Speech interactive system and method

The present invention relates to a speech interactive system and method. The system comprises a target information receiving module, an interactive mode setting and speech processing module, an interactive information update module, a decision module, and an output response module. It receives target information and sets corresponding target text sentence information. It also receives a user's speech signal, sets an interactive mode, decides the speech's target text sentence information, and generates an assessment for the target text sentence. Under the set interactive mode, the system updates the information in an interactive information recording table according to the assessment and a timing count. According to the interactive mode and the recorded information, an output mode for the target text sentence information is generated. According to the output mode and the recorded information, the response information is generated.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to a speech interactive system and method.

BACKGROUND

Many current speech interactive systems and devices are to make the machines understand the user's intention and achieve certain target, such as, using speech command to control the terminal device, or using speech processing to understand the user's intention and responding with information or action. The key point is to respond with the target information or action matching the user's intention. Another type of speech interactive systems and devices is for learning language. This application is to dialog and respond, or perform pronunciation assessment, via the speech inputted by the user to achieve the learning objective. This type of speech interactive system and device is usually implemented with the objective of responding to the user with correct information matching the user's intention.

The learning usually follows the following strategies: (1) using direct teaching to transmit information and using practice to achieve the learning objective; (2) using visual aid, questions and answer to achieve the learning objective; (3) using exploratory or discovery strategy, and using computer simulation information or virtual reality to construct knowledge; and (4) using evaluating questionnaire to examine the learning process and result to inspire the self-discipline learning. Basically, the learning is based on direct teaching or guided learning.

There are many prior arts on speech interactive systems, such as, Taiwan Patent No. I1247249 disclosed an interactive intelligent speech learning doll, using the web-based digital content download program and virtual doll as interface to provide interactive intelligent language learning and guidance. The disclosed art may determine in real-time whether the learner's pronunciation is correct and may provide correct conversation instruction by using interactive doll to provide speech recognition and the built-in or downloaded pronunciation database. Taiwan Patent No. M244957 disclosed a speech toy with bi-directional conversation capability. The disclosed toy includes a microphone, a speech control device, a player and peripheral devices installed inside a doll body. The inputted speech may be transmitted through the microphone to the speech control device to recognize the speech and issue commands according to the recognized speech to control the player to announce time or output other responses. The speech controller may also control the peripheral devices to project luminous lights or wave the doll body. Each inputted speech corresponds to a plurality of output speeches.

China Patent Publication No. CN1581130A disclosed an interactive language learning method with speech recognition, including: capturing and playing the speech data; recognizing the user's inputted practice speech and generating recognition data; and comparing the two data to generate an approximation value, and using the approximation value to determine the correctness of the user's practice speech. China Patent Publication No. CN 101064070A disclosed an interactive intelligent language learning doll system, connected through network, and using a doll as system front-end interface and a network server for back-end recording and storing system related data to provide an automated language learning auxiliary system for children.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,281,143 disclosed a learning doll100. As shown inFIG. 1, the learning doll comprises a head102and a body104. When the power is OFF, the power may be turned ON by kissing106the doll to trigger switch108, and notifying a microprocessor and speech synthesizer110that the trigger detection mechanism is triggered. Microprocessor and speech synthesizer110uses a power amplifier/filter116to transmit the audio to a microphone114. Microprocessor and speech synthesizer110uses a listen amplifier120to detect the audio from microphone114. Microprocessor and speech synthesizer110may also trigger an electric motor122inside head102so that the lips of the doll may vibrate irregularly to make the speech more vivid. Accordingly, the doll may perform language teaching through the combination of human speech and touch interaction.

However, the prior arts do not show an interactive mechanism based on the objective of learning by teaching for encouraging the learner to continuously practice the learning target. Users may learn by teaching the virtual or real target to make correct response.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure may provide a speech interactive system and method.

