Hand microphone interfaced to game controller port of personal computer

• US 20060233396A1
• Filed: 04/24/2006
• Published: 10/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Schneider, Frederic, Hipp, Betsy L., Sheffield, John
• Granted Patent: US 7,676,291 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/122
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 19/16 Manual control
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/083 Special constructions of mouthpieces
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/00 Circuits for transducers , loudspeakers or microphones

Abstract

A hand microphone and an adaptor module form an assembly which is a peripheral device for a personal computer. The hand microphone is used to control dictation functions to be carried out by the PC. Two separate analog control signal channels are output from the hand microphone and applied, respectively, as X- and Y-axis inputs for the game port on the PC. Control signals carried in the two signal channels are generated by actuating control switches mounted on the hand microphone.

Claims

1-14. -14. (canceled)

15. A method of controlling dictation functions performed by a personal computer, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a hand microphone;

using the hand microphone to generate a first analog control signal level and a second analog control signal level that is separate from the first analog control signal level;

applying the first analog control signal level as an X-axis input to a game port of the personal computer; and

applying the second analog control signal level as a Y-axis input to the game port of the personal computer.

16. A method according to claim 15, wherein said step of using the hand microphone to generate the first and second analog control signal levels includes actuating manually-actuatable switches provided on the hand microphone.

17. A method according to claim 15, wherein said applying steps include connecting the hand microphone to the personal computer by means of a connection card and an adapter module.

18. The method according to claim 15 further comprising the step of controlling the first and second control signal levels using constant current sources coupled to at least one resistor.

19. The method according to claim 15 further comprising the step of controlling the first and second control signal levels using at least one voltage divider.

20. The method according to claim 15 further comprising the step of controlling the first and second control signal levels using at least one potentiometer.

21. The method according to claim 16 further comprising the step of detecting correspondence between the X-axis input, the Y-axis input and at least one of the manually-actuatable switches.

22. The method according to claim 15, further comprising the step of providing a gain factor of between about 6 and about 20.

23. The method according to claim 16 further comprising the step of programming at least one of the manually-actuatable switches.

24. The method according to claim 23 further comprising the step of programming at least one of the manually-actuatable switches to perform at least one function selected from the group consisting of record, stop, play, rewind, fast forward, end, send and priority.

25. The method according to claim 15 further comprising the step of connecting a sound card to said microphone.

26. The method according to claim 25 further comprising the step of matching the level of the first and second analog signals to the sound card.

27. The method according to claim 26 further comprising the step of providing an analog output signal from the sound card to the hand microphone.

28. The method according to claim 27 further comprising the step of filtering the analog output signal.

29. The method according to claim 28 further comprising the step of amplifying the analog output signal.

30. The method according to claim 29 further comprising the step of amplifying the analog output signal with a gain factor of about 12.