Voice-activated remote control service

• US 20090271203A1
• Filed: 04/25/2008
• Published: 10/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Sadja, Aran London, Resch, Keith
• Granted Patent: US 8,078,472 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/00 Speaker identification or verification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command

Abstract

A method of remotely controlling operation of a controlled device involves receiving a telephone call from an owner via a telephone network; authenticating the telephone call to establish that the owner is authorized to control the controlled device; interpreting a voice command from the owner that issues instructions to the controlled device; identifying the controlled device based upon the authentication and identification by the owner of the controlled device; converting the voice command to one or more data packets capable of interpretation by the controlled device to execute the command; and delivering the one or more data packets to the controlled device via the Internet. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.

Claims

1. A method of remotely controlling operation of a controlled device, comprising:

receiving a telephone call from an owner via a telephone network;

authenticating the telephone call to establish that the owner is authorized to control the controlled device;

interpreting a voice command from the owner that issues instructions to the controlled device;

identifying the controlled device based upon the authentication and identification by the owner of the controlled device;

converting the voice command to one or more data packets capable of interpretation by the controlled device to execute the command; and

delivering the one or more data packets to the controlled device via the Internet.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the interpreting comprises interpreting responses to a speech synthesized menu query.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the controlled device is registered to an owner and is associated with the owner using a database.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising confirming receipt of the data packets and sending a confirming speech message to the owner.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the confirming is carried out during the same call session initiated when the owner placed the telephone call.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the confirming is carried out by placing a new telephone call to the owner.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the owner selects the controlled device from a list of supported devices, and adds that controlled device to an account along with a network address of that device.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the controlled device is identified by an owner specified spoken name.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the controlled device comprises an addressable legacy controller which controls another device.

10. A computer readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed on one or more programmed processors, carry out a process according to claim 1.

11. A remote control system for remotely controlling operation of a controlled device, comprising:

a telephone system interface that receives a telephone call from an owner via a telephone network;

a voice recognition system that recognizes speech and converts the speech to digital signals;

an authentication system that establishes that the owner is authorized to control the controlled device;

a command interpreter that interprets a voice command from the owner to identify a controlled device and to provide a command that controls operation of the controlled device;

wherein the controlled device is identified based upon the authentication and identification by the owner of the controlled device;

a data packetizer that converts the voice command to one or more data packets capable of interpretation by the controlled device to execute the command; and

a delivery system that delivers the one or more data packets to the controlled device via the Internet.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the interpreting comprises interpreting responses to a speech synthesized menu query.

13. The system according to claim 11, further comprising a database, and wherein the controlled device is registered to an owner and is associated with the owner using the database.

14. The system according to claim 11, wherein the delivery system further confirms receipt of the data packets, and wherein the system sends a confirming speech message to the owner.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the speech message is generated by a speech synthesizer.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the confirming is carried out during the same call session initiated when the owner placed the telephone call.

17. The system according to claim 15, wherein the confirming is carried out by placing a new telephone call to the owner.

18. The system according to claim 11, wherein the owner selects the controlled device from a list of supported devices, and adds that controlled device to an account along with a network address of that device.

19. The system according to claim 11, wherein the controlled device is identified by an owner specified spoken name.

21. A remote control system for remotely controlling operation of a controlled device, comprising:

a database, wherein the controlled device is registered to an owner and is associated with the owner using the database, wherein the owner selects the controlled device from a list of supported devices, and adds that controlled device to an account along with a network address of that device, and wherein the owner and the controlled device are stored in the database;

a telephone system interface that receives a telephone call from an owner via a telephone network;

a voice recognition system that recognizes speech and converts the speech to digital signals;

an authentication system that establishes that the owner is authorized to control the controlled device;

a command interpreter that interprets a voice command from the owner to identify a controlled device and to provide a command that controls operation of the controlled device, wherein the interpreting comprises interpreting responses to a speech synthesized menu query;

wherein the controlled device is identified based upon the authentication and identification by the owner of the controlled device, and wherein the controlled device is identified by an owner specified spoken name;

a data packetizer that converts the voice command to one or more data packets capable of interpretation by the controlled device to execute the command;

a delivery system that delivers the one or more data packets to the controlled device via the Internet; and

wherein the delivery system further confirms receipt of the data packets, and wherein the system sends a confirming speech message to the owner, and wherein the speech message is generated by a speech synthesizer.

20. The system according to claim 21, wherein the controlled device comprises an addressable legacy controller which controls another device.

22. The system according to claim 21, wherein the confirming is carried out during the same call session initiated when the owner placed the telephone call.

23. The system according to claim 21, wherein the confirming is carried out by placing a new telephone call to the owner.

24. The system according to claim 21, wherein the controlled device comprises an addressable legacy controller which controls another device.