Abstract:
A method for controlling a mute function in a telephone device, and the telephone device and a computer program product that implements the method. The method includes: while the mute function is active, voice recognition software in the telephone device processes sound detected by a microphone in the telephone device to recognize and identify one or more specific words as having been spoken by a specific person and not by another person, and in response, the telephone device activates an alarm in the telephone device to communicate that the mute function is active.

Description:
[0001]    This application is a continuation application claiming priority to Ser. No. 14/289,732, filed May 29, 2014, which is a continuation to Ser. No. 11/189,294, filed Jul. 26, 2005, U.S. Pat. No. 8,787,866, issued Jul. 22, 2014. 
     
    
     FIELD OF INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present invention relates generally to telephones, and more particularly to control of a mute function on a telephone or other audio communication device. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    It is known for a telephone to include a mute function, typically activated by a user pressing a mute button on the telephone. Once the mute function is activated, speech or other sounds reaching the telephone will not pass through to other people on a call. The mute function is typically (but not always) used when the telephone is operating in a “speaker” mode, where a microphone in the telephone base unit is activated (instead of a microphone in the handset). The mute function is typically used in a conference call at times when the user is not expected to speak, although it could be used as well in a call with only one other person. Occasionally, while the mute function is active, the user will attempt to speak to the other person or people on the call, forgetting that the mute function is active, Because mute function is active, the other person or people will not hear the words spoken by the user. When the user realizes that the mute function is active, the user will need to repeat the previously muted words. 
         [0004]    U.S. Pat. No. 6,870,919 discloses a telephone with a mute function, and a notification unit which determines when a user is speaking while the mute function is active. In such a case, the telephone or a computer provides a mute status reminder to the user. The mute status reminder may be a tone or prerecorded message. U.S. Pat. No. 6,870,919 also discloses activation of the mute status reminder when the communication signal exceeds a predetermined energy level. 
         [0005]    An object of the present invention is to avoid unnecessary mute status reminders. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0006]    The present invention resides in a system, method and program for controlling a mute function on a telephone device. While the mute function is active, sound reaching a telephone or other communication device is sensed, and a determination is made if the sound includes a word. If so, an alarm is activated to alert a user that the mute function is active. If not, the alarm is not activated. 
         [0007]    In accordance with an optional feature of the present invention, speech recognition software is trained to recognize the voice or speech pattern of a specific user, and the alarm is activated only if the word was spoken by the specific user. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
         [0008]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a telephone with a hand set, base unit with a microphone/speaker, mute button and internal function to provide a mute status reminder with controls according to the present invention. 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram of certain components of the telephone of  FIG. 1 . 
           [0010]      FIG. 3  is a flow chart of one embodiment of the mute status reminder function of  FIG. 1 . 
           [0011]      FIG. 4  is a flow chart of another embodiment of the mute status reminder function of  FIG. 1 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0012]    The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the figures.  FIG. 1  illustrates a telephone generally designated  10  in which the present invention is incorporated. Telephone  10  comprises a conventional handset  12  with a microphone  14  at one end and a speaker  16  at the other end. As shown, the handset  12  resides in its well in a base unit  22 , and is not in use. Telephone  10  also comprises another speaker  18  and another microphone  20  in base unit  22 , which are used in a hands-free, “speakerphone” mode. Telephone  10  also comprises conventional alphanumeric keys  30  to enter a telephone number for a call, and conventional speakerphone mode button  31 . If desired, telephone  10  can also include other conventional telephone features, unrelated to the present invention. Telephone  10  also includes a mute button  32  with internal mute status reminder function according to the present invention, as described below. 
         [0013]      FIG. 2  illustrates some functional components/modules of the base unit  22  of telephone  10 . In the illustrated embodiment, microphone  20  in base unit  22  is active regardless of whether the telephone  10  is operating in the “speakerphone” mode and regardless of whether the mute button  32  is active/set. Microphone  20  detects speech and other sounds that reach it. The other sounds can be background sounds such as a door opening or closing, keys of a computer keyboard being pressed, a chair moving, air conditioning noise, etc. Microphone  20  converts the speech and other sounds it detects into corresponding, electrical analog signals, in a known manner. If the mute button  32  is not active/not set, a known communication module  39  processes these analog signals in a known manner for communication to other people, via a telephone line  35 , connected with a telephone call. However, if the mute button  32  is active/set, then the communication module  39  will be disabled, and not process or communicate these analog signals to other people connected with the telephone call. For those embodiments of the present invention comprising computer software, telephone  10  includes a CPU  36  and basic operating system function  39  to execute the software, RAM  37  and ROM  38  to store speech recognition software  45  prior to execution by CPU  36  via RAM  37 . 
