Hands-free control system for a radiotelephone

A radio communications apparatus having a transmitter, a receiver, and a speech-recognizing control system, said control system comprising:

• means for dynamically suppressing background noise from an input speech signal to produce noise suppression information;
• means responsive to said noise suppression information for recognizing user-spoken command words to produce voice command data;
• means responsive to said voice command data for controlling operating functions of said radio communications apparatus, and for producing voice reply data indicative of the operating status of said radio communications apparatus;
• and
• means for synthesizing a speech reply signal from said voice reply data, thereby providing an audible indication to the user as to the radio communications apparatus operating status.

A radio transceiver having a transmitter, a receiver, and a hands-free user control means for controlling a plurality of user-controlled radio transceiver operating parameters upon a user-spoken command word, and for providing audible feedback to the user as to the radio transceiver operating status, said control means comprising:

• first coupling means for providing hands-free acoustic coupling of user-spoken input speech to said control means, thereby providing an input speech signal;
• means for dynamically suppressing background noise from said input speech signal by spectral gain modification, thereby providing noise suppression data;
• means responsive to said noise suppression data for recognizing a plurality of predetermined user-spoken command words to provide voice command data, said plurality of predetermined command words corresponding to said plurality of radio transceiver operating parameters;
• means responsive to said voice command data for controlling said radio transceiver operating parameters, and for producing radio status data indicative of the present operating status of said radio transceiver;
• means for synthesizing a speech reply signal from said radio status data;
• and
• second coupling means for providing hands-free acoustic coupling of said speech reply signal from said control means to said user, thereby providing audible feedback to the user as to said radio transceiver present operating status.

The method of controlling a radio communications apparatus having a transmitter, a receiver, and a speech-recognizing control system, comprising the steps of:

• dynamically suppressing background noise from an input speech signal to produce noise suppression information;
• recognizing user-spoken command words in response to said noise suppression information to produce voice command data;
• controlling operating functions of said radio communications apparatus in response to said voice command data, and producing voice reply data indicative of the operating status of said radio communications apparatus;
• and
• synthesizing a speech reply signal from said voice reply data, thereby providing an audible indication to the user as to the radio communications apparatus operating status.

The method of controlling a radio transceiver having a transmit audio path, a receive audio path, a plurality of operating parameters, and a plurality of operating states, by speech recognition and speech reply, comprising the steps of:

• providing hands-free acoustic coupling of input speech spoken by a user to said radio transceiver, thereby providing an input speech signal;
• dynamically suppressing background noise from said input speech signal by spectral gain modification, thereby providing noise suppression data;
• recognizing a plurality of predetermined verbal command words in response to said noise suppression data to provide voice command data, said plurality of predetermined verbal command words corresponding to said plurality of operating parameters;
• controlling said radio transceiver operating parameters in response to said voice command data, and producing radio status data indicative of the present operating state of said radio transceiver;
• synthesizing a speech reply signal from said radio status data;
• and
• providing hands-free acoustic coupling of said speech reply signal from said radio transceiver to said user, thereby producing audible feedback of said present operating state of said radio transceiver.