Patent ID: 9406297
Filing Date: 2016-08-02
CPC Classification: G10L

Claim Text:
1. A method for operating a refrigerator appliance that has a water dispensing system, the method comprising: receiving, by the refrigerator appliance, a human speech signal, wherein the human speech signal comprises a voice command that requests that the refrigerator appliance perform one or more dispensing operations, the one or more dispensing operations comprising dispensing at least one of ice and water; matching, by the refrigerator appliance, one or more biometrics of the human speech signal to one of a plurality of voice samples respectively associated with a plurality of enrolled users to identify one of the plurality of enrolled users as a source of the human speech signal; obtaining, by the refrigerator appliance, one or more preset preferences associated with the identified enrolled user and stored in a memory, wherein the one or more preset preferences provide one or more values respectively for the one or more variable parameters associated with the one or more dispensing operations; converting, by the refrigerator appliance the human speech signal to textual information; determining, by the refrigerator appliance, the one or more dispensing operations requested by the human speech signal based on the textual information; and performing, by the refrigerator appliance, the one or more dispensing operations in accordance with the one or more preset preferences, wherein performing the one or more dispensing operations comprises dispensing the at least one of ice and water that has the one or more values respectively for the one or more variable parameters.