In an exemplary embodiment, the disclosed relates to a speech interactive system. The system comprises a target information receiving module, an interactive mode setting and speech processing module, an interactive information update module, a decision module, and an output response module. The target information receiving module receives target information and sets corresponding target text sentence information. The interactive mode setting and speech processing module receives a speech signal, sets an interactive mode, determines target text sentence information for the speech signal, and outputs an assessment for a target text sentence. Under the set interactive mode, the interactive update module updates the information in an interactive information recording table according to the assessment and a timing count. According to the interactive mode and the updated information in the interactive information recording table, an output response for the target text sentence information is generated. According to the output response and the recorded information, the output response module generates response information.

In another exemplary embodiment, the disclosed relates to a speech interactive method. The method comprising: preparing an interactive information recording table for recording the interactive text sentence information; receiving a speech signal inputted by a user and deciding the corresponding target text sentence information, or receiving the given target text sentence information, to provide the user with different interactive modes to perform speech interactive operation; performing speech assessment on the inputted speech signal according to the target text sentence information and generating a speech assessment result; if receiving the given target text sentence information in the previous step, updating the information in the interactive information recording table according to the speech assessment result and a timing count; determining an output response the target text sentence information according to the different interactive modes and the updated information in the interactive information recording table; and outputting response information according to the determined output response and the updated information in the interactive information recording table.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The exemplary embodiments disclosed the designs of a speech interactive system and method based on the “learning by teaching” philosophy. The meaning of the “learning by teaching” is a learner understands the learning contents, and then the learner teaches a virtual or a real subject according to the understanding of the learning contents. The learner may understand the virtual or real subject's learning status through the response from that subject. In this manner, the learner may practice further in understanding the learning contents so that the virtual or real subject may respond correctly. Hence, the learner finally learns through teaching a virtual or real subject on the learning contents.

In the exemplary disclosed embodiments, through creating a virtual or real system to allow the learner interact through speech, the method constructs a mechanism able to receive the virtual or real learning target so that the learner may set the learning target accordingly, constructs a speech interactive mechanism so that the virtual or real system may receive and recognize the learner's inputted speech for this learning target and perform speech assessment, constructs a forgetting mechanism for the virtual or real system to urge the learner to continuously practice the learning target, and constructs a mechanism for outputting the virtual or the real subject's learning status so that the learner and others may understand the learner's understanding of the learning target through the response of the virtual or real subject.

FIG. 2shows an exemplary schematic view of a speech interactive system, consistent with certain embodiments. Referring toFIG. 2, a speech interactive system200comprises a target information receiving module210, an interactive mode setting and speech processing module220, an interactive information update module230, a decision module240, and an output response module250. Target information receiving module210receives target information210aand sets corresponding target text sentence information210b. Interactive mode setting and speech processing module220receives a user's speech signal220a, and sets an interactive mode220b, decides the speech's target text sentence information and outputs a speech assessment220cfor the target text sentence. Interactive update module230updates the information in an interactive information recording table230baccording to a timing count230aand speech assessment220cfrom the interactive mode setting and speech processing module220.

According to interactive mode220band recorded information of interactive information recording table230b, decision module240determines an output response240bfor the target text sentence information. According to the output response240band recorded information of interactive information recording table230b, output response module250outputs response information250b. In this manner, the learner or other users may understand the learner's comprehension of the target through response information250b. Timing count230amay be generated by a time counter. Interactive information recording table230brecords the information of the speech interactive sentences.