         [0014]    In accordance with the present invention, a threshold detection module  40  compares, to a predetermined threshold, energy level or magnitude of the analog signals from the microphone  20 . The threshold detection module  40  may comprise an integrated circuit or other circuitry and/or a computer program stored on ROM  38  for execution by processor  36  via RAM  37 . If the analog signal level is below the threshold, the source of the sounds is presumed to be background noise, and threshold detection module  40  will deactivate an audio alarm  54 . (In such a case in a hardware embodiment of the present invention, threshold detection module  40  sends a “low” signal to AND gate  43 , whose output is connected to an “Activate” input of audio alarm  54 .) However, if the analog signal level is above the threshold, then the threshold detection module will permit activation of the audio alarm  54  (if other conditions, described below, are met). (In a hardware embodiment of the present invention, threshold detection module  40  sends a “high” signal to AND gate  43  to permit activation of audio alarm  54 .) A speech recognition module  44 , which is software executing on processor  36 , an integrated circuit and/or other circuitry, also analyzes the analog signal from the microphone  20 . In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the speech recognition module  44  attempts to recognize any words (in any human voice) in the analog signal, using known speech recognition algorithms embodied in the software, integrated circuit and/or other circuitry. By way of example, IBM ViaVoice speech recognition software contains algorithms to perform speech recognition. Also, CMU Sphinx-III voice recognition software and VoiceSignals voice recognition software contain speech recognition algorithms/modules based on hidden-markov model (HMM) representations of language. Such known speech recognition software programs can be used in module  44  to attempt to recognize words and/or speech patterns in the analog signals. If the speech recognition module  44  does not identify any words in the analog signal, the speech recognition module  44  presumes the analog signal to represent background noise and not an attempt by the user to communicate to the other person or people on the call. Consequently, the speech recognition module  44  will deactivate the audio alarm  54 . (In a hardware embodiment of the present invention, in such a case, speech recognition module  44  sends a “low” signal to AND gate  43 .) However, if the speech recognition module  44  identifies any words (in any human voice) from the analog signal, then the speech recognition module  44  will permit activation of the audio alarm  54  to attempt to alert the user that the mute button is active/set. (In a hardware embodiment of the present invention, in such a case, speech recognition module  44  sends a “high” signal to AND gate  43 .) This signal will activate the audio alarm  54  if the threshold detection module detected that the signal level exceeded the threshold level and mute button  32  has been activated/set and has enabled audio alarm  44 . The reason that speech recognition module  44  attempts to activate the audio alarm (when it identities one or more spoken words) is the presumption that the user of telephone  10  spoke the word(s) and intended to communicate the word(s) to the other person or people on the telephone call. Upon hearing the alarm, the user will typically deactivate/reset the mute button and repeat the words that were previously muted. Because the audio alarm will sound near the beginning of the user&#39;s speech (as soon as the speech recognition module  44  detects the first word or two), the user can deactivate/reset the mute button near the beginning of the user&#39;s speech, and may only have to repeat a few words. As noted above, if the mute button is active/set, but the speech recognition module  44  does not identify any words from the analog signal, then the speech recognition module  44  will not attempt to activate the audio alarm  54  and not alert the user that the mute button is active/set. The reason that the module  44  will not attempt to activate the audio alarm  54  in this case is the presumption that the sounds were background noise, and not intended as a communication from the user. If the mute button is not active/not set, the state of the mute button (switch) will disable the audio alarm  54 , and will not permit the audio alarm to sound under any circumstances. This will avoid interfere with the user&#39;s attempts to communicate with the other person or people on the call. 
         [0015]    In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, the speech recognition module  44  not only recognizes words but also has been trained to recognize the voice of the user (of telephone  10 ) and distinguish words spoken by the user from the same words spoken by other people. By way of example, a specific user can train a known ARM processor-based speech recognition program (such as IBM Via Voice speech recognition software based on Hidden Markov Model) to recognize the specific user&#39;s speech pattern, and differentiate it from other background noise or other people&#39;s speech patterns. A “speech pattern” is the spectra of electrical signals generated by a microphone when a specific person speaks words. More information on this speech recognition program can be obtained from manufacturer&#39;s manuals such as that from VoiceSignal company at www.voicesignal.com/solutions/tech.php3#sda. This embodiment of the present invention operates the same as the foregoing embodiment described above, except that the speech recognition module  44  only attempts to activate the audio alarm  54  if the speech recognition module  44  detects, in the analog signal, a word or speech pattern spoken in the voice of the user. This will avoid unnecessary audio alarms in cases where another person is speaking in the vicinity of the telephone. For example, there may be a secretary near the user or someone walking by the user, and the secretary or other person is speaking loudly enough to be detected by microphone  20  and exceed the threshold level of module  40 . This will not cause the speech recognition module  44  to attempt to activate the audio alarm in this embodiment of the present invention. The audio alarm is not needed or desired in such cases because the secretary or other person do not intend to communicate to the other people on the telephone call, and therefore, there is no need to alert the user of telephone  10  that the mute function is active/set. 
