Patent Publication Number: US-11652925-B2

Title: Voice-controlled system that checks program guide to determine channel on which program name determined according to voice-to-text transcript is currently playing

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/108,174 filed on Dec. 1, 2020, which is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/699,466 filed on Nov. 29, 2019, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/390,637 filed on Apr. 22, 2019, which is a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/834,961 filed on Dec. 7, 2017, which claims the benefit of priority of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/433,693 filed Dec. 13, 2016. All of these applications are incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     (1) Field of the Invention 
     The invention pertains generally to entertainment and other electronic systems utilized at hospitality establishments such as hotels and resorts. More specifically, the invention relates to a data gate for interfacing between a plurality of different electronic systems, and a system for controlling devices within a guest room utilizing a user&#39;s voice. 
     (2) Description of the Related Art 
     One problem with hotel technology is the integration of different electronic systems.  FIG.  1    shows a block diagram of the typical interconnection of different hotel systems within a hotel according to the prior art. As shown, the phone private branch exchange (PBX) system  100 , Internet system  102 , property management system (PMS)  104 , point of sale system  106 , in-room video system  108 , and room control services system  110  are all directly connected with one another as needed using dedicated connections. Each of these systems needs to talk to at least one other system and some, like the PMS  104 , need to talk with many separate systems. For this reason, each service needs to develop its own dedicated interfaces to communicate properly with each connected system. 
     The current approach illustrated in  FIG.  1    is hard to manage and upgrade. Whenever a hotel brings on a new vendor, the hotel needs to make sure the new vendor system is compatible with all the other vendor systems. The installation process is therefore complex, error prone, and leads to much finger pointing about who is responsible for what. 
     Another problem with hotel technology is the control of in-room and other electronic devices. The first thing many hotel guests do after they have connected to a hotel&#39;s high speed internet access (HSIA) system is to turn on the in-room television (TV). The TV is usually on and tuned to the guest&#39;s channel of choice within five minutes of a guest getting into the room. 
     However, many guests do not enjoy using the hotel-provided TV infrared remote control. Besides being unfamiliar to the guest, the remote control can be a spawning ground for germs and a possible way to pick up a cold. Getting ill is something most people do not wish to happen while travelling. The fact that many unknown people have previously handled the remote is not appealing to the average guest. 
     One way to prevent the need for a guest to pick up the remote is to allow room control with voice commands. There are a few initiatives going on in the industry today around voice controlling the hotel room. Current trials typically take the form of some sort of device such as a preconfigured iPad™ being provided by the hotel in the guest room. The iPad is set up in advance by hotel staff specifically for the room in which it is placed and is intended to respond to the voice commands of the guests in that room. 
     The preconfigured iPad-in-the-room solution has several issues making it a non-ideal solution. First, the hotel needs to buy all these devices for every room in the hotel. These initial cost requirements are a significant barrier to entry for many hotels. Furthermore, the hotel needs to set up all the devices in the room and ensure they remain properly configured, properly cleaned, and properly updated over time. Guests will move these devices around, unplug them, perhaps even manipulate them and put unwanted software on them. Worst yet, a guest could walk out of their room with the iPad in their luggage. Additionally, guests are likely to object to the iPad in the room for privacy reasons. 
     In the early nineties, some hotels tried installing a full desktop computer in each guest room. One of the features of early setups was a small web camera intended to allow guests to conduct video conferences with colleagues. 
     The in-room computer and especially the web camera was a huge flop for a couple of reasons. For one, at that time people were starting to carry their own laptops with them more and more and these tech savvy guests wanted to use their own device. They had all the files and all the settings just as they wanted them on their own device and they knew how to use their laptop instead of having to figure out where everything was on a foreign computer. But the biggest issue was the web camera. People were concerned by the idea that they were being watched by the preinstalled web cameras. The in-room web camera was great idea with good intentions that inadvertently caused massive privacy concerns. Shortly after they were installed, they were all pulled out. 
     However, it seems the industry is now trying the same experiment with in-room iPads provided by the hotel in each room. It is likely many guests are going to have the same reaction that has already been discovered by the industry about other in-room technology. For one, many guests will not want to physically touch the hotel-provided iPad. It is not theirs. It is potentially dirty. It might break and they will be held responsible. But more importantly they are going to wonder what nefarious things it might be used for. An iPad has a microphone that could be listening to them. In fact, to enable voice commands, the iPad literally needs to do just that. Whether it does anything additional with the audio is unknown to the guest. It is not the guest&#39;s device. Furthermore, a hotel-provided iPad has a video camera built-in. Although not needed for voice commands, a typical guest will not trust that the camera has been effectively disabled. They will worry why there is a foreign video camera in their hotel room. They may be fearful that a nefarious individual has access to the device. Some may demand the devices be removed. Bottom line, the in-room device is not theirs, so many guests will not trust it. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention there is disclosed a data gate apparatus for interfacing between a plurality of services. The data gate apparatus includes a storage device, a network interface, and a processor coupled to the storage device and the communication interface. By the processor executing software instructions loaded from the storage device, the processor is operable to learn a first interface format of a first of the services at least by receiving a first data function from the first of the services via the communication interface and identifying a field in the first data function, the field representing a position in data functions having the first interface format where information of a particular type is passed. The processor associates a variable with the field, the variable representing the information of the particular type, and store the first interface format in the storage device for future use. The processor further receives a second data function via the communication interface from the first of the services, the second data function having the first interface format. Furthermore, the processor identifies the field in the second data function according to the first interface format in the storage device, extracts a value from the field in the second data function and store the value as the variable, generates a message in a second interface format different than the first interface format and inserts the value of the variable in the message, and sends the message in the second interface format to a second of the services. In this way, the second of the services receives the value of the variable representing the information of the particular type as passed from the first of the services without the second of the services needing to understand the first interface format utilized by the first of the services. 
     According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention there is disclosed a system for interfacing between a plurality of services. 
     According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention there is disclosed a method of interfacing between a plurality of services. The method includes learning a first interface format of a first of the services at least by receiving a first data function from the first of the services via a communication interface and identifying a field in the first data function, the field representing a position in data functions having the first interface format where information of a particular type is passed. The method further includes associating a variable with the field, the variable representing the information of the particular type, and storing the first interface format in a storage device for future use. The method further includes receiving a second data function via the communication interface from the first of the services, the second data function having the first interface format, identifying the field in the second data function according to the first interface format in the storage device, extracting a value from the field in the second data function and storing the value as the variable, generating a message in a second interface format different than the first interface format and inserting the value of the variable in the message, and sending the message in the second interface format to a second of the services. In this way, the second of the services receives the value of the variable representing the information of the particular type as passed from the first of the services without the second of the services needing to understand the first interface format utilized by the first of the services. 
