Enabling voice control of voice-controlled apparatus using a head mounted camera system
First Claim
1. A method of enabling voice control of an apparatus provided with a voice-control subsystem including a speech recognizer, the method comprising:
- (a) detecting when a user is looking towards the apparatus by using a camera system mounted on the user'"'"'s head and arranged to point in the direction the user is facing or looking, images produced by the camera system being processed by an image processing subsystem to determine if the camera system is pointing towards the apparatus; and
(b) initially enabling voice control of the apparatus by its voice-control subsystem only when the user is detected in step (a) as looking towards the apparatus.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Voice-controlled apparatus is provided which minimises the risk of activating more than one such apparatus at a time where multiple voice-controlled apparatus exist in close proximity. To start voice control of the apparatus, a user needs to be looking at the apparatus when speaking. Preferably, after the user stops looking at the apparatus, continuing voice control can only be effected whilst the user continues speaking without breaks longer than a predetermined duration. Detection of whether the user is looking at the apparatus can be effected in a number of ways including by the use of camera systems, by a head-mounted directional transmitter, and by detecting the location and direction of facing of the user.
33 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of enabling voice control of an apparatus provided with a voice-control subsystem including a speech recognizer, the method comprising:
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(a) detecting when a user is looking towards the apparatus by using a camera system mounted on the user'"'"'s head and arranged to point in the direction the user is facing or looking, images produced by the camera system being processed by an image processing subsystem to determine if the camera system is pointing towards the apparatus; and (b) initially enabling voice control of the apparatus by its voice-control subsystem only when the user is detected in step (a) as looking towards the apparatus. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 19, 20)
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11. An arrangement for enabling voice control of an apparatus provided with a voice-control subsystem including a speech recognizer, the arrangement comprising:
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detection means for detecting when the user is looking towards the apparatus, the detection means comprising; a camera system mounted on a user'"'"'s head and arranged to point in the direction the user is facing or looking, and image processing means for processing images produced by the camera system to determine if the camera system is pointing towards the apparatus; and enablement control means for initially enabling voice control of the apparatus by its voice-control subsystem only if the detection means indicate that the user is looking towards the apparatus. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification