Voice-controlled motorized wheelchair with sensors and displays

• US 6,108,592 A
• Filed: 05/07/1998
• Issued: 08/22/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Uniloc 2017 LLC (FIG LLC (d/b/a Fortress Investment Group LLC))
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lew, John Stephen, Kurtzberg, Jerome M.
• Primary Examiner(s): LOUIS JACQUES, JACQUES H
• Application Number:
  US09/074,617
• Time in Patent Office: 838 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/23, 701/24, 701/28, 280/250.1, 280/755, 307/116, 307/117, 180/907, 180/6.5, 180/169, 180/65.1, 180/167, 704/270, 704/225, 704/233, 704/239, 704/240, 704/251, 704/256, 318/269, 318/369, 318/55, 340/825.19, 340/825.56, 340/825.69
• US Class Current: 701/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61G 2203/18 by patient's head, eyes, facial muscles or voice
• CPC Class Codes: A61G 2203/20 Displays or monitors
• CPC Class Codes: A61G 5/04 motor-driven A61G5/06 takes precedence; motor-operated rests A61G5/12; for vehicles with handlebars, equipped with three or more wheels B62K5/003, B62K5/023
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 180/907 Motorized wheelchairs

Abstract

A motorized wheel-chair is equipped with one or more sensors for detecting obstacles. The detection method may be either radar or sonar (or both). An on-board computer processes these echoes and presents a visual or auditory display. With the benefit of these displays, the user issues voice commands (or exerts manual pressure) to maneuver appropriately the motorized wheelchair. One or more microphones pick up the sounds of the user'"'"'s voice and transmit them to a computer. The computer decodes the maneuvering commands by speech-recognition techniques and transmits these commands to the wheelchair to effect the desired motion. In addition to speech recognition for decoding commands, voice (speaker) recognition is employed to determine authorized users.

Claims

1. A motorized wheelchair for a user with severely limited mobility and with auditory and/or visual deficits comprising:

sensing means mounted on the wheelchair for detecting obstacles and generating an output signal indicating a distance, a size and a direction of a detected obstacle;

a first computer responsive to the output signal of the sensing means for processing the signal to generate visual and auditory displays;

a visual and auditory display device responsive to the first computer for providing the user with a warning, the distance size, and direction of an obstacle;

a microphone mounted on the wheelchair for generating signals in response to the user'"'"'s voice commands based on signals from the visual and auditory display device; and

a second computer responsive to the microphone generated signals for processing the signals using a speech recognition program, the second computer generating output control signals to the wheelchair in response to recognized commands from the user.

2. The motorized wheelchair recited in claim 1 wherein the second computer further processes the signals from the microphone using a voice recognition program to identify the user of the wheelchair.

3. The motorized wheelchair recited in claim 1 wherein the sensing means comprise a radar sensor.

4. The motorized wheelchair recited in claim 1 wherein the sensing means comprise a sonar sensor.

5. The motorized wheelchair recited in claim 1 wherein the sensing means comprise radar and sonar sensors.

6. The motorized wheelchair recited in claim 1 wherein the first and second computers are a single computer.

7. The motorized wheelchair recited in claim 1 further comprising pressure responsive means responsive to a user'"'"'s manual pressure for wheelchair control for generating signals to the second computer.