     According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention there is disclosed a non-transitory computer-readable medium for interfacing between a plurality of services. The non-transitory computer-readable medium includes computer executable instructions for interfacing between a plurality of services that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform steps at least including learning a first interface format of a first of the services at least by receiving a first data function from the first of the services via a communication interface and identifying a field in the first data function, the field representing a position in data functions having the first interface format where information of a particular type is passed. The non-transitory computer readable medium further includes associating a variable with the field, the variable representing the information of the particular type, and storing the first interface format in a storage device for future use. The non-transitory computer readable medium further includes receiving a second data function via the communication interface from the first of the services, the second data function having the first interface format, identifying the field in the second data function according to the first interface format in the storage device, extracting a value from the field in the second data function and storing the value as the variable, generating a message in a second interface format different than the first interface format and inserting the value of the variable in the message, and sending the message in the second interface format to a second of the services. In this way, the second of the services receives the value of the variable representing the information of the particular type as passed from the first of the services without the second of the services needing to understand the first interface format utilized by the first of the services. 
     According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention there is disclosed a system for controlling devices in a guest room of a hospitality establishment. The system includes a user device operated by a guest of the hospitality establishment, the user device having a microphone and a network interface coupled to a computer network, a voice-to-text server coupled to the network, and a room control server coupled to the network. The user device is operable to record an audio file from the microphone and send the audio file from the user device to the voice-to-text server via the computer network. The voice-to-text server is operable to convert the audio received from the user device into a text transcript and send the text transcript back to the user device. The user device is further operable to pass the text transcript to the room control server. The room control server is operable to determine a particular room of the hospitality establishment with which the user device is currently associated. The room control server is further operable to decode the text transcript into a room control command, and the room control server is further operable to determine one or more target in-room controllable devices of the particular room to which the room control command pertains. The room control server is further 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 room control command. 
     According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention there is disclosed a method for controlling devices in a guest room of a hospitality establishment. 
     According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention there is disclosed a computer server for controlling devices in a guest room of a hospitality establishment. 
     According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention there is disclosed an apparatus for controlling devices in a guest room of a hospitality establishment. 
     According to yet another exemplary embodiment of the invention there is disclosed a data gate apparatus for integrating functionalities of an interface format into a plurality of services. The data gate apparatus includes a storage device, a communication interface, and a processor coupled to the storage device and the communication interface. By the processor executing software instructions loaded from the storage device, the processor is operable to detect a first interface format of a first of the services via the communication interface. In response to determining that the first interface format is different than the interface formats stored in the storage device, the processor learns the first interface format at least by receiving a first data function from the first of the services and identifying a field in the first data function, the field representing a position in data functions having the first interface format where an information of a particular type is passed. Thereafter, the processor associates a variable with the field, the variable representing the information of the particular type, and stores the first interface format in the storage device for future use. The processor verifies that the first interface format stored in the storage device is functional at least by: installing the first interface format on the data gate, generating a message in the first interface format, and sending the message in the first interface format to the first of the services wherein the message at least causes the first of the services to send a response message to the data gate. The processor receives the response message from the first of the services via the communication interface, parses the response message to thereby confirm that the first interface format stored in the storage device is functional and integrable into the plurality of services. 
     According to yet another exemplary embodiment of the invention there is disclosed a method of integrating functionalities of an interface format into a plurality of services. The method includes detecting a first interface format of a first of the services and determining that the first interface format is different than the interface formats stored in a storage device. The method further includes learning the first interface format at least by receiving a first data function from the first of the services and identifying a field in the first data function, the field representing a position in data functions having the first interface format where an information of a particular type is passed, associating a variable with the field, the variable representing the information of the particular type, and storing the first interface in the storage device for future use. The method further includes verifying that the first interface format stored in the storage device is functional at least by: installing the first interface format on a data gate, generating a message in the first interface format, and sending the message in the first interface format to the first of the services wherein the message at least causes the first of the services to send a response message. The method further includes receiving the response message from the first of the services and parsing the response message to thereby confirm that the first interface format stored in the storage device is functional and integrable into the plurality of services. 
     According to yet another exemplary embodiment of the invention there is disclosed a system for voice control of devices at a hospitality establishment. The system includes one or more computer servers and a plurality of controllable devices coupled to the one or more computer servers. The one or more computer servers are configured to send a first message to a user device operated by a guest of the hospitality establishment in response to a first trigger. The first message causes a predetermined software application on the user device to temporarily register itself with a pre-existing voice assistant software running on the user device thereby causing the pre-existing voice assistant software to pass one or more voice-to-text transcripts to the predetermined software application. The pre-existing voice assistant software only passes the voice-to-text transcripts to the predetermined software application while the predetermined software application is registered with the pre-existing voice assistant. The one or more computer servers are further configured to receive a command from the predetermined software application running on the user device, the command corresponding to a text transcript passed to the predetermined software application by the pre-existing voice assistant software running on the user device. The one or more computer servers are further configured to determine a particular room of the hospitality establishment with which the user device is currently associated. The one or more computer servers are further configured to determine one or more target in-room controllable devices of the particular room to which the command pertains. The one or more computer servers are further configured to send one or more network messages to the one or more target in-room controllable devices thereby causing the one or more target in-room controllable devices to carry out the command. The one or more computer servers are further configured to send a second message to the user device in response to a second trigger, the second message causing the predetermined software application on the user device to deregister itself with the pre-existing voice assistant software running on the user device. 
     According to yet another exemplary embodiment of the invention there is disclosed a control server for supporting voice control of devices at a hospitality establishment. The control server includes a network interface for coupling to a computer network of the hospitality establishment, a storage device, and one or more processors coupled to the network interface and the storage device. By the one or more processors executing software instructions loaded from the storage device, the one or more processors are configured to send a first message to a user device operated by a guest of the hospitality establishment in response to a first trigger. The first message causing a predetermined software application on the user device to temporarily register itself with a pre-existing voice assistant software running on the user device thereby causing the pre-existing voice assistant software to pass one or more voice-to-text transcripts to the predetermined software application. The pre-existing voice assistant software only passes the voice-to-text transcripts to the predetermined software application while the predetermined software application is registered with the pre-existing voice assistant. The one or more processors are further configured to receive a command from the predetermined software application running on the user device, the command corresponding to a text transcript passed to the predetermined software application by the pre-existing voice assistant software running on the user device. The one or more processors are further configured to determine a particular room of the hospitality establishment with which the user device is currently associated. The one or more processors are further configured to determine one or more target in-room controllable devices of the particular room to which the command pertains. The one or more processors are further configured to send one or more network messages to the one or more target in-room controllable devices thereby causing the one or more target in-room controllable devices to carry out the command. The one or more processors are further configured to send a second message to the user device in response to a second trigger, the second message causing the predetermined software application on the user device to deregister itself with the pre-existing voice assistant software running on the user device. 
     According to yet another exemplary embodiment of the invention there is disclosed a method of supporting voice control of devices at a hospitality establishment. The method includes sending, by one or more computer servers, a first message to a user device operated by a guest of the hospitality establishment in response to a first trigger. The first message causing a predetermined software application on the user device to temporarily register itself with a pre-existing voice assistant software running on the user device thereby causing the pre-existing voice assistant software to pass one or more voice-to-text transcripts to the predetermined software application. The pre-existing voice assistant software only passes the voice-to-text transcripts to the predetermined software application while the predetermined software application is registered with the pre-existing voice assistant. The method further includes receiving, by the one or more computer servers, a command from the predetermined software application running on the user device, the command corresponding to a text transcript passed to the predetermined software application by the pre-existing voice assistant software running on the user device. The method further includes determining, by the one or more computer servers, a particular room of the hospitality establishment with which the user device is currently associated. The method further includes determining, by the one or more computer servers, one or more target in-room controllable devices of the particular room to which the command pertains. The method further includes sending, by the one or more computer servers, one or more network messages to the one or more target in-room controllable devices thereby causing the one or more target in-room controllable devices to carry out the command. The method further includes sending, by the one or more computer servers, a second message to the user device in response to a second trigger, the second message causing the predetermined software application on the user device to deregister itself with the pre-existing voice assistant software running on the user device. 
     According to yet another exemplary embodiment of the invention there is disclosed a voice-controlled system for allowing a guest of a hospitality establishment to play desired media content on an in-room device. The system includes a user device operated by a guest of the hospitality establishment, the user device having a microphone and a network interface. The system further includes one or more servers coupled to a computer network and a plurality of in-room devices coupled to the one or more servers. 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. The user device is further operable to pass the text transcript to the one or more servers via the computer network. The one or more servers are operable to determine a particular room of the hospitality establishment with which the user device is currently associated. The one or more servers are further operable to check a program guide for the particular room in order to determine a channel on which a program name determined according to the text transcript is currently playing. The one or more servers are further operable determine one or more target in-room devices of the particular room and send one or more commands to the one or more target in-room devices of the particular room thereby causing the one or more target in-room devices to play the channel on which the program name is currently playing. 
     According to yet another exemplary embodiment of the invention there is disclosed a control server for allowing a guest of a hospitality establishment to play desired media content on an in-room device. The control server includes a network interface for coupling to a computer network of the hospitality establishment, a storage device, and one or more processors coupled to the network interface and the storage device. By the one or more processors executing software instructions loaded from the storage device, the one or more processors are configured to receive a text transcript from a user device via the computer network, the user device being operated by the guest of the hospitality establishment. The one or more processors are further configured to determine a particular room of the hospitality establishment with which the user device is currently associated and check a program guide for the particular room in order to determine a channel on which a program name determined according to the text transcript is currently playing. The one or more processors are further configured to determine one or more target in-room devices of the particular room and send one or more commands to the one or more target in-room devices of the particular room thereby causing the one or more target in-room devices to play the channel on which the program name is currently playing. 
     According to yet another exemplary embodiment of the invention there is disclosed a method of allowing a guest of a hospitality establishment to play desired media content on an in-room device. The method includes receiving, by one or more computer servers, a text transcript from a user device via the computer network, the user device being operated by the guest of the hospitality establishment. The method further includes determining, by the one or more computer servers, a particular room of the hospitality establishment with which the user device is currently associated. The method further includes checking, by the one or more computer servers, a program guide for the particular room in order to determine a channel on which a program name determined according to the text transcript is currently playing. The method further includes determining, by the one or more computer servers, one or more target in-room devices of the particular room. The method further includes sending one or more commands from the one or more computer servers to the one or more target in-room devices of the particular room thereby causing the one or more target in-room devices to play the channel on which the program name is currently playing. 
     These and other advantages and embodiments of the present invention will no doubt become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of preferred embodiments illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The invention will be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings which represent preferred embodiments thereof: 
         FIG.  1    shows a block diagram of the typical interconnection of different hotel systems within a hotel according to the prior art. 
         FIG.  2    shows a block diagram the interconnection of different systems interconnected by a data gate according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG.  3    shows a flowchart of a method of setting up the data gate of  FIG.  2    for enabling communication with a different interface type according to an exemplary embodiment. 
         FIG.  4    shows an example of the visual user interface that may be displayed by the data gate at the “Learn interface” step of  FIG.  3   . 
         FIG.  5    illustrates an example of a PMS function called “Guest folio”, which is the data function response to a “Get folio” data function message sent to the PMS of  FIG.  2   . 
         FIG.  6    illustrates a block diagram of a data gate of  FIG.  2    located at a hotel property communicating with a cloud PBX and cloud PMS ensuring connectivity between the two. 
         FIG.  7    shows a trip flow where all data needed by the guest during their trip is integrated with a single app funning on the user&#39;s mobile phone via the data gate of  FIG.  6   . 
         FIG.  8    shows a block diagram of a system for allowing a guest of a hospitality establishment to utilize their voice to control one aspects of a guest room according to an exemplary embodiment. 
         FIG.  9    shows a flowchart of a method of controlling a guest room using voice commands according to an exemplary embodiment. 
         FIG.  10    illustrates a computer server merging the functionality of the data gate of  FIG.  2    with room control and high speed internet access (HSIA) controllers of  FIG.  8    according to an exemplary embodiment. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       FIG.  2    shows a block diagram the interconnection of different systems interconnected to a data gate  200  according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. In the following description, it will be assumed that the interconnected system service one or more hotels, but it is to be understood that the data gate  200  may also be utilized in conjunction with any system and may service any type of establishment including hospitality establishments other than hotels. In contrast to the interconnection scheme shown in  FIG.  1   , in  FIG.  2    each of the phone private branch exchange (PBX) system  202 , Internet system  204 , property management system (PMS)  206 , point of sale system  208 , in-room video system  210 , and room control services system  212  are all coupled to a central data gate  200 . The data gate  200  is a unified communication gateway through which all services and systems at the hotel talk to one another. 
     The data gate  200  acts as a traffic cop to make sure information gets to where it needs to go. This way, if a hotel needs to replace one of these services with a different one, the hotel does not need to wait for all the integration work to be re-done to ensure compatibility of the new system with those of the other vendors. 
       FIG.  3    shows a flowchart of a method of setting up the data gate  200  for enabling communication with a different interface type according to an exemplary embodiment. The steps of  FIG.  3    may be performed by one or more processors of the data gate  200  executing software instructions in conjunction with optional input from an administrator or technical support staff via a user interface (UI). The steps of the flowchart are not restricted to the exact order shown, and, in other configurations, shown steps may be omitted or other intermediate steps added. 
     At step  300 , the process begins upon starting the setup process of the data gate  200 . For instance, this may represent the initial installation of the data gate  200  at a new hotel, or may represent a change of one of the existing vendor systems  202 ,  204 ,  206 ,  208 ,  210 ,  212  at a hotel. The UI may have a menu item to initiate an interface setup mode. 
     At step  302 , the data gate  200  determines whether a new interface connection type is required to be learned. Each type of vendor system may have different interface requirements. The requirements may include different message protocols and/or connection types. In some embodiments, step  302  is implemented as an on-screen menu for an administrator to select whether they want to learn a new interface or to select an existing one from a library of available interface configurations. In some embodiments, step  302  is implemented as an automatic detection performed by the data gate  200  itself detecting a physical cable being plugged in such as an RS-232 or Ethernet cable, and/or detecting a type of the connected device and/or a required protocol version. The data gate  200  may automatically detect whether or not the connected system is of a known type of an unknown type. When a new interface type is required to be learned, control proceeds to step  304 ; otherwise, when the interface is already recognized, control proceeds to step  310 . 
     At step  304 , the data gate  200  learns the new interface type. In some embodiments, the learning process is facilitated by a graphical user interface (UI) that displays captured function data from the newly connected system and allows an administrator to highlight fields within that function data. The highlighted fields are then mapped by the administrator to specific variables recognized by the data gate  200 . In some embodiments, the data gate is able to automatically recognize and reproduce the formatting around the variables in order to create new function data that is compatible (i.e., compliant) with the new interface type. Learning can also initially be started by a user entering in and setting up the interface based on a spec doc using the UI. Then the testing and changes done through the learning processes described herein can be made by the user using the UI. The spec doc may be manually entered or downloaded from an interface library. Although some embodiments require an administrator or other technical support staff to work with the graphical user interface and manually map variables to fields in the function data, there is beneficially no low-level programming involved in many embodiments so the work required by the support staff is greatly simplified. The visual user interface allows the data gate to be configured in a faster manner when a new interface type is required because a greater number of human users will have the skills necessary to operate a visual user interface versus coding a low-level interface using a standard text-based programming language. 
     In some embodiments, the data gate  200  learns the new user interface at step  304  utilizing machine learning in a fully automated manner that does not involve human user interaction. For instance, a hotel may have an existing interconnection system such as shown in  FIG.  1    already working. The hotel may wish to switch to utilizing a data gate  200  as disclosed herein for benefits such as allowing future upgrades to be done in a more convenient manner. In order to convert a system such as illustrated in  FIG.  1    to that shown in  FIG.  2   , the data gate  200  may first be connected to two systems that are already communicating properly with one another. The data gate  200  then acts as a transparent proxy between the two devices such that each thinks it is talking with the other, even though all traffic is in fact being passed through the data gate  200  for analysis. As the messages flow between the two connected devices, the data gate  200  identifies which parts of captured function data are changing in the messages of a same type and determines these changing portions of the data to represent fields in that function&#39;s data. For instance, a plurality of room billing messages will have parts of the data representing the room number to bill as well as the amount to bill changing between different messages. These changing portions of that particular type of function data are thereby identified as fields. 
     The data gate  200  may then utilize heuristic algorithms to detect which fields should be mapped to which known variables. Each variable represents a known type of information. For instance, the data gate  200  may recognize that a certain field always contains a number that matches one of the known room numbers at the hotel. This likely means the field should be mapped to a “Room number” variable. Likewise, a field that always contains a number in of the format $XX.XX may be mapped to a “dollar amount” variable. Again, the data gate  200  can also determine the other formatting requirements and build the interface code as data traffic is passed between the two systems. At a certain point, all changing fields in the data will be mapped to variables and all other formatting requirements will be known and reproducible by the data gate  200 . The new interface type has been learned. The data gate  200  may thereafter create and send new messages to the two devices using the automatically learned interface type. 
     Any combination of machine learning and/or human assistance may be utilized at step  304  to allow the data gate  200  to learn a new interface type in the fastest and easiest manner possible. In some cases, there may not be working connections available for the data gate  200  to monitor between two systems so a human may choose to use the visual interface to manually map variables to fields. Likewise, in other cases, the data gate  200  may automatically determine which parts of the function data are changing and therefore represent fields, but the human user many still manually map the detected fields to specific variables for better accuracy. For example, the human user may be able to better recognize that a certain field is holding a room number while another field is holding a dollar amount. A human user mapping the known variables to the specific fields may be faster or more reliable than the data gate  200  machine learning this mapping in some situations. Any combination and permutation of manual and automatic learning may be employed at step  304  in different embodiments. 
     At step  306 , the data gate  200  tests the newly learned interface. In some embodiments, the testing process involves human interaction to verify things are working properly. For instance, if the new interface is the in-room movie system  210 , the data gate  200  may send a number of channel change messages, a number of TV on/off messages, etc. The human user then verifies that the appropriate channels are displayed and/or appropriate in-room TVs are turned on/off. 
     In some embodiments, the verification process at step  306  may be automatic where the data gate  200  receives acknowledgements back from one or more other devices to confirm that new functionality over the interface is working. For instance, the data gate  200  may generate and send an incoming phone call message to the PBX system  202 , which if received by the PBX system  200  and properly formatted according to the required interface type of the PBX system  200  will cause the PBX system  202  to generate and send a new message to the TV/Video system  210  to display an onscreen phone call alert and mute the volume. This new message from the PBX system  202  will be received by the data gate  200  (since the data gate  200  is intermediate the PBX system  202  and the TV/Video system  210 ) and can therefore be utilized to confirm that the original incoming phone call message to the PBX system  202  was successful. 
     At step  307 , the data gate  200  determines whether or not the new interface type is working properly based on the testing performed at step  306 . For instance, when all the tests are deemed successful, either by a manual confirmation process or by the data gate  200  automatically confirming the test result, the data gate  200  marks the new interface configuration type as finished and proceeds to step  308 . Alternatively, if the testing performed at step  306  was not successful, control returns to step  304  to continue learning the new interface and updating the configuration. 
     At step  308 , the data gate  200  adds the newly configured interface to a library of interface configurations. The library may be stored in a storage device such as a hard drive or FLASH memory coupled local to the processors of the data gate, or may be stored in a cloud based storage device such as an interface library server provided by the vendor of the data gate. As new interface types are learned by the data gate over time, the library will grow. Especially when the library is stored in the cloud and accessible by data gates handling interconnections between different hotels, the frequency at which new interfaces will be encountered will decrease as the library expands over time. Basically, the library of known working interfaces will increase as the data gates  200  learn new interfaces configuration across the plurality of hotels and populate the library. Once an interface type is known and stored in the library, it can be retrieved and installed by any data gate  200  that needs to interconnect with an external system using that interface type. 
     At step  310 , the data gate  200  downloads and installs a known interface type from the library. In some embodiments, the administrators or other support staff user can filter the existing interface types according to genres such as Video, PMS, PBX, etc. Thereafter, the various known interface types may be listed for the selected genre and perhaps labelled utilizing other specified attributes such as the manufacture name, brand, and/or model number of the particular equipment. 
     At step  312 , the data gate  200  leaves setup mode and enters operational mode for the new interface, either a newly learned interface at step  304  or a newly chosen interface from the library at step  310 . For this point on, any of the systems  202 ,  204 ,  206 ,  208 ,  210 ,  212  coupled to the data gate can send and receive messages to/from the new interface. 
