Audio pattern matching for device activation

• US 8,666,751 B2
• Filed: 11/17/2011
• Issued: 03/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Murthi, Raghu, Giaimo, Edward C. III
• Primary Examiner(s): Godbold, Douglas
• Application Number:
  US13/299,218
• Publication Number:
  US 20130132095A1
• Time in Patent Office: 838 Days
• Field of Search: 704/231, 704/251, 704270-275
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3234 Power saving characterised by the action undertaken
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for activating an electric device from a standby power mode to a full power mode. The system may include one or more microphones for monitoring audio signals in the vicinity of the electric device, and a standby power activation unit including a low-power microprocessor and a non-volatile memory. Audio captured by the one or more microphones is digitized and compared by the microprocessor against predefined activation pattern(s) stored in the non-volatile memory. If a pattern match is detected between the digital audio pattern and a predefined activation pattern, the electric device is activated.

Claims

1. A method for activating an electric device from a standby power mode, comprising:

(a) receiving an audio stream in the electric device when in standby power mode;

(b) digitizing the audio stream to an audio pattern when in standby power mode;

(c) comparing the audio pattern digitized in said step (b) to a digitized activation phrase stored in a non-volatile memory when in standby power mode;

(d) activating the electric device where the audio pattern matches the activation phrase to within a predefined tolerance; and

(e) confirming the audio pattern matches the activation phrase, after activation of the electric device in said step (d), using resources available to the electric device when activated.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a microphone continuously monitors a surrounding environment for the audio stream of said step (a).

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of filtering out noise from the received audio stream prior to comparison of the digitized audio pattern to a digitized activation phrase.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said filtering step comprises multi-channel noise echo cancellation.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of processing the digitized audio pattern.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said processing of the digitized audio pattern occurs prior to comparing the digitized audio pattern to the digitized activation pattern.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein said processing of the digitized audio pattern occurs only after a comparison in said step (c) fails to identify a pattern match within the predefined tolerance.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein said processing of the digitized audio pattern includes temporally stretching and shrinking the digital audio pattern.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the digitized activation pattern is stored in the non-volatile memory of the electric device prior to initial use of the electric device by a user.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the digitized activation pattern is selected by a user upon prompting by the electric device.

11. A standby activation system for activating an electric device from a standby power mode, the standby activation unit comprising:

one or more microphones for detecting an audio stream in a vicinity of the one or more microphones; and

a standby activation unit, including;

a non-volatile memory including one or more stored activation patterns, and

a processor for comparing a digitized audio pattern received from the one or more microphones to the one or more stored activation patterns stored in the non-volatile memory using power available to the electric device in standby power mode, the processor activating the device if the digitized audio pattern matches an activation phrase of the one or more activation phrases stored in the non-volatile memory to within a predefined tolerance, and the processor reverting the electric device to standby power mode upon activation if resources available to the electric device when activated do not confirm that the audio stream was a spoken activation command.

12. The standby activation system of claim 11, wherein the processor for comparing the digitized audio pattern to the one or more stored activation patterns in standby power mode is a first processor, the electric device including a second processor, separate from the first processor, for controlling functions of the electric device when the device is operating in an activated, full power mode.

13. The standby activation system of claim 11, wherein the non-volatile memory including one or more stored activation patterns is a first non-volatile memory, the electric device including a second non-volatile memory, separate from the first non-volatile memory, for storing data of the electric device used when the device is operating in an activated, full power mode.

14. The standby activation system of claim 11, wherein the non-volatile memory and processor are integrated as a system on a chip into the electric device.

15. The standby activation system of claim 11, wherein the power available to the electric device in standby power mode is between 5.0 Watts and 0.3 Watts.

16. The standby activation system of claim 11, wherein the power available to the electric device in standby power mode is 0.5 Watts.

17. A method for activating a computing device of a NUI system from a standby power mode, comprising:

(a) receiving an audio stream in one or more microphones associated with the NUI system when in standby power mode;

(b) digitizing the audio stream to an audio pattern when in standby power mode;

(c) processing the digitized audio stream to facilitate matching of the digitized audio stream with one or more digitized activation phrases stored in a non-volatile memory of the computing device when in standby power mode;

(d) comparing the audio pattern processed in said step (c) to one or more digitized activation phrases stored in the non-volatile memory of the computing device when in standby power mode;

(e) activating the computing device where the audio pattern matches an activation phrase of the one or more activation phrases to within a predefined tolerance; and

(f) confirming whether activation was intended after the computing device is activated in said step (e) upon a match between the audio pattern and the activation phrase, said step of confirming using a voice recognition engine available to the computing device upon full activation of the computing device.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of one or more users generating the activation phrase stored in the non-volatile memory, the step of one or more users generating the activation phrase occurring while the computing device is running in an activated full power mode.