JP2005266192A5 - - Google Patents

Description

Home appliance system, home appliance and voice recognition method

The present invention relates to a home electric appliance system, a home electric appliance, and a voice recognition method , in which a plurality of devices cooperate with each other.

As this type of conventional speech recognition device, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, a speech recognition process is divided into before and after feature extraction and speech recognition, and each is processed by a different CPU (arithmetic processing device). ing.
JP 60-265505 A

  However the above-described conventional voice recognition device, is obtained by the performed processing related to the recognition process of the speech recognition performed pretreatment involved in speech recognition processing in the first CPU in the second CPU. For this reason, there is a problem in that although the expressions that can be input to the device are limited, the user does not know the expressions that can be accepted, and thus utters expressions that cannot be accepted.

  There are so many variations of words and sentences that humans can utter, especially when the resources of the recognition device are limited, a problem arises in that the device cannot utter an expression that cannot be accepted.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem. For example, the voice recognition devices in a plurality of devices connected to the network cooperate with each other to cooperate with each other. An object of the present invention is to provide a home appliance system, a home appliance, and a voice recognition method capable of recognizing by cooperation with a voice recognition device of another device even if it cannot be recognized by a device using the features of the device. .

  The household electrical appliance system of the present invention is a household electrical appliance system including a household electrical appliance and another household electrical appliance having a voice recognition function so as to be able to communicate with the household electrical appliance, and the household electrical appliance is input with voice information. Input means; recognition means for performing voice recognition of the input voice information; profile information storage means for storing profile information including at least keyword information of the other home appliances; and words that are the voice recognition results Is included in the keyword information, notification means for notifying the voice recognition result to other home appliances having the word as keyword information is provided.

  Further, the home appliance system according to the present invention includes a determination unit that determines whether or not the home appliance has a voice recognition request for the voice information to the other home appliance with respect to the voice recognition result of the recognition unit. When the determination unit determines that a request for voice recognition is necessary, a transmission unit that transmits a request for voice recognition of the voice information to the other home appliance, and a voice recognition result of the recognition unit And a confirming means for confirming a speech recognition result for the speech information based on a speech recognition result transmitted from the other home appliance.
  Further, in the home appliance system according to the present invention, the profile information includes dictionary file information of a dictionary file used for voice recognition by the other home appliance, and the transmission means includes dictionary file information of the other home appliance. The voice recognition request for the voice information is transmitted to another home appliance having a dictionary file whose language model is close to that of the dictionary file used for voice recognition by the recognition means.

  Further, the home appliance system of the present invention is characterized in that the home appliance includes response means for responding to a voice recognition result of the voice information in response to a voice recognition request from the other home appliance. To do.

  Moreover, the household electric appliance system of this invention has the audio | voice information storage means in which the said household appliances accumulate | store the said input audio | voice information, and the said response means respond | corresponds with respect to the request of assistance from the said other household appliances The voice recognition result is returned based on the voice information stored in the voice information storage means.

  Moreover, the household electrical appliance system according to the present invention is characterized in that in the household electrical appliance, the voice information storage means stores voice information input to the other household electrical appliance.

  Moreover, the household electrical appliance system according to the present invention includes a reliability information storage unit that stores reliability information related to voice recognition of the other household electrical appliance, and the determination unit refers to the reliability information. Then, the recognition result is determined with priority given to the voice recognition result from the other home appliances with high reliability.

  Moreover, the household electrical appliance system of this invention has a detection means in which the said household electrical appliance detects the state of the connection between the said household electrical appliance and the said other household electrical appliance, or the connection between the said other household electrical appliances at least. When the connection state is changed, the detection unit notifies the other home appliances of the change of the connection state.

  Further, in the home appliance system according to the present invention, the home appliance updates the connection state of the profile information stored in the profile storage unit when the detection unit detects a change in the connection state. Features.

  Further, in the home appliance system according to the present invention, the change in the connection state of the home appliance may be connection or disconnection between the home appliance and the other home appliance, or closing of the power source of the other home appliance. It is characterized in that it is at least one of open.

  Moreover, the household electrical appliance system of the present invention is characterized in that the household electrical appliance has a meaning understanding means for the recognition means to understand the meaning of the voice information.

  Further, in the home appliance system according to the present invention, the home appliance includes a billing unit in which the recognizing unit charges the use of the recognizing unit, and the billing unit recognizes the other home appliance. Charges are made when a voice recognition request is made to the means.

  Further, the home appliance system according to the present invention is such that at least one of the other home appliances connected to the home appliance has the billing unit and the other home appliance does not have the billing unit. And other home appliances having the accounting means are connected to be communicable.

  Moreover, the household electrical appliance of the present invention is a household electrical appliance connected so as to be communicable with another household electrical appliance having a voice recognition function, and the household electrical appliance is input with voice input information and the input When the keyword information includes a recognition unit that performs voice recognition of voice information, a profile information storage unit that stores profile information including at least the keyword information of the other home appliances, and a word that is the voice recognition result Comprises a notification means for notifying other home appliances having the word as keyword information of the voice recognition result.

  The speech recognition method of the present invention is a speech recognition method for a home appliance in a home appliance system including a home appliance and another home appliance having a voice recognition function so as to be able to communicate with the home appliance. An input step in which information is input, a recognition step in which recognition means performs voice recognition of the input voice information, and a notification means refer to profile information including at least keyword information possessed by the other home appliances When the word that is the voice recognition result is included in the keyword information, a notification step of notifying the other home electric appliance having the word as keyword information of the voice recognition result is included.

  Further, in the speech recognition method of the present invention, the determination unit determines whether or not a request for speech recognition of the speech information to the other household electrical appliance is necessary for the speech recognition result in the recognition step; In the determination step, when it is determined that a request for voice recognition is necessary, a transmission unit transmits a request for voice recognition of the voice information to the other household electrical appliance, and a determination unit includes: A confirming step of confirming a speech recognition result for the speech information based on a speech recognition result of the recognition step and a speech recognition result transmitted from the other home appliance.

  Further, in the voice recognition method of the present invention, the profile information includes information on a dictionary file used for voice recognition by the other home appliance, and the sending step includes the step of sending the other home appliance. The voice information request is transmitted to another home appliance having a dictionary file whose language model is similar to the dictionary file used for voice recognition in the recognition step with reference to the information of the dictionary file.

According to the home appliance system and the home appliance of the present invention, is it necessary to request support for the input means for inputting voice information, the recognition means for performing voice recognition of the input voice information, and the recognition result of the recognition means? A determination means for determining whether or not, a line means to which another device requested for support from the determination means is connected, a confirmation means for confirming a recognition result based on a result of support sent from the other device, Output means that outputs the confirmed recognition result, and even for utterances that cannot be accepted and recognized by a single home appliance , multiple home appliances cooperate to perform voice recognition, Recognition is possible.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1)
In Embodiment 1 of the present invention, as a specific example, a case where a microwave oven, a refrigerator, and a personal computer each equipped with the home appliance of the present embodiment are connected to a network will be described as an example.

Figure 1 is a block diagram showing a system using such engagement Ru domestic appliances, in the first embodiment. In FIG. 1, a personal computer (PC) 1, a microwave oven 2, and a refrigerator 3 are connected to a LAN 4, and each device is equipped with a voice recognition unit 101 that can cooperate with each other. You can communicate. In the following examples, including this embodiment, the connection of each device will be explained using a LAN. However, in general, it is not a LAN, but a line that can send and receive data etc. by connecting various devices. It ’s fine.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of the voice recognition units 101 that are mounted on the respective devices and cooperate with each other.

  In FIG. 2, an input unit 201 can accept input of audio information from a microphone or a file. The output unit 207 outputs on the basis of the output content signal 222 sent from the recognition result decision unit 204 to the final result of speech recognition to a display and control system of each device. The recognition unit 202 recognizes the input voice signal 221 sent from the input unit 201. The recognition method can be either word recognition or continuous speech recognition.

  The request determination unit 203 receives the recognition result signal 241 from the recognition unit 202, and requests another device to confirm the content based on the recognition result (guarantee request) or requests recognition again (recognition request). perform any necessary is whether the judgment. Based on the determination result, the request determination unit 203 sends a transmission request content signal 231 to the interface unit 206 as a line means, and also recognizes the recognition result as the recognition result with the request content information added to the recognition result determination unit 204. sending a result request information with signal 242.

  The recognition result determination unit 204 re-determines the recognition result based on the signal 242 with the recognition result request information sent from the request judgment unit 203 and the acceptance response content signal 232 sent from the interface unit 206. The determination result is transmitted as an output content signal 222 to the output unit 207, and similarly, the re-determination result is also transmitted to the request response unit 205 as a recognition result storage signal 243.