     At step  314 , the data gate  200  facilitates communication between the various systems  202 ,  204 ,  206 ,  208 ,  210 ,  212 . For example, while facilitating communications, the effective operation of the data gate  200  in  FIG.  2    will be to provide the various connections between the systems  202 ,  204 ,  206 ,  208 ,  210 ,  212  as illustrated in  FIG.  1   . However, unlike the connection structure of  FIG.  1    that require direct connections between the various systems  202 ,  204 ,  206 ,  208 ,  210 ,  212 , in  FIG.  2   , the structure simply involves each of the various systems  202 ,  204 ,  206 ,  208 ,  210 ,  212  being connected to the data gate  200  rather than to each other. 
     In some embodiments, conversion between different interface message formats/types and other implementation details of the data gate  200  are similar or the same as described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,185,178 issued Nov. 10, 2015 and entitled “INTERFACE GATEWAY AND METHOD OF INTERFACING A PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM WITH A GUEST SERVICE DEVICE”, U.S. Pat. No. 9,456,047 issued Sep. 27, 2016 entitled “INTERFACE GATEWAY AND METHOD OF INTERFACING A PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM WITH A GUEST SERVICE DEVICE”, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/254,036 filed Sep. 1, 2016 and entitled “CENTRAL INTERFACE GATEWAY AND METHOD OF INTERFACING A PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM WITH A GUEST SERVICE DEVICE VIA THE INTERNET”, which are each incorporated herein by reference. As the actual conversion between known interface types of different types is already well known in the art, further description of the actual conversion process at step  314  is omitted herein for brevity. 
     At step  316 , the data gate  200  determines whether a change to the interface setup is required. In some embodiments, a hotel or other staff member may access the visual interface of the data gate  200  to specify that they are adding a new system or changing an existing system coupled to the data gate  200 . Adding a new system or changing an existing system to a different vendor may require the data gate  200  to be updated to use a new interface type compatible with the new/changed system. Likewise, rather than a manual process, the data gate  200  may itself determine when a change is required by automatically detecting the connection of a new system, removal of an old one, or by detecting errors or unrecognized network traffic or messages from one of the systems. Upon a change being required, control returns to step  300  to restart the setup process. 
       FIG.  4    shows an example of the visual user interface  400  that may be displayed by the data gate  200  at step  304  of  FIG.  3   . In this example, the hotel is replacing the room controls service  212 . After the old room controls service  212  is replaced with the new one, the connection from the new room services system  212  to the rest of the services is broken. This is a key piece of why it is so costly and frustrating to complete an integration. Every system speaks a different language. One of the features of the data gate  200  in some embodiments is to simplify the integration effort and most importantly remove or even eliminate the need for human users to perform any software development coding as much as possible. In some embodiments, a simple to use visual user interface  400  is provided where a user can analyze the communication pathway between a new system coupled to the data gate  200  and then simply drag and drop fields and variables to create a new interface type configuration for the new system. The interface learning and setup may be done local at the hotel or the visual user interface  400  may be accessed remotely over a computer network in different embodiments. 
     The user interface  400  includes a number of data functions  402  on the left hand side. The data functions  402  represent messages of particular types captured by the data gateway on the new interface. Taking the room control service  212  as an example, different functions may include messages sent and/or received in order to: set temperature, open blinds, close blinds, turn on fan, turn off fan, turn on/off desk lamp  1 , turn on/off desk lamp  2 , turn on/off overhead lights, etc. Other types of messages may be represented as different data functions, for instance, for a PMS system data functions may include: post a charge, guest check-in, guest check-out, get guest details, etc. Each of these data functions  402  may have any number of fields  404  within them such as a function code, a room number, a target device identifier etc. A setup technician may put the data gate  200  into learning mode (step  304 ) and then utilize a handheld or other configuration apparatus to send a plurality of proper data functions  402  (i.e., messages, commands, etc.) via the data gate  200  to the new room control system  212 . The configuration device may be an iPad or any other portable electronic device coupled to the data gate  200  to generate or query the newly connected system. 
     In some embodiments, a handheld configuration apparatus such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,250,601 issued Aug. 21, 2012 entitled “CONFIGURATION APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CONFIGURING ONE OR MORE DEVICES HAVING HIDDEN CONFIGURATION SETTINGS”, U.S. Pat. No. 9,106,796 issued Aug. 11, 2015 entitled “CONFIGURATION APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CONFIGURING ONE OR MORE DEVICES HAVING HIDDEN CONFIGURATION SETTINGS”, and US Patent Application Publication No. 20150350017 published Dec. 3, 2015 entitled, “AUTOMATED ENTRY OF HIDDEN SERVICE-CONFIGURATION MENU FOR TARGET CONFIGURABLE DEVICE SELECTED FROM PLURALITY OF CONFIGURABLE DEVICES IN ROOMS OF HOSPITALITY ESTABLISHMENT” may be utilized. Each of these patents and application are incorporated herein by reference. 
     Any number of specialized scripts may be run on the configuration device to send enough data functions  402  to/from the new room control system  212  (or other new vendor system) such that the data gate  200  can observe enough data to display the data functions  402  and identified fields  404  on the user interface  400 . 
     The data gate  200  may also have the configuration and message generation functionality built in such that no separate configuration device is required. 
     The visual user interface  400  may be display on the configuration device or any other display device coupled to the data gate  200 . By using touch technology devices such as an iPad, an interface between services could be analyzed by data gate  200  and then presented in a graphical view  400  for set up. The user simply drags the different data variables  406  understood by the data gate  200  into the available fields  404  of the different functional boxes  402  to define the interface specification. Of course, touch screens are not a requirement and any suitable type of user interface may be utilized such as dragging and dropping with a computer mouse, for example. After mapping variables  406  to fields  404 , the data gate  200  then does all the heavy lifting in the background to encapsulate the data with the extra interface encoding needed. Extra interface encoding may include the fixed formatting requirements of a particular data function  402  such as where to place commas between fields in an array or whether to use square brackets or parentheses, etc. For example, the data gate  200  may recognize common fixed formatting types such as JSON v. XML and populate the data functions with the required fixed formatting according to the automatically recognized types. A manual fixed formatting type dialog box or selection may also be made by the user to speed this process. 
     Once that is all done, at step  312  the link is re-established between, in this instance, the new room control services  212  and the data gate  200 , and the rest of the services  202 ,  204 ,  206 ,  208 ,  210  will again have the functionality of the room services  212  available for them to communicate with. 
     For instance, the video system  210  is again able to open and close the blinds based on the guest&#39;s use of the remote control and the PMS system  206  is able to set an economical temperature for the room when it is vacated. This is particularly beneficial because no changes were required to be made to the video system  210  or the PMS system  206  in this embodiment. Instead, the data gate  200  simply learned and activated the interface type of the new room control service system  212 . 
     What&#39;s more, by having a data gate  200  for all interface traffic to pass through, the hotel and plurality of vendors have ready access to the data for auditing purposes. Data audits can put a stop to the finger pointing between vendors. No more of vendors stating, “our system sent the data, it must be the other guy.” Data gate  200  storing a log of sent/received messages in a storage device can prove who (i.e., what system) sent what data and when. Troubleshooting times may be drastically reduced and a plan for resolution can be presented much sooner now that the politics have been taken out of the situation. 
       FIG.  5    illustrates an example of a PMS function called “Guest folio”, which is the data function response to a “Get folio” data function message sent to the PMS  206 . During the learning mode at step  304 , the visual user interface  400  will highlight the various fields  404  within the function data  402 . Of course, a user may indicate these fields  404  by highlighting them during inspection of capture data functions  402 . However, these fields  404  may instead be automatically detected by the data gate  200  in some embodiments by the data gate  200  noticing that the curly and square brackets, quotations, and commas stay the same for each “Guest folio” message, but the highlighted data changes and therefore should represent fields  404 . 
     Once the position of the fields  404  in the data function  402  are identified (either manually or automatically), either the user or the data gate  200  itself may then drag and drop PMS-related variable  406  names such as “Bill name”, “Guest name”, “Amount” onto the matching fields  404 . Once a particular variable  406  is dropped on a particular field  404 , the two are mapped together and the data gate  200  will be able to understand incoming messages with that field or outgoing messages with that field  404  depending on whether the data function message is incoming or outgoing. Again, mapping variables  406  to fields  404  may be a manual operation or an automatic operation. Both modes may be supported by a single data gate  200  and whether or not to use manual or automatic mapping may be a user configurable option or setting. 
     The visual user interface  400  may also allow the user to indicate other structures in the data functions  402  (and/or the data gate  200  itself may automatically perform this as part of the machine learning). For example, as shown in  FIG.  5   , the data function  402  includes a plurality of two bills records  500 . Each of these records  500  includes the same fields  404 . By identifying arrays such as the bill records  500 , the data gate  200  can be easily configured to recognize and create multiple bill records in a single message. For instance, the user may highlight the first bill record  500  and then right click or other access an attributes section. Within the attributes section, the user is able to specify whether that field can repeat and if yes how many times (if there is a limit). In this case, each bill record  500  is an array that contains a plurality of fields  404 . 
     The system architecture of  FIG.  2    is not intended to limit whether particular devices are local at the hotel or provisioned in the cloud. For instance, in different embodiments, any of the various components of  FIG.  4    may be located on premise at the hotel or may be cloud-based and accessed over the Internet. For instance, the data gate  200  can manage critical business data between systems on property. Likewise, as services move up to the cloud such as PBXs and even property management systems, the data gate  200  can also be connected with and manage intercommunications between these cloud-based services. Likewise, the data gate  200  may itself be moved into the cloud and may interconnect systems that are either cloud-based and/or on premise at specific hotels. Any combination of cloud/local positioning may be used for each of the data gate  200  and the various services connected to one another via the data gate  200 . 
       FIG.  6    illustrates a block diagram of a data gate  200  located at a hotel property communicating with a cloud PBX  202  and cloud PMS  206  ensuring connectivity between the two. Data flow between cloud and on property systems happens within data gate  200 . All systems are able to talk to each other regardless of their location as if they were directly connected to each other. For example, the video system  210  is still able to post movie charges to the PMS  206 . As far as it knows, the PMS  206  is still on property. 
     As illustrated in  FIG.  6   , the data gate  200  may also be connected to a central authentication system  600  and enable the ability to authenticate guests automatically as they go from property to property based on their loyalty status or perhaps by agreements with third parties such as telco partners  610  etc. for revenue sharing. 
     After a central authentication system  600  is connected to the data gate  200 , additional functionality is enabled. For example, now the data gate  200  can pass data from central authentication  600  to the other services a property has in place. One obvious path is to the HSIA system  204 , but other systems such as the video and room control systems  210 ,  212  can also beneficially make use of data stored at the central authentication system  600 . For instance, with this connection in place, these systems  210 ,  212  may query any hotel databases stored at central authentication for guest preferences such as a particular guest&#39;s language or favourite TV channels allowing the video system  210  to change the language of the user interface automatically or to reorder its program guide. Likewise, the room control system  212  can automatically set a preferred room temperature for when the guest arrives. 
     In some embodiments, central authentication handles all the rules for authentication while the data gate  200  manages the actual flow of data. That way, if a hotel needs to add on another source or service there is little need for any additional development. Adding in another source of data is as easy as it was to add in a service at the property level. In some embodiments, all connections flow straight through data gate  200 , which unburdens various devices like the central authentication  600  from having to handle other queries unrelated to authenticating the user. With the data gate  200  acting as the universal interface gateway, the flow of data is much more efficient and easier to maintain. In this way, hotel-specific guest databases  602  may be stored in the cloud on servers independent from the central authentication system  600 . 
     One of the top concerns of hotel management is ownership of the guest and guest loyalty. It is a struggle for hotels to capture the guest at the beginning of their trip planning. Online travel agent (OTA) sites such as Expedia, Kayak, Booking and Hotels.com are cannibalizing the hotel&#39;s connection with their guests and more importantly, their loyalty members. Less and less people are going to hotel web sites to book a stay. Instead they go to the OTA aggregators to do this. 
     However, these OTAs suffer from the same issues as hotel sites. The OTAs lose the guest after the booking. For that there are a couple services of referred to herein generally as travel or personal assistant sites such as WorldMate and Triplt. These are sites that take the guest from their home to a hotel. Users can find it invaluable to keep all travel information in one place. When it is time to travel, the user can simply open the app and see what time their flight leaves, what airline it is, what hotel their staying at and have all the confirmation numbers in one place should they need them during check in. 
     Bigger players such as Facebook, Linked In, Google, and Apple are just now recognizing the value of these travel assistant type services. These larger players have the resources and products to take this service to the next level. For instance, Google owns a vast amount of information and from it they have had services such as Google Flights for some time. It&#39;s very easy to look up flights in an easy to use, aggregated view. Now they have recently launched Google Trips this past September. Google Trips is very similar to Worldmate or Triplt in that it has all user travel information in one location. It also includes useful information about where the user is traveling to by leveraging the vast amount of information they have stored in their databases from their search engine. Furthermore, unlike Worldmate or Triplt, a user does not need to send the information to Google trips. Instead, as long as the user has a Gmail account, Google Trips automatically gathers the travel information directly from reservation confirmation messages received in the Gmail account and automatically builds up the itinerary for the user. 
     In this manner, Google now has the ability to interact with a hotel guest even before the guest leaves their own home. Google has all the guest&#39;s information and can lead them through all the way to the hotel. Because they have ownership of the operating system on the mobile device they could also tightly integrate this functionality right into the OS itself. So the location of the guest could be used to automatically show the guest&#39;s boarding pass on the phone&#39;s lock screen if at the airport or show the hotel confirmation number on the phone&#39;s lock screen if at the hotel. Similar to what Apple does today with their wallet. All without requiring the user to dig into their phone to find the right app or email or worse yet, a stack of papers, to find what they need. 
     Beneficially, these services are integrated with data gate  200  to provide even better functionality and user experience according to some embodiments. Data gate  200  allows a hotel to continue the personalized experience for the guest all the way from their home, to the airport, to the property, and inside the property for their entire stay, and then all the way back to their home again. 