Speech interactive system200may allow the user to perform speech interaction in different modes. In other words, interactive mode220bset by interactive mode setting and speech processing module220may have different contents, such as, teaching mode or conversation mode. The target setting of the interactive operation may be done by the user's speech signal or the inputted target information. The target setting of the interactive operation may be expressed as follows:
Interactive target=f(inputted targetispeech, inputted targetjinformation), where

The above expression means that (a) when only an inputted speech signal is present (i.e., j=NULL), the target for interactive operation (i.e., interactive target) is the corresponding text sentence information of the speech signal, i.e., interactive target=target i; (b) when both a given target information and an inputted speech signal are present, the target text sentence information indicated by the speech signal must be consistent with the target text sentence information corresponding to the given target information (i.e., i=j), the target for interactive operation is the above target text sentence information, i.e., interactive target=target i; (c) when the target text sentence information corresponding to the inputted speech signal is not consistent with the target text sentence information corresponding to a given target information (i.e., i≠j), the target for interactive operation is the target text sentence information corresponding to the given target information, i.e., interactive target=target j; and (d) when no inputted speech signal is present (i.e., i=NULL), no interactive target will be assigned (i.e., interactive target=NULL).

The setting of interactive mode220bby interactive mode setting and speech processing module220depends on whether target information210ais given. When target information210ais given, the interactive mode220bis in teaching mode; otherwise, in conversation mode. Mapping to the above interactive target setting, the teaching mode corresponds to (b) and (c), and conversation mode corresponds to (a). When the interactive mode220bis in teaching mode, the processed information (speech assessment result220c) is transmitted to interactive information update module230. When the interactive mode220bis in conversation mode, the processed information (speech assessment220c) is transmitted to decision module240.

FIG. 3shows an exemplary schematic view of an interactive mode setting and speech processing module220, consistent with certain embodiments. As shown inFIG. 3, after receiving target information210a, target information receiving module210obtains target item information210bset by target information210a, and transmits target item information210bto interactive mode setting and speech processing module220. For example, target information receiving module210receives target information “Apple”, and transmits target information “Apple” to interactive mode setting and speech processing module220. Target information210aand target information receiving module210may be implemented with various technologies, such as, radio frequency identification (RFID) tag and RFID reader, barcode and barcode reader, object and object-oriented image identification, screen menu list and menu selection, and so on.

After receiving target information, interactive mode setting and speech processing module220sets the current operation mode as teaching mode310a. Then, interactive mode setting and speech processing module220obtains corresponding interactive text sentence from interactive information recording table according to target information, and waits for a user's inputted speech signal. When the user inputs a speech signal, a speech assessment310is performed according to the interactive text sentence for the inputted speech signal. When the user does not give target information but only the speech signal is inputted to interactive mode setting and speech processing module220, the current operation mode is set as conversation mode310b. Speech recognition unit320recognizes the target text sentence corresponding to the inputted speech signal by taking all of the interactive text sentences in the interactive information recording table as the recognition subject, and speech assessment310is performed with the target text sentence and the inputted speech signal.

FIG. 4shows an exemplary flowchart, illustrating the operation of speech assessment, consistent with certain embodiments. As shown inFIG. 4, according to the target text sentence410aand the inputted speech signal, an utterance verification method410is used to verify the consistency between the target text sentence410aand the content of inputted speech signal and a verification score410bis obtained. Other measurable relational scores between the speech signal inputted and the target text sentence410amay also be used as verification score410b, such as, the speech recognition score as the verification score. After obtaining the verification score, verification score410bis compared with a preset threshold, shown as step420. When the verification score is higher than the threshold, the inputted speech signal is a qualified speech; otherwise, a disqualified speech.

When the inputted speech signal is a qualified speech, and the current operation mode is in teaching mode, the subsequent processing includes threshold adjustment, updating the interactive information corresponding to the target text sentence by the interactive information update module, and entering decision module for processing. The threshold adjustment is to prevent the threshold from being too high so that no user may pass the threshold, or being too low so that any user may input any speech and obtain well assessment result easily. The threshold setting may also be done by a dynamic adjustment method so that the threshold may be dynamically adjusted according to the user's speech characteristic. For example, threshold adjustment may refer to the n previous verification scores, n is positive integer. Initially, the threshold may be set lower (the lower threshold may be obtained in advance of runtime by collecting and evaluating the verification scores from training data), and then the verification scores higher than the threshold may be selected for dynamic adjustment. A linear combination of the selected verification scores, i.e. averaging score, may be referred to for dynamic adjustment. After the threshold adjustment, a new threshold is obtained for the next utterance verification and is provided to the interactive information update module for updating the assessment threshold.