         [0016]      FIG. 3  is a flow chart based on a combined hardware and software embodiment of threshold detection module  40  and speech recognition module  44 . Threshold detection module  40  comprises a threshold detector  41  to determine whether the analog signal exceeds a threshold, and logic  42  to process the output of the threshold detector  41 . In this embodiment, detector  42  is formed from circuitry, and logic  42  is formed from computer programming. Speech recognition module  44  comprises a speech recognition function  45  to recognize spoken words represented by the analog signal, and logic  46  to process the output of the speech recognition function  45 . In this embodiment, speech recognition function  45  comprises circuitry and/or computer programming, and logic  46  comprises computer programming.  FIG. 3  is a flowchart of the program logic  42  and program logic  46  in this embodiment of the present invention. Because threshold detector  41  and speech recognition function  45  are well known, their mode of operation need not be repeated in detail herein. In step  100 , logic  42  within the threshold detection module  40  receives a signal from threshold detector  41 . The signal from threshold detection function  41  indicates whether the power level, energy level or magnitude of the analog signal corresponding to the speech or other sounds detected by the microphone  20  exceeds a predetermined threshold level. If not (decision  104 , no branch), then logic  42  will not permit activation of the audio alarm  54  (step  106 ). If so (decision  104 , yes branch), the first test for activating the audio alarm  54  is met, and the analysis of whether to activate the alarm proceeds to the next test. Accordingly, logic  46  within the speech recognition module  44  has also received a signal from the speech recognition function  45  indicating whether the speech recognition function  45  has detected a real word in the analog signal (step  108 ). If not (decision  110 , no branch), then logic  46  will send a deactivation signal to audio alarm  54  to prevent the audio alarm from sounding (step  112 ). If so (decision  110 , yes branch), then the second test for activating the audio alarm is met, and the speech recognition logic  46  sends an activation signal to the audio alarm  54  (step  118 ). If the mute button has been activated/set enabling the audio alarm  54 , then the activation signal from the logic  46  will cause the audio alarm  54  to sound its alarm. However, if the mute button has not been activated/set, then the audio alarm  54  will not be enabled and will not sound its alarm in response to the activation signal from the speech recognition logic  46 . 
         [0017]      FIG. 4  is a flow chart based on a combined hardware and software embodiment of threshold detection module  40  and a speech recognition module  144  (that substitutes for module  44  in  FIGS. 1 and 2 ). Threshold detection module  40  comprises threshold detector  41  to determine whether the analog signal exceeds a threshold, and logic  42  to process the output of the threshold detector  41 . In this embodiment (as in the previous embodiment), detector  41  is formed from circuitry, and logic  42  is formed from computer programming. Speech recognition module  144  comprises a speech recognition function  145  to recognize words spoken by a specific person, and logic  146  to process the output of the speech recognition function  145 . In this embodiment, speech recognition function  145  comprises circuitry and/or computer programming, and logic  146  comprises computer programming.  FIG. 4  is a flowchart of the program logic  42  and program logic  146  in this embodiment of the present invention. Because threshold detector  41  and speech recognition function  145  are well known, their modes of operation need not be repeated in detail herein. In step  200 , logic  42  within the threshold detection module  40  receives a signal from threshold detector  41 . The signal from threshold detection module  40  indicates whether the power level, energy level or magnitude of the analog signal corresponding to the speech or other sounds detected by the microphone  20  exceeds a predetermined threshold level. If not (decision  204 , no branch), then logic  42  will not permit activation of the audio alarm  54  (step  206 ). If so (decision  204 , yes branch), the first test for activating the audio alarm  54  is met, and the analysis of whether to activate the alarm proceeds to the next test. Accordingly, logic  146  within the speech recognition module  144  has also received a signal from the speech recognition function  145  indicating whether the speech recognition function  145  has detected a real word in the analog signal from a specific person/recognized user (step  208 ). This is the person/user who has trained the speech recognition function  145  to recognize this person&#39;s/user&#39;s voice and distinguish this person&#39;s/user&#39;s voice from other people&#39;s voices. (Speech recognition function  145  will not send a signal to logic  146  indicating that it has detected a real word in the specific person&#39;s/user&#39;s voice when it detects a real word from another person or when it detects only background/nonword sounds.) If the speech recognition function  145  has not detected a real word or speech pattern in the analog signal from a specific person/recognized user (decision  210 , no branch), then logic  146  will deactivate audio alarm  54  so it cannot sound (step  212 ). However, if the speech recognition function  145  has detected a real word or speech pattern in the analog signal from the specific person/recognized user (decision  210 , yes branch), then the second test for activating the audio alarm is met, and the speech recognition logic  146  sends an activation signal to the audio alarm  54  (step  218 ). If the mute button has been activated/set, then the audio alarm  54  is enabled and the activation signal from the speech recognition logic  146  will cause the audio alarm  54  to sound. However, if the mute button has not been activated/set, then the audio alarm  54  will not be enabled and will not sound the alarm in response to the activation signal from the speech recognition logic  146 . 
         [0018]    Based on the foregoing, system, method and computer program for implementing a mute function have been disclosed. However, numerous modifications and substitutions can be made without deviating from the scope of the present invention. For example, the speech recognition software can be programmed to disable the mute function if the user commands such disabling by spoken words. Therefore, the present invention has been disclosed by way of illustration and not limitation, and reference should be made to the following claims to determine the scope of the present invention.