The recognition result determination unit 204, as described above, receives an acceptance response content signal 232, which is a response to a guarantee request or a recognition request, sent from another device connected to the LAN, and the own recognition unit 202. Even if the recognition result is not determined based on both the recognition result request information-added signal 242 that is the recognition result, the recognition result can be determined only by the acceptance response content signal 232 that is a response to the guarantee request or the recognition request. is there.

  The interface unit 206 transmits a transmission request message 235 for requesting guarantee or recognition to another device connected to the network based on the transmission request content signal 231 sent from the request determination unit 203, and The acceptance response message signal 236 that is a guarantee result or recognition result sent from the request destination obtained as a result of the request is interpreted, and the result is transmitted to the recognition result determination unit 204 as an acceptance response content signal 232.

  Further, the interface unit 206 transmits the request response unit 205 interprets the acceptance request message signal 238 sent from other devices connected to the network as a result acceptance request content signal 234, sent from the request responding unit 205 A result of the request from another device is received as a transmission response content signal 233, and the result is returned as a transmission response message signal 237 to the request source through the network. The request response unit 205 holds the recognition result storage signal 243 from the recognition result determination unit 204, responds to a guarantee request from another device based on the information, and if there is a recognition request, the voice recognition And answer the results.

  Using the first embodiment configured as described above, the operation when the microwave oven 2 requests the PC 1 to guarantee the recognition result and performs the speech recognition using the result will be described with reference to a flowchart. To do. Here the word recognized by the microwave oven 2, the PC1 and continuous speech recognition unit 101 that covers the utterance in the home are installed.

  Figure 3 is a flow chart of a microwave oven 2 is the side to guarantee request if guarantee request recognition result to PC1 by the speech recognition unit 101 of the microwave oven 2.

  And processing is started (S301), detects a voice recognition unit 202 to the audio input by the input unit 201, performs speech recognition on the voice (S302). Upon receiving the recognition result signal 241 representing the result of the speech recognition, the request determination unit 203 determines whether or not a guarantee request to another device is necessary (S303). The determination can be performed using a determination criterion such as when a plurality of speech recognition candidates are obtained or when the likelihood of a plurality of speech recognition results is close.

  Specifically, when a candidate is threshold-determined with the likelihood obtained as a result of speech recognition, when a threshold or lower is set as a recognition candidate, when a plurality of candidates are obtained below the threshold, or the first candidate What is necessary is just to employ | adopt the method of judging that the guarantee to another apparatus is required when the difference of the likelihood of a 2nd candidate is below a certain threshold value.

  As a result of the determination by the request determination unit 203 (S304), the process branches to S305 if it is determined that the guarantee is necessary, and to S310 if it is determined that the request is not necessary. The interface unit 206 creates a transmission request message signal 235 for requesting another device based on the transmission request content signal 231 (S305), and transmits the message signal 235 through the network (S306). Thereafter, an acceptance response message signal 236 representing the result of the guarantee request sent from another device is received (S307), the message is interpreted and transmitted to the recognition result determination unit 204 as an acceptance response content signal 232 (S308).

  Based on the reception response content signal 232 and the signal 242 with the recognition result request information to which information indicating which part of the recognition result in the recognition unit 202 sent from the request determination unit 203 is requested to be guaranteed is re-evaluated. The result is transmitted to the output unit 207 as an output content signal 222 (S309). The output content signal 222 which is the recognition result after redetermination is output to the display or the operation system of the device, and the result is similarly output to the request response unit 205 as a recognition result storage signal 243 (S310) for the recognition process. Return (S302). If it is determined in S304 that there is no need for guarantee, the recognition result signal 241 in S302 is output to the output unit 207 as an output content signal 222 via the recognition result determination unit 204 as it is.

  In operation of the microwave oven 2 recognition unit 241, re-determination processing of the recognition result performed in response to receiving the response message signal 236 sent back by the PC1 may be, for example, as follows. Here, the operation of the recognition result determination unit 204 in response to the reception response message signal 236 returned from the microwave oven 2 asking the PC 1 to guarantee the word “warming” will be described. If the recognition result of "warm" by the request destination is a PC1 is guaranteed, because that would have been recognized even PC1 well microwaves 2, and may be more reliable the recognition result of "warm" Can think. Therefore, it is sufficient to adopt the results of the "warm" when that is guaranteed.

  On the other hand, if not guaranteed, other recognition candidates on the microwave oven 2 side are notified and guaranteed. This operation can be continued until it matches the recognition result of the PC 1 or until there are no candidates. If the result of the microwave oven 2 results in PC1 are matched, it is possible to adopt a more plausible result by employing the results.

  Here, the description has been made assuming that the microwave oven 2 requests the PC 1, but in general, the microwave oven 2 may request a plurality of devices for guarantee. In that case, it is sufficient to process adopted, such as employing the results by using the result including the majority of the microwave 2 is a self device.

  In addition, although demonstrated here that the word recognition was carried in the microwave oven 2, about the result of the continuous speech recognition which recognizes with respect to the utterance of sentence formats, such as "Please warm rice" It is possible to apply the present invention. For example, assume that a plurality of sentence candidates are obtained as a result of speech recognition. At that time, only a certain section of the first candidate and the second candidate are different, and when the difference in likelihood (score) between the two candidates in the section is small, a guarantee request is issued to another recognizer for only that section. It can be said.

Further, regarding the redetermination process in S309, a method specialized in continuous speech recognition is also possible. Normally, continuous speech recognition uses a language model called N-gram that models the ease of word connection. By using N-gram, the context of words appearing before and after is determined, and speech recognition of sentence speech targeting a large-scale word of tens of thousands of words becomes possible.

  By the way, in general, speech recognition corresponds to finding the word sequence shown in Formula 1.

  Here, w is an arbitrary word sequence, P (w) is a language probability, and p (x | w) is a probability that a sound feature x appears in the word sequence w. This probability p (x | w) * The word sequence with the maximum likelihood of P (w) is the recognition result.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, it is possible to re-determine using the cooperation of each device as in the present invention by transforming Equation 1 into Equation 2.

  In Equation 2, “warming” is fixed as a word starting at time t and ending at time k (the word inputted i-th in Equation 2 below), and the maximum likelihood candidate is obtained.

  In the method shown in Equation 2 above, a word is fixed, but it is also effective to increase the likelihood value of the word and obtain the maximum likelihood candidate.

  Next, FIG. 4 shows a flowchart on the PC 1 side that has received the guarantee request. When the process starts (S401), the process waits until an acceptance request message signal 238 is input from another device (S402). If there is input receives the acceptance request message signal 238 (S403), the acceptance request message signal 238 interpreted by the interface unit 206, and inputs the acceptance request content signal 234 to the request responding section 205 (S404).

  The request response unit 205 determines the guarantee based on the acceptance request content signal 234, and outputs the result to the interface unit 206 as a transmission response content signal 233 (S405). Here, it is possible to determine whether or not a certain word is included at a certain time by using a criterion such that the word is the same and the time interval of the word to be determined coincides with a certain distance or matches within ± 200 msec. Good.

  The interface unit 206 creates a transmission response message signal 237 based on the transmission response content signal 233 (S406). The interface unit 206 returns a transmission response message signal 237 to the request source via the network 4 (S407).

  Next, an operation when the microwave oven 2 requests the PC 1 for recognition will be described using a flowchart.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the microwave oven 2 on the side requesting recognition. When the process is started (S501), detects a voice recognition unit 202 to the audio input by the input unit 201, performs speech recognition on the voice (S502). In response to the recognition result signal 241 representing the result of speech recognition, the request determination unit 203 determines whether it is necessary to guarantee another device (S503).

  The determination may be performed using a determination criterion such as when the input speech is long, when the likelihood of the language is low, when a plurality of speech recognition candidates are obtained, or when the likelihood of a plurality of speech recognition results is close. I can do it. In this embodiment, if the input voice is longer than x seconds, the input voice is considered to be a sentence, and continuous voice recognition is requested.

  Specifically, if a language model is used for speech recognition, the domain of the language model does not match when the language likelihood of the recognition result is low, or the word to be recognized is not in the dictionary, etc. The situation can be considered. Therefore, if a word whose probability is less than a threshold is obtained from the recognition result, a request may be made. In addition, when a candidate is determined as a threshold by the likelihood (acoustic likelihood, acoustic likelihood + language score likelihood) obtained as a result of speech recognition, a plurality of candidates are obtained below the threshold, or the first candidate What is necessary is just to take a method of determining that a request to another device is necessary when the likelihood difference with the second candidate is equal to or less than a threshold value.

