ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING POWER USING VOICE RECOGNITION

• US 20130246071A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 09/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: JUNG, Chang-joo, LEE, Ji-hyun
• Granted Patent: US 9,190,059 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/28 Constructional details of speech recognition systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/22 Interactive procedures; Man-machine interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2025/786 Adaptive threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/78 Detection of presence or absence of voice signals switching of direction of transmission by voice frequency in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/10
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/84 for discriminating voice from noise
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/74 with voice recognition means voice activated dialling H04M1/271; voice recognition algorithms G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/02 Power saving arrangements in wired systems H04L12/12; signaling of mobile application services, e.g. low battery notifications H04W4/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0254 detecting a user operation or a tactile contact or a motion of the device
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

An electronic apparatus and a power controlling method are provided. The electronic apparatus includes: a voice input unit which receives an audio input in a stand-by mode of the electronic apparatus; a voice sensing unit which determines whether the received audio input is a user voice, and if the user voice is input, outputs a power control signal; and a power control voice recognition unit which, if the power control signal is received from the voice recognition unit, turns on and performs voice recognition regarding the input user voice.

Claims

1. An electronic apparatus, comprising:

a voice input unit which receives an audio input in a stand-by mode of the electronic apparatus;

a voice sensing unit which determines whether the received audio input is a user voice , and outputs a first power control signal in response to determining that the received audio input is the user voice; and

a power control voice recognition unit which, in response to receiving the first power control signal from the voice recognition unit, turns on and performs voice recognition regarding the received audio input.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the power control voice recognition unit determines whether the received audio input is to control power of the electronic apparatus.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 2, further comprising:

a main control unit which controls the electronic apparatus,

wherein the power control voice recognition unit transmits a second power control signal to the main control unit in response to determining that the received audio input is to control the power of the electronic apparatus, and

wherein the main control unit converts a mode of the electronic apparatus from the stand-by mode into an operation mode in response to receiving the second power control signal from the power control voice recognition unit.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the power control voice recognition unit turns off after a predetermined time elapses upon determining that the received audio input is to control the power of the electronic apparatus.

5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 3, further comprising:

a main voice recognition unit which recognizes a user voice received through the voice input unit in the operation mode of the electronic apparatus,

wherein the main control unit controls the electronic apparatus according to the user voice recognized through the main voice recognition unit in the operation mode of the electronic apparatus.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein the power control voice recognition unit turns off if a user voice is not received for a predetermined time upon determining that the received audio input is not to control the power of the electronic apparatus.

7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the power control voice recognition unit stores only a command corresponding to a user voice to control the power of the electronic apparatus.

8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the voice sensing unit determines that the received audio input is the user voice in response to a volume of the received audio input increases by more than a predetermined value in comparison with a volume of a previously-input audio.

9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the voice input unit and the voice sensing unit are turned on in the stand-by mode of the electronic apparatus and the power control voice recognition unit is turned off in the stand-by mode of the electronic apparatus.

10. A method for controlling power of an electronic apparatus, the method comprising:

determining, by a voice sensing unit of the electronic apparatus, whether a received audio input to a voice input unit of the electronic apparatus in a stand-by mode is a user voice;

in response to determining that the received audio input is the user voice, transmitting, by the voice sensing unit, a first power control signal to a power control voice recognition unit of the electronic apparatus; and

in response to receiving the first power control signal from the voice sensing unit, turning on the power control voice recognition unit and performing voice recognition regarding the received audio input.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the performing the voice recognition comprises:

determining whether the received audio input is to control the power of the electronic apparatus.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising:

in response to determining that the received audio input is to control the power of the electronic apparatus, transmitting a second power control signal to a main control unit of the electronic apparatus; and

in response to receiving the second power control signal, converting, by the main control unit, a mode of the electronic apparatus from the stand-by mode to an operation mode.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, further comprising:

in response to a predetermined time elapsing upon determining that the received audio input is to control the power of the electronic apparatus, turning off the power control voice recognition unit.

14. The method as claimed in claim 12, further comprising:

controlling, by the main control unit, the electronic apparatus according to a user voice recognized through a main voice recognition unit of the electronic apparatus in the operation mode.

15. The method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising:

in response to a user voice not being received for a predetermined time upon determining that the received audio input is not to control the power of the electronic apparatus, turning off the power control voice recognition unit.

16. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the power control voice recognition unit stores only a command corresponding a user voice to control the power of the electronic apparatus.

17. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the determining comprises determining that the received audio input is the user voice in response to a volume of the received audio input increases by more than a predetermined value in comparison with a volume of a previously-input audio.

18. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein only the voice input unit and the voice sensing unit are turned on in the stand-by mode of the electronic apparatus and the power control voice recognition unit is turned off in the stand-by mode of the electronic apparatus.

22. A computer readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program executable by a computer for performing the method of claim 10.

19. A method for controlling power of an electronic apparatus, the method comprising:

in response to determining that a received audio input corresponds to a predetermined sound, powering a power control voice recognition unit of the electronic apparatus; and

in response to the powering of the power control voice recognition, performing voice recognition regarding the received audio input.

20. The method as claimed in claim 19, wherein the performing the voice recognition comprises:

determining whether the received audio input is to control the power of the electronic apparatus.

21. The method as claimed in claim 20, further comprising, in response to determining that the received audio input is to control the power of the electronic apparatus, converting a mode of the electronic apparatus from the stand-by mode to an operation mode.

23. A computer readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program executable by a computer for performing the method of claim 19.