Voice connection system between humans and animals
AssigneeS.I.SV.EL. Societa' Italiana per lo Sviluppo Dell'Elettronica S.P
InventorsPiero Perlo, Valentina Grasso, Federica Valerio
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A voice connection system comprises a sensor matrix sending to a control unit signals indicating an animal's status in terms of stimuli, feelings, events, actions or behavior of said animal. The control unit selects—depending on the signals received—a voice message recorded into memory means associated to the unit, and activates a loudspeaker belonging to the system, in order to issue said voice message. The system further comprises voice recognition means, which activate pulse generators depending on the content of a voice message uttered by the human user.
Claims10
Voice connection system between humans and animals, comprising:
- sensor means designed to be positioned on an animal for converting pulses detected on the animal's body into first electric signals indicating a status of said animal,
- processing means operatively associated with the sensor means, comprising memory means into which human voice messages corresponding to different statuses of the animal are recorded,
- loudspeaker means operatively connected to the processing means, the processing means receiving first electric signals coming from said sensor means and activating said loudspeaker means in order to issue a voice message selected in said memory means, in function of the aforesaid first electric signals received,
- speech recognition means for sending to the processing means second electric signals representing the content of voice messages uttered by a human user, and
- pulse-generating means, which receive from said processing means said second electric signals representing the content of the voice messages uttered by the human user, and which send to the animal's brain corresponding pulses,
- wherein
- said processing means includes a neural network control system,
- said sensor means comprises first and second electroencephalographic sensors and an electromyographic sensor,
- at least the first and second electroencephalographic sensors are placed close to respective ears of the animal, or close to its occipital-temporal region, and the electromyographic sensor is placed on the animal's neck,
- and wherein said pulse-generating means is constituted by a generator (10) of radioelectric waves, that converts said second electric signals into radioelectric waves having different frequencies and amplitudes, which are sent directly to the animal's brain.
Method for allowing vocal connection between a human and an animal, comprising the following steps:
- i) detecting on the body of the animal electric pulses in the animal's brain, muscles and/or nerves, which are indicative of a status of an animal in terms of stimuli, feelings, events, actions, or behaviours, including those shown by the motion of the animal's muscles;
- ii) converting the detected pulses into first electric signals which are sent to processing means;
- iii) selecting by the processing means a stored human-type vocal message corresponding to received first electric signals and activate as a consequence a loudspeaker for emitting a selected human-type vocal message, thus simulating the possibility of speaking for the animal;
- iv) receiving human-type vocal messages in a speech recognition means and sending respective second electric signals to the processing means;
- and
- v) generating, by the processing means, stimuli for inducing the animal to take determined actions or perceive determined feelings as a function of the type of the received second electric signals,
- wherein, for the purpose of performing step v), the received second electric signals are converted into radioelectric waves having different frequencies and amplitudes, which are sent directly to the animal's brain.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.