Next, the process is branched according to the determination result (S504). If it is determined that a recognition request is necessary, the process branches to S505. If it is determined that a recognition request is not necessary, the process branches to S510.

  If there is a need for recognition request, it creates a transmission request message signal 235 for requesting to another apparatus based on the transmission request content signal 231 in the interface unit 206 (S505), the transmission request message signal 235 transmits via the network 4 (S506). Receiving an acceptance response message signal 236 representing the result of the recognition request sent from another device (S507), and transmits the recognition result decision unit 204 as receiving the response content signal 232 interprets the message (S508). The speech recognition is re-evaluated based on the reception response content signal 232 and the signal 242 with the recognition result request information to which information indicating which part of the recognition result in the recognition unit 202 is requested to be sent is sent from the request determination unit 203. The result is transmitted to the output unit 207 as an output content signal 222 (S509).

  As the operation of the recognition result determination unit 204 at this time, priority is given to the result of the requesting PC 1, or if there are a plurality of requesting destinations, a decision such as a majority decision is made from the results of those responses, or It can be determined using a method such as majority vote using the result of the microwave oven 2 which is the device itself and the result of the reply from the plurality of devices.

  The output content signal 222, which is the recognition result after the re-determination, is output to the display or the operation system of the device, and the result is similarly output to the request response unit 205 as a recognition result storage signal 243 (S510). Return to (S502).

  If it is determined in S504 that no recognition request is required, the recognition result signal 241 is output as it is from the recognition result determination unit 204 to the output unit 207 as it is as the output content signal 222 (S510).

  FIG. 6 shows a flowchart on the PC 1 side that has received the recognition request. When the process starts (S601). Wait until an acceptance request message signal 238 is input from another device (S602). If there is input receives the acceptance request message 238 (S603), receiving request content signal 234 interprets the acceptance request message signal 238 in the interface unit 206 is input to the response requesting unit 205 (S604). Based on the acceptance request content signal 234, the request response unit 205 performs speech recognition, and outputs the result as a transmission response content signal 233 to the interface unit 206 (S605). The interface unit 206 creates a transmission response message signal 237 based on the transmission response content signal 233 (S606). The interface unit 206 returns the transmission response message signal 237 to the request source via the network 4 (S607), and waits for the reception request message signal 238 to be input (S602).

  It is also possible to switch the recognition request and recognition guarantee processing described above at the same time. The following description with reference to the flowchart of operation in the case of performing both simultaneously.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the microwave oven 2 on the side requesting recognition. When the process starts (S701), the recognition unit 202 detects the voice input from the input unit 201 and performs voice recognition on the voice (S702). In response to the recognition result signal 241 representing the result of speech recognition, the request determination unit 203 determines whether or not a guarantee to another device or a recognition request is necessary (S703). The determination may be made so as to request a recognition request when requesting whether or not the entire voice is correct, and request a guarantee request when requesting a guarantee of only a part of the input voice.

  More specifically, for example, the input speech is performed recognition request consider the input speech in the case of more than x seconds is a sentence, when less than x seconds to guarantee request considered a word. Further, even if it is x seconds or more, criteria such as a language likelihood lower than a predetermined threshold value only in a certain candidate section, a likelihood difference with a second candidate is small, or a sound likelihood is low. By using it, the guarantee of the word candidate recognized in the area can be requested.

  The process branches according to the determination result (S704). If it is determined that a guarantee or recognition request is necessary, the process branches to S705, and if it is determined that it is not necessary, the process branches to S710.

  If it is determined that it is necessary, the interface unit 206 creates a transmission request message signal 235 for requesting another device based on the transmission request content signal 231 (S705), and transmits this message through the network 4 (S706). . Then, receiving the acceptance response message signal 236 representing the result of the recognition request or guarantee request sent from another device (S707), and transmits the recognition result decision unit 204 as receiving the reply signal 232 interprets the message (S708).

  Based on the reception response content signal 232 and the signal 242 with the recognition result request information to which information indicating which part of the recognition result in the recognition unit 202 sent from the request determination unit 203 is guaranteed or requested to be recognized is reproduced. The evaluation is performed, and the result is transmitted to the output unit 207 as the output content signal 222 (S709). The re-evaluation method may be a re-evaluation method corresponding to each case, depending on whether it is a guarantee or a recognition request. The output content signal 222 that is the recognition result after redetermination is output to the output unit 207 of the display or device, and the result is similarly output to the request response unit 205 as a recognition result storage signal 243 (S710). Return to (S702). Further, to output as a recognition result signal 241 of S702 in the recognition result determination unit is directly output unit 207 to output as the output content signal 222 when it is determined that there is no need to recognize the request and guarantees request in S704 .

  FIG. 8 shows a flowchart on the PC 1 side that has received the recognition request. When the process starts, the process waits until an acceptance request message signal 238 is input from another device (S801). Thereafter, it is determined whether there is an input (S802), if there is an input receives the acceptance request message 238 (S803), a receiving request message 238 was interpreted by the interface unit 206 receiving request content signal 234 response request is input to the section 205 (S804). The process branches in accordance with the accepted request content signal 234 (S805).

  In the case of a guarantee request, the request response unit 205 determines a guarantee based on the acceptance request content signal 234, and outputs the result to the interface unit 206 as a transmission response content signal 233 (S806). In the case of a recognition request, the request response unit 205 performs voice recognition based on the acceptance request content signal 234 and outputs the result to the interface unit 206 as a transmission response content signal 233 (S807). The interface unit 206 creates a transmission response message signal 237 based on the transmission response content signal 233 (S808). The interface unit 206 returns the transmission response message signal 237 to the requester (S809).

FIG. 9 shows the structure of messages exchanged between the devices. It is desirable that the message is roughly composed of the following information. However, some of them can be used as necessary, and items can be added as needed.
1. Information for communication: This indicates whether a message is sent to or received from a device, and to which message a reply is sent.
2. Function information: Information indicating the function of a message such as a warranty request or a warranty request reply.
3. Contents information: Consists of time information, word information, grammatical information such as parts of speech and phrases, meaning information, likelihood, etc. of the word information that is the guarantee target if the message function is a guarantee request, and voice if the message function is a recognition request It consists of information that can identify a speech section to be recognized, such as information or time information of the speech section to be recognized.
4). Result information: Information such as warranty request results and recognition request results.
5). Context information: Information such as speaker information (name, gender, age, region) and emotion when speaking.
6). Environmental information: Information on the installation location of the equipment (kitchen, station platform, etc.) and information on the surrounding noise environment.
7). System information: recognition method, number of vocabulary, vocabulary file, language model, acoustic model, on-board memory, on-chip, sampling frequency, microphone characteristics, etc.

  Figure 10 is an example showing the correspondence between the tag language such as configuration and XML message shown in FIG. 9, message of FIG. 9, manageable when expressed using a tag language shown in FIG. 10.

  As a specific example of the present embodiment, FIG. 11 shows that the microwave oven 2 has the word “warming” between 8:23:51 on February 13, 2003 and 8:23:53 on February 13, 2003. An example of a message for requesting a guarantee from the PC 1 whether or not has been input will be shown. Here, the IP address of the microwave oven 2 is set to 192.168.0.1, but since the IP address of the PC 1 is not known from the microwave oven 2 side, the value of To_IP is set to broadcast here. By broadcasting, but PC1 and refrigerator 3 on the network 4 will receive a message from the microwave oven 2, whether accepting broadcast to employ a method such as is set by the interface unit 206 of each device in, it can be so that only PC1 accepts the request.

  Also, as shown in FIG. 12, the IP list table storage unit 1201 connected to the interface unit 206 has a correspondence table of IP addresses and devices (hereinafter referred to as IP list), so that it can be directly connected to To_IP as shown in FIG. It is also possible to specify the IP as 192.168.0.2.

  When the even PC1 "warm" was to have been recognized in FIG. 14 shows a confirmation message back to the microwave oven 2 (accept response message). In this case at <func_id> is "4" <comfirm_info> is set to "1". FIG. 15 shows a confirmation message (acceptance response message) returned to the microwave oven 2 when “warming” is not recognized in the PC 1. In this case, and has a <comfirm_info> is set to "0". Figure 16 shows the message when replying that the "warm" rather than "fried" has been recognized. In this case, <word rep> is “fried”.

