Method of operating vehicular, hands-free telephone system

• US 7,801,283 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2003
• Issued: 09/21/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Lear Corporation
• Original Assignee: Lear Corporation
• Inventors: Harwood, Jody K., Rudnick, Kenan Robert, Bauman, Jason G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan; Joseph T
• Application Number:
  US10/745,072
• Publication Number:
  US 20050135573A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,465 Days
• Field of Search: 379/88.03, 379/88.04
• US Class Current: 379/88.03
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/271 controlled by voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6091 including a wireless interface

Abstract

A hands-free, Bluetooth™ enabled telephone system for a vehicle is configured to enable an operator such as the driver of the vehicle to say multiple voice commands at one time in order to control the operation of the telephone system. Such multiple commands include “Dial <name>”, “Dial <name location>”, “Dial <number>”, and “Send <account number>.” The hands-free, Bluetooth™ enabled telephone system enables the pairing between Bluetooth™ enabled cell phones and a Bluetooth™ communications module of the telephone system to be conducted in a human friendly manner. The hands-free, Bluetooth™ enabled telephone system enables the telephone system to generate DTMF tones corresponding to a numeric account number or password in response to the driver vocally saying an account name associated with the numeric account number or password during a call between the driver and a voice-automated, menu-driven system for receipt by the menu-driven system.

Claims

1. A hands-free telephone system for a vehicle, the system comprising:

a vehicle appliance having a microphone for receiving vocal communications including voice commands from an operator of the vehicle, the vehicle appliance being connected to a speaker of the vehicle for outputting vocal communications to the operator;

the vehicle appliance further including a controller associated with an input, a voice recognition module, a communications module, and memory;

the voice recognition module being operable for receiving and recognizing voice commands stated by the operator into the microphone;

the communications module being operable for wirelessly communicating with a portable phone located in the vehicle, the portable phone being operable for wirelessly making a phone call with a phone external to the vehicle;

the memory being operable for storing a list of account names and associated account numbers, wherein each account number includes a plurality of digits;

wherein during a phone call between the portable phone and an external phone the controller is operable, upon the operator actuating the input, to respond to a voice command from the operator in which the operator vocally states an account name by accessing the memory to locate a stored account number associated with the account name and then causing the communications module to wirelessly communicate DTMF tones corresponding to the digits of the account number to the portable phone for the portable phone to transfer to the external phone during the phone call;

wherein the memory is further operable for storing a list of call recipient names and associated telephone numbers;

wherein the controller is operable to respond to a voice command from the operator in which the operator vocally states a call recipient name by accessing the memory to locate a stored telephone number associated with the call recipient name and causing the communications module to wirelessly communicate the digits of the associated telephone number to the portable phone for the portable phone to dial to make a call to the phone having the associated telephone number;

wherein the vehicle appliance further includes a voice synthesizer operable for generating vocal communications for output by the vehicle speaker;

wherein the voice synthesizer generates vocal communications including the call recipient name for output by the vehicle speaker for the operator to hear prior to the portable phone dialing the digits of the telephone number associated with the call recipient name.

2. A hands-free telephone system for a vehicle, the system of comprising:

a vehicle appliance having a microphone for receiving vocal communications including voice commands from an operator of the vehicle, the vehicle appliance being connected to a speaker of the vehicle for outputting vocal communications to the operator;

the vehicle appliance further including a controller associated with an input, a voice recognition module, a communications module, and memory;

the voice recognition module being operable for receiving and recognizing voice commands stated by the operator into the microphone;

the communications module being operable for wirelessly communicating with a portable phone located in the vehicle, the portable phone being operable for wirelessly making a phone call with a phone external to the vehicle;

the memory being operable for storing a list of account names and associated account numbers, wherein each account number includes a plurality of digits;

wherein during a phone call between the portable phone and an external phone the controller is operable, upon the operator actuating the input, to respond to a voice command from the operator in which the operator vocally states an account name by accessing the memory to locate a stored account number associated with the account name and then causing the communications module to wirelessly communicate DTMF tones corresponding to the digits of the account number to the portable phone for the portable phone to transfer to the external phone during the phone call;

wherein the vehicle appliance further includes a voice synthesizer operable for generating vocal communications for output by the vehicle speaker;

wherein the voice synthesizer generates vocal communications including the account name for output by the vehicle speaker for the operator to hear prior to the portable phone transferring the DTMF tones to the external phone.

3. A hands-free telephone system for a vehicle, the system comprising:

a vehicle appliance having a microphone for receiving vocal communications including voice commands from an operator of the vehicle, the vehicle appliance being connected to a speaker of the vehicle for outputting vocal communications to the operator;

the vehicle appliance further including a controller associated with an input, a voice recognition module, a communications module, and memory;

the voice recognition module being operable for receiving and recognizing voice commands stated by the operator into the microphone;

the communications module being operable for wirelessly communicating with a portable phone located in the vehicle, the portable phone being operable for wirelessly making a phone call with a phone external to the vehicle;

the memory being operable for storing a list of account names and associated account numbers, wherein each account number includes a plurality of digits;

wherein during a phone call between the portable phone and an external phone after the phone call between the portable phone and the external phone is already in progress, the controller is operable, upon the operator actuating the input, to respond to a voice command from the operator in which the operator vocally states an account name by accessing the memory to locate a stored account number associated with the account name and then causing the communications module to wirelessly communicate DTMF tones corresponding to the digits of the account number to the portable phone for the portable phone to transfer to the external phone during the phone call.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein:

the portable phone is a Bluetooth™

enabled portable phone and the communications module is a Bluetooth™

enabled communications module.

5. The system of claim 3 wherein:

the memory is further operable for storing a list of call recipient names and associated telephone numbers;

wherein the controller is operable to respond to a voice command from the operator in which the operator vocally states a call recipient name by accessing the memory to locate a stored telephone number associated with the call recipient name and causing the communications module to wirelessly communicate the digits of the associated telephone number to the portable phone for the portable phone to dial to make a call to the phone having the associated telephone number.

6. The system of claim 3 wherein:

the memory is further operable for storing a list of call recipient names, at least one location associated with each call recipient name, and a telephone number associated with each call recipient name and location pair;

wherein the controller is operable to respond to a voice command from the operator in which the operator vocally states a call recipient name and a location by accessing the memory to locate a stored telephone number associated with the call recipient name and the location and causes the communications module to wirelessly communicate the digits of the associated telephone number to the portable phone for the portable phone to dial to make a call to the phone having the associated telephone number.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein:

the vehicle appliance further includes a voice synthesizer operable for generating vocal communications for output by the vehicle speaker;

wherein the voice synthesizer generates vocal communications including the call recipient name and the location for output by the vehicle speaker for the operator to hear prior to the portable phone dialing the digits of the telephone number associated with the call recipient name and the location.

8. The system of claim 3 wherein:

wherein the memory is further operable for storing a list of telephone numbers;

wherein the controller is operable to respond to a voice command from the operator in which the operator vocally states one of the telephone numbers by causing the communications module to wirelessly communicate the digits of the telephone number to the portable phone for the portable phone to dial to make a call to the phone having the telephone number.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein:

the vehicle appliance further includes a voice synthesizer operable for generating vocal communications for output by the vehicle speaker;

wherein the voice synthesizer generates vocal communications including the telephone number for output by the vehicle speaker for the operator to hear prior to the portable phone dialing the digits of the telephone number.