Voice controlled room system
A universal data gate converts between interface format types of interconnected systems. The data gate learns new interface types and greatly simplifies the requirement for a human user to reprogram the new interface types. A library of known interface types is built up over time and allows re-use of known interface types as required. Voice based room control is enabled by automatically activating the voice control on a guest device when the guest is checked in to a hotel room. Text corresponding to voice commands captured from the user's voice is passed to a hotel app. The system automatically pairs the guest device with the user's assigned room and determines which in-room controllable devices are to be operated by the user's voice commands. When the user switches to a new guest room during travel, the system automatically updates the room pairing and new voice commands operate the new in-room devices.
1. A system for controlling devices in a guest room of a hospitality establishment, the system comprising:
a user device operated by a guest of the hospitality establishment, the user device including a storage device storing therein a software application, and the user device having a microphone and a network interface; and
a room controller coupled to a computer network;
wherein the user device is operable to capture audio from the microphone and convert the audio into a text transcript utilizing a voice-to-text conversion service;
by one or more processors of the user device executing the software application, the software application is operable to temporarily register itself with a pre-existing voice assistant software running on the user device in response to a first trigger and to deregister itself from the pre-existing voice assistant software in response to a second trigger;
the user device is operable to send the text transcript received from the voice-to-text service to the software application only while the software application is registered with the pre-existing voice assistant software running on the user device, such that other text transcripts received from the voice-to-text service while the software application is not registered with the pre-existing voice assistant software are not sent to the software application;
the room controller is operable to receive a message with a command corresponding to the text transcript as sent by the software application running on the user device;
the room controller is operable to determine a particular room of the hospitality establishment with which the user device is currently associated;
the room controller is operable to determine one or more target in-room controllable devices of the particular room to which the command pertains; and
the room controller is operable to send one or more network messages to the one or more target in-room controllable device thereby causing the one or more target in-room controllable devices to carry out the command.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the software application temporarily registers itself with the pre-existing voice assistant software in response to the software application receiving a check-in message from a property management system (PMS) of the hospitality establishment.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the software application temporarily registers itself with the pre-existing voice assistant software in response to the user device successfully authenticating itself with a service of the hospitality establishment.
4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the service of the hospitality establishment is a high speed internet access (HSIA) service.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the software application temporarily registers itself with the pre-existing voice assistant software in response to detecting a predetermined service on the computer network.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the software application temporarily registers itself with the pre-existing voice assistant software in response to a global position system (GPS) chip within the user device indicating a current position of the user device matches a known position of the hospitality establishment.
7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the user device is operable to pass the message to the room controller via the computer network.
8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the user device is operable to indirectly pass the message to the room controller via a hotel app server coupled to the computer network.
9. A user device for controlling devices in a guest room of a hospitality establishment, the user device being operated by a guest of the hospitality establishment and comprising:
a microphone;
a network interface coupled to a computer network;
a storage device storing therein software instructions at least including a pre-existing voice assistance software and a software application; and
one or more processors;
wherein, by the one or more processors executing the software instructions loaded from the storage device, the one or more processors are configured to:
capture audio from the microphone and convert the audio into a text transcript utilizing a voice-to-text conversion service;
register the software application temporarily with the pre-existing voice assistant software running on the user device in response to a first trigger and deregister the software application from the pre-existing voice assistant software in response to a second trigger,
send the text transcript received from the voice-to-text service to the software application only while the software application is registered with the pre-existing voice assistant software running on the user device, such that other text transcripts received from the voice-to-text service while the software application is not registered with the pre-existing voice assistant software are not sent to the software application, and
transmit a message with a command corresponding to the text transcript from the software application to a room controller via the computer network;
wherein the room controller determines a particular room of the hospitality establishment with which the user device is currently associated, determines one or more target in-room controllable devices of the particular room to which the command pertains, and sends one or more network messages to the one or more target in-room controllable device thereby causing the one or more target in-room controllable devices to carry out the command.
10. The user device of claim 9 , wherein the software application temporarily registers itself with the pre-existing voice assistant software in response to the software application receiving a check-in message from a property management system (PMS) of the hospitality establishment.
11. The user device of claim 9 , wherein the software application temporarily registers itself with the pre-existing voice assistant software in response to the user device successfully authenticating itself with a service of the hospitality establishment.
12. The user device of claim 11 , wherein the service of the hospitality establishment is a high speed internet access (HSIA) service.
13. The user device of claim 9 , wherein the software application temporarily registers itself with the pre-existing voice assistant software in response to detecting a predetermined service on the computer network.
14. The user device of claim 9 , wherein the software application temporarily registers itself with the pre-existing voice assistant software in response to a global position system (GPS) chip within the user device indicating a current position of the user device matches a known position of the hospitality establishment.
15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform steps at least comprising:
registering a software application temporarily with a pre-existing voice assistant software running on a user device in response to a first trigger and deregistering the software application from the pre-existing voice assistant software in response to a second trigger, the pre-existing voice assistant software capturing audio from a microphone of the user device and converting the audio into a text transcript utilizing a voice-to-text conversion service;
receiving by the software application the text transcript from the pre-existing voice assistant software only while the software application is registered with the pre-existing voice assistant software; and
transmitting a message with a command corresponding to the text transcript from the software application to a room controller via a computer network in response to receiving the text transcript from the pre-existing voice assistant software;
wherein the room controller determines a particular room of a hospitality establishment with which the user device is currently associated, determines one or more target in-room controllable devices of the particular room to which the command pertains, and sends one or more network messages to the one or more target in-room controllable device thereby causing the one or more target in-room controllable devices to carry out the command.
16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the computer executable instructions further cause the computer to temporarily register the software application with the pre-existing voice assistant software in response to the software application receiving a check-in message from a property management system (PMS) of the hospitality establishment.
17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the computer executable instructions further cause the computer to temporarily register the software application with the pre-existing voice assistant software in response to the user device successfully authenticating itself with a service of the hospitality establishment.
18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the service of the hospitality establishment is a high speed internet access (HSIA) service.
19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the computer executable instructions further cause the computer to temporarily register the software application with the pre-existing voice assistant software in response to detecting a predetermined service on the computer network.
20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the computer executable instructions further cause the computer to temporarily register the software application with the pre-existing voice assistant software in response to a global position system (GPS) chip within the user device indicating a current position of the user device matches a known position of the hospitality establishment.