Intelligent Command Backoff

Intelligent Command Backoff is a mechanism to help improve accuracy in speech recognition. The backoff strategy enhances the user experience with Vocera voice commands. It offers additional help to users and significantly reduces the overall user frustration. This feature is typically useful if your organization has a big database of users and groups. Command Backoff is enabled by default, and no additional configuration is required.

Command Backoff triggers on when the Vocera Genie fails to recognize the names of recipients (individual or group) that a user uses with some commonly used voice commands, such as Call, Broadcast to, Add Me to, Record a Message for, etc.

For example, when you say the voice command, Call Mariah Carey from your badge, and Genie fails to recognize the receiver's name. You hear the following response, "I didn't understand."

Instead of repeating the "I didn't understand" messages, the command backoff strategy initiates after two consecutive failed attempts (i.e., after you hear two "I didn't understand" messages) to assist the user. It first asks if you are calling a user or a group, and then it asks you to say or spell the name of the user or group. Once you say or spell out the user or group's name, Genie recognizes the call recipient and proceeds with the command.

The following diagram describes the Call Command Backoff flow that Vocera voice prompt follows when a user tries to place a Call. If Vocera Genie fails to recognize the recipient's name during the first few attempts, the backoff feature prompts the user to say or spell the name of the User or the Group that they like to call.

Figure 1. Backoff Flow for Call Command
Similarly, when you say the command:

It is possible that Genie may fail to recognize a voice command that a user says even before attempting to recognize the recipient's name or a group's name. In such situations, after two consecutive attempts to recognize the command, the following message is played to assist the user: "say one of Call, Broadcast, Add me to group, or Send message to". Vocera Genie offers these command choices to help the user choose the correct command name.