Granted Patent E1

US 41,080 · App. 11/592,316 · Granted Jan 19, 2010

Abstract

Claims (57)

1. An item locator system having both voice activation and voice responsive capabilities for location feedback to locate one or more specific goods in a retail store facility, which comprises said system comprising:

a.) a support structure, for physically supporting said system at one or more locations, and functionally containing or connected to the following components:

b.) a continuous speech recognition digital signal processor (DSP), wherein said continuous speech recognition engine DSP utilizes tokens of raw acoustic signals representing utterances or words and matches these against a set of models and then relies upon likelihood to select a most likely model to decode signals for interpretation;

c.) a programmable microprocessor interfaced with , coupled to said speech recognition DSP; , d.) sufficient programming and circuitry contained within said programmable microprocessor to provide for voice activation and voice recognition and audio and/or visual response to provide item location to a user wherein item and location data are defined by manager input to said system ;

e.) voice input means connected coupled to said speech recognition DSP;

f.) at least one memory storage means connected to , coupled to said programmable microprocessor and/or said DSP, for storage of operational inputs, control inputs, and a voice recognition vocabulary for storage of command match and execute functions; and

g.) at least one user feedback unit and connection from , coupled to said programmable microprocessor to said at least one user feedback unit, said at least one user feedback unit ,adapted to provide audio and/or visual feedback selected from the group consisting of audio feedback, visual feedback and combinations thereof, to a said user in response to an item location query.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said user feedback unit includes visual display means for viewing visual feedback in the form of text, or a map, or a combination thereof.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said user feedback unit includes sufficient hardware and software to provide audio feedback to a said user in response to recognizable voice input.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said at least one memory storage means further includes flash ROM storage and provides for remote diagnostics and system programming.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said voice input means includes a microphone.

6. The system of claim 1 which further includes including a secured manual control panel for input and management of item and location data into said system.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein said manual control panel further contains: a keypad and menu for operation and programming options, a microphone, and a screen for input and feedback display.

8. The system of claim 1 which additional components further includes wherein said user feedback unit comprises:

an audio feedback component which includes including audio feedback hardware and a software adapter to audibly respond to recognizable voice input, including wherein said audio feedback component uses digital-to-analog conversion; and an output speaker to provide audio feedback to said user.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein said DSP includes a continuous speech recognition engine having a continuous speech signal recognizer and a continuous speech signal interpreter.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein said programing and circuitry within said programmable microprocessor includes an embedded, voice-driven interface for control of operational instructions, system locator function operations, and option and default functions.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein said response to provide item location to a user includes aisle location.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein said response to provide item location to a user includes shelf location.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein said response to provide item location to a user includes aisle and shelf location.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein said response to provide item location to a user includes bin number.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein said response to provide item location to a user includes row and slot location.

16. The system of claim 5 wherein said microphone is selected from the group consisting of: a receiver handset, a headset, and a built-in microphone.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein said support structure is a portable support structure further comprising a support structure, for physically supporting at least a portion of said item locator system, and functionally containing or connected to said voice input means and said at least one user feedback unit.

18. The system of claim 1 wherein said speech recognition engine uses DSP comprises a continuous speech recognition engine operable to use Hidden Markov Models for its continuous speech recognition engine .

19. The system of claim 6 wherein said speech recognition engine uses Hidden Markov Models for its continuous speech recognition engine DSP comprises a continuous speech recognition engine operable to use Hidden Markov Models.

20. The system of claim 8 wherein said speech recognition engine uses Hidden Markov Models for its continuous speech recognition engine DSP comprises a continuous speech recognition engine operable to use Hidden Markov Models.

21. An item locator system for location feedback to locate one or more specific items in a facility, comprising:

at least one processor operable to receive acoustic signals representing utterances or words, match the acoustic signals against a set of models, and select one of the set of models to decode the acoustic signals, wherein the at least one processor is further operable to detect a trigger word for continued interpretation of the utterances or words;

at least one memory coupled to at least one processor for storage of operational inputs and a voice recognition vocabulary of command match and execute functions; and

at least one user feedback circuit coupled to the at least one processor, wherein the at least one user feedback circuit is operable to provide visual or audio feedback to a user in response to an item location query.

22. A locator system comprising:

a local processor residing in a facility;

a database, coupled for access by the local processor, storing location information for each of a plurality of items in the facility;

a remote processor, coupled to communicate with the local processor, operable to update at least a portion of the database;

a voice - driven interface, coupled to the local processor, for accepting acoustic signals corresponding to a request by a user for the location of at least one of the plurality of items; and

a controller, coupled to the local processor, to provide audio or visual signals to the user regarding the location of the at least one of the plurality of items.

23. The locator system of claim 22 wherein the database resides remotely from the local processor.

24. The locator system of claim 22 wherein:

the facility is a retail store; and

the item is a consumer item.

25. A locator system comprising:

at least one processor for processing acoustic signals corresponding to a request by a user for the location of at least one of a plurality of items in a facility;

a database, coupled to the at least one processor, storing location information for each of the plurality of items; and

at least one memory, coupled to the at least one processor, for storage of an originally active vocabulary and a voice recognition vocabulary of command match and execute functions, wherein the at least one processor is configured to access the at least one memory when processing the acoustic signals, and the at least one processor is configured to access the database to provide information to the user regarding the location in the facility of the at least one of the plurality of items.

26. The locator system of claim 25 wherein the at least one memory is programmable by a manager input.

27. The locator system of claim 25 wherein processing the acoustic signals comprises using Markov models.

28. A locator system comprising:

a plurality of user locations, each comprising a local processor, located in a facility;

a database, coupled for access by the local processor of each of the plurality of user locations, storing location information for each of a plurality of items in the facility; and

wherein each of the plurality of user locations further comprises:

a voice - driven interface for accepting acoustic utterances or words from a user to request the location of at least one of the plurality of items;

at least one memory with a voice recognition vocabulary for storage of command match and execute functions; and

a controller to provide audio or visual signals to the user regarding the location of the at least one of the plurality of items.

29. The locator system of claim 28 further comprising a remote processor, coupled to communicate with each of the plurality of user locations, operable to update at least a portion of the database through manager inputs provided to the remote processor.

30. The locator system of claim 28 further comprising a map to provide the location of the at least one of the plurality of items to the user.

31. The locator system of claim 28 wherein the at least one memory further stores an originally active vocabulary.

Assignments (8)