When the current operation is in conversation mode, no matter whether the inputted speech signal is qualified or disqualified, the process goes to the decision module.

After receiving the speech assessment result information from interactive mode setting and speech processing module220, interactive information update module230updates interactive information recording table230baccordingly. The speech assessment result information may also include the target text sentence, verification score and threshold adjustment value. In the exemplary embodiments, interactive information recording table230bdefines a plurality of information corresponding to the target text sentence, such as, interactive text sentence, accumulated teaching result, assessment threshold, difficulty level, response information, and so on. The response information of the target text sentence may be presented in multimedia, such as, image or speech.FIG. 5shows an exemplary interactive information recording table, consistent with certain embodiments.

In the example ofFIG. 5, the row information may be set as a default value when it is not updated firstly. For example, the default values for the interactive text sentence, accumulated teaching result, assessment threshold, difficulty level and response information for target text sentence “Grape” are Grape, 0.0, −5.5, 10.0 and the image and speech of Grape, respectively. The setting of the default values for different target text sentences may be different. For example, the difficulty level for target text sentence “Apple” and target text sentence “This is a pencil” may be 8.0 and 30.0, respectively, to emphasize the difficulty level of different target text sentences. The threshold adjustment value transmitted from the interactive mode setting and speech processing module may be directly used to replace the corresponding assessment threshold information of the target text sentence, and accumulated teaching result may be obtained with the following formula:
Accumulated teaching result=current teaching resultLC+previous accumulated teaching resultLT,
where, current teaching result LCis a function of the verification score and assessment threshold, such as, the difference between the verification score and the assessment threshold. If previous accumulated teaching result LTis greater than or equal to the difficulty level, previous accumulated teaching result LTis equal to the difficulty level.

For example, the verification score and the threshold adjustment value for target sentence “Apple” transmitted by interactive mode setting and speech processing module220are −2.0 and −3.0, respectively. In the interactive information recording table, the accumulated teaching result LTfor target text sentence “Apple” is 2.5, the above formula may be computed as:
Accumulated teaching result=(−2.0−(−3.0))+2.5=1.0+2.5=3.5
That is to say, the accumulated teaching result for target text sentence “Apple” is 3.5.

It can be noted that the verification score is considered as the presentation of user's teaching result. And the teaching result is the speech assessment score based on an assessment threshold adjusted by user's speech characteristics. Hence, although different users may have different speech assessment thresholds because of different speech characteristics, the teaching result may be similar. Also, because the assessment threshold may be dynamically adjusted according to the user's past pronunciation(s), the speech assessment threshold will gradually stabilize and match the user's speech characteristics after several adjustments. Therefore, the user needs to pronounce the sentence correctly in order to obtain good teaching result. A positive response will be feedback to user because of good teaching result. It may encourage user to make correct pronunciation(s). In this manner, the exemplary embodiments may bring user a correct learning result by the correct teaching.

Another exemplary equation for the accumulated teaching result is related to learner's suspension from learning. When the learner has stopped practicing the interactive text sentence for a period of time, the learner may forget the pronunciation of interactive text sentence gradually in most cases. In the exemplary embodiments, a forgetting mechanism is constructed to decrease the score of accumulated teaching result, so as to urge the learner to persist in practicing. The relation between the forgetting information and the accumulated teaching result may be expressed as the following equation:
Accumulated teaching resultLT+ΔT=accumulated teaching resultLT−forgettingFT,
If 0<LT<difficulty level, thenFT=(1−LT/difficulty level)×w,

If LT≧difficulty level or LT=0, then FT=0,

If FT≧LT, then FT=LT.

