Screen control apparatus and screen control method

• US 5,933,807 A
• Filed: 12/15/1995
• Issued: 08/03/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: NEC Platforms, Ltd. (NEC Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nitsuko Corporation (NEC Corporation)
• Inventors: Fukuzawa, Keiji
• Primary Examiner(s): Hudspeth, David R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chawan, Vijay B.
• Application Number:
  US08/573,007
• Time in Patent Office: 1,327 Days
• Field of Search: 395/2, 395/2.41, 395/2.84, 395/2.42, 395/2.85, 395/2.11, 395/2.44
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command

Abstract

A screen control apparatus and a screen control method enabling an operator to instruct a display apparatus both of a type and an amount of processing in an intuitive and an easy way by voice to provide good human interfacing. The screen control apparatus comprises a sound input means for receiving voice instruction on a screen and generating a sound signal, a sound recognition means for recognizing sound signal, a sound continuation detection means for detecting the sound continuation of the sound signal, and a screen processing means for processing said picture on the screen in accordance with the recognized sound signal for a time of the detected sound continuation. The screen control method includes the steps of receiving voice for instructing a processing a picture on a screen and generating a sound signal, extracting a sound feature of the sound signal, discriminating the sound signal in accordance with the extracted sound feature to generate a recognized sound signal, detecting the sound continuation of the sound signal, and processing displayed picture on the screen in accordance with said recognized sound signal by a time of said detected sound continuation.

Claims

1. A screen control apparatus for processing a movement, which is made on a screen of a picture displayed on the screen in accordance with a voice, said screen control apparatus comprising:

sound input means for receiving a voice instruction for processing of the movement of said picture on said screen and generating a sound signal;

sound recognition means for recognizing said sound signal from said sound input means to generate a recognized sound signal for indicating the processing of the movement of said picture on said screen;

sound continuation detection means for detecting the sound continuation of said sound signal from said sound input means; and

screen processing means for processing the movement of said picture on said screen in a direction defined by said recognized sound signal for a period of the sound continuation of said recognized sound signal.

2. A screen control apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein said sound recognition means comprises

sound feature extraction means for extracting a sound feature of said sound signal, and

sound discrimination means for discriminating said sound signal in accordance with said extracted sound feature, said discriminated sound signals indicating said recognized sound signal for processing said picture on said screen.

3. A screen control apparatus as set forth in claim 2,

wherein said sound feature extraction means extracts said sound feature of said sound signal by executing a Fourier Transform.

4. A screen control apparatus as set forth in claim 3,

wherein said sound feature extraction means comprises a Fast Fourier Transform circuit analyzing said sound signal and extracting said sound feature.

5. A screen control apparatus as set forth in claim 2,

wherein said sound discrimination means discriminates phonemes from said sound signal in accordance with said extracted sound feature, said discriminated phonemes indicating said recognized sound signal for processing said picture on said screen,

wherein said sound continuation detection means detects a phoneme continuation, and

wherein said screen processing means processes said picture in accordance with said discriminated phonemes for a time of said detected phoneme continuation.

6. A screen control apparatus as set forth in claim 5,

wherein said sound discrimination means comprises a neural network including an input layer with input units corresponding to extracted sound features and an output layer with output units corresponding to phonemes to be discriminated.

7. A screen control apparatus as set forth in claim 2,

wherein said sound discrimination means discriminates words from said extracted sound feature, said discriminated words indicating said recognized sound signal for processing said picture on said screen, and

wherein said screen processing means processes said picture in accordance with said discriminated words for a time of said detected sound continuation.

8. A screen control apparatus as set forth in claim 2,

wherein said sound discrimination means discriminates words from said extracted sound feature, said discriminated words indicating said recognized sound signal for processing said picture on said screen,

wherein said sound continuation detection means detects an end phoneme continuation of said recognized words;

and

wherein said screen processing means processes said picture in accordance with said discriminated words for a time of said detected end phoneme continuation.

9. A screen control method of processing a movement of a displayed picture on a screen, comprising:

receiving a voice instruction for instructing a processing of the movement of said picture and generating a sound signal;

extracting a sound feature of said sound signal,

discriminating said sound signal in accordance with said extracted sound feature to generate a recognized sound signal indicating the processing of the movement of said displayed picture;

detecting a sound continuation of said sound signal from said sound signal; and

processing the movement of said displayed picture on said screen in accordance with said recognized sound signal for a time of said detected sound continuation.

10. A screen control method as set forth in claim 9, wherein:

said extracted sound feature includes one or more discriminating phonemes; and

said processing of the movement of said displayed picture is carried out in accordance with said one or more discriminating phonemes.

11. A screen control method as set forth in claim 9, wherein:

said extracted sound feature includes one or more discriminating words; and

said processing of the movement of said displayed picture is carried out in accordance with said one or more discriminating words.

12. A picture control method as set forth in claim 9,

wherein a discriminating word is discriminated from said sound signal,

wherein in said detecting an end phoneme continuation of said discriminated word is detected, and

wherein said processing said displayed picture is carried out in accordance with said discriminated word for a time of said detected end phoneme continuation.

13. A method of controlling a screen display, comprising:

detecting a type and a sound continuation of a voice sound signal; and

controlling a movement of the screen display responsive to the type of the sound signal and the sound continuation of the sound signal.

14. An apparatus, comprising:

a display unit producing a display;

a voice signal input device inputting a voice command signal; and

a processing unit coupled to said input device and said display unit, and controlling a movement of said display responsive to detection of a type of the voice command signal and a sound continuation of the voice command signal.

15. A computer-readable medium encoded with a program for screen control including processing a movement of a displayed picture on a screen, the program comprising:

receiving a voice instruction for instructing a processing of the movement of said picture and generating a sound signal;

extracting a sound feature of said sound signal;

discriminating said sound signal in accordance with said extracted sound feature to generate a recognized sound signal indicating the processing of the movement of said displayed picture;

detecting a sound continuation of said sound signal from said sound signal; and

processing the movement of said displayed picture on said screen in accordance with said recognized sound signal for a time of said detected sound continuation.