Patent ID: 8140335

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for providing a natural language voice user interface in an integrated voice navigation services environment, comprising: receiving a natural language utterance at an input device coupled to a navigation device, wherein the natural language utterance relates to a navigation context; generating one or more preliminary interpretations of the natural language utterance using a speech recognition engine associated with the navigation device, wherein generating the one or more preliminary interpretations of the natural language utterance includes: recognizing one or more words in the natural language utterance that define a command in the navigation context, wherein the speech recognition engine includes a multi-pass speech recognition module that recognizes the one or more words that define the command in the navigation context; recognizing, at the multi-pass speech recognition module, one or more additional words in the natural language utterance that define a location associated with the command in the navigation context; and generating, at the multi-pass speech recognition module, a dynamic recognition grammar based on the location defined in the one or more additional words recognized in the natural language utterance, wherein the speech recognition engine uses the dynamic recognition grammar to generate the one or more preliminary interpretations of the natural language utterance; analyzing, with a conversational language processor on the navigation device, the one or more preliminary interpretations using shared knowledge and information associated with the navigation context to determine a probable interpretation of the natural language utterance in the navigation context; and executing, on the navigation device, a navigation agent associated with the navigation context to process the probable interpretation of the natural language utterance, wherein executing the navigation agent to process the probable interpretation of the natural language utterance includes: identifying, by the navigation agent executing on the navigation device, one or more requests in the natural language utterance that relate to the navigation context from the probable interpretation of the natural language utterance; and resolving, by the navigation agent executing on the navigation device, the one or more requests using information associated with a plurality of information sources, which include at least a navigation-specific information source.