JPS639711B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] (b) Industrial application fields The present invention relates to a method for remotely controlling electrical equipment.

(b) Prior Art In recent years, as research into speech processing has progressed, many speech recognition devices capable of recognizing speech have been developed.

Conventional methods for remotely controlling electrical equipment using such voice recognition technology include transmitting voice signals using ultrasonic waves, radio waves, or optical signals, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 75990/1983. Some television receivers receive this information and perform voice recognition to control the operation of the receiver.

However, in order to implement such a method, a configuration for transmitting and receiving audio signals, such as ultrasonic waves, is required, which not only increases the size and cost of the system configuration, but also requires a configuration for transmitting and receiving audio signals, such as ultrasonic waves. Since the device could only be used to operate electrical equipment such as the following, it was completely unsuitable for operating indoor electrical equipment from outdoors, for example.

On the other hand, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 49-79401 or Japanese Utility Model Application No. 48-76805 proposes a remote control method that attempts to control relatively distant electrical equipment using a telephone line. In some cases, the operator must memorize the codes necessary for operating each electrical device, since the operation is performed by a code signal from the push button or dial operation of the telephone.

(c) Problems to be solved by the invention The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned points. The present invention provides a remote control method for electrical equipment, which can control electrical equipment, and further improves the operability and usability of the system itself.

(d) Means for Solving the Problems The remote control method for electrical equipment of the present invention uses an internal telephone and an external telephone that can communicate with each other via a telephone line, and an external telephone that can communicate with each other via a telephone line. It is equipped with a voice recognition circuit into which voice and voice from an internal telephone are input, a voice registration pattern memory connected to the circuit, and an electric device operated according to instructions from the voice recognition circuit, and the voice registration is possible. The voice from the internal telephone is input to the voice recognition circuit and stored in the voice registration pattern memory, and the voice recognition is performed by comparing the voice from the external telephone and the internal telephone with voice patterns registered in advance in the voice registration pattern memory. By recognizing this, electrical equipment can be controlled from both internal and external telephones.

(E) Effect According to the method of the present invention, voice registration can be performed using an internal telephone near the electrical equipment to be operated, and voice recognition can be performed using either an external telephone or an internal telephone. . Therefore, it is possible to register voice while checking the status and operation of electrical equipment at home, and the electrical equipment can be operated freely whether inside or outside the home.

(F) Embodiment FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an embodiment for realizing the method of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an internal telephone set at home, 2 . 5 is a voice recognition circuit connected to the telephone line 4, and is connected to the internal telephone 1.
Alternatively, the voice obtained from the external telephone 2 is recognized and a signal corresponding to the voice at this time is output.
Reference numeral 6 denotes a registered pattern memory connected to the speech recognition circuit 5, in which standard patterns of speech to be compared and recognized by the speech recognition circuit 5 are stored in advance. 7 is the voice recognition circuit 5 mentioned above.
This is a relay circuit that operates depending on a signal output based on the recognition result, and controls the opening and closing of the power source 8. Reference numerals 9 indicate various electrical devices whose power supply from the power source 8 is individually controlled by the relay circuits, such as home air conditioners and outside lights. 1
0 is a hook signal detector that detects the constant voltage generated in the telephone line 4 when the receiver of the internal telephone 1 is picked up, that is, when the hook of the internal telephone 1 is lifted, and the detector 10 detects this hook signal. When detected, a detection signal is sent to the voice recognition circuit 5, and the voice recognition circuit 5 is activated. Reference numeral 11 denotes a ringing signal detector that detects an oscillation signal when the external telephone 2 calls the internal telephone 1 by the exchange 3, and when the detector 11 detects this ringing signal, it detects the hook signal. Similarly to the device 10, the voice recognition circuit 5 is operated based on this detection signal.

There are two types of speech recognition circuits 5 used in the apparatus configured as described above: those intended for unspecified speakers and those intended for specific speakers. Among these, the ones for specific speakers are said to be more advantageous in terms of recognition rate and cost than those for unspecified speakers, so the speech patterns necessary for recognition for each speaker are stored in the registered pattern memory. However, at present, this type of voice recognition circuit 5
has become the mainstream. The most commonly used speech recognition circuit 5 for such a specific speaker is:
This is a filter bank system that includes a large number of bandpass filters and extracts spectrum information from input audio. The speech pattern obtained by this method becomes a spectral pattern, and the speech recognition circuit 5 calculates the difference between each registered spectral pattern stored in the registered pattern memory 6 in advance, that is, the difference between the corresponding spectral values. A process is performed in which the total sum of absolute values is calculated and the registered pattern with the smallest error is associated with the current input pattern.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained. First, a speech pattern necessary for recognition is registered in the registered pattern memory 6. For example, electrical equipment 9 to be operated
When using a light and an air conditioner, the operator is at home, sets the voice recognition circuit 5 to the registration mode, and then picks up the receiver of the internal telephone 1. At this time, the hook of the internal telephone 1 is raised, and the hook signal detector 10 detects this and puts the voice recognition circuit 5 into operation. Therefore, the operator can say ``light on'', ``light off'' and ``cooler'' into the receiver of internal telephone 1.
These voices are input to the voice recognition circuit 5 by sequentially uttering ``on'' and ``cooler off''. As a result, these voice patterns are extracted by the voice recognition circuit 5 and stored in the registered pattern memory 6.

Further, when using the internal telephone 1 to operate electrical equipment 9 at home, the voice recognition circuit 5 is set to recognition mode, and the receiver of the internal telephone 1 is picked up. At this time, as well as when registering the voice pattern, the voice recognition circuit 5 is activated by the hook signal detector 10, so the operator only has to generate the necessary voice into the receiver of the internal telephone 1. . For example, if "Light On" is generated, the voice recognition circuit 5 recognizes the voice pattern of "Light On" based on each voice pattern in the registered pattern memory 6, and
A signal corresponding to the above is output to the relay circuit 7.
As a result, the relay circuit 7 supplies power from the power source 8 to the lamp.

