Device with voice command input capability

• US 10,726,839 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2019
• Issued: 07/28/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Generac Power Systems Incorporated (Generac Holdings Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Ecobee Inc (Generac Holdings Incorporated)
• Inventors: Tuli, Tarun
• Primary Examiner(s): Pullias, Jesse S
• Application Number:
  US16/391,406
• Publication Number:
  US 20190251967A1
• Time in Patent Office: 462 Days
• Field of Search: 704231-257, 704270-275
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/30 for purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/526 giving audible indications
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/58 using Internet communication
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/64 using pre-stored data
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2110/00 Control inputs relating to air properties
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2110/10 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2110/20 Humidity
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2130/00 Control inputs relating to environmental factors not covered by group F24F2110/00
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2130/30 Artificial light
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0802 Addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means, e.g. caches
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/283 Plural cache memories
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/08 Speech classification or search
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/30 Distributed recognition, e.g. in client-server systems, for mobile phones or network applications
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/32 Multiple recognisers used in sequence or in parallel; Score combination systems therefor, e.g. voting systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/088 Word spotting

Abstract

A system including at least one computerized device with voice command capability processed remotely includes a low power processor, executing a loose algorithmic model to recognize a wake word prefix in a voice command, the loose model having a low false rejection rate but suffering a high false acceptance rate, and a second processor which can operate in at least a low power/low clock rate mode and a high power/high clock rate mode. When the first processor determines the presence of the wake word, it causes the second processor to switch to the high power/high clock rate mode and to execute a tight algorithmic model to verify the presence of the wake word. By using the two processors in this manner, the average overall power required by the computerized device is reduced, as is the amount of waste heat generated by the system.

Claims

1. A system for processing voice commands, comprising:

at least one computerized device, the at least one computerized device having;

at least one microphone to capture user voices;

a first processor to digitize and process audio received from the at least one microphone and to store a copy of the processed audio in a circular buffer and to execute a first voice recognition algorithmic model to detect the presence of a predefined wake word in the circular buffer, the first voice recognition algorithmic model selected to provide a predefined relative low level of false non-matches of the predefined wake word at the cost of a higher than predefined level of false matches of the predefined wake word;

a second processor normally operating at a first rate having a first computational capacity and responsive to a signal from the first processor indicating that the first voice recognition algorithmic model has detected the presence of the wake word in the circular buffer such that the second processor commences operation at a second rate having a greater computational capacity that the capacity at the first rate, the second processor receiving a copy of the contents of the circular buffer from the first processor and receiving and buffering a copy of the processed received audio stream in a second buffer, the second processor executing a second voice recognition algorithmic model on the copy of the contents of the circular buffer to verify the presence of the predefined wake word, the second voice recognition algorithmic model requiring greater computational processing than the first voice recognition algorithmic model and being selected to achieve a predefined relatively low level of both false non-matches and false matches of the predefined wake word higher than achieved by the first processor; and

a data communications module operable to transmit and receive data;

a voice processing service, remotely located from the at least one computerized device;

wherein the data communications module is operable to provide data communication between the at least one computerized device and the remote voice processing service, the data communications providing the voice processing service with the copy of the contents of the circular buffer and the contents of second buffer to the voice processing service when the second voice recognition algorithmic model verifies the presence of the wake word in the copy of the contents of the circular buffer; and

wherein the voice processing service executes a third voice recognition algorithmic model requiring greater computational processing than the second voice recognition algorithmic model, the voice processing service executing the third voice recognition algorithmic model on the copy of the second buffer received at the voice processing service to verify the presence of the wake word therein and, if the third voice recognition algorithmic model does not verify the presence of the wake word, then the voice processing service sending a message to the at least one computerized device indicating that the wake word was not present and the second processor returning to operating at the first rate and, if the third voice recognition algorithmic model does verify the presence of the wake word, then the voice processing service processing the contents of the third buffer.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one computerized device further includes an activity indicator, operable to indicate when the second processor determines that the predefined wake word is present in the second buffer.