (e.g., the current caller Tim). Operating the first DA 804 in this manner may provide a more consistent and efficient user DA experience by avoiding confusion about whose information the first DA 804 uses to initiate a task. Operating the first DA 804 in this manner may further provide improved user feedback by indicating who information is used to initiate the task, thereby confirming that the first DA 804 initiated the correct task (using the correct user information) or allowing the user to correct the task (if initiated using incorrect user information), which additionally improves the accuracy and efficiency of user DA interactions.

In some examples, initiating a task includes displaying an affordance 814 corresponding to the task on device 800. In some examples, the first DA 804 generates the affordance 814 based on information corresponding to a user of the device 800. For example, in fig. 8C, the task of initiating sending a message to Qingwei that speaks "hello" includes displaying an affordance 814 that indicates that a message written to Qingwei is ready to be sent.

In some examples, device 800 synchronizes the display of affordances corresponding to the initiated tasks across each device in the communication session. For example, device 800 (e.g., using display control module 808) further causes external device 900 (and any other devices in the communication session) to each display affordance 814, e.g., each display affordance 814 concurrently with device 800.

Turning to fig. 8D, in some examples, device 800 also synchronizes any modification to the affordance displayed across each device in the communication session. For example, device 800 receives user input corresponding to a selection of affordance 814 and, in response, displays affordance 814 in a modified state. In fig. 8D, tim selects affordance 814 and modifies the message to read as "are you coming to the watch party? ". Thus, in some examples, the modification state corresponds to the modified text content of the affordance 814. In other examples, the modification state corresponds to a modified display manner (e.g., size, shape, color, brightness, animation) of the affordance 814. In response to modifying the state of affordance 814, device 800 causes the external devices to each (e.g., simultaneously with device 800) display affordance 814 in the modified state (e.g., using display control module 808). For example, in fig. 8D, the external device 900 also displays a message "are you coming to the watch party? "modified affordance 814.

In some examples, modifications to affordance 814 made by a respective user of an external device in a communication session are also synchronized across each device in the communication session. For example, at the external device 900, rae provides an input corresponding to a selection of the affordance 814, such as an input for magnifying the affordance 814. In response to receiving the input, the external device 900 displays the affordance 814 in a second modified state (e.g., an enlarged state). In response to receiving the input, the external device 900 further transmits an instruction to the device 800 (e.g., using the display control module 908) to display the affordance 814 in the second modified state. In response to receiving the instruction, the device 800 displays the affordance 814 in a second modified state. Thus, in response to Rae amplifying the affordance 814 at the external device 900, each device in the communication session simultaneously displays the amplified affordance 814.

In some examples, respective DA's operating on devices of participants in the communication session are configured to operate in different languages. For example, the speech recognition and natural language processing capabilities of the respective DA (e.g., provided by STT processing module 730, phonetic alphabet conversion module 731, vocabulary 744, and natural language processing module 732) are configured to operate in respective different languages. For example, a first DA 804 operating on the device 800 is configured to operate in a first language (e.g., english) and a second DA 904 operating on the external device 900 is configured to operate in a second, different language (e.g., chinese).

In some examples, the first DA 804 determines whether it can interpret natural language input (e.g., a response to a prompt for further user input) using its respective language. In some examples, the first DA 804 determines whether the first DA can interpret the natural language input based on an STT confidence score (e.g., determined by the STT processing module 730) corresponding to the natural language input, an intent confidence score (e.g., determined by the natural language processing module 732) corresponding to the natural language input, and/or whether the first DA 804 can successfully initiate a task (e.g., using the task flow processing module 736) based on the natural language input. For example, if the STT confidence score is above a threshold, if the intent confidence score is above a threshold, and/or if the first DA 804 can successfully initiate a task, the first DA 804 determines that it can interpret natural language input.

In the example of fig. 8B, the natural language input "send a message saying 'hello'" is in a first language (english) and the first DA 804 is configured to operate in the first language. Thus, the first DA 804 may interpret natural language input using the first language. However, in fig. 8C, it is assumed that the response to the prompt "who do you want to send your message to" is in a second language (e.g., chinese) different from the first language. For example, because the second DA 904 is configured to operate using chinese, rae is accustomed to interacting with the DA using chinese. Thus, rae provides a Chinese response "Zhangyang" that indicates a request to send a message to a contact whose name is "Zhangyang". The first DA 804 determines whether it can interpret the response in the first language. In this example, the first DA 804 determines that it cannot interpret the response in the first language (e.g., because the STT confidence score and/or intent confidence score corresponding to the response is below the respective threshold and/or the first DA 804 cannot initiate a task based on the response). In accordance with a determination that the first DA 804 cannot interpret the response in the first language, the first DA 804 generates an output indicating an error. For example, the first DA 804 generates an output "sorry, I couldn't find a contact named Song How Young," where "Song How Young" is the attempted English transcription of the central response "Zhangyang" by the first DA 804. Device 800 further transmits an output to an external device in the communication session indicating the error. Thus, when Rae responds to the prompt with "Zhangyang", the external device 900 outputs "sorry, I couldn't find a contact named Song How Young". In this manner, the first DA 804 may advantageously indicate the correct language to interact with the first DA 804 (e.g., via an English response), thereby facilitating efficient and accurate task initiation.

Turning to fig. 8E-8F, in some examples, a user of an external device (other than device 800) in a communication session invokes a DA. The invoked DA initiates the requested task using information corresponding to the user stored on the external device. In fig. 8E, the output "your message to Tim's contact Qingwei says ' hello ', ready to send? After "the external device 900 receives an input from Rae for invoking the second DA 904. For example, rae provides the spoken trigger input "hey Siri". Receiving an input to invoke the second DA 904 transfers the DA invocation from the device 800 in fig. 8D to the external device 900 in fig. 8E, meaning that Rae is now the current (e.g., most recent) caller. When invoked on the external device 900, the second DA 904 initiates a task based on information corresponding to Rae, for example, until the second DA 904 is dismissed (e.g., the DA indicator 812 stops displaying and/or certain processes/threads corresponding to the second DA 904 stop executing on the external device 900) or until another device receives user input to invoke the DA on the other device.

In fig. 8E, the external device 900 also receives a second natural language input from Rae corresponding to a second task. For example, rae uses chinese to say "together look ha Li Bote" ("let's watch Harry Potter together"). In fig. 8E, external device 900 transmits a second natural language input to device 800 (and to any other devices in the communication session). Upon receiving the second natural language input, the device 800 outputs the second natural language input.

Upon receiving input to invoke the second DA 904, the second DA 904 generates a second prompt for user input regarding a second task, such as "halibut which movie? "(" which Harry Potter movie. The external device 900 transmits a second prompt to the device 800 (and to any other devices in the communication session). Upon receiving the second prompt, device 800 outputs the second prompt.

In fig. 8F, tim provides a response to the second prompt. For example, the device 800 receives the response "hali-baud with magic Stone" from Tim ("Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"). In some examples, after the device 800 receives the second prompt, the device 800 receives a response if Tim does not provide an input to invoke the first DA 804. Device 800 transmits a response to external device 900 (and to any other devices in the communication session). Upon receiving the response, the second DA 904 initiates a second task based on the response and information corresponding to Rae stored on the external device 900. For example, the second DA 904 initiates a task of viewing "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" where movies are stored on the external device 900 or associated with the media subscription account of Rae. The second DA 904 further generates an output indicating the initiated second task, such as "start watching together" ("starting watch together"). The external device 900 transmits output to the device 800 (and to any other devices in the communication session). Upon receiving the output, device 800 provides the output.

The above examples of fig. 8B-8F allow users other than the current DA caller to respond to prompts of the DA for user input. But at times it may be desirable to only enable the current caller to successfully respond to the prompt of the DA for further user input regarding the requested task. In particular, for certain predetermined types of tasks, it may not be desirable for other users to instruct the current caller's DA to initiate the task using the current caller's data. Examples of such predetermined types of tasks include security tasks such as payment tasks (e.g., because other users may not be expected to authorize payment for the current caller) and appliance control tasks (e.g., because other users may not be expected to control the current caller's appliance (e.g., unlock a door)). Thus, fig. 8G-8H below illustrate techniques for handling DA requests for such predetermined types of tasks in a communication session.

In fig. 8G, device 800 receives natural language input corresponding to a task while device 800 is engaged in a communication session with external device 900 and while first DA 804 is invoked on device 800 (and monitoring for natural language input). For example, the current caller Tim provides the natural language input "pay lay $100". Device 800 transmits natural language input to external device 900 (and to any other device in the communication session). The external device 900 outputs the received natural language input. The first DA 804 further generates prompts for further user inputs regarding the task, such as "ok, I'll pay Larry $100, confirm? ". Device 800 outputs a prompt and transmits the prompt to external device 900 (and to any other devices in the communication session).

