# US 12,469,492 B2 · Speech control of a medical apparatus > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 12,469,492 B2 - Document ID: US12469492B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 17/949,540 - Filed: 2022-09-21 - Published: 2023-04-06 - Granted: 2025-11-11 - Earliest claimed: 2021-09-23 - Assignees: Siemens Healthineers AG - Applicants: Siemens Healthineers AG - Inventors: Soeren Kuhrt; Stefan Rothbauer; Lennart Kilian - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12469492B2 ## CPC - G10L 15/22: Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue - A61B 2560/0493: controlled by voice - G10L 2015/223: {Execution procedure of a spoken command} - G10L: SPEECH ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES OR SPEECH SYNTHESIS; SPEECH RECOGNITION; SPEECH OR VOICE PROCESSING TECHNIQUES; SPEECH OR AUDIO CODING OR DECODING - A61B: DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION (usefulness limited to only animals A61D) ## Abstract One or more example embodiments provides a method for speech control of a medical apparatus, a corresponding speech control apparatus, a medical system comprising the speech control apparatus, a computer program product and a computer-readable storage medium. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method for speech control of a medical apparatus, the method comprising: capturing an audio signal containing operator speech input for controlling the medical apparatus; first analyzing the audio signal to obtain a first speech analysis result; recognizing a first speech command from the operator based on the first speech analysis result; ascertaining a verification signal for the first speech command, the ascertaining including, second analyzing the audio signal to obtain a second speech analysis result, the second analyzing including applying a computational linguistics algorithm to the audio signal, and the computational linguistics algorithm being configured to only recognize safety-critical speech commands, recognizing a second speech command from the operator based on the second speech analysis result, and comparing the first speech command and the second speech command to obtain a comparison result, the verification signal confirming the first speech command based on the comparison result satisfying a conformity criterion; generating a control signal for controlling the medical apparatus based on the verification signal, the control signal being configured to control the medical apparatus according to the first speech command; and inputting the control signal into the medical apparatus. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the computational linguistics algorithm is a first computational linguistics algorithm; the first analyzing includes applying a second computational linguistics algorithm to the audio signal, the second computational linguistics algorithm including a first trained function; the first computational linguistics algorithm including a second trained function; and the first trained function and the second trained function are different from one another. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The method of claim 2, wherein the second trained function is configured only to recognize the safety-critical speech commands. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, wherein the first analyzing includes tokenizing for segmenting at least one segmenting letters, words or sentences within the audio signal via the second computational linguistics algorithm to obtain first tokenization information, the first speech analysis result including the first tokenization information; and the second analyzing includes tokenizing for segmenting at least one of letters, words or sentences within the audio signal via the first computational linguistics algorithm to obtain second tokenization information, the second speech analysis result including the second tokenization information. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) The method of claim 4, wherein the first analyzing includes semantic analysis of the audio signal via the second computational linguistics algorithm to obtain first semantic information, the first speech analysis result including the first semantic information; and the second analyzing includes semantic analysis of the audio signal via the first computational linguistics algorithm to obtain second semantic information, the second speech analysis result including the second semantic information. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The method of claim 5, wherein the first trained function is configured to use at least one of the second tokenization information or the second semantic information to identify at least one of: structurally unique speech commands as the safety-critical speech commands, or lexically unique speech commands as the safety-critical speech commands. ### Claim 7 (depends on 5) The method of claim 5, wherein the first trained function is configured to identify a speech command with at least three syllables as one of the safety-critical speech commands. ### Claim 8 (depends on 2) The method of claim 2, further comprising: classifying the first speech command into one among of a plurality of safety classes, at least one first safety class among the plurality of safety classes corresponding to the safety-critical speech commands, wherein the ascertaining of the verification signal for the first speech command is performed based on the first speech command being classified in the at least one first safety class. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the capturing of the audio signal includes: capturing the audio signal via a first input apparatus and a second input apparatus, the first input apparatus and the second input apparatus being different from one another, wherein the first analyzing is performed using the audio signal captured via the first input apparatus, and the second analyzing is performed using the audio signal captured via the second input apparatus. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program sections that, when executed by a system, cause the system to perform the method of claim 1. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the computational linguistics algorithm is a first computational linguistics algorithm; the first analyzing includes tokenizing for segmenting at least one of letters, words or sentences within the audio signal via a second computational linguistics algorithm to obtain first tokenization information, the first speech analysis result including the first tokenization information; and the second analyzing includes tokenizing for segmenting at least one of letters, words or sentences within the audio signal via the first computational linguistics algorithm to obtain second tokenization information, the second speech analysis result including the second tokenization information. ### Claim 12 (depends on 2) The method of claim 2, wherein the first analyzing includes tokenizing for segmenting at least one of letters, words or sentences within the audio signal via the second computational linguistics algorithm to obtain first tokenization information, the first speech analysis result including the first tokenization information; and the second analyzing includes tokenizing for segmenting at least one of letters, words or sentences within the audio signal via the first computational linguistics algorithm to obtain second tokenization information, the second speech analysis result including the second tokenization information. ### Claim 13 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, further comprising: classifying the first speech command into one among a plurality of safety classes, at least one first safety class among the plurality of safety classes corresponding to the safety-critical speech commands, wherein the ascertaining of the verification signal for the first speech command is performed based on the first speech command being classified in the at least one first safety class. ### Claim 14 (depends on 4) The method of claim 4, further comprising: classifying the first speech command into one among a plurality of safety classes, at least one first safety class among the plurality of safety classes corresponding to the safety-critical speech commands, wherein the ascertaining of the verification signal for the first speech command is performed based on the first speech command being classified in the at least one first safety class. ### Claim 15 (depends on 5) The method of claim 5, further comprising: classifying the first speech command into one among a plurality of safety classes, at least one first safety class among the plurality of safety classes corresponding to the safety-critical speech commands, wherein the ascertaining of the verification signal for the first speech command is performed based on the first speech command being classified in the at least one first safety class. ### Claim 16 (depends on 2) The method of claim 2, wherein the first analyzing includes semantic analysis of the audio signal via the second computational linguistics algorithm to obtain first semantic information, the first speech analysis result including the first semantic information; and the second analyzing includes semantic analysis of the audio signal via the first computational linguistics algorithm to obtain second semantic information, the second speech analysis result including the second semantic information. ### Claim 17 A speech control apparatus for speech control of a medical apparatus comprising: a first interface configured to capture an audio signal containing operator speech input for controlling the medical apparatus; a first evaluation unit configured to analyze the audio signal to obtain a first speech analysis result, recognize a first speech command from the operator based on the first speech analysis result; a second evaluation unit configured to ascertain a verification signal for the first speech command by analyzing the audio signal to obtain a second speech analysis result, the analyzing including applying a computational linguistics algorithm to the audio signal, and the computational linguistics algorithm being configured to only recognize safety-critical speech commands, recognizing a second speech command from the operator based on the second speech analysis result, and comparing the first speech command and the second speech command to obtain a comparison result, the verification signal confirming the first speech command based on the comparison result satisfying a conformity criterion; a control unit configured to generate a control signal for controlling the medical apparatus based on the verification signal confirming the first speech command, the control signal being configured to control the medical apparatus according to the first speech command; and a second interface configured to input the control signal into the medical apparatus. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The speech control apparatus of claim 17, wherein the first evaluation unit and the second evaluation unit are computing units separate from one another. ### Claim 19 (depends on 17) The speech control apparatus of claim 17, wherein the first interface comprises a first input apparatus and a second input apparatus for simultaneously capturing the audio signal. ### Claim 20 (depends on 17) A medical system comprising: the speech control apparatus of claim 17, and the medical apparatus.