Voice control system substituting the oppositely-working command in a pair if the recognized command is not selectable for the given system state

• US 7,469,211 B2
• Filed: 06/25/2003
• Issued: 12/23/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Takami, Masayuki, Nada, Tooru
• Primary Examiner(s): SMITS, TALIVALDIS IVARS
• Application Number:
  US10/602,687
• Publication Number:
  US 20040030560A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,008 Days
• Field of Search: 704/275
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/00 Speech recognition G10L17/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/02 Feature extraction for speech recognition; Selection of recognition unit
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/06 Creation of reference templates; Training of speech recognition systems, e.g. adaptation to the characteristics of the speaker's voice G10L15/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/10 using distance or distortion measures between unknown speech and reference templates
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/28 Constructional details of speech recognition systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

A speech recognition (SR) dictionary switching unit selects a SR dictionary including commands that are for controlling target devices and selectable in current operating states detected by a device-state detecting unit. When a SR engine recognizes an uttered command of a user, it collates the speech with the commands included in the selected SR dictionary. If the command is not selectable in the current operating states of the target devices and is one of a reciprocal pair of commands working oppositely to each other, the other of the reciprocal pair is substituted for the command. This results in decreasing unreasonable and unpleasant feeling of the user in voice manipulation.

Claims

1. A voice control system that recognizes a speech uttered by a user to thereby control a device that has a plurality of operating states, comprising:

a storing unit for storing speech recognition data including a plurality of reference commands;

a speech recognizing unit for recognizing the speech as a recognized reference command included in the reference commands stored in the storing unit;

a detecting unit for detecting a certain operating state of the device; and

a substituting unit for determining whether each of the reference commands recognized by the speech recognizing unit is a selectable reference command that can be selected in the certain operating state, and for substituting, when the recognized reference command is determined to be not the selectable reference command, one of the selectable reference commands for the recognized reference command,

wherein, when the recognized reference command is one of a reciprocal pair of two reference commands that are for working oppositely to each other and the recognized reference command is determined to be not the selectable reference command, the substituting unit substitutes the other of the reciprocal pair for the recognized reference command.

2. The voice control system according to claim 1,

wherein the reciprocal pair include an enabling reference command and a disabling reference command, and

wherein the enabling reference command is for enabling one of that the device is running and that a function of the device is functioning, while the disabling reference command is for disabling one of that the device is running and that the function of the device is functioning.

3. The voice control system according to claim 1,

wherein, if the certain operating state of the device is an operating state where a function of the device is functioning, and the function of the device functions in multiple steps, and each of the reciprocal pair controls the function of the device for moving into one of the multiple steps,

then, even when the recognized reference command is one of the reciprocal pair and is determined to be not the selectable reference command, the substituting unit is configured to prevent substituting the other of the reciprocal pair for the recognized reference command.

4. The voice control system according to claim 3, further comprising:

a notifying unit for notifying that the recognized reference command cannot be executed.