Where ΔT is the suspension time interval between current time and the nearest time to update the interactive text sentence record, w is a weighting factor for enhancing or reducing the penalty for slack learning. Whenever the suspension time interval ΔT has reached to a predefined period, the accumulated teaching result is updated once, i.e. decreasing the score of accumulated teaching result.

“LT/difficulty level” may considered as the user's learning degree on the interactive text sentence. Hence, the forgetting equation (1−LT/difficulty level) may be regarded as the unaccomplished degree for the learner on the interactive text sentence. The value of forgetting equation (1−LT/difficulty level) may be obtained by computing the accumulated teaching result and difficulty level. Accordingly, as the suspension time is increased, the update number is increased. The accumulated teaching result LTwill be decreased to 0 if no more learning is performed on the interactive text sentence. Therefore, as shown in the example ofFIG. 6, the update triggers for the interactive information update module230may come from the interactive mode setting and speech processing module220and the time counter630both. In actual application, the time interval ΔT may be set an hour or a day. Alternatively, an additional field for recording the update time for the interactive information recording table630bmay be used for more detailed update on each interactive text sentence record, so that the update may be made independently.

In the teaching mode, after interactive information update module230finishes updating interactive text sentence record corresponding to information of the target text in interactive information recording table230b, the process goes to the decision module240to make the output decision240b. After that, the process goes to the output response module250to output the response information250b. Refer to the embodiment inFIG. 7andFIG. 8, the following description describes the detailed operation of the decision module240and the output response module250, consistent with certain disclosed embodiments.

In the example ofFIG. 7, the decision module240determines whether the inputted speech signal is qualified or not (block710) firstly. If the inputted speech signal is not qualified, a confused response corresponding to with or without input of target information is outputted depending on the interactive mode. If the interactive mode is in conversation mode310b, the confused output is without input of target information741. If the interactive mode is in teaching mode310a, the confused output is with input of target information742. The difference between741and742is whether it may express the corresponding output response of the target information or not, such as, displaying the corresponding image of the target information (e.g., an exemplary image of apple). The commonality between the two is to express the confused response to the learner for the disqualified speech signal and tempt the learner to input speech again.

In an actual application, the two responses may be very different according to different needs. For example, the confused outputs may be expressed with a plurality of output images or speeches to enrich the expressions. Alternatively, different interactive modes may use the same confused response as output to simplify the expression. For the confused response with input of target information742, a complete learning output of the target text sentence such as a complete learning output743may be added to teach the learner the correct expression of the target text sentence and make the learner understand the correspondence between the target information and the correct expression. In this manner, the learner may learn by himself/herself without any tutor. This correct teaching occurs when the discrepancy between the correct pronunciation and the learner's actual pronunciation is large, i.e., the disqualified speech. When there is no target information (i.e., the actual target is unknown) or the inputted speech signal is qualified (i.e., the learner pronounces well and no hint is required), the correct teaching is not necessary.

For the qualified speech signal, decision module240uses the accumulated teaching result and difficulty level of the interactive information of the target text sentence in the interactive information recording table to decide whether the target text sentence has been learned completely, marked as720. If the accumulated teaching result is greater than the difficulty level, it means the target sentence is learned, then the learned output of the target text sentence is outputted, marked as743; otherwise, it means the learning is not accomplished yet, and the accumulated teaching result of the target text sentence may be used to decide whether the target text sentence has ever been learned, marked as730. If the accumulated teaching result is0(the accumulated teaching result is decremented to 0 because of long absence of learning and oblivion), decision module240decides that the target text sentence is a text sentence not being learned yet, and outputs a “having target text sentence” confused response, marked as742. Alternatively, the above “no such target text sentence” confused response may be used as an output to simplify the expression.

Therefore, with the output response, it will make the learner understand the learning status of the virtual or real subject, and may encourage the learner to practice further so that the virtual or real subject may respond correctly. This accomplishes the learning by teaching objective.