  Shows the message when requesting a recognition Figure 17. Function ID and (<func_ID>) "2", to send more I want voice data to recognize <wave_data>. An example of a reply message from PC1 that received the recognition request 18. In this case, <func_ID> is “7” and <word_rep> is “warmed”.

  According to such a configuration, in the speech recognition apparatus connected on the network 4, the request determination unit 203 that determines whether to perform a guarantee request or a recognition request, the interface unit 206 that communicates with other speech recognizers, By having the recognition result determination unit 204 that performs recognition processing again using the result of another device, even if the speech recognition device operates under limited resources, the other device is guaranteed and recognized. The recognition result can be reconsidered based on the guarantee result and the recognition result obtained by making the request, and the speech recognition performance exceeding the capability of the device itself can be realized.

  That is, with this configuration, the recognition result can be reconsidered by other devices, and a plurality of speech recognition devices can be used for correcting speech recognition errors and for speech input that cannot be accepted by a speech recognition device of a single device. there by performing recognition working together, allows recognition of the voice input, thus can be performed similarly recognized sufficiently with equipment even the resource as was less equipment of computational resources.

  Furthermore, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to support the recognition of the other devices by its own recognition means with respect to requests for assistance of the speech recognition result from another device.

In order to answer a request from another device, the request response unit 205 is necessary when the own device responds to a request from another device, but when the own device only requests a request from another device. unnecessary.
(Embodiment 2)
In the first embodiment, all the configurations of the PC 1, the microwave oven 2, and the refrigerator 3 are the same, but the calculation resources that can be used in the microwave oven 2 and the refrigerator 3 are often very limited. Therefore, the cooperative speech recognition unit 101 mounted on the microwave oven 2 or the refrigerator 3 can omit a function that responds to a request from another device. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 19, the request response unit 205 in FIG. 2 can be omitted for voice recognition on a device with limited calculation resources such as a microwave oven and a refrigerator. On the other hand, what is necessary is just to take the structure of FIG. 2 on apparatuses with sufficient calculation resources, such as PC1 and a speech recognition server. The operation is the same as that described in FIG.

  By configuring the device cooperation type speech recognition unit 101 in this way, it is possible to mount a recognizer according to the performance of each device, and even in a device such as the microwave oven 2 that does not have sufficient calculation resources, by using such powerful PC1 and server than Ueno, it will be able to achieve the performance of speech recognition beyond the ability of the device itself.

  That is, as in the first embodiment, with this configuration, the recognition result can be reconsidered by other devices, and errors in speech recognition can be corrected, or voice input that cannot be accepted by the speech recognition device of a single device. On the other hand, multiple voice recognition devices work together to recognize each other, so that the voice input can be recognized. Therefore, even if it is a device with few calculation resources, it can be recognized in the same way as a device with sufficient resources. Can be done.

(Embodiment 3)
FIG. 20 is a configuration diagram of cooperative voice recognition 101 according to the third embodiment of the present invention. The same components as those in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted. A voice recognition device profile storage unit 2001 (hereinafter referred to as SRSP: Speech Recognition System Profile) connected to the interface unit 206 stores information and status of devices connected to the network 4 as profile information. The dictionary file storage unit 2002 stores dictionary files corresponding to various domains such as for TV, ticket search, and mail writing. The language model storage unit 2003 stores language models corresponding to various domains such as for TV, ticket search, and mail writing. The acoustic model storage unit 2004 stores acoustic models that can be used in various ways of speaking and various environments such as for spoken words and reading speech. These dictionary file, language model, and acoustic model may be prepared in advance, or may be downloaded from the server as necessary. The recognition result storage unit 2005 stores the recognition result.

  21 and 22 are diagrams for explaining the voice recognition device profile storage unit 2001. As shown in FIG. 21, each of the voice recognition device profile storage unit 2001 includes a mobile phone, a microwave oven, a personal computer, and a robot. Profile information and default profile information can be registered. As shown in FIG. 22, each profile information includes a device-specific profile ID, device status ON / OFF information, device information, such as manufacturer name, model number, processor performance, microphone characteristics, IP address, Keywords that are important to the device and other features of the speech recognition system installed in each device can also be stored. The keyword here is a keyword such as "rice" in the rice cooker.

  The operation of the third embodiment configured as described above will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. Microwave 2 will be described as performing a recognition result of the guarantee or recognition request to PC1.

  It is a flow chart of a microwave oven 2 Figure 23 is a side to request the warranty / recognition. When the process is started (S2301), and detects the voice recognition unit 202 to the audio input by the input unit 201, performs speech recognition on the speech (S2302). In response to the recognition result signal 241 representing the result of speech recognition, the request determination unit 203 determines whether it is necessary to guarantee another device (S2303). For example, if the input speech is long, or the likelihood of the language is low, and if it is desired to request whether the entire speech input using the determination criteria is correct, a recognition request is issued, and a part of the input speech is determined. I if it is determined to request the guarantee request when you want to find the only guarantee.

  More specifically, for example, the input speech is performed recognition request consider the input speech in the case of more than x seconds is a sentence, when less than x seconds to guarantee request considered a word. Further, even if it is x seconds or more, criteria such as a language likelihood lower than a predetermined threshold value only in a certain candidate section, a likelihood difference with a second candidate is small, or a sound likelihood is low. By using it, the guarantee of the word candidate recognized in the area can be requested.

  The process is branched according to the determination result (S2304). If it is determined that a guarantee or recognition request is necessary, the interface unit 206 creates a transmission request message signal 235 for requesting another device based on the transmission request content signal 231 (S2305).

  At this time, referring to the voice recognition device profile 2001, a message is sent only to a high-performance device, a device similar to the utterance word of the device (microwave oven), or a device close to the place. It is desirable to create a message as follows. It can be determined that the device is a high-performance device by looking at the processor information in the profile and the speech recognition performance.

  More specifically, if the performance of the processor of its own device is good (high in MHz) or if the device itself is word recognition, an indicator such as sending a message for continuous speech recognition that accepts text input can be used. Good.

  In addition, as an indicator that it is close to the location, it is possible to send only to the device where the microphone position is close, only send the location information to the same device, or as a device with similar words spoken, compare dictionary files from the inclusion relationship It can also be close. It is also possible to use the proximity between language models using an index such as mutual information.

  Transmitting the message through the network (S2306).

  Then, receiving the acceptance response message signal 236 representative of the incoming guarantee request results or recognition request result is sent from another device (S2307), and transmits the recognition result decision unit 204 as receiving the response content signal 232 interprets the message (S2308). Speech recognition based on the reception response content signal 232 and a signal 242 with recognition result request information to which information indicating which part of the recognition result in the recognition unit 202 sent from the request determination unit 203 is a guarantee request or a recognition request is given. Is re-evaluated, and the result is transmitted as an output content signal 222 to the output unit 207 (S2309). The output content signal 222, which is the recognition result after the re-determination, is output to the output unit 207 of the display or device, and similarly, the result is output to the request response unit 2006 as a recognition result storage signal 243 (S2310). Then, returning to the speech recognition processing (S2302).

  Also, if it is determined that there is no need nor recognize the warranty request in S2304, to the output unit 207 from the recognition result decision unit 204 directly as the output content signal 222 a recognition result signal 241 of S2302 (S2310).

  Indicating the PC1 side flow chart of which receives the recognition request to FIG. When the process starts (S2401), the process waits until an acceptance request message signal 238 is input from another device (S2402). If there is input receives the acceptance request message 238 (S2403), the acceptance request message 238 was interpreted by the interface unit 206 receiving request content signal 234 is input to the response requesting unit 205 (S2404). In S2405, the process branches according to the acceptance request content signal 234. In the case of a guarantee request, the request response unit 2006 determines the guarantee based on the acceptance request content signal 234, and the result is output to the interface unit 206 as a transmission response content signal 233 (S2406). The recognition determination can use the recognition history stored in the recognition result storage unit 2005.

  If the reception request message includes a voice, the dictionary file storage unit 2002 stores the corresponding dictionary file, language model, and acoustic model as needed based on the system information of the request source included in the request message. It is also possible to select from the language model storage unit 2003 and the acoustic model storage unit 2004, recognize the speech based on these models, and determine the guarantee using the result.

  On the other hand, if the message is a recognition request, a recognition method is set, the request response unit 2006 performs voice recognition based on the acceptance request content signal 234, and the result is sent to the interface unit 206 as a transmission response content signal 233. It outputs (S2407). At this time, it is better to perform voice recognition according to the profile of the input device. Therefore, language models, acoustic models, and dictionary files used for speech recognition are selected from the dictionary file storage unit 2002, language model storage unit 2003, and acoustic model storage unit 2004, and speech recognition is performed based on these models. Speech to be recognized is carried out subject to it when the voice of interest with request message is transmitted to the microwave oven 2. The interface unit 206 creates a transmission response message signal based on the transmission response content signal 233 (S2409). Interface unit 206 replies to the request based on the transmission response message signal (S2410).

