Hands-free, voice-operated remote control transmitter

• US 20040128137A1
• Filed: 01/27/2003
• Published: 07/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Carlos Ferdinand Roura, William Stuart Bush
• Original Assignee: Carlos Ferdinand Roura, William Stuart Bush
• Inventors: Roura, Carlos Ferdinand, Bush, William Stuart
• Granted Patent: US 7,080,014 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/31 Voice input
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context

Abstract

A wireless, programmable, sound-activated and voice-operated remote control transmitter can be used to add hands-free speech control operation to a plurality of remotely controlled appliances manufactured by various manufacturers, each of which is normally controlled with one or more signals from an associated remote control transmitter. The present invention may be pre-programmed with a universal library of codes for controlling various appliance categories and appliances produced by various manufacturers within each category. The present invention may also be programmed using the controlled appliances'"'"' remote control transmitters and one or more operators'"'"' spoken commands. Once programming is complete, there is no need for the operator to manually operate the present invention, allowing true hands-free voice control of the remotely controlled products. The programmable transmitter structure includes means for independently aligning the output signal transmitter and voice input microphone with the remotely controlled appliance and the operator, respectively. Voice commands are organized into a plurality of linked recognition vocabulary sets, each representing a subset of the complete voice command vocabulary available. These subsets are structured in a fashion that is intuitive to the user because the structure is consistent with controlled appliance operation. The invention discloses a scheme by which a user can easily navigate via voice commands between recognition sets to attain access to the intended voice commands.

Claims

1. A voice actuated control system for controlling appliances comprising:

a microphone for receiving audio signals;

a speech recognition system for receiving audio signals;

said speech recognition system having a low power sound activation mode for detecting the presence of audio signals and a speech recognition mode for decoding said audio signals and generating control signals for controlling one or more appliances, said speech recognition system including a circuit for switching between said sound activation mode and a speech recognition mode as a function of the amplitude of said audio signals; and

an appliance control circuit which includes a transmitter, said appliance control unit for receiving said control signals from said speech recognition system and generating and transmitting an appliance control signal to a selected appliance.

2. The voice actuated system as recited in claim 1, wherein said transmitter is configured to wirelessly transmit appliance control signals to said selected appliance

3. The voice actuated system as recited in claim 2, wherein said transmitter is an infrared transmitter.

4. The voice actuated system as recited in claim 2, wherein said transmitter is an RF transmitter.

5. A voice actuated control system for controlling one or more appliances, the control system comprising:

a microphone for receiving audio signals and converting said audio signals to electrical signals;

an audio circuit for receiving said electrical signals from said microphone and coupling said microphone to a sound activation circuit in one or more modes including a sleep mode and a speech recognition mode;

a sound activation circuit coupled to said microphone in a sleep mode configured to detect when electrical signals from said microphone exceed a predetermined threshold and generate a wake-up signal to said speech recognition circuit, causing circuit to switch to said speech recognition circuit, and;

a speech recognition circuit having one or more modes of operation including a speech recognition mode for generating first control signals when the electrical signals from said microphone represent one or more predetermined command signals or alternatively generating a sleep signal to cause said audio circuit to return to sleep mode after a predetermined time period when no command signals are detected; and

an appliance control circuit for receiving said first control signals from said speech recognition circuit and generating second control signals to cause the appliance to perform the desired command.

6. The control system as recited in claim 5, wherein the appliance control unit is configured to wirelessly transmit said second control signals to said select appliance.

7. The control system as recited in claim 6, wherein said second control signals are RF signals.

8. The control system as recited in claim 7, wherein said second control signals are infrared signals.

22. The voice activated control system as recited in claim 5, wherein said predetermined threshold level of said sound activation circuit is user-adjustable.

9. A voice-activated control system for controlling one or more selected appliances, the control system comprising:

a voice recognition system for receiving representative voice signals and converting said representative voice signals to one or more command signals for controlling one or more selected appliances, the voice recognition system including a plurality of linked speech recognition vocabulary sets.

10. The voice activated control system as recited in claim 9, wherein at least one of said linked speech vocabulary sets is speaker dependent.

11. The voice activated control system as recited in claim 9, wherein at least one of said linked speech vocabulary sets in speaker independent.

12. A voice recognition control system for controlling appliances, the control system comprising:

a microphone for receiving audio signals;

a speech recognition system for receiving audio signals from said microphone and converting said audio signals to control signals for controlling a selected appliance, the speech recognition system having a sound activation low power mode for detecting the presence of audio signals;

a speech recognition mode for decoding said audio signals and generating control signals and generating control signals for controlling an appliance; and

a mute mode for the selected appliance in order to reduce background noise.

13. The voice recognition control system as recited in claim 12, wherein said voice recognition system is configured to enable said MUTE mode by way of a voice command.

14. The voice recognition system as recited in claim 12, wherein said MUTE mode include a plurality of submodes

15. The voice recognition system as recited in claim 14, wherein one of said submodes is an OFF mode.

16. The voice recognition system as recited in claim 14, wherein one of said submodes is an automatic muting mode for muting an appliance in order to reduce the background noise.

17. The voice recognition system as recited in claim 14, wherein one of said submodes is a recognition error muting mode for automatically muting an appliance upon detection of one or more types of recognition errors.

20. The voice recognition system in claim 16, wherein said automatic muting mode includes automatic mute canceling for an appliance.

18. A voice activated control system for controlling one or more selected appliances, the control system comprising;

a voice recognition system for receiving representative voice signals and converting said representative voice signals to one or more command signals for controlling one or more selected appliances, the voice recognition system including a command signal receiver and memory for receiving and storing command signal data to be associated with said representative voice signals.

19. The voice activated control system as recited in claim 18, wherein said command signal receiver is configured as an infrared signal receiver.

21. A voice activated control system for controlling one or more selected appliances, the control system comprising;

a voice recognition system for receiving representative voice signals and converting said representative voice signals to one or more command signals for controlling one or more selected appliances, the voice recognition system including a pivotally adjustable directional microphone for positioning said microphone.