HANDS-FREE DEVICE

• US 20130116012A1
• Filed: 11/05/2012
• Published: 05/09/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Okayasu, Takafumi
• Granted Patent: US 8,818,459 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/566
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6091 including a wireless interface

Abstract

A hands-free device disposed in a vehicle identifies a speech direction of an outgoing voice when a hands-free call operation is received. The device extracts callee information from the outgoing voice provided by an occupant to identify a portable communication terminal. In particular, the portable communication terminal is identified when the callee information extracted is registered in a telephone book data of the portable communication terminal. When the speech direction of the outgoing voice is identified as a driver side, the portable communication terminal identified is linked to the driver as a driver-linked terminal. Accordingly, a call being received by a portable communication terminal that is linked to the driver is performed as a hands-free call, whereas a call being received by a portable communication terminal not linked to the driver is not performed as a hands-free call.

Claims

1. A hands-free device disposed in a vehicle for performing a hands-free call for a portable communication terminal, the portable communication terminal including a telephone book data stored therein, the hands-free device comprising:

a communication unit being communicably coupled to the portable communication terminal and receiving the telephone book data from the portable communication terminal;

a memory unit storing the telephone book data received by the communication unit;

a voice output unit having a speaker for outputting a receiving voice of the hands-free call;

a voice input unit having at least two microphones for inputting a outgoing voice of the hands-free call;

an operation input unit receiving a hands-free call start operation;

a speech direction identification unit identifying a speech direction of the outgoing voice inputted by the voice input unit when the hands-free call start operation is received by the operation input unit;

a terminal identification unit identifying the portable communication terminal being used for the hands-free call when the hands-free call start operation is received by the operation input unit; and

a control unit performing a link process linking the portable communication terminal identified by the terminal identification unit with a driver as a driver-linked terminal when the speech direction of the outgoing voice is identified as a driver side by the speech direction identification unit, wherein

the control unit performs the hands-free call when a call being received is through the driver-linked terminal and does not perform the hands-free call when the call being received is not through the driver-linked terminal.

2. The hands-free device of claim 1, wherein

the terminal identification unit performs a voice recognition process of the voice from the voice input unit for extracting a caller information regarding a caller of the hands-free call and determining whether the caller information is included in the telephone book data, and

the terminal identification unit identifies, as the portable communication terminal used for the hands-free call, the portable communication terminal having the telephone book that has the caller information registered therein.

3. The hands-free device of claim 1, wherein

the communication unit communicably couples to the portable communication terminal by a short range wireless communication method.

4. The hands-free device of claim 1, wherein

the communication unit communicably couples to a plurality of the portable communication terminals,

the memory unit stores the telephone book data of each of the plurality of portable communication terminals, and

the terminal identification unit identifies, as the portable communication terminal used for the hands-free call, the portable communication terminal having the telephone book that has the caller information registered therein from among the plurality of portable communication terminals.

5. The hands-free device of claim 1 further comprising:

a display unit displaying a caller information of the call being received, wherein

the display unit displays the caller information when the call being received is from the driver-linked terminal, and does not display the caller information when the call being received is not from the driver-linked terminal.