Amazon.com, Inc.
Voice input processing

Abstract:

Systems and methods are described for processing voice input to detect and remove voice recognition errors in the context of a product attribute query. Spoken-word input may be processed to tentatively identify a query regarding a product and an attribute. A hierarchical product catalog is then used to identify categories that include the identified product, and an affinity score is determined for each category to indicate the relative strength of the relationship between the category and the attribute. The affinity score for each category is determined based on historical questions submitted to a question and answer service with regard to other products in the category. An affinity score for the product-attribute pairing is then determined based on a weighted average of the affinity scores for the product categories, and the affinity score is used to determine whether the question is valid and the voice input has been correctly processed.