In some examples, the first DA 804 determines whether the task corresponds to a predetermined type of task. For example, the first DA 804 determines whether the natural language input corresponds to a predetermined type of domain. Example predetermined types of domains include a payment domain (e.g., associated with executable intent to make payment and/or access payment information) and a home control domain (e.g., associated with executable intent to control status and/or settings of a user's home appliance). In this example, the first DA 804 determines that the task of paying $100 to Larry corresponds to a predetermined type of task.

Turning to fig. 8h, rae provides a response to a prompt at external device 900, e.g., "Yes". The device 800 receives and outputs a prompt. However, in accordance with the first DA 804 determining that the task corresponds to a predetermined type of task and in accordance with receiving a response from the external device 900, the first DA 804 generates an output indicating that it cannot complete the task. For example, because the first DA 804 determines that the task corresponds to a predetermined type and determines that a response is received from the external device, the first DA 804 generates "sorry, ican't do that. ". In some examples, the output indicating that the first DA 804 is unable to complete the task indicates an authorized user (e.g., tim) for the first DA 804 to complete the task. Device 800 provides an output and transmits the output to external device 900 (and to any other devices in the communication session).

Continuing with the present example, device 800 receives a response (e.g., "Yes") from Tim to the prompt for further input. Device 800 further transmits a response to external device 900 (and to any other devices in the communication session). In accordance with determining that the task corresponds to a predetermined type of task and in accordance with determining that a response is received from a current caller (e.g., tim), the first DA 804 initiates the task based on the information corresponding to Tim. For example, because the task is of a predetermined type and the current caller confirms the task, the first DA 804 initiates a task that pays $100 to Larry, which is one of the contacts of Tim. The first DA 804 further generates an output indicating the initiated task, such as "ok I pain Larry $100". Device 800 provides an output and transmits the output to external device 900 (and to any other devices in the communication session). In this way, device security may be improved by allowing only authorized users (e.g., current callers) to authorize completion of security tasks.

In some examples, the displayed response (e.g., affordance) generated by the DA is not synchronized across external devices in the communication session if the task corresponds to a predetermined type of task. Thus, in some examples, causing the external devices to each display the affordances 814 in fig. 8C-8D is performed in accordance with a determination that the task (e.g., sending a message) does not correspond to a predetermined type of task. In fig. 8G-8H, in response to receiving the natural language input "pay lay $100," the first DA 804 generates an affordance 816 corresponding to the payment task. Notably, the affordances 816 are displayed on the device 800 without the device 800 (e.g., using the display control module 808) having the external devices each display the affordances 816. For example, in accordance with the first DA 804 determining that the task corresponds to a predetermined type, the display control module 808 does not instruct other external devices to display the generated affordance 816. Further, in some examples, modifications made by Tim to the state of affordance 816 are also not synchronized across external devices in the communication session.

In other examples, the displayed responses generated by the DA are synchronized across external devices in the communication session even though the tasks correspond to a predetermined type of task. For example, if the first DA 804 determines that the task corresponds to a predetermined type, the first DA 804 causes the external devices to each display an affordance in a non-interactive state (e.g., using the display control module 808). In some examples, the affordance displayed in the non-interactive state has a different manner of display (e.g., displayed in grayscale rather than color, having a smaller display size) than the affordance displayed in the normal (e.g., interactive) state. In some examples, when the device displays the affordance in a non-interactive state, the device does not allow user input to select the affordance to cause performance of the corresponding task and/or does not allow user input to modify the content of the affordance. In some examples, when the device displays the affordance in a non-interactive state, the device does not display content (e.g., text, images) of the affordance. For example, the device 800 displays the affordances 816 in fig. 8G-8H in an interactive state, allowing Tim to select the "confirm" button to pay $100 to Larry. Device 900 (and any other devices in the communication session) may display affordance 816 concurrently with device 800, but each display affordance 816 in a non-interactive state. For example, device 900 displays affordance 816 in grayscale and does not allow Rae to select the "confirm" button to pay herry $100.

In some examples, modifications made to the display of affordance 816 (e.g., by Tim) are synchronized across devices in the communication session, but affordance 816 is still displayed at other devices in a non-interactive state. For example, if Tim modifies the text content of affordance 816 (e.g., to pay for $50 to Larry instead of $100), then the other device displays affordance 816 to indicate the modified text content, but still displays affordance 816 in grayscale and does not allow the corresponding user to select the "confirm" button.

According to various examples, fig. 9A-9F and 10A-10D below illustrate techniques for DA interactions in a communication session when the DA of a participant in the communication session is configured to operate using a different language. Sometimes, the participants in the communication session may speak different languages, and thus each participant may be accustomed to interacting with the DA using a particular language. However, the DA invoked in the communication session may be configured to operate in a single language (e.g., the language of the current caller) that is different from the language that another participant typically uses to interact with the DA. Thus, it may be desirable to define the correct language for interacting with the DA in the communication session.

In fig. 9A, the device 800 receives an input to invoke the first DA 804 while the device 800 is engaged in a communication session with the external device 900 (and optionally other external devices). For example, tim provides a verbal trigger input "Hey Siri". In the examples of fig. 9A-9F and 10A-10D, the first DA 804 is configured to operate in a first language (e.g., english) and the second DA 904 is configured to operate in a second language (e.g., spanish). Further, in fig. 9A-9E below, tim is the current (most recent) DA caller, meaning that external device 900 (and any other devices in the communication session) did not receive input to invoke their respective DA during the communication session.

The device 800 receives a first natural language input in a first language. For example, tim says "what time is it? "to request the first DA 804 to provide the current time. Device 800 transmits a first natural language input to external device 900 (and to any other external devices in the communication session), and the external devices each output the first natural language input.

In accordance with invoking the first DA 804, the first DA 804 generates a first response to the first natural language input in the first language. The device 800 outputs a first response, transmits the first response to the external device 900 (and to any other device in the communication session), and the devices each output the first response. For example, in fig. 9A, the first DA 804 generates a first response "it's 9amin Cupertino".

Turning to fig. 9B, in some examples, if a participant intends to continue interacting with the DA in the communication session, the participant issues a second natural language input (follow-up request) in a language in which their own DA is configured to operate. For example, after the device 800 transmits the first response "it's 9amin Cupertino" and the external device 900 outputs the first response, the external device 900 receives a follow-up request in the second language. For example, in FIG. 9B, rae uses Spanish to question a second DA 904Device 800 (and any other devices in the communication session) receives a follow-up request from external device 900. In some examples, device 800 further outputs a follow-up request.

In some examples, the follow-up request is received without the external device 900 receiving an input to invoke the second DA 904 after receiving the first response. For example, rae speaks without providing a verbal trigger input (e.g., "Hola Siri") and without pressing a button of the external device 900In some examples, the follow-up request does not include a response to a prompt generated by the DA for user input (e.g., regarding a previously requested task) (e.g., a text or audio prompt generated by the first DA 804 or the second DA 904). Thus, unlike the prompted responses described with respect to fig. 8B-8H, the follow-up request may be an undipped request to the second DA 904.

After the device 800 outputs the first response (e.g., "it's 9amin Cupertino"), each DA in the communication session monitors for a follow-up request, e.g., for a predetermined duration after outputting the first response. In some examples, monitoring the follow-up request at the device includes determining that the follow-up request is for a DA operating on the device. Thus, a DA in a communication session may distinguish between natural language input (not for the DA) intended as a session between participants and a follow-up request for the DA.

In some examples, determining that the follow-up request is for the DA includes determining that the DA received the follow-up request from a user of the DA within a predetermined duration (e.g., 5 seconds, 10 seconds) after outputting the first response. Thus, any natural language input that the DA determines to be received directly from the user of the DA (and not transmitted from another device) and received within a predetermined duration is directed to the DA itself. For example, the second DA 904 determines the follow-up requestIs directed to the second DA itself because the second DA 904 receives a follow-up request from Rae within a predetermined duration after the external device 900 outputs "it's 9amin Cupertino". Although the device 800 also receives a follow-up request, the first DA 804 determines that the follow-up request is not for the first DA itself, as the follow-up request is received from the external device 900 and not from Tim.

In some examples, determining that the follow-up request is for the DA is based on a gaze direction of the user of the DA. For example, each device (e.g., via a device camera) detects user gaze data and analyzes the gaze data to determine whether a follow-up request received from a user of the device is for a respective DA. In some examples, each device detects the user gaze data for a predetermined duration after outputting the first response. In some examples, the device determines that the follow-up request is for a respective DA if the user gaze is directed to the displayed gaze target for a predetermined duration prior to the start time of the follow-up request (e.g., at DA indicator 812 for a predetermined period of time), if the user gaze is directed to the gaze target at the start time, and/or if the user gaze is directed to the gaze target at the end time of the follow-up request. For example, the second DA 904 determines the follow-up request based on gaze data detected by the external device 900Is directed to the firstTwo DA's themselves. Although device 800 also receives a follow-up request +.>The device 800 determines that the follow-up request is not for the first DA 804 because the follow-up request is received from the external device 900 (not Tim) and/or because gaze data detected by the device 800 does not indicate that the follow-up request is for the first DA 804.

