Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at same station – Radiotelephone equipment detail
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-04
2001-07-17
Bost, Dwayne (Department: 2681)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at same station
Radiotelephone equipment detail
C455S563000, C704S241000, C704S246000, C704S233000, C379S088020, C379S088030
Reexamination Certificate
active
06263216
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of accessories for radiotelephones.
It relates more particularly to using radiotelephones in a car, which imposes particular human factors difficulties, given the manifest safety constraints when such an appliance is used in a moving vehicle.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
A particular object of the invention is to enable automatic number-dialing means for the radiotelephone to be used under voice control in a vehicle.
The radiotelephones available on the market all have systems constituting a directory and telephone dialer, is however those systems require keys to be pressed, menus to be scrolled on the screen of the display, etc., thereby making them difficult to use in practice in a vehicle.
EP-A-0 650 283 describes a self-contained portable appliance forming a directory and telephone dialer and including in particular voice recognition means suitable for analyzing a name spoken into a microphone, for addressing a call number memory to find the number associated with the correspondent whose name has been spoken, and then producing a sequence of voice frequency tones (DTMF signals) corresponding to the various digits of the number found in that way.
U.S.Pat. No. 4,737,976 teaches apparatus of that type integrated in a car radiotelephone, in particular to enable it to be used in a “hands-free” mode of operation, without it being necessary to take hold of the handset to dial the number.
When it is desired to proceed in that way, a first difficulty is the high level of noise in a vehicle cabin. In particular, if it is desired to use the appliance in “hands-free” mode without detaching it from its support, the large distance between the microphone and the user gives rise to a relatively high level of noise which makes it difficult to extract a useful signal buried in the noise.
For that purpose, above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,737,976 proposes providing a dynamic noise suppressor stage operating by spectral subtraction upstream from the voice recognition proper. In practice, that apparatus presents only limited performance when it is desired to achieve fine recognition (e.g. in a file of voice signatures containing several tens of references, or even more than a hundred references) and to do so in very noisy surroundings, typical of the environment of a car, with spectral characteristics that are not stationary, i.e. which vary in unpredictable manner as a function of driving conditions (driving over bumpy roads or on paving stones, car radio in operation, etc.).
Another difficulty, still when it is desired to use the appliance without detaching it from its support, stems from the fact that the appliance must be very ergonomic to use since it will generally be too far away for the user to be able to read the messages on the display of the radiotelephone or to press on such and such a key of its keypad, or at least the user will not be able to do so in a manner that is not dangerous for driving, if the vehicle is moving.
These two major constraints (high noise level and the search for excellent human factors) have not succeeded up to the present in enabling a radiotelephone to be used in a completely “hands-free” configuration in a vehicle in a manner that is satisfactory for the user and for driving safely.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention proposes solving this difficulty, by presenting a novel radiotelephone accessory which enables the radiotelephone to be used in an entirely “hands-free” mode in a manner that is both reliable (good signal extraction in spite of high noise level), simple, and safe (by in-depth ergonomic design).
It is shown in particular that it is possible to achieve excellent human factors by keeping controls down to a single key (which may optionally be replaced by any one of the buttons of the radiotelephone), while still enabling a large number of functions to be operated in relatively intuitive manner, without requiring irksome training on the part of the user.
More precisely, the invention provides voice control apparatus for a radiotelephone, in particular for use in a motor vehicle, the apparatus comprising: a data memory containing a series of correspondents' call numbers and, for each call number, at least one associated voice print; a sound transducer suitable for picking up the name of a desired corespondent as spoken by the user of the apparatus; voice recognition means suitable for analyzing the correspondent's name as picked up by the transducer and for transforming it into an associated voice print; selective memory addressing means including associative means suitable for finding a voice print in the memory corresponding to the print supplied by the voice recognition means, and in the event of a match, for addressing the corresponding memory position; and means co-operating with the associative means for applying the addressed call number to the radiotelephone circuits.
According to the invention, the voice recognition means: evaluate and store a current noise level as picked up by the transducer in the absence of a speech signal; when in the presence of a speech signal, they subtract the previously evaluated current noise level from the signal as picked up; and then they apply the resulting signal as obtained in this way to a DTW type voice recognition algorithm with pattern recognition by dynamic programming adapted to speech using dynamic parameter extraction functions, in particular a predictive dynamic algorithm with forward and/or backward and/or frequency masking.
According to various advantageous characteristics:
the device comprises a key actuated by the user to mark a speech signal, and the signal picked up by the transducer is stored continuously over a given time interval so as to perform voice recognition over a length of time including the period during which said key is actuated plus said time interval immediately preceding said actuation;
the device comprises a key actuated by the user to mark a speech signal, and voice recognition is performed over a length of time terminating after the end of actuation of the key;
the device comprises a key actuated by the user and whose actuation controls radiotelephone control functions including answering, hanging up, and swapping during call waiting;
the device comprises means for reading at least one internal directory of the radiotelephone, for comparing the call numbers in said directory with those in said memory, for updating said memory by adding thereto the call numbers in the directory which are missing therefrom, for causing the user to speak the names of the correspondents associated with the added numbers, and for storing the voice prints of said names; and
in a confirmation stage, the apparatus identifies and conserves in memory voice prints associated with the corespondents' names in the memory or with words of a vocabulary of specific voice commands, whenever the voice prints give rise to successful voice recognition.
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Patent Abstracts of Japan,
Besnard Nicolas
Seydoux Henri
Bost Dwayne
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
Parrot
Trinh Sonny
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