  According to such a configuration, in the voice recognition connected on the network, the request determination unit 203 that determines whether to make a guarantee request or a recognition request, the interface unit 206 that communicates with another voice recognizer, and other devices. By including a recognition result determination unit 204 that performs recognition processing again using the result, a request response unit 2006 to answer requests from other devices, and a voice recognition device profile storage unit 2001 that stores device profile information. It is possible to recognize using a device such as a PC with higher computational resources under the optimal speech recognition settings. Even if the device does not have sufficient performance, it can perform speech recognition that exceeds the capabilities of the device itself. Performance can be realized. Even a high-performance device can achieve speech recognition performance that exceeds the capabilities of its own device by guaranteeing and requesting recognition using a recognizer having the same characteristics and different characteristics.

(Embodiment 4)
FIG. 25 shows a configuration diagram of the fourth embodiment of the present invention. The voice information storage unit 2501 stores the voice input to the input unit 201 of the own device. Since other configurations are the same as those of the third embodiment, description thereof is omitted. In this manner, by providing the voice information storage unit 2501 that always stores voice, when a recognition request is received by the acceptance request message signal 238, the voice can be recognized using the stored voice. become.

  As a result, the same sound is stored in the device close to the device itself, so there is no need to send the sound together with the request message, and the sound can be recognized according to the profile information of the requesting device. The load on the network can be reduced, and the voice can be recognized more reliably when the requesting side has high sound collection performance. As a result, the requesting recognizer can request for guarantee and recognition more reliably, and can realize speech recognition performance exceeding the capability of the device itself. Furthermore, there is also an effect that it becomes to be able to reduce the load on the network.

  In other words, with this configuration, when the sound collection performance of the requesting side is high, the voice can be recognized more reliably than the requesting source. By recognizing based on the voice information stored in the means, the voice recognition error of the voice input can be corrected, and multiple voice recognition devices can cooperate with each other even for voice input that cannot be accepted by a single voice recognition. Can be recognized.

(Embodiment 5)
FIG. 26 shows a configuration diagram of the fifth embodiment of the present invention. The voice information storage unit 2501 stores voice information via the input unit 201 of the own device and the network 4. Since other configurations are the same as those of the third embodiment, description thereof is omitted. In this way, by configuring the audio information storage unit 2501 so as to always store the audio input to the device connected to the network 4, when receiving a recognition request by the acceptance request message signal 238, it is ensured. Recognition can be performed using the voice collected in the nearest place.

  As a result, it is possible to reliably recognize the optimum voice using a device such as a PC having higher computational resources under the optimum voice recognition setting. Accordingly, the request original recognizer side, it becomes possible to realize the performance of speech recognition beyond the capability of the own device to be able to request more reliably ensured and recognition.

(Embodiment 6)
FIG. 27 shows a configuration diagram of the sixth embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, a voice recognition device profile storage unit 2001, a voice information storage unit 2501, and a notification determination unit 3001 are provided in the first embodiment shown in FIG.

  The notification determination unit 3001 determines which machine is notified based on the recognition result storage signal 243 representing the recognition result and the keyword information of each device included in the voice recognition device profile signal 2011. Further, in addition to the function of the interface unit 206 of the first embodiment, the interface unit 3002 with a notification function of this embodiment outputs a notification message signal 3012 that is an output of the notification determination unit 3001.

  The notification message can be configured as shown in FIG. 28, for example. This notification message is sent from the machine with the IP address 192.168.0.1 to the machine with the IP address 192.168.0.2 from “Time 2003 February 13, 8:23:51 to Time 2003. It means a message notifying that “the word“ warming ”has been input” between 8:23:53 on February 13.

  FIG. 29 shows a flowchart of an operation for realizing the notification function of the present embodiment. From S2301 to S2310 will be omitted because it is same as the description of Figure 23. Subsequent to S2310, the notification determination unit 3001 determines which machine is notified based on the keyword information of each device included in the recognition result storage signal 243 and the voice recognition device profile signal 2011, and notifies the corresponding device via the network 4. Transmit (S3101). Determination method determines word recognition result based on whether it contains the keyword.

  According to such a configuration, when another device recognizes the important keyword in accordance with the keyword information stored in the voice recognition device profile storage unit 2001, it is possible to notify the corresponding device to that effect. As a result, even if the device that corresponds to this keyword fails to recognize the keyword, you can prevent other devices from notifying you that the keyword has been entered, It can be realized recognized beyond the ability of the recognizer apparatus own.

  For example, the word “recording” is an important keyword for a device such as a video. Therefore, for example, when a device other than the video recognizes the word “recording”, the information can be sent to the video. Such work together, it is possible to recognize not miss even if the recognition that comes with the video has failed.

(Embodiment 7)
FIG. 30 is a configuration diagram of the cooperative speech recognition unit 101 according to the seventh embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, a speech recognition device profile storage unit 2001 and a reliability information storage unit 2701 are provided in the embodiment shown in FIG. The reliability information storage unit 2701 stores reliability information for an acceptance response message signal 236 received from a device connected to the network 4.

  As shown in FIG. 31, the reliability information is stored in advance together with the IP address or the like so that the transmission source device information can be understood. According to the seventh embodiment constructed as described above, by considering the reliability for messages from each device, so that more accurate recognition can be performed. To explain the operation in the flowchart of FIG. 32.

  Figure 32 is a flow chart of a microwave oven 2 is the side of requesting warranty / recognition. When the process starts (S2901), voice is detected and voice recognition is performed (S2902). Determining whether or not there is a need for assurance and recognition request in the request determination unit 203 with respect to the recognition result signal 241 representing the result of the speech recognition to other devices (S2903).

  For example, if the input speech is long, or the likelihood of the language is low, and if it is desired to request whether the entire speech input using the determination criteria is correct, a recognition request is issued, and a part of the input speech is determined. I if it is determined to request the guarantee request when you want to find the only guarantee. More specifically, for example, the input speech is performed recognition request consider the input speech in the case of more than x seconds is a sentence, when less than x seconds to guarantee request considered a word. In addition, even if it is x seconds or more, a criterion is used such that the language likelihood is lower than a specific threshold only in a specific candidate section, the likelihood difference with the second candidate is small, or the acoustic likelihood is low. Thus, it is possible to request the guarantee of the word candidates recognized in the section.

  Processing is branched according to the determination result (S2904). If it is determined that a guarantee or recognition request is necessary, the interface unit 206 creates a transmission request message signal 235 for requesting another device based on the transmission request content signal 231 (S2905). At this time, referring to the voice recognition device profile 2001, a message is sent only to a high-performance device, a device similar to the utterance word of the device (microwave oven), or a device close to the place. It is desirable to create a message as follows. It is also possible to determine the request destination based on the reliability information signal 2711 from the reliability information storage unit 2701.

  Transmitting the message through the network 4 (S2906). Receiving an acceptance response message signal representative of a coming guarantee request or the recognition result sent from another device (S2907), interpret the message (S2908). Based on the reliability information signal 2711, reliability is given to the acceptance response content signal 232 (S2909). The recognition result is re-determined in consideration of the guarantee result or recognition result from another device (S2910). In this case, if the result of a plurality of recognizers is obtained using the results of the top N or reliability X or more devices determines the priority based on the reliability. The output content signal 222 that is the recognition result after the re-determination is output to the output unit 7 of the display or device, and the result is similarly output to the request response unit 205 as a recognition result storage signal 243 (S2911). Then, back to the recognition process of S2902. Further, when it is determined that there is no need for assurance or recognition request in S2904 outputs a recognition result signal 241 of S2902 directly to the output unit 207 (S2911).

  On the other hand, the operation on the PC side that has received the request is the same as the operation of the third embodiment shown in FIG.

  According to such a configuration, by weighting on the basis of reliability information to the message from another device, available guarantees and recognition results from reliable equipment, the more reliably correct recognition result You can get it.

(Embodiment 8)
FIG. 33 is a configuration diagram of device-linked speech recognition according to the eighth embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, a voice recognition device profile storage unit 2001 and a device state detection unit 3301 are connected to the interface unit 206 in the first embodiment shown in FIG. The device state detection unit 3301 has a function of detecting a state such as whether the own device is connected to the network 4 or whether the power is turned on. When the own device is connected to the network, the device can be used with Plug & Play. As described above, it has a function of setting its own device. It also has a function of automatically setting its own device when the power is turned on or off, and informing other devices on the network that the power is not turned on.