     For instance, by connecting data gate  200  to the airline flight data servers  604 , the system of  FIG.  6    allows the hotels to connect up flight information with specific guests and get up to date information about any delays on arrivals. This way the hotel can know if a guest&#39;s flight has been delayed or cancelled. This gives the hotel better knowledge on whether to give up the guest&#39;s room for the night or whether the room should be held. 
     Data gate  200  can also be connected up with popular ride sharing and other transportation systems  606  such as taxis, ground transport, etc. From the flight information  604 , the hotel knew when the guest was in the city, but with the connection to the ground transport systems  606  such as Uber etc., the hotel now can get to the minute updates on when that guest will arrive at the hotel. 
     Connecting the data gate  200  to a plurality of systems as shown in  FIG.  6    is useful for a number of reasons. To illustrate advantages in some embodiments, the following provides a use case scenario from the perspective of the guest. 
     A future guest to a hotel first needs to book their travel plans with the airlines and a hotel. They do this by either using the hotel/airline websites and/or app or, as in increasingly likely, an OTA. Once this is done they receive their itinerary. However, now these sites lose connection with the guest. The Travel Assistants take over. The guest either sends their information or this process is automatic to the Travel Assistant. Now a site like Google Trips has the travel information for a future guest of the hotel. The Travel Assistant takes that guest to the airport via a cab. Then on to their flight and then even helps them with arranging their transportation to the hotel at the destination. 
     As shown in  FIG.  6   , by integrating data gate  200  with Google and other personal assistants  608 , the hotel now also knows the guest&#39;s travel itinerary. The hotel knows when the guest is on their way to the hotel and more importantly, when they will arrive. Because the data gate  200  is integrated with these services  604 ,  606 ,  608  in the cloud, the hotel now knows when that guest is due to arrive. From any delays in their flights to getting up to the minute updates on when exactly that guest will arrive via local ground transport. 
     Because data gate  200  is also integrated with the hotel&#39;s PMS  206 , the PMS  206  can automatically notify staff about when this guest is arriving. With the hotel&#39;s guest loyalty systems  602  integrated with data gate  200  the hotel will know if this is a premier loyalty member. Now the PMS  206  can notify the front door staff at the hotel so that they can greet that guest, by name, as they open the door to the cab and help the guest into the hotel. “Mr. Levy, welcome!” Starting a very personalized service offering. For VIP guests, the hotel system may issue an alert or other message to the mobile phone or portable device of a door staff at the hotel front door with the license plate or other description of the vehicle that will be bringing the guest to the hotel. Optical scanners may be installed at the hotel driveway and detect the vehicle upon arrival to the hotel property and update the notifications to hotel staff. 
     Another scenario is once the hotel knows that the guest has landed, the hotel guest services system  602  can send the guest a notification to allow them to remotely check into the hotel. A digital key could be sent to their phone and the guest can proceed right into the hotel and to their room avoiding any frustrating lines at the front lobby. The guest may also interact with the hotel and even their assigned guest room before they arrive at the hotel. For instance, the guest may send one or more commands to set up the video system  210  to record a sporting event so they can watch it when they arrive. Or perhaps order a larger channel package so it&#39;s ready when they arrive. If all guests of the hotel by default get access to ten channels, a guest en route to the hotel may send a command from the hotel app on their phone or via a reservation preference etc. to upgrade their room to get the all sports channel package. 
     Now in the hotel and within the hotel&#39;s sphere of influence to offer services to the guest, the data gate  200  can make the personalized experience even better. Of course, now that the guest is in the hotel all, their devices automatically authenticate onto the hotel network with central authentication  600 . Further, the video system  210  in the room can also adapt to the guest&#39;s preferences because that system  210  can get the needed information from the hotel&#39;s loyalty system  602  through data gate  200 . The video system  210  sets their preferred language and reorders the channels and content available on the interactive program guide (IPG) to the guest&#39;s preferred line-up and orderings. The room control  212  likewise retrieves the guest&#39;s preferences from the hotel guest loyalty system  602  and sets the temperature of the room to the guest&#39;s liking before they even get to the hotel. The room control system  212  automatically initiates the temperature change in response to ground transport messages and/or flight arrival messages received from the ground and flight systems  606 ,  604  such that the room has enough time to cool off (or heat up) before the guest arrives. However, because the temperature change is initiated on actual arrival time of the guest, energy usage is conserved at the hotel by avoiding setting the temperature too early in advance. 
     There is also integration with room service and other amenities within the hotel property. These can be done either through the TV, phone, or hotel mobile app based on information received via the data gate  200 . At the end of their stay, a bellhop can be requested who can help with the guest&#39;s bags. All while a cab has already been called waiting for their departure. All of this can be accessible through the hotel&#39;s own branded app making the app the one place the guest goes to do anything they need to get done at the hotel. 
     With all of these services integrated and the flow of data being handled by the data gate  200  the above use case scenario is possible. The different services do not need to know about all other services connected to the data gate  200 . They are just looking for the specific data and request it from the data gate  200 . The data gate  200  handles the process from there and ensures the correct data is translated and flows to where it is needed. Without a system like the data gate  200 , to still achieve the above use case scenario would require a mess of interconnections similar to as shown in  FIG.  1    but with even more independent connections between even more service systems. Every service system and the related connections therefrom represent an interface type that could change, and any change at one system would require changes to be made at all the other interconnected services connected thereto for continued compatibility. Imagine doing this on the scale that is shown in  FIG.  6    and one can truly see the advantage of the data gate  200  architecture and easy interface configuration process disclosed herein. 
     Of course, other variations are also possible. For instance, a hotel may not like the nagging issue that they do not truly get access to their guest until after the guest arrives at the property. Having a personal travel assistant system  608  separate from the hotel&#39;s guest services  602  essentially results in two distinct app&#39;s the guest needs to use. Ultimately, they and the hotels may not want this. With a system like data gate  200  illustrated in  FIG.  6   , the hotel is given the opportunity to take control of it all. 
       FIG.  7    shows a trip flow where all data needed by the guest during their trip is integrated with a single app running on the user&#39;s mobile phone  700  via data gate  200 . Because the property is integrated with the data gate  200 , the hotel can take this to the ultimate step shown in  FIG.  7   . Instead of losing the guest after they have done their bookings and the external travel assistants  608  take over, why not retain the guest and keep that data within the hotel app? The hotel app can be integrated with data gate  602  as well. Request and send what the app needs on behalf of the loyalty guest. For instance, instead of sending their itineraries to one of the external travel assistants  608 , have the itineraries and other bookings sent to the hotel&#39;s loyalty branded app instead. 
     In this way, a hotel will have truly taken back their guest and given them a service they will use from the beginning. They will want to be a loyalty guest even more to gain this functionality. One place to get all their information and the same app to do everything they need in the hotel. 
