Interface apparatus and mobile robot equipped with the interface apparatus

• US 20070135962A1
• Filed: 12/07/2006
• Published: 06/14/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Saito, Yoko, Yokoyama, Taro, Hashimoto, Sachie, Matsumoto, Satoki, Kawabe, Koji
• Granted Patent: US 7,983,794 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/225
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/74 Systems using reradiation of electromagnetic waves other than radio waves, e.g. IFF, i.e. identification of friend or foe
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/49 whereby the further system is an inertial position system, e.g. loosely-coupled
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/16 Human faces, e.g. facial parts, sketches or expressions
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence

Abstract

A robot recording a message on a wireless tag which includes: a voice recognition unit recognizing a voice input by a voice input unit which inputs a voice of a person; a message extraction unit extracting the message from the vice recognized by the voice recognition unit based on a fixed phrase provided for obtaining a message; a recording unit recording the message extracted by the message extraction unit on the wireless tag provided on an object.

Claims

1. An interface apparatus recording a message on a wireless tag, the interface apparatus comprising:

a voice recognition unit recognizing a voice input by a voice input unit which inputs a voice of a person;

a message extraction unit extracting the message from the voice recognized by the voice recognition unit; and

a recording unit recording the message extracted by the message extraction unit on an object tag, which is a wireless tag for an object and is provided on the object.

2. An interface apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an image processing unit extracting image information of a person from an acquired image which is obtained by an image pickup of the person by an image pickup unit;

an image message extraction unit extracting the message associated with unique image information, based on unique image information and image information extracted by the image processing unit, wherein

unique image information is a gesture or sign language associated with the message, and

the recording unit records the message extracted by the image message extraction unit on the object tag.

3. An interface apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a reading unit obtaining information from the object tag or a person tag which is a wireless tag for a person and stores personal information of the person; and

a voice synthesizer synthesizing voice information which is associated with the information recorded on the object tag or the person tag as an output voice, based on information obtained by the reading unit.

4. An interface apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

a reading unit obtaining information from the object tag or a person tag which is a wireless tag for a person and stores personal information of the person; and

a voice synthesizer synthesizing voice information which is associated with the information recorded on the object tag or the person tag as an output voice, based on information obtained by the reading unit.

5. An interface apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the recording unit records personal information, which is obtained from the person tag by the reading unit, on the object tag together with the message.

6. An interface apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

the recording unit records personal information, which is obtained from the person tag by the reading unit, on the object tag together with the message.

7. An interface apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a time clock obtaining a time, wherein

the recording unit records the time obtained by the time clock together with the message on the object tag.

8. A mobile robot comprising:

an interface apparatus of claim 4;

a current position information acquisition unit acquiring position information which indicates a current position of the mobile robot;

a locomotion unit for traveling the robot to a destination;

an autonomous travel controller actuating the locomotion unit based on a command which indicates the destination and map information indicating a map within a predetermined moving range.

9. A mobile robot according to claim 8, wherein

the recording unit of the interface apparatus records the position information, which is acquired by the current position information acquisition unit, on the object tag together with the message.

10. A mobile robot according to claim 8 further comprising:

an operation determination unit determining an operation to be performed by the mobile robot from among operations at least including a delivery of the object and a utterance of a predetermined voice in accordance with an input of a predetermined command, wherein

the motion determination unit determines the operation based on at least one of personal information, which is obtained from the person tag by the reading unit of the interface apparatus, and information written by the recording unit.

11. A mobile robot according to claim 9 further comprising:

an operation determination unit determining an operation to be performed by the mobile robot from among operations at least including a delivery of the object and a utterance of a predetermined voice in accordance with an input of a predetermined command, wherein

the motion determination unit determines the operation based on at least one of personal information, which is obtained from the person tag by the reading unit of the interface apparatus, and information written by the recording unit.

12. A mobile robot according to claim 9, wherein

the autonomous travel controller actuates the locomotion unit to move the robot to the destination where the operation determined by the motion determination unit is performed.