Granted Patent B2

US 9,635,164 · App. 15/076,035 · Granted Apr 25, 2017

Abstract

Claims (48)

1. An apparatus for remotely triggering verbally invokable actions on a smartphone without producing audible sounds, the apparatus comprising:

a memory for storing a first digitized voice file and a second digitized voice file; a wireless communication module for establishing wireless communication with the smartphone using a wireless communication protocol;

first and second user accessible buttons, wherein the first user accessible button is associated with the first digitized voice file and the second user accessible button is associated with the second digitized voice file; and

a computer processor configured to execute non-transitory instructions to:

detect a user actuation of one of the first and the second user accessible buttons; retrieve a one of the first and second digitized voice files from the memory that is associated with the actuated button in response to the detection of the actuated button; and

transmit the retrieved one of the first and the second digitized voice files to the smartphone using the wireless communication module according to the wireless communication protocol to remotely trigger one of the verbally invokable actions on the smartphone that is associated with the transmitted digitized voice file;

wherein each of the first digitized voice file and the second digitized voice file contain an encoded recording of a respective spoken command to which the smartphone would respond when the spoken command were spoken directly into a microphone of the smartphone; and

wherein the remotely triggering verbally invokable actions on a smartphone is without producing audible sounds.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a housing containing the memory, the wireless communication module, the first and second user accessible buttons, and the computer processor; and

a battery in the housing for powering at least the computer processor, the memory, and the wireless communication module.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the wireless communication protocol is Bluetooth Low Energy or Bluetooth Smart.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a microphone, wherein the computer processor is further configured to execute the instructions to receive audio information from the user through the microphone and process the audio information to generate one or more of the first digitized voice file and the second digitized voice file.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the computer processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:

receive digitized audio information from the smartphone through the wireless communication module; and

store the digitized audio information received from the smartphone in the memory, wherein one of the first digitized voice file and the second digitized voice file comprises the digitized audio information received from the smartphone.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the smartphone includes intelligent personal assistant software and the one of the first and the second digitized voice files transmitted from the apparatus to the smartphone includes a voice command for delivery to the intelligent personal assistant software to trigger the one of the verbally invokable actions.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the intelligent personal assistant software of the smartphone includes speech interpretation and recognition interface.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein transmitting the retrieved one of the first and second digitized voice files includes:

transmitting a keyboard event over a keyboard link to the smartphone that mimics a long press of a home button of the smartphone; and

transmitting the retrieved one of the first and the second digitized voice files over a voice link.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the verbally invokable actions include one or more of: initiating a call, listening to a voicemail, playing music, reading a text message, composing a text message, getting directions, accessing notifications, finding calendar information, adding reminders, identifying media content, changing an alarm, requesting sports information, requesting travel information, scheduling an appointment, locating a person, checking time, checking date, finding a business, checking weather, checking financial information, performing a web search, requesting entertainment information, performing a calculation, and changing a setting on the smartphone.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 further including a third user accessible button associated with a third digitized voice file stored in the memory, where the computer processor is configured to further execute the instructions to:

detect a user actuation of the third user accessible button;

retrieve the third digitized voice file from the memory in response to the detected actuation of the third user accessible button; and

transmit the retrieved third digitized voice file to the smartphone using the wireless communication module according to the wireless communication protocol in order to remotely trigger another verbally invokable action on the smartphone.

11. An apparatus for remotely and electronically launching a process from among a plurality of processes available on an electronic device, the apparatus comprising:

wireless communication circuitry for establishing a wireless communication link with the electronic device using a wireless communication protocol;

a user interface for receiving an input from a user of the apparatus, wherein the input indicates a user selection of a process from among the plurality of available processes; and control circuitry configured to:

retrieve a digitized voice file associated with the user selected process from among a plurality of digitized voice files based on the user selected process; and

transmit an electronic message that includes the retrieved digitized voice file for delivery to the electronic device over the wireless communication link, the electronic message comprising a request to launch the user selected process on the electronic device;

wherein the user interface includes a plurality of buttons actuatable by a user, wherein actuation of one of the plurality of buttons indicates a selection of the process without verbal input and without producing audible sounds;

wherein each of the digitized voice file associated with the user selected process from among a plurality of digitized voice files contains an encoded recording of a respective spoken command to which the electronic device would respond when the spoken command were spoken directly into a microphone of the electronic device.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the user interface includes an interactive control panel.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the wireless communication circuitry includes an antenna and the wireless communication protocol includes Bluetooth Smart.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the electronic device include personal assistant software and to launch the user selected process on the electronic device includes to remotely initiate the process through the personal assistant software on the electronic device without providing audible input to the electronic device.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 further including a microphone configured to receive verbal input from the user through the microphone and wherein the control circuitry is further configured to encode the verbal input to generate one or more of the plurality of digitized voice files.

16. A method of remotely initiating a voice invokable action on a portable electronic device without producing audible sounds, the method comprising:

detecting a user input at a remote control device;

retrieving a digitized voice file from a memory of the remote control device, wherein the digitized voice file is selected from among a plurality of digitized voice files in the memory based on the user input; and

wirelessly transmitting the retrieved digitized voice file from the remote control device to the portable electronic device according to a wireless communication protocol in order to remotely select and initiate the voice invokable action from a plurality of actions executable on the portable electronic device, the voice invokable action associated with the user input and the retrieved digitized voice file, the transmitting of the retrieved digitized voice file to the portable electronic device mimicking a spoken command transmitted to the electronic device from a wireless microphone that is separate from the portable electronic device;

wherein initiating a voice invokable action on a portable electronic device is without producing audible sounds; and

wherein, prior to the detecting of the user input: recording an audible user input at the remote control device; digitally encoding the audible user input; storing the digitally encoded audible user input as a second digitized voice file; and associating the stored second digitized voice file with another action of the plurality of actions executable on the portable electronic device.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein wirelessly transmitting the retrieved digitized voice file includes:

establishing a keyboard link with the portable electronic device;

transmitting a keyboard event over the keyboard link for delivery to the portable electronic device that mimics a long press of a home button of the portable electronic device;

establishing a voice link with the portable electronic device; and

transmitting the retrieved digitized voice file over the voice link.

Assignments (8)