Voice control system with a microphone array

• US 6,868,045 B1
• Filed: 09/12/2000
• Issued: 03/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: InterDigital Madison Patent Holdings (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing SA (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Schröder, Ernst F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Horabik, Michael
• Assistant Examiner(s): BROWN, VERNAL U
• Application Number:
  US09/660,381
• Time in Patent Office: 1,645 Days
• Field of Search: 704/275, 704/120, 704/238, 340/460, 340/5.84, 340/825.24, 340/825.25, 367/198, 367/197, 367/199
• US Class Current: 367/198
• 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 2201/401 2D or 3D arrays of transducers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

Voice control systems are used in diverse technical fields. In this case, the spoken words are detected by one or more microphones and then fed to a speech recognition system. In order to enable voice control even from a relatively great distance, the voice signal must be separated from interfering background signals. This can be effected by spatial separation using microphone arrays comprising two or more microphones. In this case, it is advantageous for the individual microphones of the microphone array to be distributed spatially over the greatest possible distance. In an individual consumer electronics appliance, however, the distances between the individual microphones are limited on account of the dimensions of the appliance. Therefore, the voice control system according to the invention comprises a microphone array having a plurality of microphones which are distributed between different appliances, in which case the signals generated by the microphones can be transmitted to the central speech recognition unit, advantageously via a bidirectional network based on an IEEE 1394 bus.

Claims

1. Voice control system for a consumer electronics device with one or more external loudspeakers, using a microphone array, the voice control system comprising

a plurality of microphones for converting a detected signal to electrical signals, wherein one or more microphones are integrated in said external loudspeakers;

a central signal processing unit being connected to the plurality of microphones, the signal processing unit scaling or processing the electrical signals received from the plurality of microphones according to the respective position of the microphones relative to the user, the respective position being given by different propagation delays; and

a central speech recognition unit for converting the electrical signals from said signal processing unit into operational commands for the consumer electronics device.

2. System according to claim 1, wherein the one or more appliances are connected via a bi-directional network.

3. System according to claim 2, wherein the bi-directional network is based on an IEEE 1394 bus.

4. System according to claim 1, wherein the consumer electronics device is a television set or a video recorder.

5. System according to claim 1, wherein all microphones are connected to the same signal processing unit.

6. System according to claim 1, wherein the one or more external loudspeakers are connected via a radio network.