Data processing: speech signal processing – linguistics – language – Speech signal processing – Application
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-22
2002-05-28
Dorvil, Richemond (Department: 2741)
Data processing: speech signal processing, linguistics, language
Speech signal processing
Application
C704S272000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06397186
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to devices for remotely controlling electronic equipment, and more particularly, to a wireless, user-programmable, voice-activated and voice-operated remote control system for controlling appliances.
2. Description of Prior Art
Historically, appliances, for example, electronic appliances, such as, televisions, VCRs, digital satellite systems, audio systems, and related accessories, have been remotely controlled by hand-held transmitters used to generate signals to receivers incorporated into the electronics of the remotely controlled appliances. Signals for such appliances correspond to control commands, such as channel selection/tuning, power on/off, audio volume adjustment, and muting controls, typically generated by the user by depressing buttons on a remote control transmitter keypad. The basic composition and operation of such remote control systems are well known in the art.
For convenience, such remote control transmitters are generally designed to be sufficiently small to be hand-held during operation. There are several disadvantages in using such hand-held transmitters. For example, the small size and mobility often contribute to misplacement or loss of the transmitter. Also, for device operators with restricted physical mobility or sight limitations, hand-held remote controls may not provide sufficient access to the command controls of the remotely controlled appliances. Also, if an operator's hands are engaged in an activity, an interruption in the activity may be required to operate the hand-held remote control, causing inconvenience to the operator and potentially having an adverse effect on productivity.
Additional problems occur as a consumer acquires various remotely controlled appliances, where each is typically supplied with a separate remote control transmitter. As the number of separate remote control transmitters increases, locating, distinguishing, and locating the appropriate transmitters becomes increasingly difficult. In response to this problem, universal remote control transmitters, pre-programmed by the manufacturers with control commands, typically coded infrared signals, have been developed to operate many different remotely controlled electronic appliances, for example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,774,511. In addition to universal remote control transmitters, learning remote control transmitters have been developed which receive the control command signals, typically infrared codes, from the remote control transmitters provided with remotely controlled appliances and generally store the frequencies and pulses into memory, with the signals becoming associated with buttons located on the keypad of the learning remote control transmitter. After programming is complete, depressing the keypad buttons prompts the learning remote control transmitter to re-transmit the codes stored within its memory. This allows the user to consolidate the control of several remotely controllable appliances into a single hand-held remote control transmitter. An example of such a system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,142,398. For additional convenience to the user, the learning capability has been combined with universal remote control transmitters which are pre-programmed by the manufacturers with control commands necessary to operate many different remotely controlled electronic appliances, for example as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,691,710.
All of the above-mentioned systems require the user to establish physical contact, typically in the form of manually depressing keypad buttons, to transmit a control command to the remotely controlled appliance. As such, the above-mentioned systems due to their small size are often misplaced causing frustration to the user.
As such, voice-operated remote control systems have recently been developed which operate in response to user-spoken commands instead of commands selected by manually depressing keypad buttons. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,199,080; 5,247,580; 5,267,323 and 5,226,090 disclose various embodiments of voice-operated remote control systems which employ voice control commands instead of control commands entered through buttons on a keypad. Unfortunately, such systems are not truly hands-free, requiring manual intervention by the user during use. In particular, such remote control systems as disclosed in the above-mentioned patents, are all based upon the use of a “talk switch”; which must be manually depressed to enter a voice command when the transmission of a remote control signal is desired.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,090 further discloses a voice-operated remote control system which contains a detector for detecting whether a voice command is received or not. A detected signal from the detector is applied to a power supply circuit. When there is no voice command received as detected by the detector, the power supply control circuit cuts off electric energy supplied to a speech recognition circuit. The voice command detector circuit is implemented by a detecting program stored in the ROM in a controller. The detecting program determines whether the talk switch has been depressed. The transmitter operates depending on whether the talk switch has been depressed. If the talk switch has been depressed, the transmitter is enabled to remote control signals. Once the talk switch is released, the transmitter is kept in a low power consumption mode, waiting for voice commands to be applied. As indicated above, the means for generating and transmitting a remote control signal based on the recognized spoken voice command is not hands-free, requiring the manual intervention of pressing a talk switch to accomplish these functions.
Various other systems are known which use speech recognition to control appliances. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,852,804 discloses a system for controlling several external appliances connected to a speech recognition system. However, the system disclosed in the '804 patent requires physical interconnections between the control system and the appliance which makes it difficult for a user to add additional appliances or change controlled appliances.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,394 discloses a system which includes connections to a remote control network for transmitting infrared codes and a graphical user interface on a personal computer (PC). In addition to the inconvenience of establishing the remote control network, a user must have access to a PC and desire to make the PC available for such control functions. The system disclosed in the '394 patent has only limited utility for consumers who have access to a PC or can afford the expense of a PC and thus excludes a significant portion of consumers who may otherwise desire to add speech recognition control to their electronic appliances if an inexpensive alternative is available.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,859 discloses a subscriber information system with a speech interface, similar to the system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,394 the system in the '859 patent is based upon a PC-class processor. Operation of this system is dependent upon receiving information from an information distribution center or head-end installation and therefore lacks the advantages of a stand-alone device. Unfortunately, the remote control is not capable of independently completing the speech recognition process and transmitting infrared signals indicated by such recognition results to controlled appliances. Furthermore, this system also requires a PC-class processor.
Inconvenience is another problem that occurs as a user intends to perform multiple control functions involving one or more controlled appliances and must recall and enter a series of voice commands to a voice-operated remote control system. U.S. Pat. No. 5,852,804 discloses a system, where one speech command may be defined which is capable of manipulation of more than one connected appliance. However, this system requires that each controlled appliance be physically connected to the system and that the controlled appliance be manually manipulate
Bush William Stuart
Roura Carlos Ferdinand
Ambush Interactive, Inc.
Dorvil Richemond
Katten Muchin Zavis & Rosenman
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