Voice control apparatus of vacuum cleaner and method thereof

• US 7,310,603 B2
• Filed: 11/27/2002
• Issued: 12/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Park, Sung-Il, Roh, Hee-Suk, Sall, Mikhail, Maiboroda, Alexandr, Lee, Seong-Bin, Viktorov, Andrei, Tikhotski, Anatoli, Chernenko, Valery, Hong, Chan-Hee, Redkov, Victor
• Primary Examiner(s): Hudspeth; David
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALBERTALLI, BRIAN LOUIS
• Application Number:
  US10/304,865
• Publication Number:
  US 20040034533A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,847 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 704/270
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0016 characterised by the operator's input device input arrangements for computing systems in general G06F3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0033 by having the operator tracking the vehicle either by direct line of sight or via one or more cameras located remotely from the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/20 Speech recognition techniques specially adapted for robustness in adverse environments, e.g. in noise, of stress induced speech G10L21/02 takes precedence

Abstract

A voice control apparatus of a vacuum cleaner includes: a sense signal detector for detecting a sense signal provided from a user to provide a voice recognizable environment in an ambience; a voice command recognizing unit for temporarily stopping a driving of a motor upon receiving the detected sense signal and, at the same time, outputting a voice command control signal previously set in a voice command set corresponding to a voice command instructed by the user; and a driving command controller for controlling a function and a mode of a vacuum cleaner upon receiving the voice command control signal. By providing a voice recognizable environment, the vacuum cleaner can be effectively controlled through a user'"'"'s voice command even in an environment with a strong noise.

Claims

1. A voice control method of a vacuum cleaner, comprising:

receiving a sound through a microphone and detecting a sense signal of a user'"'"'s voice corresponding to a previously recognized voice from the received sound, during an operation of the vacuum cleaner;

temporarily stopping driving of a motor of the vacuum cleaner based on the detected sense signal of the user'"'"'s voice;

receiving a user'"'"'s voice command that controls the vacuum cleaner after temporarily stopping driving of the motor; and

controlling a function and a mode of the vacuum cleaner based on a voice command control signal corresponding to the user'"'"'s voice command.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the sense signal is a voice signal of a user inputted through a microphone.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the sense signal is a voice signal obtained by receiving an ambient sound through the microphone and separately extracting a voice signal, or by selectively canceling only a noise from the ambience.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the sense signal is a voice signal corresponding to a nickname previously recognized by a detector in order to heighten a voice recognition rate.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the voice signal is detected by previously learning a voice source of a user for a predetermined time and comparing the stored value and the sense signal value for voice recognition.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the sense signal includes a contact signal detected through a tactile sensor which generates a signal by human body'"'"'s contact thereto.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the tactile sensor is attached at a certain portion of the body of a vacuum cleaner or at a certain portion of a docking station separated from the body of the vacuum cleaner.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the sense signal includes an infrared signal provided from an infrared remote controller and detected through an infrared remote controller receiving unit.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein after the driving of the motor is temporarily stopped, and then, when a certain time elapses, the motor driving is resumed to perform a certain operation until a new sense signal is inputted.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the voice command control signal is outputted from a voice command set previously set according to a voice command instructed by a user.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein a user'"'"'s voice command is learned previously for a predetermined time and stored in the voice command set, and then the stored voice command value and a voice command value instructed by the user are compared to output the voice command control signal.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein, as for the voice command control signal, after a user'"'"'s voice command is discriminated by a voice recognizer, each voice command is coded to output a data frame, and the coded data frame is outputted as a decoded signal.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the voice command set includes a control sentence for instructing operation, movement, rotation and stoppage of the motor;

a numerical sound for controlling a strong, medium and weak driving force of the motor, and a command sentence for controlling a display window showing an operation state of the vacuum cleaner.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the vacuum cleaner sequentially performs a series of operations previously set in the voice command set until a sense signal is newly inputted.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the voice command control signal is outputted to the vacuum cleaner through a communication channel in order to control a function and a mode of the vacuum cleaner.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the communication channel is connected through a wired or wireless communication unit.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the vacuum cleaner is operated in one of a fully automatic mode, in a remote control mode and in a manual control mode.

18. A voice control apparatus of a vacuum cleaner comprising:

a sense signal detector that detects a sense signal of a user'"'"'s voice corresponding to a previously recognized voice from the received sound, during an operation of the vacuum cleaner;

a voice command recognizing unit that temporarily stops a driving of a motor of the vacuum cleaner upon receiving the detected sense signal and, at the same time, outputs a voice command control signal previously set in a voice command set corresponding to a voice command instructed by the user; and

a driving command controller that controls a function and a mode of the vacuum cleaner upon receiving the voice command control signal.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 further comprising:

a wired or wireless communication channel that receives the voice command control signal and outputs a voice command control signal to the vacuum cleaner.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the sense signal is a voice signal separately extracted from an ambient sound through a microphone after sensing the ambient sound, or a voice signal detected after selectively canceling only a noise from the ambient sound, and a voice signal corresponding to a nickname previously recognized by a detector in order to heighten a voice recognition rate.

21. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the sense signal is a contact signal detected by a tactile sensor attached at a certain portion of the body of the vacuum cleaner or at a certain portion of a docking station separated from the body of the vacuum cleaner.

22. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the sense signal is an infrared signal provided from an infrared remote controller and detected through an infrared remote controller receiving unit.

23. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the voice command recognizing unit comprises:

a voice recognizer that discriminates a voice command given by a user;

an encoder unit that codes each voice command as discriminated and outputs the coded voice command ; and

a decoder unit that decodes a data frame coded by the encoder unit and outputs the decoded data.

24. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein a user'"'"'s voice command is learned previously for a predetermined time and stored in the voice command set, and then the stored voice command value and a voice command value instructed by the user are compared to output the voice command control signal.

25. The method of claim 18, wherein the voice command set includes a control sentence for instructing operation, movement, rotation and stoppage of the motor;

a numerical sound for controlling a strong, medium and weak driving force of the motor, and a command sentence for controlling a display window showing an operation state of the vacuum cleaner.

26. The method of claim 18, wherein a series of operations previously set in the voice command set are sequentially performed until a fresh sense signal provided for voice recognition is inputted from the user.