GB2229607A - "Voice activated telephone set" - Google Patents

Abstract

A telephone set includes a converter (14) for converting voice signals into electrical signals, a call detector (10) for detecting an incoming call, a call notifier (12) for notifying the existence of a call by outputting an audible sound intermittently, a voice recogniser (16) for recognising voice signals which are converted into electrical signals by the converter (14) when no-sound is emitted by the call notifier (12), and a controller (22) for controlling the telephone set, e.g. by switching it into a loudspeaking mode, based on the result of recognition by the voice recognition (16). In a preferred embodiment, the duty ratio of the sound output by the call notifier (12) is decreased upon occurrence of a predetermined condition so that the recognition of voice by the voice recogniser (16) occurs during a time when no-sound is output by the call notifier (12). <IMAGE>

Description

TELEPHONE SET HAVING VOICE ACTIVATED CONTROLS The present invention relates generally to a telephone set having voice activated controls.

A telephone set functions to allow communication by converting voices of a calling party into electrical signals and transmitting them to a called party through a telephone line and by converting electrical signals into voices. The telephone set also functions to enable selection and connection to a desired called party by sending out a signal to call that subscriber.

In recent years, as there is a tendency for increasing diversification and advancement of demands for such a telephone set as mentioned above, it has become necessary to devise further functional advancement of the telephone set.

As an example of such functional advancement, a handfree telephone set is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application published as TokKai-Sho No. 61-202550. With this telephone set, features of specific voices are detected and stored in advance as voice data and the telephone set is automatically placed in the hand-free state by inputting through a microphone in the telephone set that specific voice when a call is received, thus saving the labor of picking up the handset.

Furthermore, Japanese Patent Applications published as TokKai-Sho No. 60-1960 and TokKai-Sho No.60-54555 disclose a hand-free telephone set which initiates the change-over operation between the hand-on talking and hand-free talking by inputting a voice for changeover through the transmitter even during the talking though the handset and by recognizing the voice recognition circuit provided in the telephone set.

However, in a hands-free telephone set which switches the hands-on talking and the hands-free talking at the time of termination, if a sound, such as from a bell or a ringer, is input simultaneously with input of a specific voice, this specific voice may possibly be recognised erroneously and, in this case, therefore, the change-over between the hands-on talking and the hands-free talking will not be positively carried out.

As described above, on a telephone set where the hands-on talking and the hands-free talking are changed over at the time of an incoming call, voice may possibly be erroneously recognised and the hands-on talking and the hands-free talking will not be positively switched.

According to the present invention, a telephone set comprises call detection means for detecting an incoming call; call notification means for notifying a detected call by intermittently emitting an audible sound; means for converting voice signals into electrical signals; voice recognition means for receiving said electrical signals which are converted when said audible sound is not emitted; and means for controlling the telephone set based on the result of recognition by the voice recognition means.

A more complete appreciation of the present invention and many of the attendant advantages thereof will be readily obtained as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein: Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the telephone set according to the present invention; Fig. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the telephone set of Fig. 1; and Figs. 3 and 4 are timing diagrams showing signals transmitted from the call notification controller for operating the call notifier.

Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals designate identical or corresponding parts throughout the several views, and more particularly to Figure 1 thereof, a first embodiment of the telephone set according to the present invention will be described in detail. Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the telephone set of the present invention.

In Fig. 1, the telephone set is provided with a call detector 10, a call notifier 12, a microphone 14, a voice recognizer 16, a hand-set 18, a speaker 20, a selector switch 22 and a call notification controller 24.

The call detecting unit 10 detects an incoming call from the calling party.

The call notifier 12, consisting of a bell, a ringer1 etc., informs, for instance, intermittently that there is a call from the calling party.

The voice recognizer 16 is provided with the standard pattern of pre-registered voice command and recognizes a voice by performing a similarity operation of this standard pattern with the voice obtained through the microphone 14.

The hand-set 18 has a transmitter 18a and a receiver 18b.

The speaker 20 is firmly installed on the side of an unillustrated case together with the microphone 14 and converts electrical signals from the calling party side.

The selector switch 22 changes over between hands-on talking by the hand-set 18 or hands-free talking by the microphone 14 and the speaker 20 based on the result of recognition by the voice recognizer 16.

The call notification controller 24 controls the notification operation of the call notifier 12, the voice recognizing operation of the voice recognizer 16, and the selecting operation of the selector switch 22.

Next, the operation of the telephone set in the construction as mentioned above will be explained referring to Fig 2 through Fig. 4.

Further, a predetermined voice command to be used when switching to the hands-free talking explained below is, e.g., "Yes".

First, the telephone set is normally in the hands-on talking state by means of the hand-set 18 (Step 201).

When the call detecting unit 10 detects a call signal (Step 202), the call notification controller 24 outputs a call sound (A) (Figure 3) consisting of an audible bell or ringer sound section and a no-sound section which continue alternately every 1 second (step 203).

Thus, the call notifier 12 informs a called party of a call. At this time, the call notification controller 24 counts call signals from the calling party based on the result of detection by the call detector 10.

If, for instance, the call signal was detected 3 times (step 204), the call notification control unit 24 stops output of the call sound (A), shown in Figure 3, (step 205) and outputs a call sound (B), as shown in Figure 4, consisting of an audible bell sound section (1 second) and a no-sound section (4 seconds) which continue repeatedly every 5 seconds (step 206). Thus, the duty ratio of the ringing signal is decreased by switching from call sound (A) to call sound (B).