For those output responses with text sentences that have started to be learned and have not completed the learning yet, the learning process information produced according to the teaching result of the target text sentence is used as output response. Hence, the learner or other users may understand the learning subject on a virtual or real object via the output response of the virtual or real object, and may perform teaching on a virtual or real object by the understanding of the learning subject.

In the exemplary embodiments, the teaching result is defined as a function of accumulated teaching result and difficulty level. In other words, teaching result is related to the accumulated teaching result and the difficulty level. When the accumulated teaching result of the target text sentence is equal to the difficulty level, the target text sentence is considered completely learned; thus, teaching result=1. When the accumulated teaching result is equal to 0, the target text sentence is considered as not being learned yet; thus, teaching result=0. When the accumulated teaching result is between learning completed and not being learned yet, the teaching result is in a midway state with value between 0 and 1, which may be defined as LT/difficulty level.

The output of the midway state may depend on the ratio of LT/difficulty level to output the corresponding drawings or images of the target text sentence. Similarly, the output response of speech also depends on the same ratio of LT/difficulty level to output the corresponding speech of the target text sentence, as shown inFIG. 8. In the example ofFIG. 8, the target text sentence is “Apple”, with difficulty level8. When outputted for the first time, accumulated teaching result LTis 2.5, and the output of the midway state uses image and corresponding partial speech as response, marked as841. When outputted for the second time, the teaching result is 1, and the accumulated teaching result is 3.5, the output of the midway state is marked as842. When outputted for the third time, the teaching result is 4 and the accumulated teaching result is 7.5, and the output of the midway state is marked as843. When outputted for the fourth time, the teaching result is 3. Therefore, with the addition of the accumulated teaching result 7.5 at the third time, the accumulated teaching result LTis greater than the difficulty level. This indicates the target text sentence “Apple” has been learned completely, and the learned output of the target text sentence is outputted, marked as844.

The representation of partial speech output of midway state may be varied. For example, the data may be directly extracted from the correct speech data according to the LT/difficulty level ratio as the speech output of the midway state, or the resolution may be extracted from the correct speech data according to the LT/difficulty level ratio as the speech output of the midway state, or the output result may be extracted from the correct speech data in other ways according to the LT/difficulty level ratio as the speech output of the midway state. Take the resolution as an example. If an original sample is 16-bit (16 bits/sample), the sampling resolution may be downgraded to 16×(LT/difficulty level) bits to perform an output for the midway state.

FIG. 9shows an exemplary flowchart illustrating the operation of the output of the midway state, consistent with certain embodiments. Referring toFIG. 9, k speech units are randomly selected from a correct speech data as correction target, as shown in step910. Then, (1−LT/difficulty level) ratio of the speech data is removed from each speech unit, as shown in step920. Each modified speech unit is lengthened to the same length as the original speech unit in step930. In step940, the tone of the lengthened speech unit is modulated to generate the speech output of midway state in the learning process. The representation of the speech output for the midway state is a simulation output with the corresponding correct speech of the original target text sentence. When the system has limited memory, the above exemplary flowchart may be used to generate various speech data for different midway states to save memory space. If the system has sufficient memory, the speech data for each possible midway state may be generated and stored for subsequent use.

FIG. 10shows a working example of speech interactive system200in teaching mode, consistent with certain embodiments. Wherein, target information210amay be “Apple”, and a user may input a speech signal. Interactive information recording table630bincludes at least “Apple”, “Grape”, “Banana”, “Pencil”, and so on. Output examples for decision module240are as aforementioned and are omitted here.

As aforementioned, when the learner does not give target information, interactive mode setting and speech processing module220will set the interactive mode as conversation mode. When a user inputs a speech signal to interactive mode setting and speech processing module220, speech recognition unit320uses all the interactive text sentences in the interactive information recording table as the recognition target to recognize the target text sentence for the inputted signal. Interactive mode setting and speech processing module220then performs speech assessment according to the target text sentence and the inputted speech signal to obtain a verification score, and compares the verification score with the aforementioned threshold. When the verification score exceeds the threshold, the inputted speech signal is qualified; otherwise, disqualified. Then, decision module240makes a further decision and output response module250outputs corresponding responses. The implementations of decision module and output response module are the same as in the teaching mode.FIG. 11shows a working example of speech interactive system200in conversation mode, consistent with certain embodiments.

