USER FOCUS ACTIVATED VOICE RECOGNITION

• US 20170169818A1
• Filed: 12/09/2015
• Published: 06/15/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo PC International Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Lenovo Singapore Pte Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: VanBlon, Russell Speight, Weksler, Arnold S., Mese, John Carl, Peterson, Nathan J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,990,921 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0381 Multimodal input, i.e. interface arrangements enabling the user to issue commands by simultaneous use of input devices of different nature, e.g. voice plus gesture on digitizer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/012 Head tracking input arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/013 Eye tracking input arrangements G06F3/015 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0304 Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/19 Sensors therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/193 Preprocessing; Feature extraction
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/20 Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/222 Barge in, i.e. overridable guidance for interrupting prompts
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/24 Speech recognition using non-acoustical features
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/226 using non-speech characteristics

Abstract

One embodiment provides a method, involving: receiving, at a device, voice input comprising at least one command; identifying, using an image of the user, a direction of user focus; and responsive to the identifying that the direction of user focus is directed toward the device, performing an action based on the at least one command. Other aspects are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a device, voice input comprising at least one command;

identifying, using an image of the user, a direction of user focus; and

responsive to the identifying that the direction of user focus is directed toward the device, performing an action based on the at least one command.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the image of the user is derived using at least one sensor;

and

wherein the at least one sensor is selected from a group consisting of;

an image capture device, a video capture device, a range imaging device, and a 3D scanning device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying a direction of user focus is based on a head location of the user.

4. The method claim 1, wherein the identifying a direction of user focus is based on a gaze location of a user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the image of the user is derived from a plurality of sensors.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

placing the device in a low power state based on identifying that the direction of user focus is not directed toward the device for a predetermined time.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising

waking up the device from a low power state based on identifying that the direction of user focus is directed toward the device.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising changing a visual characteristic of the audio capture device in response to the user focus being directed toward device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising playing an audible notification in response to the user focus being directed toward the device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying a user focus comprises identifying that the user focus is not directed toward the device;

detecting, at an electronic device, a shift in user focus directed toward the device after the voice input is at least partially received; and

responsive to the detecting a shift, performing an action based on the at least partially received voice input.

18. The information handling device of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to:

change a visual characteristic of the audio capture device in response to the user focus being directed toward the audio capture device.

19. The information handling device of claim 1, wherein the identifying a user focus comprises identifying that the user focus is not directed toward the audio capture device;

detecting, at an electronic device, a shift in user focus directed toward the audio capture device after the voice input is at least partially received; and

responsive to the detecting a shift, performing an action based on the at least partially received voice input.

11. An information handling device, comprising:

a processor;

an audio capture device operatively coupled to the processor; and

a memory that stores instructions executable by the processor to;

receive, at the audio capture device, voice input comprising at least one command;

identify, using an image of the user, a direction of user focus; and

responsive to the identifying the direction of user focus is directed toward the information handling device, performing an action based on the at least one command.

12. The information handling device of claim 11, wherein the image of the user is derived using at least one sensor;

and

wherein the at least one sensor is selected from a group consisting of;

an image capture device, a video capture device, a range imaging device, and a 3D scanning device.

13. The information handling device of claim 11, wherein the identifying a direction of user focus is based on a head location of the user.

14. The information handling device claim 11, wherein the identifying a direction of user focus is based on a gaze location of a user.

15. The information handling device of claim 11, wherein the image of the user is derived from a plurality of sensors.

16. The information handling device of claim 11, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to:

place the information handling device in a low power state based on identifying that the direction of user focus is not directed toward the information handling device for a predetermined time.

17. The information handling device of claim 11, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to:

wake up the information handling device from a low power state based on identifying that the direction of user focus is directed toward the information handling device.

20. A product, comprising:

a storage device having code stored therewith, the code being executable by the processor and comprising;

code that receives, at a device, voice input comprising at least one command;

code that identifies, using an image of the user, a direction of user focus; and

code that responsive to the identifying a direction of user focus is directed toward the device, performs an action based on the at least one command.