Radar enabled location based keyword activation for voice assistants

A method of operation for a voice assistant comprising:

• determining positions of persons in a general location and determining a source of sound in the general location;
• determining whether the source of the sound is consistent with the position a detected person and, if the sound is consistent, designating the detected person as an operator of the voice assistant;
• determining whether the operator is in a specific location of the general location;
• when the person is in the specific location, initiating operation of the voice assistant directly with a predefined specific command other than a global keyword;
• and
• when the person is not in the specific location, initiating operation of the voice assistant only with the global keyword, and executing the predefined specific command after initiating operation of the voice assistant with the global keyword.

A method of operation for a voice assistant comprising:

• radar detecting a plurality of persons in a general location;
• determining one of the detected persons as an operator according to predefined criteria;
• performing beam steering sound detection on the operator;
• determining whether the operator is in a specific location of the general location;
• when the person is in the specific location, initiating operation of the voice assistant directly with a predefined specific command other than a global keyword;
• and
• when the person is not in the specific location, initiating operation of the voice assistant only with the global keyword, and executing the predefined specific command after initiating operation of the voice assistant with the global keyword.

A voice assistant comprising:

• a radar;
• a microphone array;
• and
• a microprocessor coupled between the radar and microphone array, the microprocessor configured for directly processing specific command information from the microphone array when the specific command information is consistent with operator position information from the radar and, when the specific command information is not consistent with the operator position information from the radar, for processing the specific command information from the microphone array only after receiving global keyword information from the microphone array.