Furthermore, when using the external telephone 2, the voice recognition circuit 5 is set to the recognition mode before the operator goes out, and the external telephone 2 is used when the operator goes out.
Make a call to internal telephone number 1 at home. At this time, an oscillation signal for calling the internal telephone 1 from the exchange 3 appears on the telephone line 4, so the calling signal detector 11 detects this and puts the voice recognition circuit 5 into operation. Therefore, when the operator issues a necessary voice into the handset of the external telephone 2, for example, "Cooler on", power from the power supply 8 is supplied to the air conditioner in the same way as when using the internal telephone 1. Ru.

Next, in the above-mentioned remote control method for electrical equipment, especially when using the external telephone 2, we will discuss a method that can prohibit unauthorized operation by others by recognizing the operator. state Since the above-mentioned device is usually used by a family of 3 to 6 people, the speech recognition circuit 5 for a specific speaker, which is generally used, stores registered patterns for 3 to 6 people in the registered pattern memory 6. There must be. However, since about 50 voice patterns are stored in the registered pattern memory 6, not only the recognition rate of the voice recognition circuit 5 decreases, but also the recognition rate of other people's voices for which voice patterns are not registered. There is a risk of being recognized. In order to eliminate such inconvenience, the registered pattern memory 6 further stores voice patterns of passwords for each operator,
The voice recognition circuit 5 may be provided with a function that prohibits recognition of subsequent voices unless this password is recognized. In this case, the recognition mode of the speech recognition circuit 5 performs two-stage recognition processing. That is, in the first step, for the first voice input, a comparison is made based only on the voice pattern of the password in the registered pattern memory 6, and the extracted voice pattern and the voice pattern of the registered password are compared within a predetermined error. Only when the correspondence can be established can the process proceed to the second stage. In this second stage, the first
Only the registered patterns of a specific operator associated with the password recognized in the step are read out, and recognition is performed based on these registered patterns. On the other hand, in the first stage described above, if the extracted voice pattern cannot be matched with the voice pattern of the registered password, that is, if the input voice is not recognized as a password, the process moves to the second stage. Set it so that it is not possible.

In the above explanation, the case where the speech recognition circuit 5 targeted at a specific speaker is used has been described, but the method of the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to any application that requires speech registration. This can also be achieved by targeting specific speakers.

(g) Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above explanation, the method for remotely controlling electrical equipment of the present invention includes an internal telephone and an external telephone connected by a telephone line, a voice recognition circuit connected to the telephone line, and a voice recognition circuit connected to the telephone line. It is equipped with a connected voice registration pattern memory and an electric device that is operated according to instructions from a voice recognition circuit, and voice registration is performed by inputting voice from an internal telephone to the voice recognition circuit and storing it in the voice registration pattern memory. , Voice recognition allows electrical equipment to be operated from both the internal and external telephones by comparing and recognizing the voices from the external and internal telephones with voice patterns pre-registered in the voice registration pattern memory. So,
For example, you can operate electrical devices such as air conditioners and lights in your home from inside or outside your home.
Improves the operability of electrical equipment. In other words, voice registration can be performed near electrical equipment while checking the connection and operating status of the electrical equipment and the voice recognition circuit, and furthermore, voice recognition can be performed not only on the internal telephone used at the time of registration but also on other devices. External telephones can be used equally. For example, when giving a voice command from inside your home using an internal telephone, you can use a single voice recognition circuit to recognize the same voice as the voice from an external telephone outside your home. Similar recognition results can be obtained, and the recognition rate can be improved without increasing the structural burden of separately preparing a voice recognition circuit for commands used at home and a voice recognition circuit for commands used outside the home. Improvement is expected.

Further, in the method for remotely controlling an electrical device of the present invention, a password for each speaker for identifying the speaker is registered in the registered pattern memory, and when the voice from the external telephone is used to control the electrical device, The electrical equipment can be controlled only when the password is recognized by the voice recognition circuit.
To eliminate the risk of someone else whose voice pattern is not registered in a registered pattern memory operating an electrical device using an external telephone, and to completely eliminate malfunctions caused by mischief.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The figure is a block diagram for explaining the method of the present invention, in which 1 is an internal telephone, 2 is an external telephone, 3 is an exchange, 4 is a telephone line, 5 is a voice recognition circuit, 6 is a registered pattern memory, and 7 is a relay circuit. , 8 is the power supply, 9
Reference numeral 10 indicates an electrical device, 10 a hook signal detector, and 11 a ringing signal detector.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. An internal telephone and an external telephone that can communicate with each other via a telephone line, and a voice recognition circuit into which the voice from the external telephone obtained via the telephone line and the voice from the internal telephone are input. , comprising a voice registration pattern memory connected to the circuit, and an electrical device operated in accordance with instructions from the voice recognition circuit,
For voice registration, the voice from the internal telephone is input into the voice recognition circuit and stored in the voice registration pattern memory, and for voice recognition, the voice from the external telephone and the internal telephone is input into the voice pattern registered in advance in the voice registration pattern memory. A remote control method for electrical equipment, characterized in that the electrical equipment can be controlled from both an internal telephone and an external telephone by comparing and recognizing the electrical equipment. 2. In the method for remotely controlling electrical equipment as set forth in claim 1, a password for each speaker for identifying the speaker is registered in the registered pattern memory, and the voice from the external telephone is registered in the registered pattern memory. A method for remotely controlling an electrical device, characterized in that when used to control the electrical device, the electrical device can be controlled only when the password is recognized by the voice recognition circuit.