Patent · US Active

Low power activation of a voice activated device

US9043211B2 · kind B2 · utility

199Cited by
5References
15Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 8, 2014
Grant dateMay 26, 2015
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 8, 2034

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG10L25/78
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

In a mobile device, a bone conduction or vibration sensor is used to detect the user's speech and the resulting output is used as the source for a low power Voice Trigger (VT) circuit that can activate the Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) of the host device. This invention is applicable to mobile devices such as wearable computers with head mounted displays, mobile phones and wireless headsets and headphones which use speech recognition for the entering of input commands and control. The speech sensor can be a bone conduction microphone used to detect sound vibrations in the skull, or a vibration sensor, used to detect sound pressure vibrations from the user's speech. This VT circuit can be independent of any audio components of the host device and can therefore be designed to consume ultra-low power. Hence, this VT circuit can be active when the host device is in a sleeping state and can be used to wake the host device on detection of speech from the user. This VT circuit will be resistant to outside noise and react solely to the user's voice.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.