Heating apparatus with voice actuated door opening mechanism

• US 4,340,799 A
• Filed: 12/18/1980
• Issued: 07/20/1982
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/1979
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Suzuki, Ryuji, Ueda, Shigeki, Takano, Teruhisa
• Primary Examiner(s): GRIMLEY, ARTHUR
• Application Number:
  US06/217,684
• Time in Patent Office: 579 Days
• Field of Search: 219/10.55 B, 219/10.55 C, 219/10.55 M, 219/10.55 R, 219/10.55 D, 179/1 VC
• US Class Current: 219/723
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 6/6414 Aspects relating to the door of the microwave heating apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 6/6417 Door interlocks of the microwave heating apparatus and related circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 6/6435 Aspects relating to the user interface of the microwave heating apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 6/6482 combined with radiant heating, e.g. infrared heating
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 6/666 Safety circuits emergency protective circuits in general H02H
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 6/687 for cooking

Abstract

A heating apparatus, such as an electric oven or a microwave oven, comprises an enclosure case having therein a heating chamber to place a heating object therein, the enclosure case having a door at an opening of the chamber, and the door having a locking means, to lock the door when closed, and has a door lock releasing means, such as a lever and a solenoid planger, to release and open the door from the locking state of the locking means,

a voice recognition circuit for recognizing voice commands of a user of the apparatus and produces at least a control signal, which drives the releasing means to open the door.

Claims

1. A heating apparatus comprising:

(a) an enclosure case having therein a heating chamber in which an object to be heated is to be placed,

(b) a heating means for generating a heating energy to be fed into said heating chamber,

(c) a door mounted at an opening of said heating chamber for opening and closing the heating chamber,

(d) a locking means for locking said door when the door is closed, and

(e) a releasing means for releasing a locking state of said locking means, to open said door,

(f) a voice command input means including a microphone for transforming a user'"'"'s voice command into a command input signal,

(g) a pattern analyzer for analyzing said command input signal by (1) dividing it into input pattern signals, each input pattern signal being associated with a predetermined frequency band, (2) subsequently sampling said input pattern signals and (3) carrying out A/D conversion thereof to produce pattern-analyzed digital data,

(h) an input pattern memory for memorizing said pattern-analyzed digital data in a form of time sequential patterns,

(i) a reference pattern memory for storing time sequential reference pattern data as reference patterns,

(j) a recognition processing circuit for comparing said pattern-analyzed digital data stored in said input pattern memory with said time sequential reference pattern data stored in said reference pattern memory, and for providing a signal indicative of the affinity degree of the comparison, and

(k) an output control circuit for producing at least a predetermined control signal when said affinity degree is higher than a predetermined degree of affinity,

said reference pattern memory having an address part for storing reference pattern data corresponding to a voice command for opening said door, the output control circuit being for issuing a control signal to actuate said releasing means thereby releasing said locking means and opening said door, when an affinity degree determined by said signal from said recognition processing circuit after comparing the pattern-analyzed digital data stored in said input pattern memory with said reference pattern data corresponding to said voice command door opening said door, is higher than said predetermined degree of affinity.

2. A heating apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein

said microphone is positioned within the enclosure case, has a sharp directivity and is disposed in such a manner that a directivity zone of said microphone lies outside the space wherein the door moves to open.

3. In a heating apparatus comprising:

(a) an enclosure case having therein a heating chamber in which a heating object is to be placed,

(b) a heating means for generating a heating energy to be fed in said heating chamber,

(c) a door mounted at an opening of said heating chamber to open and close the heating chamber,

(d) a locking means to lock said door when the door is closed,

(e) a releasing means to release a locking state of said locking means, for opening said door, and

(f) a speech recognition circuit, the improvement wherein said speech recognition circuit comprises;

(g) a voice command input means including a microphone for transforming user'"'"'s voice commands into command input signals,

(h) a pattern analyzer for frequency-analyzing said command input signals to divide them into input pattern signals for a predetermined number of frequency bands, subsequently sampling said input pattern signals, and carrying out A/D conversion thereof to produce pattern-analyzed digital data,

(i) an input pattern memory for memorizing said pattern-analyzed digital data in a form of time sequential patterns,

(j) a reference pattern memory for storing time sequential reference pattern data as reference patterns,

(k) a recognition processing circuit for comparing said pattern-analyzed digital data stored in said input pattern memory with said time sequential reference pattern data stored in said reference pattern memory, and for issuing a signal of an affinity degree of the comparison, and

(l) an output control circuit for producing a predetermined control signal when said affinity degree determined by said signal from said recognition processing circuit is higher than a predetermined affinity degree,

said reference pattern memory comprising an address part which contains reference pattern data corresponding to a voice command for opening said door,

said output control circuit issuing a control signal to actuate said releasing means thereby releasing said locking means and opening said door, when an affinity degree determined by said signal from said recognition processing circuit after comparing pattern-analyzed digital data stored in said input pattern memory with said reference pattern data corresponding to said voice command for opening said door, is higher than said predetermined affinity degree.

4. An improvement according to claim 3, wherein said microphone built in said enclosure case has a sharp directivity and is disposed in such a manner that a directivity zone of said microphone lies outside the space wherein the door moves to open.