  The operation of the eighth embodiment configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 34 is a system configuration diagram using a device including the cooperative speech recognition unit 101 according to the eighth embodiment. In addition to Figure 1, it is connected to the voice recognition server 5, and a washing machine 6 are connected by Plug & Play this network 4. It is assumed that the voice recognition server 5 functions as a server that manages SRSP.

  The operation will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS.

  In FIG. 35A, when the process starts (S3501), it is checked whether a newly added device (washing machine 6) is connected to the network 4 (S3502). The process branches at S3503, and if connected, returns to S3504, and if not connected, returns to S3502. When the washing machine 6 is connected, the washing machine 6 searches the voice recognition server 5 (S3504). If the server is not found, the SRSP is broadcast on the network 4 (S3509). On the other hand, if the server is found, the SRSP is uploaded to the server (S3506).

  In FIG. 35B, when the speech recognition server 5 detects the upload information (S3514), the SRSP is updated based on the received SRSP (S3510), and the result is broadcast (S3511).

  In FIG. 35C, when each device detects the broadcast update information (S3515), each device receives the update information (S3512) and updates the SRSP (S3513).

By operating in this way, even when a new device is added, the information is distributed to each device and the operations described in the first to fifth embodiments can be realized. In step 3511, the server 5 broadcasts the updated SRSP, but it is also possible to upload information directly to a device registered in the SRPS.

  Next will be described the operation when turned off the power. When the power is turned off, information indicating that the power can be turned off is sent to the voice recognition server 5. By sending the information directly to the device registered by the server 5 in the broadcast or SRSP, the power state of the device in the SRSP in each device can be updated to OFF. On the contrary, when the power is turned on, information such as the power being turned on can be automatically updated and set by performing the same operation as the plug & play setting of the device shown in FIG.

  On the other hand, when the server is turned off, each device can know the ON / OFF information of the server 5 by broadcasting the information indicating that the power is turned off to the device placed on the network or sending it to the device registered in the SRSP. Thus, the SRSP can be updated. It is also possible to designate the second server before the server 5 is turned off. At this time, the server can be realized by sending a server request signal to the second server. Upon receiving this request, the second server can update the information of all the devices by broadcasting that it has become a server or sending it to the devices registered in the SRSP.

  According to such a configuration, the SRSP can be downloaded from the server and automatically connected to the recognizer of the other device on the network by simply connecting the device equipped with the device-coordinate voice recognition device of the present invention to the network 4. It is possible to make it possible to recognize the voice in cooperation. Even if the device is already connected to the network, when the power is turned on, the SRSP can be downloaded to update the network status when the power is not turned on, which may cause inconsistencies. It brings about the effect of disappearing. Further, also it is possible to indicate the device connected to the information network when power off, it is not necessary to send useless recognition request, warranty request, also when powering down the server, the second server By starting up automatically, even if the first server is not started up, a new device can be automatically set up like Plug & Play.

(Embodiment 9)
FIG. 36 is a block diagram showing Embodiment 9 of the speech recognition apparatus of the present invention. The microwave oven 2 is equipped with a speech recognition unit 3601 capable of recognizing words due to computational resources, while the PC 1 is equipped with a speech recognition unit 3602 capable of recognizing sentences.

  In general, the microwave oven 2 recognizes each word in a spotting manner as shown in FIG. 37 in response to an input utterance such as “frozen, rice, warm” which is a continuous utterance of a word by the user. As a result, the context information of the preceding and following words such as N-gram used in continuous speech recognition is not used, and in many cases, a speech recognition error occurs or the first candidate and the first candidate as shown in FIG. The likelihood difference between the two candidates is reduced, and the recognition result cannot be trusted with certainty. In the case of FIG. 37, both “warming” and “fried” are erroneously recognized.

  Therefore, when the speech recognition apparatus of the present invention is used, the microwave oven 2 inquires of the PC 1 connected to the network 4 whether the recognition of “warming” is correct. The inquiry is made by broadcasting, and the transmission request message shown in FIG. The PC 1 receives this request message, refers to the recognition result of its own device stored in the request response unit 205, and returns the guarantee result. The speech recognition unit 3602 installed in the PC 1 has a recognition unit 1202 having a language model that takes into account the context before and after the input word, so that “frozen rice warming” instead of “frozen rice frying” If it is plausible, it can be recognized as compared with the voice recognition unit 3601 installed in the microwave oven 2. Therefore, the microwave oven 2 can be assured that “warming” is a more reliable result by sending a guarantee request to the PC 1.

  FIG. 38 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the microwave oven 2 according to the ninth embodiment. The meaning understanding unit 3702 installed in the microwave oven indicates the meaning of the user based on the recognition result signal 3711 that is a result of the voice recognition unit 3601. Under the understanding, the device control unit 3703 controls various devices using the meaning understanding result 3712 which is the output of the meaning understanding unit 3702.

  With the above operation, the operation of the microwave oven 2 can be set to “warming frozen rice”. Here, as a meaning understanding method, a frame representation of a microwave oven may be obtained based on the recognition result signal 3712 as shown in FIG. The recognition result can be easily applied to the frame of each word based on the attribute value of the word. The frame representation can be created in advance by the operation of the microwave oven. As shown in FIG. 39, the operation of the microwave oven this time is an attribute that constitutes a frame with three attributes of “what” (object) of “what state” (attribute) and “what to do” (operation mode). Prepared as a slot.

  As described above, by using the speech recognition apparatus of the present invention, even a device such as the microwave oven 2 with a small amount of calculation resources can be linked to obtain a guarantee from the PC 1 equipped with higher performance speech recognition. By doing so, it becomes possible to perform recognition with high performance.

  Here, although two types of devices connected to the network 4 are the microwave oven 2 and the PC 1, three or more types of devices may be connected as shown in FIG. At this time, as shown in the third embodiment, by performing cooperation processing so as to determine a device for which a guarantee request is made based on the profile information stored in the voice recognition device profile 2001, the performance is higher than that of the own device. It becomes possible to make a guarantee request for high-quality equipment. As for the microwave oven 2 on the network 4 configured as shown in FIG. 34, a guarantee request may be made to the PC 1 or the voice recognition server 5.

  Further, as in the fourth embodiment, the PC 1 and the voice recognition server 5 recognize voice by using a dictionary file, a language model, and an acoustic model related to a microwave oven with respect to the voice accumulated through the microphone of its own device. Can be configured. With this configuration, continuous speech recognition is performed in accordance with the domain of the microwave oven 2, and a guarantee result can be returned in response to a request from the microwave oven 2 using the result.

  Further, as in the fifth embodiment, the PC 1 and the voice recognition server 5 use a dictionary file, a language model, and an acoustic model related to the microwave for the voice obtained on each device obtained through the network 4. , it can be configured to perform speech recognition. With this configuration, continuous speech recognition is performed in accordance with the domain of the microwave oven 2, and a guarantee result can be returned in response to a request from the microwave oven 2 using the result. As a result, even if the position of a more powerful device such as a PC or a voice recognition server is separated from the speaker, there is an effect that it can be recognized.

  Further, as in the seventh embodiment, a reliability can be given to the guarantee result obtained from the request destination to give a weight. For example, it is assumed that a warranty request source A company microwave oven 2 and a warranty request destination PC 1, a speech recognition server 5, an oven, a company B microwave oven, and a rice cooker are connected to the network 4. . At this time, as a reliable request destination, a PC 1, a voice recognition server 5, and a microwave oven manufactured by B company on which a recognizer of the same domain is mounted are considered, and the reliability of the guarantee result is set to 1. Moreover, the reliability on the result from the equipment with the similar operation system like an oven is set to 0.3, and the reliability to the response from the rice cooker is set to 0, so that resources on the network can be used effectively. Can be configured to be recognized.

  Here, continuous word recognition is used as a function of the voice recognition device installed in the microwave oven, but it can be used even when continuous voice recognition is installed in the same manner as a PC. Even in this case, as can be seen from the fact that there is no voice recognition that allows 100% user recognition, a more reliable voice recognition result can be obtained by using the guarantee result from another device. become.

  In addition, although the description has been made with respect to the microwave oven 2 here, home appliances such as rice cookers and refrigerators, AV devices such as stereo and car navigation, navigation devices, and operations on PDA devices and applications on PDAs and PCs It can be used even if a voice recognizer is used as a guarantee.