In some examples, in accordance with a determination that the follow-up request is for a DA, the DA generates a second response to the follow-up request in its respective language. In some examples, the DA generates the second response based on information corresponding to the user of the respective device (e.g., contact information of the user, calendar information, video, photos, notepads, etc.), wherein the information is stored on the respective device. In some examples, the second DA 904 generates a second response, e.g., "it's 9am in Cupertino", in the event that the external device 900 does not receive an input to invoke the second DA 904 after the external device 900 outputs the first response. In FIG. 9B, because the second DA 904 determines the follow-up requestIs directed to the second DA itself, so the second DA 904 generates a spanish second response "en Paris, son las 6pm". The external device 900 further transmits a second response to the device 800 (and to any other devices in the communication session). In some examples, upon receiving the second response, device 800 outputs the second response.

In some examples, device 800 transmits context information associated with the first natural language input to external device 900 (and to any other devices in the communication session). In some examples, the context information includes a transcription of the communication session, e.g., a transcription of the participant's dialogue and DA-generated response, determined by the STT processing module 730. In some examples, the contextual information includes the contextual information discussed above with respect to fig. 7B, e.g., information collected by a sensor of device 800. In some examples, the contextual information indicates a first one of The natural language input is associated with a conversational context, e.g., corresponding to the determined domain of the first natural language input. For example, the first DA 804 determines the first natural language input "what time is it? "corresponds to a time domain (e.g., associated with an executable intent to provide time data), and causes device 800 to transmit context information indicating the time domain to external device 900. In some examples, the second DA 904 (or another DA making a corresponding to the follow-up request) generates a second response to the follow-up request based on the received context information. For example, using the context information, the second DA 904 will follow-up with the requestInterpreted to mean interrogating Paris for time, thereby generating a second response "en Paris, son las 6pm".

In some examples, when the DA in the communication session generates a response based on the context information, the response indicates the context information used. Operating the DA in this manner may avoid participants in the communication session from obscuring what the response is referring to. Thus, in some examples, in accordance with determining that the DA uses the context information to interpret the natural language input and determining that the respective device is engaged in the communication session, the DA generates a response indicating the context information. For example, the first response "it's 9amin Cupertino" in fig. 9A indicates what is used by the first DA 804 for "what time is it? "responsive context information: cupertino (e.g., the current location of Tim) of California (California).

Fig. 9C shows an example where Tim provides a follow-up request in a first language of the first DA 804. In fig. 9C, continuing from fig. 9A, after device 800 outputs and transmits the first response "it's 9amin Cupertino", device 800 receives a follow-up request "what about in Paris" from Tim? ". In the event that the device 800 does not receive an input to invoke the first DA 804 after outputting and/or transmitting the first response, a follow-up request is received. In some examples, the follow-up request does not include a response to the DA generated prompt for further user input (e.g., about a previously requested task).

In fig. 9C, the first DA 804 determines the follow-up request "what about in Paris? "is for the first DA itself, for example, because Tim speaks a follow-up request for a predetermined duration after the device 800 outputs" it's 9amin Cupertino ". In accordance with receiving the follow-up request (and optionally in accordance with determining that the follow-up request is for the first DA 804), the first DA 804 generates a second response to the follow-up request in the first language. The second response indicates the initiated task (e.g., retrieving the current time of Paris) corresponding to the follow-up request. In some examples, the first DA 804 generates a second response, e.g., "it's 9amin Cupertino", in the event that the device 800 does not receive an input to invoke the first DA 804 after the device 800 outputs the first response. For example, the first DA 804 generates a second response "it's 6pmin Paris" and the device 800 transmits the second response to the external device 900 (and to any other external device in the communication session).

Fig. 9D shows an example where Tim attempts to provide a follow-up request using a language different from that of the first DA 804. In fig. 9D, continuing from fig. 9A, after the device 800 outputs and transmits the first response "it's 9amin Cupertino", the device 800 receives a follow-up request from Tim using a different language than the first language. For example, tim uses spanish to speakIn the event that the device 800 does not receive an input to invoke the first DA 804 after outputting and/or transmitting the first response, a follow-up request is received. In some examples, the follow-up request does not include a response to the DA generated prompt for further user input (e.g., about a previously requested task).

In fig. 9D, the first DA 804 determines that the follow-up request is for the first DA itself. In accordance with receiving the follow-up request (and optionally in accordance with determining that the follow-up request is for the first DA 804), the first DA 804 generates a second response to the follow-up request in the first language. In some examples, where the device 800 does not receive an input to invoke the first DA 804 after the device 800 outputs the first responseThe first DA 804 generates a second response, such as "it's 9amin Cupertino". In this example, the second response indicates that the first DA 804 cannot interpret the follow-up request. For example, because the first DA 804 is configured to operate using English, the first DA 804 cannot interpret the Spanish follow-up request And thus generates a second response "sorry, idon't understand". Device 800 transmits a second response to external device 900 (and to any other devices in the communication session).

Fig. 9E shows an example where Rae attempts to provide a follow-up request using the language of the DA of the current caller. In fig. 9E, continuing from fig. 9A, after the device 800 transmits the first response "it's 9amin Cupertino" to the external device 900, and after the external device 900 outputs the first response, the external device 900 receives a follow-up request in the first language. For example, rae speaks "what about in Paris" in english? ". The external device 900 transmits a follow-up request to the device 800 (and to any other devices in the communication session) and the device 800 receives the follow-up request. In the event that the external device 900 does not receive an input to invoke the second DA 904 after receiving the transmitted first response, a follow-up request is received at the external device 900. In some examples, the follow-up request does not include a response to the DA generated prompt for further user input.

In fig. 9E, the second DA 904 determines that the follow-up request is for the second DA itself. In accordance with receiving the follow-up request (and optionally in accordance with determining that the follow-up request is for the second DA 904), the second DA 904 generates a second response to the follow-up request in a second language. The second response indicates that the second DA 904 is unable to interpret the follow-up request. In some examples, the second DA 904 generates a second response, e.g., "it's 9amin Cupertino", in the event that the external device 900 does not receive an input to invoke the second DA 904 after the external device 900 outputs the first response. For example, because the second DA 904 is configured to operate using spanish, the second DA 904 cannot interpret the english follow-up request "what about in Paris? ". The second DA 904 thus generates a second response "no entity". The external device 900 transmits a second response to the device 800 (and to any other devices in the communication session) and the device 800 receives the response.

Fig. 9F shows an example of the Rae successfully interacting with the second DA 904 in the second language by providing an input for invoking the second DA 904. In fig. 9F, continuing from fig. 9A, after the device 800 transmits the first response "it's 9amin Cupertino" to the external device 900, and after the external device 900 outputs the first response, the external device 900 receives a natural language input in the second language from Rae. For example, rae speaks ofExternal device 900 transmits natural language input to device 800 (and to any other devices in the communication session). The device 800 receives and outputs natural language input.

The external device 900 further receives an input from Rae to invoke the second DA 904. For example, rae speaks after providing the verbal trigger input "Hola Siri" or after the second DA 904 invokes in response to a button press on the external device 900Thus, by providing an input for invoking the second DA 904, the DA invocation is transferred from the device 800 in FIG. 9A to the external device 900 in FIG. 9F, which means that Rae is now the current caller.

In accordance with the external device 900 receiving an input to invoke the second DA 904, the second DA 904 generates a response to the natural language input in the second language. The response instructs the second DA 904 to initiate a task corresponding to the natural language input. For example, the second DA 904 generates a response "en Paris, son labs 6pm" to indicate that the task of providing the current time of Paris is initiated. The external device 900 transmits a response to the device 800 (and to any other devices in the communication session) and the device 800 receives the response.

The examples of fig. 9A-9F illustrate that in order to successfully issue a follow-up request (e.g., without providing input to invoke the DA), each participant speaks the follow-up request in the language of their own DA. In other examples, the participant may issue the follow-up request using a language in which any DA in the communication session is configured to operate. For example, after the external device receives and outputs the first response "it's 9amin Cupertino" in fig. 9A, the participant may speak the follow-up request in the language of any DA in the communication session. In some examples, the follow-up request is received by the participant's device without the device receiving input to invoke the DA after outputting the first response. In some examples, the follow-up request does not include a response to the DA generated prompt for further user input.

In some examples, the DA of the communication session coordinates between each other to determine the correct DA to process the follow-up request, e.g., a DA configured to operate in the language of the follow-up request. For example, each DA monitors the follow-up request in response to outputting the first response "it's 9amin Cupertino" at the respective device. Upon receiving a follow-up request (e.g., from a user of the DA or from another device), each DA determines whether the follow-up request is for the DA itself. For example, each DA performs STT processing on the follow-up request (e.g., using STT processing module 730) to determine a speech recognition confidence score. Each DA then causes the corresponding device to transmit a speech recognition confidence score to each other device. Each DA compares its determined speech recognition confidence score with speech recognition confidence scores received from other devices. Thus, the DA with the highest speech recognition confidence score (e.g., the DA that determines that its generated confidence score is higher than all of the received confidence scores) determines that the follow-up request is for that DA itself.

