Patent ID: 6975993
Filing Date: 2005-12-13
Classification: G10L,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A system for enabling a user to control operation of a networked machine by issuing a spoken instruction, the system comprising: a plurality of processor-controlled machines couplable to the network, each processor-controlled machine being capable of carrying out at least one function and each processor-controlled machine having control command receiving means for receiving control commands over a network, and function actioning means for causing a function specified by received control command data to be carried out; speech data receiving means for receiving speech data representing speech spoken by a user; a spoken instruction interpreting apparatus couplable to the network, the spoken instruction interpreting apparatus having processor-controlled machine identifying means for identifying the one of the plurality of processor-controlled machines that the user wishes to control, accessing means for accessing speech recognition means to cause the speech recognition means to perform speech recognition processing on speech data received by the speech data receiving means to produce recognised speech data, processing means for processing recognised speech data received from the speech recognition means to derive from the recognised speech data control command data for controlling the identified processor-controlled machine, and control command data transmitting means for transmitting the derived control command data over the network to the identified processor-controlled machine to enable the function actioning means of the identified processor-controlled machine to cause the function specified by the user's spoken instruction to be carried out; look-up means for storing information relating to the functions capable of being carried out by processor-controlled machines coupled to the network; determining means for determining whether the identified processor-controlled machine can carry out the function specified in a spoken instruction; and advising means for advising the user, on the basis of the information stored in the look-up means, if there is another processor-controlled machine coupled to the network that can carry out the function specified in a spoken instruction if the determining means determines that the identified processor-controlled machine cannot carry out the function.