Registers – Systems controlled by data bearing records – Banking systems
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-13
2002-12-17
Le, Thien M. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Systems controlled by data bearing records
Banking systems
C235S380000, C235S382000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06494363
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a self-service terminal (SST). In particular, the invention relates to an SST having an acoustic interface for receiving and/or transmitting acoustic information, such as a voice-controlled ATM.
Voice-controlled ATMs allow a user to conduct a transaction by speaking and listening to an ATM; thereby obviating the need for a conventional monitor. In some voice-controlled ATMs a biometrics identifier, such as a human iris recognition unit, is used to avoid the user having to insert a card into the ATM. When a biometrics identification unit is used, there is no requirement for a conventional keypad.
Voice-controlled ATMs make the human to machine interaction at an ATM more like a human to human interaction, thereby improving usability of the ATM. Voice-controlled ATMs also improve access to ATMs for people having certain disabilities, such as visually-impaired people.
Although voice-controlled ATMs have a number of advantages compared with conventional ATMs, they also have some disadvantages. These disadvantages mainly relate to privacy and usability.
Some disadvantages relate to the ATM speaking to the user. For example, if an ATM that is located in a public area audibly confirms withdrawal of one hundred pounds, then the user may feel vulnerable to attack and may believe that there is a lack of privacy for the transaction, as passers-by may overhear the ATM confirming the large amount of cash to be withdrawn.
Other disadvantages relate to the user speaking to the ATM. For example, in noisy environments such as a busy street or a shopping center, the ATM may not be able to discriminate between the user's voice and background noise. The user may become frustrated by the ATMs failure to understand a command being spoken by the user; this may lead to the user shouting at the ATM, which further reduces the privacy of the transaction.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of an embodiment of the present invention to obviate or mitigate one or more of the above disadvantages or other disadvantages associated with SSTs having acoustic interfaces.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a self-service terminal having an acoustic interface characterized in that the terminal comprises a user locating mechanism, a controller, and an array of individually controllable acoustic elements; whereby, in use, the locating mechanism is operable to locate a user and to convey user location information to the controller, and the controller is operable to focus each acoustic element to the user's location.
It will be appreciated that the acoustic elements may be microphone or loudspeaker elements. When the acoustic elements are loudspeakers, the controller is operable to control the loudspeakers so that sound from the loudspeakers is only audible in the area in the immediate vicinity of the user. This ensures that the privacy of the user is increased. When the acoustic elements are microphones, the controller is operable to control the microphones so that only sound from the area in the immediate vicinity of the user is conveyed, thereby removing the effect of background noise. The microphone elements may detect all sound indiscriminately and the controller may operate on all the sound to mask out sound from areas other than the vicinity of the user. Alternatively, the microphone elements may only detect the sound from the vicinity of the user.
The term “focus” as used herein denotes directing the acoustic elements to a relatively small area or zone. Where the elements are microphones, when the microphones are focused audible signals are only conveyed from this zone, even if the microphones detect sound from areas outside this zone. Where the elements are loudspeakers, when the loudspeakers are focused they transmit audible signals to only this zone.
The zone may be defined by a certain angular beam width, for example, if a linear array is used and the array can focus anywhere between the angles of −45 degrees and +45 degrees relative to a line normal to the array, then the elements may be able to focus to a zone of five degrees, such as −20 to −15 degrees. The zone may be defined by an angular beam width and a distance, for example two meters from the array and at an angular beam width of −15 to −20 degrees.
Preferably, the locating mechanism uses visual detection to locate the user and to output user location information to the controller in real time. For example, the visual detection may be a stereo imager. One advantage of using a visual detection mechanism is that the user will be located accurately even though the background noise is louder than the user's voice; whereas, if an audio detection mechanism is used then the background noise may be targeted because it is the loudest noise being detected.
Another advantage of using a visual detection system is that the acoustic elements can be focused on the user prior to the user speaking to the SST, this ensures that all of the user's speech will be detected by the SST; whereas, if an audio detection mechanism is used, the user cannot be targeted until he/she speaks to the SST, so the first few words spoken by a user may not be detected very clearly.
Yet another advantage of using a visual detection system is that the visual system can continue detecting the user's position during a transaction, so that if the user moves then the acoustic elements can be re-focused to the user's new position.
In one embodiment where an SST includes an iris recognition unit, the stereo cameras that are used to locate the user's head may be modified to output a value indicative of the position of the user's head. This value may relate to the angular position of the user's head relative to a line normal to the array of elements. Some additional processing may be performed to locate the user's mouth and ears, as iris recognition units generally detect the location of a user's eye.
In less preferred embodiments, the locating mechanism may use an audio mechanism, such as acoustic talker direction finding (ATDF), for locating the position of a user.
Preferably, the array is a linear array. In more complex embodiments, the array may be a planar array for focusing a beam in two dimensions rather than one dimension.
In one embodiment the array may be an array of ultrasonic emitters or transducers that are powered by an ultrasonic amplifier, under control of an ultrasonic signal processor, to produce a narrow beam of sound.
The controller may control an array of microphones and an array of loudspeakers. The two arrays may be integrated into the same unit.
Preferably, the controller controls the array using a spatial filter to operate on the acoustic elements in the array. One suitable type of filter is based on the electronic beamforming technique, and is called “Filter and Sum Beamforming”. By using beamforming, the amplitude of a coherent wavefront can be enhanced relative to background noise and directional interference, thereby achieving a narrower response in a desired direction. In one implementation of a spatial filter, the controller includes a digital signal processor (DSP) and an associated memory, where the DSP applies a Finite Impulse Response filter to each element.
Alternatively, but less preferred, the controller may control the elements by adjusting the physical orientation of the elements.
Preferably, the memory is pre-programmed with a plurality of algorithms, one algorithm for each zone at which the elements can be focused. The algorithms comprise coefficients (which may include weighting and delaying values) for applying to each element.
Preferably, the DSP receives the user location information, accesses the memory to select an algorithm corresponding to the user location information, and applies the coefficients within the algorithm to the acoustic elements to focus the elements at the desired zone.
Preferably, each microphone element includes a transducer, a pre-amplifie
Miller Michael S.
Roger Ian M.
Sime Iain R. F.
Swaine Stephen W.
Le Thien M.
NCR Corporation
Priest Peter H.
Walsh Daniel
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