Vehicle-mounted control apparatus and program that causes computer to execute method of providing guidance on the operation of the vehicle-mounted control apparatus

• US 7,822,613 B2
• Filed: 10/07/2003
• Issued: 10/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Auto Tech Group LLC
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Hirai, Masato, Kido, Emiko, Sato, Fumitaka, Matsubara, Tsutomu
• Primary Examiner(s): Hudspeth; David R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Serrou; Abdelali
• Application Number:
  US10/497,695
• Publication Number:
  US 20050021341A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,576 Days
• Field of Search: 704/246, 704/271, 704/275, 704/231, 704/251
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/07 to the speaker
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command

Abstract

In a vehicle-mounted control apparatus, a control unit 2 displays guidance on an operation of the vehicle-mounted control apparatus by voice input on a display device 6, and makes the user get training so that the user can master the techniques for operating the vehicle-mounted control apparatus (in step ST4). At this time, by using a voice which the user tries to input in order to master the techniques for operating the vehicle-mounted control apparatus, the voice recognition unit 5 learns the features of the user'"'"'s voice in the background, and computes recognition parameters. Thereby, the user can know how to operate the vehicle-mounted control apparatus and can also register the features of the voice in the vehicle-mounted control apparatus.

Claims

1. A vehicle-mounted control apparatus comprising:

a voice recognition means for recognizing a voice command input by a user based on the user'"'"'s voice; and

a control means having a command execution mode in which said control means executes the voice command recognized by said voice recognition means, and a training mode in which said control means provides guidance on an operation of said vehicle-mounted control apparatus to the user so as to make the user get training for operating said vehicle-mounted control apparatus, said control means displaying operating guidance on the operation of said vehicle-mounted control apparatus using a voice command in said training mode, and said voice recognition means acquiring a voice for training which the user produces according to said voice command in said training mode, and learning features of the user'"'"'s voice based on the acquired voice for training, and

when there are two or more types of voice commands which comply with different syntaxes, respectively, said control means provides guidance on an operation of said vehicle-mounted control apparatus using a voice command according to one of said syntaxes to the user and receives input of a voice for training in said training mode two or more times while changing the voice command to achieve a target voice command for training,

wherein said control means displays advice information associated with results of analysis of the user'"'"'s voice for training according to said operating guidance, and

wherein said voice recognition means compares a preset time length with a length of said voice for training, and said control means outputs, as said advice information, a display for urging the user to make a correction to a time required for the user to produce the voice based on a comparison result obtained by said voice recognition means when the length of said voice for training is longer than said preset time length.

2. The vehicle-mounted control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said voice recognition means determines whether said voice for training is equal to or less than a threshold, and said control means outputs, as said advice information, a display for urging the user to increase a sound level of the voice which the user produces based on a determination result obtained by said voice recognition means.

3. The vehicle-mounted control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said voice recognition means determines whether said voice for training has a sound which does not belong to said voice command, and, when said voice recognition means determines that said voice for training has a sound which does not belong to said voice command, said control means outputs, as said advice information, a display for urging the user to make a correction to the sound which does not belong to said voice command.

4. The vehicle-mounted control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said voice recognition means determines whether said voice for training has been input at an earlier timing than what has been predetermined, and said control means outputs, as said advice information, a display for urging the user to make a correction to the timing at which the user produces the voice based on a determination result obtained by said voice recognition means.

5. The vehicle-mounted control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a selection button configured to perform switching between the command execution mode and the training mode.

6. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer executable program that causes a computer to execute a method of providing guidance on an operation of a vehicle-mounted control apparatus having a command execution mode in which said vehicle-mounted control apparatus executes a voice command recognized by a voice recognition means, and a training mode in which said vehicle-mounted control apparatus provides guidance on an operation of said vehicle-mounted control apparatus to a user so as to makes the user get training for operating said vehicle-mounted control apparatus, said program when executed causes the computer to execute the steps of:

providing guidance on an operation of said vehicle-mounted control apparatus, which is stored in a storage device, to a user in said training mode;

recording a voice for training which the user produces according to the guidance on the operation of said vehicle-mounted control apparatus, which is provided in the guidance providing step;

recognizing the user'"'"'s voice based on the voice for training recorded in said recording step by means of a voice recognition means, and outputting results of analysis of the recognized voice to the user; and

learning features of the user'"'"'s voice based on the voice for training recorded in said recording step; and

when there are two or more types of voice commands which comply with different syntaxes, respectively, said guidance providing step provides operating guidance of said vehicle-mounted control apparatus using a voice command according to one of said syntaxes to the user and receives input of a voice for training in said training mode two or more times while changing the voice command to achieve a target voice command for training,

displaying advice information associated with results of analysis of the user'"'"'s voice for training according to said operating guidance, and

comparing a preset time length with a length of said voice for training, and outputting, as said advice information, a display for urging the user to make a correction to a time required for the user to produce the voice based on a comparison result obtained by said voice recognition means when the length of said voice for training is longer than said preset time length.

8. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 6, wherein said program when executed causes the computer to further execute the step of switching between the command execution mode and the training mode.

7. A method of providing guidance on an operation of a vehicle-mounted control apparatus having a command execution mode in which said vehicle-mounted control apparatus executes a voice command recognized by a voice recognition means, and a training mode in which said vehicle-mounted control apparatus provides guidance on an operation of said vehicle-mounted control apparatus to a user so as to makes the user get training for operating said vehicle-mounted control apparatus, comprising:

providing guidance on an operation of said vehicle-mounted control apparatus, which is stored in a storage device, to a user in said training mode;

recording a voice for training which the user produces according to the guidance on the operation of said vehicle-mounted control apparatus, which is provided in the guidance providing step;

recognizing the user'"'"'s voice based on the voice for training recorded in said recording step by means of a voice recognition means, and outputting results of analysis of the recognized voice to the user;

learning features of the user'"'"'s voice based on the voice for training recorded in said recording step; and

when there are two or more types of voice commands which comply with different syntaxes, respectively, said guidance providing step provides guidance on an operation of said vehicle-mounted control apparatus using a voice command according to one of said syntaxes to the user and receives input of a voice for training in said training mode two or more times while changing the voice command to achieve a target voice command for training;

displaying advice information associated with results of analysis of the user'"'"'s voice for training according to said operating guidance; and

comparing a preset time length with a length of said voice for training, and outputting, as said advice information, a display for urging the user to make a correction to a time required for the user to produce the voice based on a comparison result obtained by said voice recognition means when the length of said voice for training is longer than said preset time length.

9. The method according to claim 7 further comprising switching between the command execution mode and the training mode.