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US 9,431,014 B2Granted
Intelligent placement of appliance response to voice command
AssigneeHaier US Appliance Solutions, Inc.
InventorKeith Wesley Wait
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods for intelligent placement of appliance response to a voice command are provided. An exemplary system includes a plurality of appliances. An exemplary method includes connecting each of the plurality of appliances over a local area network and generating a location map providing a location of each of the plurality of appliances. The method includes receiving the human voice signal at a plurality of microphones respectively included in the plurality of appliances and determining an originating location of the human voice signal based at least in part on the location map. The method includes selecting one of the plurality of appliances to respond to the human voice signal based at least in part on the location map and the originating location.
Claims18
A method for operating a system to respond to a human voice signal, the system comprising a plurality of appliances, the method comprising:
- connecting each of the plurality of appliances over a local area network;
- generating a location map providing a location of each of the plurality of appliances;
- receiving the human voice signal at a plurality of microphones respectively included in the plurality of appliances, wherein the human voice signal requests one or more appliance actions;
- determining an originating location of the human voice signal based at least in part on the location map;
- determining one or more functionalities required to complete the one or more requested appliance actions;
- and
- identifying the most proximate appliance to the originating location that is capable of performing the one or more functionalities to complete the one or more requested appliance actions, wherein identifying the most proximate appliance to the originating location that is capable of performing the one or more functionalities to complete the one or more requested appliance actions comprise:
- generating an order of the plurality of appliances according to proximity to the originating location, wherein the order ranks the plurality of appliances from a first appliance that is most proximate to the originating location to a last appliance that is least proximate to the originating location;
- transmitting a query to the first appliance in the order to determine whether the first appliance is capable of performing the one or more functionalities to complete the one or more requested appliance actions;
- and
- receiving from the first appliance a response to the query that indicates whether the first appliance is able to perform the one or more functionalities to complete the one or more requested appliance actions;
- wherein said transmitting the query and said receiving the response are performed iteratively according to the order until the one of the appliances responds that such appliance is capable of performing the one or more functionalities to complete the one or more requested appliance actions.
9 more elements
The method of claim I, wherein generating the location map providing the location of each of the plurality of appliances comprises:
- emitting, by each of the plurality of appliances, an audio signal;
- receiving, by each of the plurality of appliances, the audio signals emitted from the other appliances;
- and
- generating the location map based on one or more characteristics associated with the received audio signals.
1 more element
A system responding to a human voice signal, the system comprising:
- a plurality of appliances in communication over a local area network, each of the plurality of appliances comprising a processor, a memory, a speaker, and at least one microphone;
- wherein at least one of the plurality of appliances is configured to:
- generate a location map based on a plurality of audio signals respectively transmitted by the plurality of appliances, the location map describing a position for each of the plurality of appliances;
- receive a human voice signal that requests one or more appliance actions;
- determine an originating location of the human voice signal based at least in part on the location map;
- determine one or more functionalities required to complete the one or more requested appliance actions;
- and
- identify the most proximate appliance to the originating location that is capable of performing the one or more functionalities to complete the one or more requested appliance actions, wherein to identify the most proximate appliance to the originating location that is capable of performing the one or more functionalities, the at least one appliance is configured to:
- generate an order of the plurality of appliances according to proximity to the originating location, wherein the order ranks the plurality of appliances from a first appliance that is most proximate to the originating location to a last appliance that is least proximate to the originating location;
- transmit a query to the first appliance in the order to determine whether the first appliance is capable of performing the one or more functionalities to complete the one or more requested appliance actions;
- and
- receive from the first appliance a response to the query that indicates whether the first appliance is able to perform the one or more functionalities to complete the one or more requested appliance actions;
- wherein the at least one appliance transmits the query and receives the response iteratively according to the order until the one of the appliances responds that such appliance is capable of performing the one or more functionalities to complete the one or more requested appliance actions.
10 more elements
A method for operating a system to respond to a human voice signal, the system comprising a plurality of appliances, the method comprising:
- connecting each of the plurality of appliances over a local area network;
- generating a location map providing a location of each of the plurality of appliances;
- receiving the human voice signal at a plurality of microphones respectively included in the plurality of appliances, wherein the human voice signal requests one or more appliance actions;
- determining an originating location of the human voice signal based at least in part on the location map;
- determining one or more functionalities required to complete the one or more requested appliance actions;
- and
- identifying the most proximate appliance to the originating location that is capable of performing the one or more functionalities to complete the one or more requested appliance actions;
- wherein identifying the most proximate appliance to the originating location that is capable of performing the one or more functionalities to complete the one or more requested appliance actions comprises:
- generating an order of the plurality of appliances according to proximity to the originating location, wherein the order ranks the plurality of appliances from a first appliance that is most proximate to the originating location to a last appliance that is least proximate to the originating location;
- transmitting a tokenized sample of the human voice signal to the first appliance in the order, wherein the tokenized sample comprises a set of tokens that are respectively representative of different grammatical portions of the human voice signal;
- and
- receiving a response from the first appliance that indicates whether the first appliance understands the tokenized sample and is able to perform the one or more functionalities to complete the one or more requested appliance actions;
- wherein said transmitting the tokenized sample and said receiving the response are performed iteratively according to the order until the one of the appliances responds that such appliance is capable of performing the one or more functionalities to complete the one or more requested appliance actions.
10 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.