Control system for controlling equipment provided inside a vehicle utilizing a speech recognition apparatus

• US 5,214,707 A
• Filed: 08/16/1991
• Issued: 05/25/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Ten Limited (DENSO Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Ten Limited (DENSO Corporation)
• Inventors: Takahashi, Minoru, Sako, Kazuya, Fujimoto, Shoji
• Primary Examiner(s): Kemeny, Emanuel S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tung, Kee M.
• Application Number:
  US07/745,759
• Time in Patent Office: 648 Days
• Field of Search: 381/41, 381/43, 381/46, 381/47, 381/71, 381/91, 381/92, 381/94
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0373 Voice control in general G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02166 Microphone arrays; Beamforming
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/13 Acoustic transducers and sound field adaptation in vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

This invention relates to a control system for controlling equipment provided inside a vehicle utilizing a speech recognition apparatus inside the vehicle. This control system includes an in-phase component detector (4) for detecting an in-phase component of voice signals from microphones (1), a phase shift and in-phase component detector (5) for shifting a phase of the voice signals to detect an in-phase component, and a command seat discriminator (6) for comparing output levels of the in-phase component detector (4) and the phase shift and in-phase component detector (5). In addition, the control system includes validity/invalidity detector (7) for determining the validity and invalidity of a command content resulting from outputs of a speech recognizer (3) based upon a signal generated from the command seat discriminator (6), and a various controller (8) that controls any one of various pieces of equipment with respect to the valid commands output from the validity/invalidity detector (7) to reliably discriminate commands from the driver'"'"'s seat and the passenger seats in a noisy vehicle.

Claims

1. A control system controlling vehicle equipment provided inside a vehicle utilizing a speech recognition apparatus having microphones installed inside the vehicle and speech recognition means for recognizing a voice command having a command content transmitted from the microphones controlling the vehicle equipment including one of audio, air conditioning, telecommunication, navigation and vehicle control equipment installed inside the vehicle and outputting a speech signal responsive to the voice command, said control system comprising:

first means including in-phase component detecting means for detecting a first in-phase component having a first output level of voice signals including the voice command for operating the vehicle equipment and transmitted by the microphone positioned symmetrically with respect to a driver seat, and said first means for determining that the voice command is generated at said driver seat;

second means including phase shift and in-phase component detecting means for shifting a first phase transmitted by one of the microphones generating a first shifted signal, and a second phase transmitted by another of the microphones generating a second shifted signal, and for generating a second in-phase component having a second output level using said first and second shifted signals for operating said vehicle equipment, said microphones being positioned asymmetrically with respect to passenger seats, and said second means for determining that the voice command is generated at said passenger seats;

command seat discriminating means for comparing the first and second output levels to determine from which seat the voice command was generated among several seats, and for generating a command seat signal identifying the seat; and

determining means for determining validity or invalidity of the command content using the speech signal output from the speech recognition means, the command seat signal output from said command seat discriminating means and predetermined criteria, and when the voice command is issued from said driver seat the voice command is valid, and when the voice command is issued from one of said passenger seats the voice command is valid or invalid based upon the predetermined criteria, and said control system controls the vehicle equipment when the voice command is valid.

2. A control system according to claim 1, wherein:

said vehicle includes front and rear passenger seats,

said microphones are arranged asymmetrically with respect to the front and the rear passenger seats of the vehicle, and

said phase shift and in-phase component detecting means receive front and rear voice signals having front and rear voice commands from the front and the rear passenger seats, respectively, transmitted by said microphones.

3. A control system for controlling vehicle equipment including first and second vehicle equipment provided inside a vehicle utilizing a speech recognition apparatus having microphones installed inside the vehicle, and speech recognition means for recognizing voice commands transmitted from the microphones for controlling vehicle equipment including one of audio, air conditioning, telecommunication, navigation, and vehicle control equipment installed inside the vehicle, said control system comprising:

the microphones, separated from each other for receiving the voice commands generated at each seat in the vehicle including a command for controlling said vehicle equipment;

phase shift means for shifting phases of a predetermined amount of electric signals transmitted by the microphones with an in-phase shift relative to each seat and outputting shifted signals;

adding means for adding the shifted signals output from said phase shift means corresponding to each seat and outputting an added signal; and

maximum amplitude signal detecting means for detecting a maximum amplitude signal using the added signal output from said adding means as the voice commands and outputting the maximum amplitude signal to the speech recognition means, and said control system controls the first vehicle equipment when the voice commands are issued from a predetermined seat position and controls the second vehicle equipment independent of the seat where the voice commands are issued.

4. A control system controlling vehicle equipment provided inside a vehicle having a driver seat and passenger seats, comprising:

microphones, installed in the vehicle symmetrically with respect to the driver seat and asymmetrically with respect to the passenger seats;

voice location determining means for determining a location in the vehicle where a voice command received from said microphones is generated, said location being the driver seat or one of the passenger seats; and

voice validity determining means for determining whether the voice command received from said voice location determining means is valid based on the location where the voice command was generated and based on predetermined validity criterion.