(Embodiment 10)
FIG. 40 is a block diagram showing Embodiment 10 of the present invention. A microwave recognition unit 4011 capable of recognizing words is mounted on the microwave oven 4001 because of computational resources. A voice recognition unit 4012 capable of recognizing a sentence is mounted. The PC 4002 is equipped with a help system for devices connected to the network 4 and an application such as recipe search. It is assumed that the microwave oven 4001 is an internet home appliance type microwave oven in which the cooking method can be sequentially updated by the program information described in the recipe information downloaded on the PC 4002.

  The voice recognition function that operates on the microwave oven 4001 configured as described above is not of the command type based on continuous word utterance as shown in the first embodiment. For example, “What is the recommended recipe today?” Like utterances that confirm new recipes, utterances that perform searches such as “What are the necessary ingredients?”, Utterances that perform confirmations such as “200 ml of milk?”, And “How to download recipes” Speeches that ask for help, such as “Is it? However, since the voice recognition unit 4011 on the microwave oven 4001 has limited resources, it cannot often be equipped with continuous voice recognition that can recognize the utterance. In many cases, a recognizer that can handle continuous word utterances such as “warm” is used. Therefore, if the user's utterance is x seconds or more, the device cooperation type speech recognition unit 4011 installed in the microwave oven 4001 considers the input speech to be a sentence and requests the PC for speech recognition. In addition, using linguistic knowledge that words that do not match semantically, such as “rice” and “milk” are recognized at the same time, or information such as an overall low acoustic score, It is determined whether it is necessary to request the whole recognition.

  In the above embodiment, continuous word recognition is assumed as recognition on the microwave oven 4001. However, even if continuous speech recognition can be installed, a sentence to be recognized such as new recipe information being downloaded. If the target cannot be limited in advance, there are many cases where the user's speech cannot be recognized. Therefore, even if continuous speech recognition is used, the reliability of the entire input speech is measured using information such as low likelihood of language, and other devices are requested to recognize based on this value. Can be judged.

  When it is determined that a recognition request is necessary based on the above criteria, the voice recognition unit 4011 mounted on the microwave oven 4001 transmits a recognition request message as shown in FIG. 41 to another device. To do. The requested device recognizes based on the transmitted voice data and returns the result to the microwave oven 4001. The microwave oven 4001 that has received the reply result can re-recognize the recognition based on the result and obtain the recognition result. As a re-determination method, since a request is sent to the higher-performance PC 4002, the return value can be given priority.

In this embodiment, the microwave oven 4001 and the PC 4002 are assumed as devices connected to the network 4, but in addition to this, a refrigerator, a voice recognition server, etc.
A situation where more than one type of device is connected may also be considered. In such a case, as shown in the third embodiment, by performing cooperation processing so as to determine a device that makes a recognition request based on the profile information stored in the voice recognition device profile 2001, A recognition request can be reliably made for a device having a higher performance than the device. As for the microwave oven on the network configured as shown in FIG. 34, a recognition request may be sent to a PC or a voice recognition server.

  Further, as in the fourth embodiment, the PC 1 and the voice recognition server 5 recognize voice by using a dictionary file, a language model, and an acoustic model related to a microwave oven with respect to the voice accumulated through the microphone of its own device. Can be configured. With this configuration, continuous speech recognition can be performed in accordance with the microwave oven domain, and the result can be returned.

  Further, as in the fifth embodiment, the PC 1 and the voice recognition server 5 use a dictionary file, a language model, and an acoustic model related to the microwave for the voice obtained on each device obtained through the network 4. , it can be configured to perform speech recognition. With this configuration, continuous speech recognition is performed in accordance with the domain of the microwave oven, and the recognition result can be returned in response to a request from the microwave oven using the result. Thereby, even if the position of a more powerful device such as a PC or a voice recognition server is separated from the speaker, there is an effect that it can be recognized.

  Further, as in the seventh embodiment, the recognition result obtained from the request destination can be given a weight by giving the reliability. For example, it is assumed that a recognition request source A company microwave oven, a warranty request destination PC, a voice recognition server, an oven, a company B microwave oven, and a rice cooker are connected to the network. At this time, a PC or a voice recognition server can be considered as a reliable request destination, and the reliability for the recognition result is set to 1. In addition, the reliability of the result from the equipment with the similar operation system such as the microwave oven made by B company where the recognition machine of the same domain is mounted, and the reliability of the response from the rice cooker By setting 0 to 0, it is possible to configure so that recognition can be performed by effectively using resources on the network.

  Although described here for microwave ovens, it is used for home appliances such as rice cookers and refrigerators, AV equipment such as stereo and car navigation systems, navigation equipment, and PDA equipment operations and applications on PDAs and PCs. It can be used even if the voice recognizer is the requester.

(Embodiment 11)
FIG. 42 shows a configuration diagram of the eleventh embodiment of the present invention. A plurality of devices such as a PC 4001, a microwave oven 4202, a refrigerator 4203, a washing machine 4204, and a voice recognition server 4205 are connected to the network 4. Each device is distributed in the house. The user can instruct the operation of each device by voice from any place in the room.

  A user in the room utters a command “warming” to the microwave oven 4202. However, the user is now away from the microwave oven 4202, and at that distance, the voice recognition unit 101 installed in the microwave oven 4202 cannot recognize the user's speech well. Instead, there are close to the user PC4001. Considering such a situation, recognition of the microwave oven 4202 fails, but the PC 4001 can recognize “warming” that is an important keyword for the microwave oven 4202.

  That is, the recognition result can be obtained even in the microwave oven 4202 by successfully using “warming” which is the result recognized by the PC 4001. As shown in FIG. 43, the PC 4001 notifies the microwave oven 4202 of “warming” as a result of recognition by the PC 4001 based on keywords important for devices connected to the network 4 in the voice recognition device profile storage unit 2001. Upon receiving this notification, the microwave oven 4202 makes an inquiry about the guarantee to another device (here, the voice recognition server 4205). As a result, even if the microwave oven 4202 is not well recognized, “warming” can be recognized by using a notification from another device and using the warranty confirmation.

(Embodiment 12)
FIG. 44 is a diagram showing the system configuration and operation showing the twelfth embodiment of the present invention. It is assumed that the voice recognition unit 101 mounted on the microwave oven 4202 has failed in recognition. At that time, the microwave oven 4202 requests recognition from another powerful voice recognition server 4205. However, it is assumed that the speech recognition server 4205 does not have a language model or the like corresponding to the speech recognition. In that case, the voice recognition server 4205 makes a request to a different server (for example, the PC 4001). By repeating such a chain, the speech recognition result can be recognized using a device placed on the network 4 regardless of the distance between the user and the device.

(Embodiment 13)
FIG. 45 is a system configuration diagram using the speech recognition apparatus according to the thirteenth embodiment of the present invention. A voice recognition server 4501 that performs voice recognition is connected to a local network environment 4 created in a home, for example, via the Internet. The user uses a voice recognition server 4501 prepared as a service site on the Internet, instead of building home appliance control or the like by voice recognition in the home. In this way, the user does not need to purchase an expensive server in advance, and the system can be configured so that the billing server 4502 is charged as necessary.

  It is also effective to provide the voice recognition server 4501 with a download service. The voice recognition server 4501 also has a service that can download a dictionary file, a language model, and an acoustic model in response to a request from a user. Here, the charging server 4502 can be charged for each download.

  The speech recognition apparatus according to the present invention has the effect that it is possible to recognize variations of words and sentences more than the individual devices can recognize by the cooperation of the speech recognition apparatuses connected to the network. It is useful in fields such as ubiquitous computing, information appliances, and car navigation.