In some examples, upon determining that the follow-up request is for a particular DA, the DA causes the respective device to transmit an instruction to the other device indicating that the follow-up request is not for the other DA. The instructions instruct the other DA to stop any ongoing processing of the follow-up request and not generate any output in response to the follow-up request. In some examples, upon determining that the follow-up request is for a particular DA, the particular DA generates a response to the follow-up request using its respective language.

For example, continuing from fig. 9A, assume that after the external device 900 outputs the first response "it's 9amin Cupertino," Rae speaks a follow-up request "what about in Paris? ". In accordance with the techniques discussed above, the first DA 804 determines that the follow-up request is for the first DA itself (because the follow-up request is in english and the first DA 804 is configured to operate in english). Thus, the first DA 804 generates a response "it's 6pmin Paris" and the device 800 transmits the response to the external device 900 (and to any other devices in the communication session). In this way, even though the second DA 904 of Rae is configured to operate in spanish, she can receive the expected response to her follow-up request spoken in english.

10A-10D below illustrate examples of participants issuing a follow-up request in a language in which the currently invoked DA is configured to operate in order to successfully issue the follow-up request.

In fig. 10A, the device 800 receives an input to invoke the first DA 804 while the device 800 is engaged in a communication session with the external device 900 (and optionally other external devices). For example, tim provides a verbal trigger input "Hey Siri". In fig. 10A, 10B, and 10D below, tim is the current caller, meaning that external device 900 (and any other devices in the communication session) did not receive input to invoke their respective DA during the communication session.

The device 800 further receives a first natural language input in a first language from the Tim. For example, after Tim speaks "Hey Siri", tim speaks "what time is it? ". Device 800 transmits a first natural language input to external device 900 (and to any other device in the communication session).

In accordance with invoking the first DA 804, the first DA 804 generates a first response to the first natural language voice input using the first language. For example, the first DA 804 generates the first response "it's 9amin Cupertino". The device 800 outputs a first response. Device 800 further transmits the first response to external device 900 (and to any other devices in the communication session).

Turning to fig. 10B, in some examples, if a participant intends to continue interacting with the DA in the communication session, the participant issues a second natural language input (follow-up request) using the language of the current caller's DA. For example, after the device 800 transmits the first response "it's 9amin Cupertino" and the external device 900 outputs the first response, the external device 900 receives a follow-up request in the first language. In fig. 9B, rae uses the english query "what about in Paris? ". Device 800 (and any other devices in the communication session) receives a follow-up request from external device 900. In some examples, device 800 further outputs a follow-up request.

In some examples, the follow-up request is received without the external device 900 receiving an input to invoke the second DA 904 after receiving the transmitted first response. For example, rae speaks "what about in Paris" without providing a verbal trigger input (e.g., "Hola Siri") and without pressing a button of the external device 900? ". In some examples, the follow-up request does not include a response to the DA generated prompt for user input (e.g., about a previously requested task).

In response to the device 800 outputting the first response (e.g., "it's 9amin Cupertino"), the first DA 804 determines whether any follow-up requests received from Tim are for the currently invoked first DA 804. In response to the device 800 outputting the first response, the second DA 904 (and any other DAs in the communication session) determines whether any follow-up requests received from the respective users of the DAs are for the currently invoked first DA 804. This is in contrast to the examples discussed with respect to fig. 9A-9E, in which each DA determines whether a follow-up request received from a respective user is for that DA itself. Thus, the currently invoked first DA 804 may be the only DA in the communication session that is enabled to respond to the follow-up request.

In some examples, determining that the follow-up request is for the first DA 804 includes determining that the follow-up request was received within a predetermined duration after the corresponding device outputs the first response. For example, the second DA 904 determines the heel request "what about in Paris of Rae? "is for the first DA 804 because the follow-up request is received a predetermined duration after the external device 900 outputs" it's 9amin Cupertino ".

In some examples, determining that the follow-up request is for the first DA 804 is based on a gaze direction of the user. For example, the device detects user gaze data (via the device camera) and analyzes the gaze data to determine whether a follow-up request received from a user of the device is for the first DA 804. In some examples, the device detects the user gaze data for a predetermined duration after the first response is output, for example, by the device 800. In some examples, the device determines that the follow-up request is for the first DA 804 if the user gaze is directed to the displayed gaze target for a predetermined duration prior to the start time of the follow-up request (e.g., at DA indicator 812 for a predetermined period of time), if the user gaze is directed to the gaze target at the start time, and/or if the user gaze is directed to the gaze target at the end time of the follow-up request. For example, the second DA 904 determines a heel request "what about in Paris" for Rae based on detecting that Rae gazes at the DA indicator 812? "is for the first DA 804.

In some examples, in response to a DA (other than the first DA 804) determining that a follow-up request received from a respective user is for the first DA 804, the respective device transmits an indication to the device 800 that the follow-up request is for the first DA 804. For example, the external device 900 transmits a follow-up request "what about in Paris" to the device 800? "is an indication for the first DA 804. If the first DA 804 determines that the follow-up request received from its respective user (e.g., tim) is for the first DA itself, the first DA 804 generates a second response to the follow-up request.

In fig. 10B, upon receiving a follow-up request from the external device 900, the first DA 804 generates a second response to the follow-up request using the first language. In some examples, the first DA 804 generates the second response further in accordance with the device 800 receiving an indication that the follow-up request is for the first DA 804. In some examples, the first DA 804 generates the second response in the event that the device 800 does not receive further input to invoke the first DA 804 after outputting the first response, and/or in the event that the external device 900 does not receive input to invoke the second DA 904 after outputting the first response. For example, according to the device 800 receiving a follow-up request "what about in Paris? "is an indication to the first DA 804, the first DA 804 generates a second response" it's6pmin Paris ". In some examples, device 800 transmits the second response to external device 900 (and to any other devices in the communication session).

In some examples, the first DA 804 generates the second response based on the first response and context information (e.g., dialog context information) associated with the first natural language input. For example, the first natural language input "what time is it? The "and first response" it's 9amin Cupertino "is associated with context information indicating a time domain. Thus, the first DA 804 is made by adding "what about in Paris? "interpreted as referring to the time of Paris to generate the second response" it's6pmin Paris ".

In some examples, the first DA 804 determines whether the received follow-up request corresponds to a personal request. Personal requests generally describe user requests that have a response that depends on the particular user providing the request. For example, the personal request corresponds to a personal domain, e.g., a domain associated with an actionable intent that requires retrieval/modification of personal data. Example personal data includes a user's contact data, email data, message data, calendar data, reminder data, photographs, videos, health information, financial information, network search history, media data (e.g., songs and audio readings), information related to the user's home (e.g., the status of the user's home appliances and home security system, home security system access information), and any other sensitive and/or private information that the user may not wish to be exposed to other users or devices. Example personal requests include "call mom" (because the user may have different moms), "how many calories i burn today? "," how much money I spend in this month? "last picture taken for me", "turn off porch light", "lock front door", etc. Conversely, a non-personal request may have a response that is independent of the user providing the non-personal request. Exemplary non-personal requests include "how much of the Taylor shift is? "," what do Palo Alto weather? What are the "and" scores of Patriots game? "in some examples, the first DA 804 determines whether the request corresponds to a personal request by determining whether the request corresponds to a personal domain. Other techniques for determining whether a request corresponds to a personal request are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/376,991, entitled "PERSONAL REQUEST CLASSIFIER," filed on 7/15, 2021, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

In some examples, in accordance with a determination that the follow-up request received from the external device corresponds to a personal request, the first DA 804 generates a second response to the follow-up request in the first language. The second response indicates that the first DA 804 cannot satisfy the user request included in the follow-up request. In some examples, the first DA 804 generates the second response in the event that the device 800 does not receive further input to invoke the first DA 804 after outputting the first response, and/or in the event that the external device 900 does not receive input to invoke the second DA 904 after outputting the first response. For example, suppose that Rae instead provides a follow-up request "read my messages" instead of "what about in Paris in fig. 10B? ". The first DA 804 determines that the follow-up request corresponds to a personal request, and thus generates a second response "sorry, I can't do that". The first DA 804 generates the second response because the first DA 804 operating on the device 800 cannot access the Rae's personal data (e.g., messages) stored on the external device 900. Device 800 further transmits a second response to external device 900 (and to any other devices in the communication session).

In this way, the first DA 804 provides feedback to participants in the communication session that the first DA 804 cannot meet personal requests from external devices, for example, because the first DA 804 cannot access personal data stored on the external devices due to user privacy. Thus, in some examples, a follow-up request "what about in Paris" is determined from the first DA 804? "generating the second response" it's 6pmin Paris "in FIG. 10B is not performed corresponding to the personal request.