At this time, the call notification controller 24 puts the telephone set in the voice input waiting state to have the voice recogniser 16 perform the voice recognition operation only in each 4 second no-sound section of the call sound (B) (step 207).

Then, when a voice wYesw is input through the microphone 14 in the no-sound section of the call sound (B), the voice recogniser 16 judges that voice (step 208).

When the voice recogniser 16 judges the input voice to be woes", the call notification controller 24 stops output of the call sound (B) (step 209) and a selection control signal is applied to the selector switch 22.

Then the selector switch 22 changes the hands-on talking state over to the hands-free talking state (step 210).

As described above, in this embodiment it is possible to positively recognise a voice by taking only.

a specific voice because the voice recogniser 16 performs the voice recognising operation only in every 4 second no-sound section of the call sound (B), and thus, the hands-on talking and the hands-free talking states are easily and reliably changed over.

Further, in this embodiment, the explanation has been made on a case where the no-sound section of the call sound (A) output from the call notification controller 24 is set at 4 secs. However, it may be set at less than 4 secs. or more than 4 secs. if it is sufficient to input a word.

Further, the explanation has also been made on a case where the call notification controller 24 stops outputting the call sound (A) when a call signal is detected 3 times and outputs the call sound (B) consisting of a bell or a ringer sound section and a no-sound section which continue alternately for 1 and 4 secs., respectively, but it may be so set to output the call sound (B) when a certain time passed after a call signal is received by using a timer, etc.

Further, a case of the unspecified speaker-independent voice recognition system that performs a similarity operation with a pre-registered standard pattern when the voice recognizing unit 16 recognizes a specific voice obtained through the microphone 14 has been explained.

However, the present invention is not limited to this case, but also envisions using a specific speaker-independent voice recognition system in which specific calling subscribers' voices are stored in advance.

Furthermore, the explanation has been made on a case where the selection to the hands-free talking is made using "Yes" as a voice command, but the present invention is not limited to this case. Other voice commands may be used.

Further, other functional units such as a voice synthesizing output unit, automatic telephone answering set, etc. or other voice commands such as "Wait", "Absent", etc. may be provided. For example, if "Wait" command is input, "Please wait for a moment" may be synthesized and given to a calling party side from a voice synthesizing output unit, or if an "Absent" command is input, the automatic telephone answering functions may be actuated.

The call notifier 12 of the telephone set of this invention indicates a call intermittently when the call detect ion means detects a calling signal from the calling party side.

If no sound is given by the call notifier 12, the voice recognizer 16 recognizes voice signals that were converted into electrical signals and based on the result of this recognition, the selection between, for example, the hands-on talking and the hands-free talking states is carried out.

Therefore, the voice recognizer 16 is able to take and recognize prescribed voice only and the erroneous recognition of that Drescribed voice can be prevented.

As described above, the voice recogniser 16 recognises a specific voice by taking only that voice and therefore, it is possible to prevent erroneous recognition of that specific voice and to carry out the selecting operation between the hands-on talking and the hands-free talking states easily and reliably.

While there have been illustrated and described what are at present considered to be preferred embodiments of the present invention, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made, and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the true scope of the present invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teaching of the present invention without departing from the central scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that the present invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out the present invention, but that the present invention include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.

The foregoing description and the drawings are regarded by the applicant as including a variety of individually inventive concepts, some of which may lie partially or wholly outside the scope of some or all of the following claims. The fact that the applicant has chosen at the time of filing of the present application to restrict the claimed scope of protection in accordance with the following claims is not to be taken as a disclaimer or alternative inventive concepts that are included in the contents of the application and could be defined by claims differing in scope from the following claims, which different claims may be adopted subsequently during prosecution, for example for the purposes of a divisional application.

Claims (7)

Claims:

1. A telephone set comprising call detection means for detecting an incoming call; call notification means for notifying a detected call by intermittently emitting an audible sound; means for converting voice signals into electrical signals; voice recognition means for receiving said electrical signals which are converted when said audible sound is not emitted; and means for controlling the telephone set based on the result of recognition by the voice recognition means.

2. A telephone set as claimed in claim 1, wherein the duty ratio of the intermittently emitted audible sound is decreased on the occurrence of a predetermined condition.

3. A telephone set as claimed in claim 2, wherein the audible sound is emitted at regular intervals until a predetermined number of sound signals have been emitted, thereafter the sound signals are emitted with longer silent pauses between the audible signals.

4. A telephone set as claimed in claim 2 or 3, wherein the telephone set is controlled from a hands-on talking state to a hands-free talking state based on voice recognition during a period when the duty ratio is decreased,

5. A telephone set as claimed in claim 2, 3 or 4, wherein the controlling means comprises means for activating a voice signal synthesizing output unit to produce a synthesized voice signal applied to a telephone line based on a voice recognition by said voice recognising means during a time that the duty ratio of said ringing signal has been decreased by said controlling means.

6. A telephone set as claimed in claim 2, 3 or 4, wherein said controlling means comprises means for activating an automatic telephone answering unit based on a voice recognition by said voice recognising means during a time that the duty ratio of said ringing signal has been decreased by said controlling means.

7. A telephone set substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.