Importance

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Abstract

A speech recognition system includes a speech-response capability for responding to sounds which appear to match models of spoken words by performing functions associated with such words. This speech response can be turned on or off. If the system detects both that speech response is off and that no indication is stored that the off state has been confirmed by a user, it performs a confirmation process. This prompts the user to utter a phrase confirming whether or not speech response is to be off; turns speech response on so it can respond to the user's confirmation utterance; determines whether to leave speech response on or off in response to the word which the speech response selects as corresponding to the user's confirmation utterance; and responds to such a determination that speech response is to be turned off, both by turning it off and by storing an indication that the off state has been confirmed by the user. In some embodiments, the system can execute user written programs which can include instructions for turning speech response on or off. In this case, the system can delay the start of a confirmation process until after the execution of such a program, to allow such programs to temporarily turn off speech response without requiring user confirmation. In some embodiments, the user can select whether to deactivate the feature which causes a confirmation processes to occur whenever speech response has been turned off without confirmation.

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First Claim