Fig. 10C shows an example where Rae provides an input for invoking the second DA 904 to successfully process the personal request. In fig. 10C, rae provides an input for invoking the second DA 904. For example, the external device 900 receives a verbal trigger input "Hola Siri". Rae further provides natural language input corresponding to the personal request using the second language. For example, the external device 900 receives "lee mis prosajes" using spanish from Rae ("read my message"). External device 900 transmits natural language input to device 800 (and to any other devices in the communication session).

In accordance with invoking the second DA 904, the second DA 904 generates a response to the natural language input using the second language. The response instructs the second DA 904 to initiate a task corresponding to the natural language input. For example, the second DA 904 generates a response "Anthony dijo 'hola'" ("Anthony say hi") instructing the second DA 904 to initiate the task of reading the message of Rae. The external device 900 further transmits a response to the device 800 (and to any other devices in the communication session). In this way, rae may successfully issue a personal request in a communication session by providing an input to invoke the second DA 904. By invoking the second DA 904, the DA invocation is transferred from the device 800 in fig. 10A to the external device 900 in fig. 10C, which means that Rae is now the current DA caller and the second DA 904 can access the personal data of Rae to successfully process the personal request of Rae (recall that the first DA 804 can only process the personal request of Tim, since the first DA 804 can only access the personal data of Tim).

Fig. 10D shows an example where Rae attempts to provide a follow-up request using the second language of the second DA 904. In fig. 10D, continuing with the example of fig. 10A, after the device 800 transmits the first response "it's 9amin Cupertino" to the external device 900, and after the external device 900 outputs the first response, the external device 900 receives a follow-up request in the second language. For example, rae uses Spanish to speakExternal device 900 transmits a follow-up request to device 800 (and to any other devices in the communication session). In the event that the external device 900 does not receive an input to invoke the second DA 904 after receiving the transmitted first response, a follow-up request is received at the external device 900. In some examples, the follow-up request does not include a response to the DA generated prompt for further user input.

In fig. 10D, the second DA 904 determines that the follow-up request is for the first DA 804. In accordance with receiving the follow-up request (and optionally in accordance with determining that the follow-up request is for the first DA 804), the first DA 804 generates a second response to the follow-up request in the first language. The second response indicates that the first DA 804 cannot interpret the follow-up request. In some examples, the first DA 804 generates the second response in the event that the device 800 does not receive further input to invoke the first DA 804 after outputting the first response, and/or in the event that the external device 900 does not receive input to invoke the second DA 904 after outputting the first response. For example, the first DA 804 may not be able to interpret the spanish follow-up request And thus generates a second response "sorry, idon't understand". Device 800 further transmits a second response to external device 900 (and to any other devices in the communication session). In this manner, the first DA 804 may indicate (e.g., via an english second response) the correct language for interacting with the first DA 804, thereby facilitating accurate and efficient DA interactions. If Rae wishes to successfully interact with the DA using Spanish, then Rae may provide input at the external device 900 to invoke the second DA 904, e.g., as discussed with respect to FIG. 10C. For example, if Rae speaks into the external device 900The DA call is transferred from device 800 to external device 900 and Rae is now the current caller. Thus, the second DA 904 may generate a response "en Paris, son labs 6pm" to successfully process the Rae request。

5. Process for digital assistant interaction in a communication session

Fig. 11A-11C illustrate a process 1100 for DA interaction in a communication session in accordance with various examples. Process 1100 is performed, for example, using one or more electronic devices that implement a DA. In some examples, process 1100 is performed using a client-server system (e.g., system 100) and the blocks of process 1100 are partitioned in any manner between a server (e.g., DA server 106) and a client device. In other examples, the blocks of process 1100 are divided between a server and a plurality of client devices (e.g., mobile phones and smart watches). Thus, while portions of process 1100 are described herein as being performed by a particular device of a client-server system, it should be understood that process 1100 is not limited thereto. In other examples, process 1100 is performed using only a client device (e.g., device 800) or only a plurality of client devices. In process 1100, some blocks are optionally combined, the order of some blocks is optionally changed, and some blocks are optionally omitted. In some examples, additional steps may be performed in connection with process 1100.

At block 1102, while an electronic device (e.g., device 800) is engaged in a communication session with one or more external devices (e.g., external device 900), an input is received from a first user (e.g., tim) of the electronic device to invoke a first digital assistant operating on the electronic device (e.g., first DA 804). In some examples, the input to invoke the first digital assistant includes a verbal trigger input or selection of a button of the electronic device.

At block 1104, natural language input (e.g., "send a message saying hello" in fig. 8B) corresponding to the task is received from the first user.

At block 1106, in accordance with invoking the first digital assistant, a prompt is generated by the first digital assistant for further user input regarding the task (e.g., "who would you like to send a message to.

At block 1108, a prompt for further user input regarding the task is transmitted (e.g., by device 800) to one or more external devices.

At block 1110, after transmitting the prompt for further user input, a response to the prompt for further user input (e.g., "qigwei" in fig. 8C) is received from an external device (e.g., external device 900) of the one or more external devices.

At block 1112, a task is initiated by the first digital assistant based on the response and information corresponding to the first user stored on the electronic device. In some examples, initiating the task includes displaying an affordance (e.g., affordance 814 in fig. 8C) corresponding to the task on the electronic device, as shown in block 1114, wherein the first digital assistant generates the affordance based on information corresponding to the first user.

At block 1116, an output indicative of the initiated task is transmitted (e.g., "your message to Qingwei says 'hello', ready to send.

In some examples, at block 1118, the affordance is caused to be displayed (e.g., using display control module 808) by each of the one or more external devices. In some examples, in accordance with a determination that the task does not correspond to a second predetermined type of task (e.g., a security task), causing one or more external devices to each display an affordance is performed. In some examples, displaying the affordance on the electronic device includes displaying the affordance without causing one or more external devices to each display the affordance in accordance with a determination that the task corresponds to a second predetermined type of task.

In some examples, at block 1120, a first user input corresponding to a selection of the displayed affordance is received. In some examples, at block 1122, an affordance (e.g., affordance 814 in fig. 8D) is displayed in a modified state in response to receiving the first user input. In some examples, at block 1124, the one or more external devices are each caused to display the affordance in a modified state.

In some examples, at block 1126, an instruction to display the affordance in a second modified state is received from a third external device of the one or more external devices, where the affordance is displayed in the second modified state on the third external device in response to receiving a second user input at the third external device corresponding to selection of the affordance. In some examples, at block 1128, in response to receiving the instruction, the affordance is displayed in a second modified state on the electronic device (e.g., using display control module 808).

In some examples, at block 1130, it is determined (e.g., by the first DA 804) whether the task corresponds to a predetermined type of task. In some examples, at block 1132, in accordance with a determination that the task corresponds to a predetermined type of task and in accordance with receipt of a response from the external device, a third output is generated by the first digital assistant indicating that the first digital assistant cannot complete the task (e.g., "sorry I can't do that. In some examples, the initiating task is performed in accordance with a determination that the task does not correspond to a predetermined type of task.

In some examples, at block 1134, a third response to the prompt for further user input is received from the first user (e.g., "Yes" from Tim in fig. 8H). In some examples, at block 1136, in accordance with a determination that the task corresponds to the predetermined type of task and in accordance with a determination that a third response is received from the first user, the task is initiated by the first digital assistant based on the third response and the information corresponding to the first user. In some examples, at block 1138, a fourth output (e.g., "ok I acid Larry $100" in fig. 8H) is transmitted to the one or more external devices indicating the initiated task.

In some examples, the natural language input is in a first language, and the first digital assistant is configured to operate in the first language. In some examples, at block 1140, a determination is made (e.g., by the first DA 804) whether the first digital assistant can interpret the response in the first language, wherein in accordance with the determination the first digital assistant can interpret the response in the first language to perform the initiating task. In some examples, at block 1142, in accordance with a determination that the first digital assistant is not capable of interpreting the response in the first language, a fifth output is transmitted to the one or more external devices indicating the error. In some examples, a third digital assistant (e.g., second DA 904) operating on the external device is configured to operate in a second language different from the first language.

In some examples, after transmitting an output to the one or more external devices indicating the initiated task, a second natural language input (e.g., "see together ha Li Bote" in fig. 8E) corresponding to the second task is received from a second external device of the one or more external devices, wherein the second external device receives the second natural language input from a second user of the second external device. In some examples, after receiving the second natural language input, a second prompt for user input regarding the second task (e.g., "halibut which movie is. In some examples, a second response to a second prompt for user input is received from the first user (e.g., "hali-baume-magic stone" in fig. 8F). In some examples, the second response is transmitted to one or more external devices. In some examples, a second output is received from the second external device (e.g., "start together view" in fig. 8F), wherein the second digital assistant initiates a second task based on the second response and information stored on the second external device corresponding to the second user, and the second output indicates the initiated second task. In some examples, the second prompt is received in accordance with the second external device receiving a second input from a second user to invoke a second digital assistant.

The operations described above with respect to fig. 11A-11C are optionally implemented by the components depicted in fig. 1-4, 6A-6B, 7A-7C, and 8A. For example, the operations of process 1100 may be implemented by devices 800 and/or 900. It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art how to implement other processes based on the components depicted in fig. 1-4, 6A-6B, and 7A-7C.