Speech interactive system200may also update interactive information recording table via an interactive information external update module. The interactive information external update module allows the manufacturer, when adding target information, to provide the interactive text sentence information corresponding to the target information for the users to operate so as to enrich the contents of speech interactive system200. The interactive information external update module may be installed in a computer system, with wired or wireless connection to speech interactive system200to update interactive information recording table230bof speech interactive system200. Alternatively, a storage device may be used to store interactive information recording table230band the update may be done by replacing the storage device.

Another way for interactive information external update is to allow the target text sentence information corresponding to the target information to enter the interactive information recording table in speech interactive system200for auditing when speech interactive system200receives the target information. If the interactive information recording table does not contain the same target text sentence information, the target text sentence information is added to the interactive information recording table to update the content of the interactive information recording table. In other words, the target text sentence information corresponding to the target information enters, from outside, the interactive information recording table of speech interactive system200for auditing, and further updating the content of the interactive information recording table.

FIG. 12shows an exemplary schematic view of the speech interactive system200applied to a toy body, consistent with certain embodiments. As shown inFIG. 12, the modules of speech interactive system200may be embedded inside a memory device of a body1210of a toy1200. Toy body1210may further include a CPU1210a, a microphone1210band a player1210c. CPU1210aexecutes some modules of speech interactive system200installed on the memory device, such as, interactive mode setting and speech processing module220, interactive information update module230, and decision module240. The image information may opt to be excluded from the memory device or opt not to be executed by CPU1210a.

Target information receiving module210of speech interactive system200receives target information externally. Microphone1210bmay receive the speech input and transmits to interactive mode setting and speech processing module220. Player1210c, such as, speaker, may output the speech response corresponding to the aforementioned teaching result.

Interactive information recording table230bmay be updated through a computer1220or a terminal device through wired or wireless connection. The updated content may be provided by a manufacturer1230. Or, interactive information recording table may be a memory module, such as a memory card1240, which may be updated by replacing the memory module. In addition, the target text sentence information may enter the interactive information recording table for auditing and further updating the content of the interactive information recording table.

According to aforementioned speech interactive system200,FIG. 13shows an exemplary flowchart illustrating the major steps of a speech interactive method, consistent with certain embodiments.

Referring toFIG. 13, step1310is to prepare an interactive information recording table for recording speech interactive text sentence information. Step1320is to receive the user's inputted speech signal and determine the target text sentence information for the speech signal, or receive the given target text sentence information as well, in order to provide the user with different interactive modes for speech interactive operation. Step1330is to perform speech assessment on the user's inputted speech signal according to the target text sentence information and generate an assessment result. If the target text sentence information is given as well in the previous step, step1340is to update the interactive information recording table according to the generated speech assessment result and a timing count. Step1350is to decide the output response of the target text sentence information according to the interactive mode, speech assessment, and the interactive information recording table. Step1360is to output response information according to the decided output response and the information in the interactive information recording table. The response information of the decided output response may be correct response of the target text sentence, confused response of the target text sentence, and output response of a midway state with the target text sentence being started to be learned and the learning not completed yet.

In both the teaching mode and the conversation mode of speech interactive system200, the detailed operations of the method are the same as aforementioned, and thus are omitted here.

In summary, the disclosed exemplary embodiments for speech interactive system and method are based on the “learning by teaching” philosophy to design the speech interactive mechanism to encourage the learner to practice correctly and persistently on the learning content so that the taught virtual or real object may make a correct respond finally. The speech interactive system may also update the interactive information recording table via an interactive information external update module. The disclosed exemplary embodiments may be embedded into a toy to attract user with more interested and improve the teaching result.