Patent ID: 11928390
Assignee: HARMAN INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIES, INCORPORATED
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 15:
16. A method for providing virtual personal assistants (VPA) among a plurality of audio zones, comprising:
assigning a plurality of VPA instances to a plurality of users, each VPA instance of the plurality of VPA instances operating concurrently, wherein each of the plurality of users is located in one of the plurality of audio zones, wherein the plurality of audio zones comprises a first audio zone and a second audio zone, the first audio zone including a first microphone and a first speaker, and the second audio zone including a second microphone and a second speaker;
measuring a first audio signal strength corresponding to a first audio signal of the first microphone from a first voice command and a second audio signal strength corresponding to a second audio signal of the second microphone from the first voice command;
responsive to the first audio signal strength exceeding a threshold value and the second audio signal strength not exceeding the threshold value, assigning a first user to the first audio zone;
responsive to the first audio signal strength not exceeding the threshold value and the second audio signal strength exceeding the threshold value, assigning the first user to the second audio zone; and
responsive to each of the first audio signal strength and the second audio signal strength exceeding the threshold value, combining the first audio zone with the second audio zone.