Fig. 12A-12B illustrate a process 1200 for DA interactions in a communication session, according to various examples. For example, process 1200 is performed using one or more electronic devices that implement a DA. In some examples, process 1200 is performed using a client-server system (e.g., system 100) and the blocks of process 1200 are partitioned in any manner between a server (e.g., DA server 106) and a client device. In other examples, the blocks of process 1200 are divided between a server and a plurality of client devices (e.g., mobile phone and smart watch). Thus, although portions of process 1200 are described herein as being performed by a particular device of a client-server system, it should be understood that process 1200 is not limited thereto. In other examples, process 1200 is performed using only a client device (e.g., device 800) or only a plurality of client devices. In process 1200, some blocks are optionally combined, the order of some blocks is optionally changed, and some blocks are optionally omitted. In some examples, additional steps may be performed in connection with process 1200.

At block 1202, while an electronic device (e.g., device 800) is engaged in a communication session with one or more external devices (e.g., external device 900), input is received from a first user of the electronic device to invoke a first digital assistant (e.g., first DA 804) operating on the electronic device. The first digital assistant is configured to operate in a first language.

At block 1204, a first natural language input in a first language (e.g., "what time is it.

At block 1206, a first response to the first natural language input in the first language (e.g., "it's 9amin Cupertino" in fig. 9A) is generated by the first digital assistant in accordance with invoking the first digital assistant.

At block 1208, a first response is transmitted (e.g., using the audio control module 806) to one or more external devices.

In some examples, at block 1210, context information associated with a first natural language input is transmitted to an external device.

At block 1212, after transmitting the first response, from oneOr an external device of the plurality of external devices receives a second natural language input in a second language (e.g., as in FIG. 9B />). In the event that the external device does not receive a second input to invoke a second digital assistant (e.g., the second DA 904) operating on the external device after receiving the transmitted first response, a second natural language input is received. The second digital assistant is configured to operate in a second language. In some examples, the second natural language input does not include a response to a prompt for user input generated by the first digital assistant or the second digital assistant. In some examples, the input to invoke the first digital assistant includes a spoken trigger input or selection of a button of the electronic device, and the second input to invoke the second digital assistant includes a spoken trigger input or selection of a button of the external device.

At block 1214, a second response to the second natural language input in the second language (e.g., "en Paris, son las 6pm" in fig. 9B) is received from the external device, wherein the second response is generated by the second digital assistant. In some examples, the second digital assistant generates a second response based on the context information. In some examples, the external device determines that the second natural language input is for the second digital assistant based on a gaze direction of a third user of the external device. In some examples, the second digital assistant generates the second response in accordance with determining that the second natural language input is for the second digital assistant. In some examples, the second digital assistant generates the second response based on information corresponding to a second user of the external device, wherein the information is stored on the external device.

In some examples, at block 1216, after transmitting the first response, a third natural language input in the first language is received from the external device (e.g., "what about in Paris. In the event that the external device does not receive a third input to invoke the second digital assistant after receiving the transmitted first response, a third natural language input is received. In some examples, at block 1218, a third response to the third natural language input in the second language (e.g., "no entity" in fig. 9E) is received from the external device. The third response is generated by the second digital assistant and indicates that the second digital assistant cannot interpret the third natural language input.

In some examples, at block 1220, after transmitting the first response, a fourth natural language input in the second language is received from the external device (e.g., in fig. 9F). In some examples, at block 1222, a fourth response to the fourth natural language input in the second language is received from the external device (e.g., "en Paris, son labs 6pm" in fig. 9F). The fourth response is generated by the second digital assistant. The fourth response is received in accordance with the external device receiving a fourth input (e.g., "Hola Siri" in fig. 9F) for invoking the second digital assistant. The fourth response instructs the second digital assistant to initiate a task corresponding to the fourth natural language input.

In some examples, at block 1224, after transmitting the first response, a fifth natural language input in the first language is received from the first user (e.g., "what about in Paris. In the event that the electronic device does not receive a fifth input to invoke the first digital assistant after transmitting the first response, a fifth natural language input is received. In some examples, at block 1126, upon receiving the fifth natural language input, a fifth response to the fifth natural language input in the first language is generated by the first digital assistant (e.g., "it's 6pmin Paris" in fig. 9C). The fifth response indicates an initiated task corresponding to the fifth natural language input. In some examples, at block 1228, a fifth response is transmitted to the one or more external devices (e.g., using the audio control module 806).

In some examples, at block 1230, an on-stream transmissionAfter the first response is entered, a sixth natural language input in a third language different from the first language is received from the first user (e.g., as in FIG. 9D). The sixth natural language input is received without the electronic device receiving a sixth input to invoke the first digital assistant after transmitting the first response. In some examples, at block 1232, in accordance with receipt of the sixth natural language input, a sixth response to the sixth natural language input in the first language is generated by the first digital assistant (e.g., "soy I don't un rstand" in fig. 9D). The sixth response indicates that the first digital assistant cannot interpret the sixth natural language input. In some examples, at block 1234, a sixth response is transmitted to the one or more external devices (e.g., using audio control module 806).

The operations described above with respect to fig. 12A-12B are optionally implemented by the components depicted in fig. 1-4, 6A-6B, 7A-7C, and 8A. For example, the operations of process 1200 may be implemented by devices 800 and/or 900. It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art how to implement other processes based on the components depicted in fig. 1-4, 6A-6B, and 7A-7C.

Fig. 13A-13B illustrate a process 1300 for DA interactions in a communication session in accordance with various examples. For example, process 1300 is performed using one or more electronic devices implementing a DA. In some examples, process 1300 is performed using a client-server system (e.g., system 100) and the blocks of process 1300 are partitioned in any manner between a server (e.g., DA server 106) and a client device. In other examples, the blocks of process 1300 are divided between a server and a plurality of client devices (e.g., mobile phones and smart watches). Thus, although portions of process 1300 are described herein as being performed by a particular device of a client-server system, it should be understood that process 1300 is not limited thereto. In other examples, process 1300 is performed using only a client device (e.g., device 800) or only a plurality of client devices. In process 1300, some blocks are optionally combined, the order of some blocks is optionally changed, and some blocks are optionally omitted. In some examples, additional steps may be performed in connection with process 1300.

At block 1302, while an electronic device (e.g., device 800) is engaged in a communication session with one or more external devices (e.g., external device 900), input is received from a first user of the electronic device to invoke a first digital assistant (e.g., first DA 804) operating on the electronic device. The first digital assistant is configured to operate in a first language.

At block 1304, a first natural language input in a first language (e.g., "what time is it.

At block 1306, a first response to the first natural language input in the first language (e.g., "it's 9amin Cupertino") is generated by the first digital assistant in accordance with invoking the first digital assistant.

At block 1308, a first response is transmitted to one or more external devices (e.g., using the audio control module 806).

At block 1310, after transmitting the first response, a second natural language input in the first language (e.g., "what about in Paris" in fig. 10B) is received from an external device (e.g., external device 900) of the one or more external devices. In the event that the external device does not receive a second input to invoke a second digital assistant (e.g., the second DA 904) operating on the external device after receiving the transmitted first response, a second natural language input is received. The second digital assistant is configured to operate in a second language. In some examples, the second natural language input does not include a response to a prompt for user input generated by the first digital assistant or the second digital assistant. In some examples, the input to invoke the first digital assistant includes a spoken trigger input or selection of a button of the electronic device, and the second input to invoke the second digital assistant includes a spoken trigger input or selection of a button of the external device.

At block 1312, a second response to the second natural language input in the first language (e.g., "it's 6pmin Paris" in FIG. 10B) is generated by the first digital assistant. In some examples, the first digital assistant generates the second response based on the first response and the contextual information associated with the first natural language input. In some examples, the external device determines that the second natural language input is for the first digital assistant based on a gaze direction of a second user of the external device. In some examples, the first digital assistant generates the second response in accordance with determining that the second natural language input is for the first digital assistant.

At block 1314, a second response is transmitted to the one or more external devices (e.g., using the audio control module 806).

In some examples, at block 1316, a third natural language input in a second language is received from the external device (e.g., in fig. 10D). In the event that the external device does not receive a third input to invoke the second digital assistant after receiving the transmitted first response, a third natural language input is received. In some examples, at block 1318, upon receipt of the third natural language input, a third response to the third natural language input in the first language is generated by the first digital assistant (e.g., "soy, I don't un rstand" in fig. 10D). The third response indicates that the first digital assistant cannot interpret the third natural language input. In some examples, at block 1320, a third response is transmitted to the one or more external devices (e.g., using the audio control module 806).

In some examples, at block 1322, a fourth natural language input in the second language is received from the external device. In some examples, at block 1324, a fourth response to the fourth natural language input in the second language is received from the external device. The fourth response is generated by the second digital assistant. The fourth response is received in accordance with the external device receiving a fourth input for invoking the second digital assistant. The fourth response instructs the second digital assistant to initiate a task corresponding to the fourth natural language input.

