Telephonic communications – Audio message storage – retrieval – or synthesis – Voice activation or recognition
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-27
2004-02-24
Tsang, Fan (Department: 2645)
Telephonic communications
Audio message storage, retrieval, or synthesis
Voice activation or recognition
C379S428020
Reexamination Certificate
active
06697455
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This specification relates generally to telephony systems and, more particularly, to a voice activated dialing system operably connectable between base and handset portions of a telephone.
BACKGROUND
Voice recognition is the technology by which sounds, words or phrases spoken by humans are converted into electrical signals which, in turn, are transformed into coding patterns to which meaning has been assigned. Applications of voice recognition technology have been developed for a wide array of devices, including, but not limited to, personal computers, telephony devices, home appliances and security systems. Many of the telephony devices which incorporate voice recognition technology are wireless communication devices intended for use in automotive and other operating environments where “hands-free” operation is desirable to enhance safe usage of the telephony device. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,063 to Sakanishi et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,222,121 to Shimada. Other telephony devices are designed for wireline communication networks such as the public switched telephone network (or “PSTN”). While these devices also retrieve and dial telephone numbers in response to a spoken word or phrase, unlike the safety concerns motivating the development of voice activated telephony devices for use in wireless networks, voice activated telephones for use in the PSTN or other wireline networks are often marketed as modem conveniences designed to improve worker efficiency by enhancing the speed at which telephone numbers may be retrieved from a personal directory and dialed.
The electronic circuitry necessary to retrieve and dial telephone numbers maintained in a memory or other storage device may either be incorporated into the telephone itself or into a discrete device coupled thereto. U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,107 to Clowes et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,302 to Kaneuchi et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,081 to Schmuckal et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,501 to Shimanuki all disclose telephones equipped with voice recognition circuitry which, upon detection of an appropriate audibilization, initiate dialing of a corresponding telephone number. Conversely, U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,808 to Immendorfer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,953 to Fujisaki and U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,579 to Stogel disclose voice recognition dialers which generate dialing sequences for transmission to wireline telephones variously coupled thereto. Regardless of their particular configuration, many voice activated dialing systems require substantial modifications to either the telephones themselves or to other portions of the telephony systems associated therewith, particularly when such systems involve multiple lines associated with each telephone.
One technique used by electronic devices to perform voice recognition is commonly referred to as “template matching.” Template matching is generally considered the simplest voice recognition technique and also enjoys the highest accuracy when properly used. The user first speaks a word or phrase into a microphone. The electrical signal from the microphone is digitized by an analog-to-digital (or “A/D”) converter and is stored in memory. To determine the meaning of the voice input, a processor attempts to match the voice input with a digitized voice sample, or template, stored in memory, that has a known meaning. Upon identifying a template which matches the word or phrase spoken by the user, the processor executes a function associated with the matching template. However, since every person's voice is different, electronic devices which use template matching to perform voice recognition must be trained with the voice input of a prospective user before that user's voice can be recognized by the electronic device. During such a training session, the user would repeatedly speak a selected words or phrases into the microphone. The processor computes a statistical average of the multiple samples for each one of the selected words or phrases and stores the averaged samples as templates in corresponding program data structures. Command or data information is then associated with the template. For example, when training a voice activated dialer, the spoken sample would be a name of a person and the command information associated with that sample would be a string of digits to be dialed upon detection of the name being spoken.
While the aforementioned training technique is satisfactory for use with many electronic devices, it is less readily accepted for use with voice activated dialers. In particular, retraining processes which involve the editing of the personal telephone directory maintained by voice activated dialers have proven particularly problematic. Once properly trained, most voice activated devices require little retraining. In contrast, however, personal telephone directories require frequent editing. Personal moves, purchases of wireless telephones, corporate relocations, employee turnover and establishment of new area codes are just some of the events which may necessitate the editing of a personal telephone directory maintained by a voice activated dialer. Unfortunately, few voice activated devices are designed for ease of use when editing. In particular, the partial editing of entries is oftentimes difficult. As previously set forth, training of a voice activated device involves the association of a spoken word or phrase and command or data information. For example, the training of a voice activated word processing application would involve associating a combination of keystrokes with a spoken word. Designers have long recognized that, once trained, a voice activated electronic device may often require editing so that a new audible sound is associated with an existing combination of keystrokes. For example, a voice activated word processing application would need to be retrained when a new user who pronounces words differently than the original user begins to operate the device. However, since voice activated word processing applications rarely involve editing the commands previously associated with audible sounds, such editing oftentimes proves difficult. Thus, since voice activated dialers require frequent editing of the telephone numbers associated with a spoken word or phrase during the initial training of the device, the aforementioned limitation has presented an obstacle to the widespread acceptance of voice activated dialers. Moreover, while many such difficulties would be eased by incorporating a display, for example, a liquid crystal diode (or “LCD”) display into the voice activated dialer, such a modification would add greatly to the cost of such a voice activated dialer.
Therefore, what is needed is a voice activated dialer configured for ease of use during retraining operations. It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide such a device. There is a further need for a voice activated dialer configured for use with a wide variety of existing telephony devices without necessitating substantial modification thereto. It is, therefore, a further object of the invention to provide such a device.
SUMMARY
In one embodiment, the invention is directed to a telephone system comprising a base, a handset and a transmission line which couples the base to the handset. Coupled to the transmission line at a location intermediate the base and handset is a voice recognition/voice tone generation (or “VR/VTG”) circuit for detecting an audio signal originating at sound detection/generation (or “SD/G”) circuitry located within the handset and generating, in response thereto, a series of tones for propagation along the transmission line. Telephone circuitry within the base detects the series of tones and establishes a call in response thereto. In one aspect thereof, the VR/VTG circuit is located entirely within a first housing having first and second connector plugs supportably mounted thereto. In this aspect, the transmission line is comprised of a first link extending from the telephone circuitry to the first connector plug, a second link extending from the firs
P.C. Conley Rose
Phan Joseph T
Tsang Fan
LandOfFree
Voice activated dialing apparatus does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Voice activated dialing apparatus, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Voice activated dialing apparatus will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3345474