1 is a system configuration diagram using a device including a voice recognition device according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. The figure which shows the structure of the speech recognition part in Embodiment 1 of this invention. The flowchart of the apparatus (microwave oven) which performs the guarantee request | requirement of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention. Flowchart of a device (PC) that has received a warranty request for the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 1 of the present invention The flowchart of the apparatus (microwave oven) which performs the recognition request of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention. The flowchart of the apparatus (PC) which received the recognition request of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention. Flowchart of requesting side (microwave oven) when simultaneously performing guarantee request / recognition request of voice recognition apparatus in Embodiment 1 of the present invention Flowchart of requesting side (PC) when simultaneously performing guarantee request / recognition request of voice recognition apparatus in embodiment 1 of the present invention The figure which shows the structural example of the message of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention. The figure which shows the tag expression example of the message of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention. The figure which shows the example of the message of the microwave oven of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention. The block diagram which shows the other example of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention. The figure which shows the example of the other message of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention. The figure which shows the example of the message from PC of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention to a microwave oven. The figure which shows the example of the other message from PC of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention to a microwave oven The figure which shows the example of the other message from PC of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention to a microwave oven. The figure which shows the example of the message which requests | requires recognition from the PC of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention to a microwave oven The figure which shows the example of the reply message from PC which received the recognition request of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention. Block diagram of the speech recognition device according to a second embodiment of the present invention Block diagram of the speech recognition device in the third embodiment of the present invention Outline explanatory drawing of voice recognition equipment profile storage part of voice recognition device in Embodiment 3 of the present invention The figure which shows the information described in the speech recognition apparatus profile storage part of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 3 of this invention. Flow chart of the speech recognition device in the third embodiment of the present invention Another flowchart of the speech recognition apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention. Block diagram of the speech recognition device in the fourth embodiment of the present invention Block diagram of the speech recognition device in the fifth embodiment of the present invention Block diagram of the speech recognition apparatus according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention The figure which shows the example of the message of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 6 of this invention. Flow chart of the speech recognition device in the sixth embodiment of the present invention Block diagram of the speech recognition apparatus according to a seventh embodiment of the present invention The figure which shows the example of the reliability information of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 7 of this invention. Flowchart speech recognition apparatus according to the seventh embodiment of the present invention Configuration diagram of a speech recognition apparatus according to the eighth embodiment of the present invention System configuration diagram of voice recognition apparatus according to Embodiment 8 of the present invention (A) Flow chart of additional device of speech recognition apparatus in embodiment 8 of the present invention (b) Flow chart of server of speech recognition apparatus in embodiment 8 (c) Each device of speech recognition apparatus in embodiment 8 Flowchart The system block diagram of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 9 of this invention The figure which shows the recognition result of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 9 of this invention. Configuration diagram of a speech recognition apparatus according to a ninth embodiment of the present invention The figure which shows the expression of the meaning understanding of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 9 of this invention. System configuration diagram of a speech recognition apparatus according to Embodiment 10 of the present invention. The figure which shows the example of the message of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 10 of this invention. System configuration diagram of speech recognition apparatus according to Embodiment 11 of the present invention Operation explanatory diagram of the speech recognition apparatus according to the eleventh embodiment of the present invention. The system block diagram of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 12 of this invention. The system block diagram of the speech recognition apparatus in Embodiment 13 of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1 PC
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 2 Microwave oven 3 Refrigerator 4 Washing machine 5 Voice recognition server 6 Washing machine 101 Voice recognition part 201 Input part 202 Recognition part 203 Request determination part 204 Recognition result determination part 205 Request response part 206 Interface part 207 Output part 221 Input voice signal 222 Output Content signal 231 Transmission request content signal 232 Acceptance response content signal 233 Transmission response content signal 234 Transmission request content signal 235 Transmission request message signal 236 Reception response message signal 237 Transmission response message signal 238 Reception request message signal 241 Recognition result signal 242 Recognition result request Signal with information 243 Recognition result storage signal 1201 IP list table storage unit 1211 IP list table signal 2001 Speech recognition device profile storage unit 2002 Dictionary file storage unit 2003 Language model Dell storage unit 2004 acoustic model storage unit 2005 recognition result storage unit 2011 speech recognition device profile signal 2501 speech information storage unit 2511 stored speech signal 2701 reliability information storage unit 2711 reliability information signal 3001 notification determination unit 3002 interface unit with notification function 3011 Notification content signal 3012 Notification message signal 3301 Device state detection unit 3311 Device state detection signal 3312 Device state notification message signal 3601, 3602 Speech recognition unit 3702 Meaning understanding unit 3703 Device control unit 4502 Accounting server

Claims (17)

A household electrical appliance system comprising a household electrical appliance and another household electrical appliance having a voice recognition function that is communicably connected to the household electrical appliance,
  The home appliance is
  An input means for inputting voice information;
  Recognition means for performing speech recognition of the input speech information;
  Profile information storage means storing profile information including keyword information possessed by at least the other home appliances;
  When the word which is the said speech recognition result is contained in the said keyword information, the household appliance system provided with the notification means which notifies the said speech recognition result to the other household appliances which have the said word as keyword information. The home appliance is
  Determination means for determining whether or not a request for voice recognition of the voice information to the other household electrical appliance is necessary for the voice recognition result in the recognition means;
  When the determination means determines that a request for voice recognition is necessary, a transmission means for transmitting a request for voice recognition of the voice information to the other home appliances;
  The household appliance of Claim 1 provided with the determination means which determines the voice recognition result with respect to the said audio | voice information based on the voice recognition result of the said recognition means, and the result of the voice recognition transmitted from the said other household appliances. Equipment system. The profile information includes dictionary file information of a dictionary file used for voice recognition by the other home appliances,
  The transmission means refers to the dictionary file information of the other home appliance, and recognizes the voice information of the voice information to another home appliance having a dictionary file whose language model is similar to the dictionary file used for speech recognition by the recognition means. The home appliance system according to claim 2, wherein the request is transmitted. The home appliance is
  The home electric appliance system according to claim 1, further comprising response means for responding to a voice recognition request from the other electric home appliance with a result of voice recognition of the voice information. The home appliance is
  Voice information storage means for storing the input voice information;
  4. The response means responds to a request for assistance from the other home appliance with a result of voice recognition based on voice information stored in the voice information storage means. The home appliance system described. The home appliance is
  6. The home appliance system according to claim 5, wherein the voice information storage unit stores voice information input to the other home appliance. The home appliance is
  Having reliability information storage means for storing reliability information related to voice recognition of the other home appliances;
  The determination means prioritizes a voice recognition result from another household appliance with a high reliability with reference to the reliability information, and determines a recognition result. The household electrical appliance system as described in one. The home appliance is
  At least a detecting means for detecting a connection state between the home appliance and the other home appliance, or a connection state between the other home appliances,
  8. The home appliance according to claim 1, wherein, when there is a change in the connection state, the detection unit notifies the change in the connection state to the other home appliance. system. The home appliance is
  9. The home appliance system according to claim 8, wherein, when the detection unit detects a change in the connection state, the connection state of the profile information stored in the profile storage unit is updated. The home appliance is
  The change in the connection state is at least one of connection or disconnection between the home appliance and the other home appliance, or closing or opening of a power source of the other home appliance. Item 10. The home appliance system according to Item 8 or 9. The home appliance is
  11. The home appliance system according to claim 1, wherein the recognition unit includes a meaning understanding unit that understands the meaning of the audio information. The home appliance is
  The recognizing means has a charging means for charging the use of the recognizing means;
  12. The home appliance system according to claim 1, wherein the billing unit charges when the other home appliance requests the recognition unit to perform voice recognition. The home appliance is
  At least one of the other household electrical appliances connected to the household electrical appliance has the charging means,
  13. The home electric appliance system according to claim 12, wherein another electric home appliance not having the charging unit and another electric home appliance having the charging unit are communicably connected. A household electrical appliance that is communicably connected to another household electrical appliance having a voice recognition function,
  The home appliance is
  An input means for inputting voice information;
  Recognition means for performing speech recognition of the input speech information;
  Profile information storage means storing profile information including keyword information possessed by at least the other home appliances;
  A home appliance comprising a notification means for notifying another home appliance having the word as keyword information when the word that is the speech recognition result is included in the keyword information. A speech recognition method for a home appliance in a home appliance system including a home appliance and another home appliance having a voice recognition function so as to communicate with the home appliance,
  An input step in which audio information is input;
  A recognition step in which a recognition means performs voice recognition of the input voice information;
  The notification means refers to at least profile information including keyword information included in the other home appliances, and when the word that is the voice recognition result is included in the keyword information, A voice recognition method comprising: a notification step of notifying the home appliance of the voice recognition result. A determination step for determining whether or not a voice recognition request for the voice information to the other household electrical appliance is necessary for the voice recognition result in the recognition step;
  In the determination step, if it is determined that a voice recognition request is required,
A transmitting step for transmitting a request for voice recognition of the voice information to the other home appliance;
  The confirmation unit includes a confirmation step of confirming a speech recognition result for the speech information based on a speech recognition result of the recognition step and a speech recognition result transmitted from the other home appliance. Speech recognition method. The profile information includes information on a dictionary file used for voice recognition by the other home appliances,
  In the transmission step, the transmission means refers to the information of the dictionary file of the other home appliance, and the other home appliance having a dictionary file whose language model is close to the dictionary file used for speech recognition in the recognition step. The voice recognition method according to claim 15, wherein the voice information request is transmitted.