In some examples, at block 1326, it is determined (e.g., by the first DA 804) whether the second natural language input corresponds to a personal request. In some examples, generating the second response is performed in accordance with a determination that the second natural language input does not correspond to the personal request. In some examples, at block 1328, in accordance with a determination that the second natural language input corresponds to the personal request, a fifth response to the second natural language input in the first language is generated by the first digital assistant. The fifth response indicates that the first digital assistant cannot satisfy the user request included in the second natural language input. In some examples, at block 1330, a fifth response is transmitted to the one or more external devices (e.g., using the audio control module 806).

In some examples, at block 1332, a sixth natural language input in the second language (e.g., "less mis mensajes" in fig. 10C) is received from the external device. The sixth natural language input corresponds to a personal request. In some examples, a sixth response to the sixth natural language input in the second language (e.g., "Anthony dijo 'hola'" in FIG. 10C) is received from the external device at block 1334. The sixth response is generated by the second digital assistant. A sixth response is received in accordance with the external device receiving a sixth input for invoking the second digital assistant. The sixth response instructs the second digital assistant to initiate a task corresponding to the sixth natural language input.

The operations described above with respect to fig. 13A-13B are optionally implemented by the components depicted in fig. 1-4, 6A-6B, 7A-7C, and 8A. For example, the operations of process 1300 may be implemented by devices 800 and/or 900. It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art how to implement other processes based on the components depicted in fig. 1-4, 6A-6B, and 7A-7C.

According to some implementations, a computer-readable storage medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium) is provided that stores one or more programs for execution by one or more processors of an electronic device, the one or more programs including instructions for performing any of the methods or processes described herein.

According to some implementations, an electronic device (e.g., a portable electronic device) is provided that includes means for performing any of the methods and processes described herein.

According to some implementations, an electronic device (e.g., a portable electronic device) is provided that includes a processing unit configured to perform any of the methods and processes described herein.

According to some implementations, an electronic device (e.g., a portable electronic device) is provided that includes one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs for execution by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for performing any of the methods and processes described herein.

The foregoing description, for purposes of explanation, has been described with reference to specific embodiments. However, the illustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the techniques and their practical applications. Those skilled in the art will be able to best utilize the techniques and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.

While the present disclosure and examples have been fully described with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art. It should be understood that such variations and modifications are considered to be included within the scope of the disclosure and examples as defined by the claims.

As described above, one aspect of the present technology is to collect and use data available from various sources to generate DA responses in a communication session. The present disclosure contemplates that in some instances, such collected data may include personal information data that uniquely identifies or may be used to contact or locate a particular person. Such personal information data may include demographic data, location-based data, telephone numbers, email addresses, tweet IDs, home addresses, data or records related to the user's health or fitness level (e.g., vital sign measurements, medication information, exercise information), date of birth, or any other identification or personal information.

The present disclosure recognizes that the use of such personal information data in the present technology may be used to benefit users. For example, personal information data may be used to fulfill user requests to the DA. In addition, the present disclosure contemplates other uses for personal information data that are beneficial to the user. For example, health and fitness data may be used to provide insight into the overall health of a user, or may be used as positive feedback to individuals using technology to pursue health goals.

The present disclosure contemplates that entities responsible for collecting, analyzing, disclosing, transmitting, storing, or otherwise using such personal information data will adhere to established privacy policies and/or privacy practices. In particular, such entities should exercise and adhere to privacy policies and practices that are recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or government requirements for maintaining the privacy and security of personal information data. Such policies should be readily accessible to the user and should be updated as the collection and/or use of the data changes. Personal information from users should be collected for legal and reasonable use by entities and not shared or sold outside of these legal uses. In addition, such collection/sharing should be performed after informed consent is received from the user. In addition, such entities should consider taking any necessary steps to defend and secure access to such personal information data and to ensure that others who have access to personal information data adhere to their privacy policies and procedures. In addition, such entities may subject themselves to third party evaluations to prove compliance with widely accepted privacy policies and practices. In addition, policies and practices should be adjusted to collect and/or access specific types of personal information data and to suit applicable laws and standards including specific considerations of jurisdiction. For example, in the united states, the collection or acquisition of certain health data may be governed by federal and/or state law, such as the health insurance flow and liability act (HIPAA); while health data in other countries may be subject to other regulations and policies and should be processed accordingly. Thus, different privacy practices should be maintained for different personal data types in each country.

In spite of the foregoing, the present disclosure also contemplates embodiments in which a user selectively prevents use or access to personal information data. That is, the present disclosure contemplates that hardware elements and/or software elements may be provided to prevent or block access to such personal information data. For example, where a DA response is provided in a communication session, the techniques of this disclosure may be configured to allow a user to choose to "join" or "leave" to participate in the collection of personal information data during or at any time subsequent to the registration service. In another example, the user may choose not to allow the DA to access the personal information data (e.g., during a communication session). In yet another example, the user may choose to limit the length of time that the DA may access the personal information. In addition to providing the "opt-in" and "opt-out" options, the present disclosure also contemplates providing notifications related to accessing or using personal information. For example, the user may be notified that his personal information data will be accessed when the application is downloaded, and then be reminded again just before the personal information data is accessed by the application.

Further, it is an object of the present disclosure that personal information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of inadvertent or unauthorized access or use. Once the data is no longer needed, risk can be minimized by limiting the data collection and deleting the data. In addition, and when applicable, included in certain health-related applications, the data de-identification may be used to protect the privacy of the user. De-identification may be facilitated by removing a particular identifier (e.g., date of birth, etc.), controlling the amount or characteristics of data stored (e.g., collecting location data at a city level rather than an address level), controlling the manner in which data is stored (e.g., aggregating data among users), and/or other methods, where appropriate.

Thus, while the present disclosure broadly covers the use of personal information data to implement one or more of the various disclosed embodiments, the present disclosure also contemplates that the various embodiments may be implemented without accessing such personal information data. That is, various embodiments of the present technology do not fail to function properly due to the lack of all or a portion of such personal information data. For example, the DA may satisfy the user's requirements based on non-personal information data or an absolute minimum of personal information (such as content requested by a device associated with the user, other non-personal information applicable to the DA, or publicly available information).

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

at an electronic device having one or more processors and memory:

while the electronic device is engaged in a communication session with one or more external devices:

receiving input from a first user of the electronic device for invoking a first digital assistant operating on the electronic device;

receiving natural language input corresponding to a task from the first user;

generating, by the first digital assistant, a prompt for further user input regarding the task in accordance with invoking the first digital assistant;

Transmitting the prompt for further user input regarding the task to the one or more external devices;

after transmitting the prompt for further user input, receiving a response to the prompt for further user input from an external device of the one or more external devices;

initiating, by the first digital assistant, the task based on the response and information stored on the electronic device corresponding to the first user; and

an output is transmitted to the one or more external devices indicating the initiated task.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

at the electronic device:

after transmitting the output indicating the initiated task to the one or more external devices:

receiving a second natural language input corresponding to a second task from a second external device of the one or more external devices, wherein the second external device receives the second natural language input from a second user of the second external device;

receiving, after receiving the second natural language input, a second prompt from the second external device for user input regarding the second task, wherein the second prompt is generated by a second digital assistant operating on the second external device;

Receiving a second response from the first user to the second prompt for user input;

transmitting the second response to the one or more external devices; and

receiving a second output from the second external device, wherein:

the second digital assistant initiating the second task based on the second response and information corresponding to the second user stored on the second external device; and

the second output indicates the initiated second task.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second prompt is received in accordance with the second external device receiving a second input from the second user invoking the second digital assistant.

4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising:

determining whether the task corresponds to a predetermined type of task;

in accordance with a determination that the task corresponds to the predetermined type of task:

upon receiving the response from the external device, generating, by the first digital assistant, a third output indicating that the first digital assistant cannot complete the task,

wherein initiating the task is performed in accordance with a determination that the task does not correspond to the predetermined type of task.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving a third response from the first user to the prompt for further user input; and

in accordance with a determination that the task corresponds to the predetermined type of task and in accordance with a determination that the third response is received from the first user, initiating, by the first digital assistant, the task based on the third response and the information corresponding to the first user; and

a fourth output is transmitted to the one or more external devices indicating the initiated task.

6. The method of any of claims 1-5, wherein the natural language input is in a first language and the first digital assistant is configured to operate in the first language, the method further comprising:

determining whether the first digital assistant is capable of interpreting the response in the first language, wherein initiating the task is performed in accordance with determining that the first digital assistant is capable of interpreting the response in the first language; and

in accordance with a determination that the first digital assistant is not capable of interpreting the response in the first language, a fifth output is transmitted to the one or more external devices indicating an error.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein a third digital assistant operating on the external device is configured to operate in a second language different from the first language.

