Sony International (europe) Gmbh

Stefan Rapp

Ralf Kompe

Silke Goronzy

Peter Buchner

Helmut Lucke

Franck Giron

According to the present invention network devices that can be controlled via a speech unit included in the network can send a device-document describing its functionality and its speech interface to said speech unit. The speech unit combines those documents to a general document that forms the basis to translate recognized user-commands into user-network-commands to control the connected network-devices. A device-document comprises at least the vocabulary and the commands associated therewith for the corresponding device. Furtheron, pronunciation, grammar for word sequences, rules for speech understanding and dialog can be contained in such documents as well as the same information for multiple languages or information for dynamic dialogs in speech understanding. It is possible that one device contains several documents and dynamically sends them to the speech unit in case they are needed. Furtheron, the present invention enables a device to change its functionality dynamically based on changing content, since a network device send its specifications regarding its speech capabilities to the speech unit while the speech unit is in use.

Merging of speech interfaces from concurrent use of devices and applications

Home networks low-cost digital interfaces are introduced that integrate entertainment, communication and computing electronics into consumer multimedia. Normally, these are low-cost, easy to use systems, since they allow the user to remove or add any kind of network devices with the bus being active. To improve the user interface a speech unit ( ) is proposed that enables all devices ( ) connected to the bus system ( ) to be controlled by a single speech recognition device. The properties of this device, e.g. the vocabulary can be dynamically and actively extended by the consumer devices ( ) connected to the bus system ( ). The proposed technology is independent from a specific bus standard, e.g. the IEEE 1394 standard, and is well-suited for all kinds of wired wireless home networks. The speech unit ( ) receives data and messages from the device. The speech unit ( ) recognizes speaker-dependent commands. A Speech synthesizer synthesizes messages. A remotely controllable device ( ) has access to a medium which may be a CD-ROM. The device may ask for a logical name or identifier.

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Fellbach, Germany

Stefan Rapp