8. The method of any of claims 1-7, wherein initiating the task includes displaying an affordance corresponding to the task on the electronic device, wherein the first digital assistant generates the affordance based on the information corresponding to the first user, the method further comprising:

causing the one or more external devices to each display the affordance.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein:

causing the one or more external devices to each display the affordance in accordance with a determination that the task does not correspond to a second predetermined type of task; and

displaying the affordance on the electronic device includes:

in accordance with a determination that the task corresponds to the second predetermined type of task, the affordance is displayed without causing the one or more external devices to each display the affordance.

10. The method of any of claims 8 to 9, further comprising:

Receiving a first user input corresponding to a selection of the displayed affordance; and

responsive to receiving the first user input, displaying the affordance in a modified state; and

causing the one or more external devices to each display the affordance in the modified state.

11. The method of any of claims 8 to 10, further comprising:

receiving, from a third external device of the one or more external devices, an instruction to display the affordance in a second modified state, wherein the affordance is displayed in the second modified state on the third external device in response to receiving a second user input at the third external device that corresponds to selection of the affordance; and

in response to receiving the instruction, the affordance is displayed in the second modified state on the electronic device.

12. The method of any of claims 1-11, wherein the input to invoke the first digital assistant comprises a verbal trigger input or selection of a button of the electronic device.

13. An electronic device, comprising:

one or more processors;

A memory; and

one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising instructions for:

receiving natural language input corresponding to a task from the first user;

14. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of a first electronic device, cause the first electronic device to:

receiving natural language input corresponding to a task from the first user;

15. An electronic device, comprising:

means for performing the following:

receiving natural language input corresponding to a task from the first user;

16. An electronic device, comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory; and

one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising instructions for performing the method of any of claims 1-12.

17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform the method of any of claims 1-12.

18. An electronic device, comprising:

means for performing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 12.

19. A method, comprising:

at an electronic device having one or more processors and memory:

receiving input from a first user of the electronic device for invoking a first digital assistant operating on the electronic device, wherein the first digital assistant is configured to operate in a first language;

Receiving a first natural language input in the first language from the first user;

generating, by the first digital assistant, a first response to the first natural language input in the first language in accordance with invoking the first digital assistant;

transmitting the first response to the one or more external devices;

receiving a second natural language input in a second language from an external device of the one or more external devices after transmitting the first response, wherein:

the second natural language input is received if the external device does not receive a second input to invoke a second digital assistant operating on the external device after receiving the transmitted first response; and

the second digital assistant is configured to operate in the second language; and

a second response to the second natural language input in the second language is received from the external device, wherein the second response is generated by the second digital assistant.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

transmitting context information associated with the first natural language input to the external device, wherein the second digital assistant generates the second response based on the context information.

21. The method of any of claims 19 to 20, further comprising:

receiving a third natural language input in the first language from the external device after transmitting the first response, wherein the third natural language input is received without the external device receiving a third input to invoke the second digital assistant after receiving the transmitted first response; and

a third response to the third natural language input in the second language is received from the external device, wherein the third response is generated by the second digital assistant and indicates that the second digital assistant cannot interpret the third natural language input.

22. The method of any of claims 19 to 21, further comprising:

receiving a fourth natural language input in the second language from the external device after transmitting the first response;

receiving a fourth response to the fourth natural language input in the second language from the external device, wherein:

the fourth response is generated by the second digital assistant;

the fourth response is received in accordance with the external device receiving a fourth input to invoke the second digital assistant; and

The fourth response instructs the second digital assistant to initiate a task corresponding to the fourth natural language input.

23. The method of any of claims 19-22, wherein the second digital assistant generates the second response based on information corresponding to a second user of the external device, wherein the information is stored on the external device.

24. The method of any of claims 19 to 23, further comprising:

receiving a fifth natural language input in the first language from the first user after transmitting the first response, wherein the fifth natural language input is received without the electronic device receiving a fifth input to invoke the first digital assistant after transmitting the first response;

generating, by the first digital assistant, a fifth response to the fifth natural language input in the first language in accordance with receiving the fifth natural language input, wherein the fifth response indicates an initiated task corresponding to the fifth natural language input; and

transmitting the fifth response to the one or more external devices.

25. The method of any of claims 19 to 24, further comprising:

receiving, from the first user, a sixth natural language input in a third language different from the first language after transmitting the first response, wherein the sixth natural language input is received without the electronic device receiving a sixth input to invoke the first digital assistant after transmitting the first response;

generating, by the first digital assistant, a sixth response to the sixth natural language input in the first language in accordance with receiving the sixth natural language input, wherein the sixth response indicates that the first digital assistant cannot interpret the sixth natural language input; and

transmitting the sixth response to the one or more external devices.

26. The method of any one of claims 19 to 25, wherein:

the external device determining that the second natural language input is for the second digital assistant based on a gaze direction of a third user of the external device; and

the second digital assistant generates the second response in accordance with determining that the second natural language input is for the second digital assistant.

27. The method of any of claims 19-26, wherein the second natural language input does not include a response to a prompt for user input generated by the first digital assistant or the second digital assistant.

28. The method of any one of claims 19 to 27, wherein:

the input for invoking the first digital assistant includes a spoken trigger input or selection of a button of the electronic device; and

the second input for invoking the second digital assistant includes the spoken trigger input or selection of a button of the external device.

29. An electronic device, comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory; and

transmitting the first response to the one or more external devices;

after transmitting the first response, receiving a second natural language input in a second language from an external device of the one or more external devices,

wherein:

30. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of a first electronic device, cause the first electronic device to:

transmitting the first response to the one or more external devices;

31. An electronic device, comprising:

means for performing the following:

transmitting the first response to the one or more external devices;

32. An electronic device, comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory; and

one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising instructions for performing the method of any of claims 19-28.

33. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform the method of any of claims 19-28.

34. An electronic device, comprising:

means for performing the method according to any one of claims 19 to 28.

35. A method, comprising:

at an electronic device having one or more processors and memory:

generating, by the first digital assistant, a first response to the first natural language input using the first language in accordance with invoking the first digital assistant;

transmitting the first response to the one or more external devices;

receiving, from an external device of the one or more external devices, a second natural language input in the first language after transmitting the first response, wherein:

the second digital assistant is configured to operate in a second language;

Generating, by the first digital assistant, a second response to the second natural language input in the first language; and

transmitting the second response to the one or more external devices.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the first digital assistant generates the second response based on contextual information associated with the first natural language input and the first response.

37. The method of any one of claims 35 to 36, further comprising:

receiving a third natural language input in the second language from the external device, wherein the third natural language input is received without the external device receiving a third input to invoke the second digital assistant after receiving the transmitted first response;

generating, by the first digital assistant, a third response to the third natural language input in the first language in accordance with receiving the third natural language input, wherein the third response indicates that the first digital assistant cannot interpret the third natural language input; and

transmitting the third response to the one or more external devices.

38. The method of any of claims 35 to 37, further comprising:

receiving a fourth natural language input in the second language from the external device; and

the fourth response is generated by the second digital assistant;

39. The method of any one of claims 35 to 38, further comprising:

determining whether the second natural language input corresponds to a personal request, wherein generating the second response is performed in accordance with a determination that the second natural language input does not correspond to a personal request.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising:

in accordance with a determination that the second natural language input corresponds to a personal request, generating, by the first digital assistant, a fifth response to the second natural language input in the first language, wherein the fifth response indicates that the first digital assistant cannot satisfy the user request included in the second natural language input; and

Transmitting the fifth response to the one or more external devices.

41. The method of any one of claims 35 to 40, further comprising:

receiving a sixth natural language input in the second language from the external device, the sixth natural language input corresponding to a personal request;

receiving a sixth response to the sixth natural language input in the second language from the external device, wherein:

the sixth response is generated by the second digital assistant;

the sixth response is received in accordance with the external device receiving a sixth input to invoke the second digital assistant; and

the sixth response instructs the second digital assistant to initiate a task corresponding to the sixth natural language input.

42. The method of any one of claims 35 to 41, wherein:

the external device determining that the second natural language input is for the first digital assistant based on a gaze direction of a second user of the external device; and

the first digital assistant generates the second response in accordance with determining that the second natural language input is for the first digital assistant.

43. A method as defined in any one of claims 35 to 42, wherein the second natural language input does not include a response to a prompt for user input generated by the first digital assistant or the second digital assistant.

44. The method of any one of claims 35 to 43, wherein:

45. An electronic device, comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory; and

transmitting the first response to the one or more external devices;

the second digital assistant is configured to operate in a second language;

transmitting the second response to the one or more external devices.

46. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of a first electronic device, cause the first electronic device to:

transmitting the first response to the one or more external devices;

the second digital assistant is configured to operate in a second language;

transmitting the second response to the one or more external devices.

47. An electronic device, comprising:

means for performing the following:

transmitting the first response to the one or more external devices;

The second digital assistant is configured to operate in a second language;

transmitting the second response to the one or more external devices.

48. An electronic device, comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory; and

one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising instructions for performing the method of any of claims 35-44.

49. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform the method of any of claims 35-44.

50. An electronic device, comprising:

means for performing the method of any one of claims 35 to 44.