     All of this is possible if the data is available and integrated. At its core, the data gate  200  is an integration platform with easy interface learning capabilities. Allowing multiple data sources and systems to talk to each other without having to re-invent the wheel each time. With a system like the data gate  200  in place, a hotel or other establishment or vendor can regain ownership of their guests. The establishment will own the interaction with the guest all the way from booking  702 , to their travel  704 ,  706 ,  708 , to their stay at the establishment  710 ,  712 ,  714 ,  716 ,  718 , and getting them home again. For the entire journey, the hospitality establishment will have greater potential to retain and create new loyal guests. 
       FIG.  8    shows a block diagram of a system for allowing a guest of a hospitality establishment  800  to utilize their voice to control one aspects of a guest room  830  according to an exemplary embodiment. In the following description, it will be assumed that the hospitality establishment  800  is a hotel, but it is to be understood that the same system may also be utilized at other types of hospitality establishments other than hotels. 
     As illustrated, the system includes a guest device  802  such as a mobile phone or laptop computer coupled to a guest local area network (LAN)  804 . The guest device  802  may be brought to the hotel  800  by the user. The guest LAN  804  is coupled to a gateway  806 , and the gateway  806  provides access control between a property management system (PMS)  808 , a database storage device  810 , a hotel app server  812 , an in-room device LAN  814 , and the Internet  836 . The PMS  808  stores, among other data, room bookings  832  that specify which guest is assigned to which room in the hotel. The database storage device  810  stores, among other data, a room-to-device table  834  that specifies the network addresses and other information about a plurality of in-room devices  816 ,  818 ,  820 ,  822 ,  824 ,  826  located in each of the guest rooms  830 . For instance, in this example, a particular guest room  830  is shown to include a TV  816 , a set-top box (STB)  818 , a room controller  820 , one or more controllable lights  822 , an air conditioner  824 , and a heater  826 . Different in-room devices may be included in different guest rooms  830  and it is assumed that the hotel has a plurality of separate guest rooms  830  even though only a single guest room  830  is illustrated in  FIG.  8    for simplification of description. A voice-to-text server  838  is located external to the hotel  800  and coupled to the Internet  836  in this configuration. 
     Whenever possible, guests would likely prefer to use their own electronic device such as portable guest device  802  brought to the hotel  800  rather than one provided or otherwise loaned to them by the hotel  800 . Especially when utilizing devices  802  that have built in recording features that could potentially eavesdrop, a typical guest would likely prefer to utilize a device  802  they own and can trust. A recording device  802  that is not personal to the user might get confused when trying to listen and decode speech from a plurality of different guests with different accents and voice sounds. A guest device  802  owned by a user will have much better familiarity with the user&#39;s voice and therefore have better reliability and accuracy at understanding the user&#39;s speech. 
     In view of these preferences, one embodiment of voice control involves allowing the guest to speak to their own device  802  to control the in-room systems  816 ,  818 ,  820 ,  822 ,  824 ,  826 . In some embodiments, the voice control system can leverage the release of iOS 10 and SiriKit for the iPhone™ and similar implementations coming out from both Google on Android™ and Microsoft with Cortana™ on Window&#39;s phones. A typical guest will be completely comfortable having their own device  802  in their hotel room  830 . Likewise, talking to their own device  802  is a feature that many users already do daily. It is for this reason that the individual&#39;s own device  802  knows how the user speaks. The more a particular user talks with their device  802 , the more the device  802  and associated voice-to-text services  838  learn that individual user&#39;s speech sound and patterns. The user&#39;s own device  802  is much better at providing accurate voice recognition than any non-calibrated system that is bound to give the user all kinds of grief. 
     In this embodiment, the system leverages existing pairing technology that hotels have today that allows a guest to pair their device  802  to their hotel room  830 . For instance, the pairing can be done as soon as the guest device  802  authenticates with the HSIA system  204  in order to gain access to the Internet  836 . The authentication process may involve room detection and/or PMS  808  authentication and/or central authentication  600 . 
     More details of user authentication and pairing examples according to different embodiments are provided in the following patent documents: U.S. Pat. No. 9,137,281 issued Sep. 15, 2015 and entitled “DYNAMICALLY ENABLING GUEST DEVICE SUPPORTING NETWORK-BASED MEDIA SHARING PROTOCOL TO SHARE MEDIA CONTENT OVER LOCAL AREA COMPUTER NETWORK OF LODGING ESTABLISHMENT WITH SUBSET OF IN-ROOM MEDIA DEVICES CONNECTED THERETO”, U.S. Pat. No. 9,060,197 issued Jun. 16, 2015 and entitled “HOSPITALITY MEDIA SYSTEM OPERATED BY MOBILE DEVICE”, U.S. Pat. No. 9,369,748 issued Jun. 14, 2016 and entitled “INTEGRATING CONTENT ON REMOTE DEVICE ACCESSIBLE VIA INTERNET WITH HOSPITALITY MEDIA SYSTEM”, U.S. Pat. No. 8,732,753 issued May 20, 2014 and entitled “METHOD OF OPERATING ONE OR MORE CONTROLLABLE DEVICES IN DEPENDENCE UPON COMMANDS RECEIVED FROM A PLURALITY OF MOBILE DEVICES AND SYSTEM CONTROLLER THEREOF”, U.S. Pat. No. 9,462,000 issued Oct. 4, 2016 and entitled “OFF-SITE USER ACCESS CONTROL”, US Published Patent Application No. 20150373123 published Dec. 24, 2015 and entitled “CODELESS DEVICE PAIRING BETWEEN MOBILE DEVICE AND PARTICULAR ONE OF A PLURALITY OF MEDIA DEVICES”, and U.S. Pat. No. 9,009,259 issued Apr. 14, 2015 and entitled “AUTOMATIC CLIENT DEVICE LOCATION DETECTION WITHIN HOSPITALITY ESTABLISHMENT”. Each of these patent and application documents are incorporated herein by reference. As user authentication and pairing (i.e., associating) the user&#39;s device  802  to a particular room  830  are already well-known in the art, further description of the authentication and pairing process is omitted herein for brevity. 
     After the guest device  802  is authenticated and paired with a room  830 , the guest-device-to-room table  835  will be updated to store a mapping of which room  830  is associated with the guest device  802 . The user of the guest device  802  can then use Siri on their Apple device (or another voice command system such as Cortana on Microsoft, Alexa on Amazon, Google Assistant on Google, etc.) to turn on the lights  822  or operate any of the other in-room controllable devices  816 ,  818 ,  820 ,  822 ,  824 ,  826  of their assigned guest room  830 . 
     Taking Apple&#39;s Siri as an example, the user may simply by holding down the home button and say a command such as “turn on the lights”. The system of  FIG.  8    then allows that phrase to be tied to the hotel room  830  and the user may interact with the technology in the room  830 . In some applications, the guest may leave their phone on the bed or a table somewhere and can use the “Hey Siri” function on their Apple guest device  802 . In this way, the user does not even have to press or hold anything on the guest device  802 . This is beneficial for example if the guest is lying in bed and their phone is plugged into the wall charging while being placed on a table. The guest may be feeling sleepy and be ready to shut down everything in the room  830  for the night. Instead of having to roll over and turn off everything with a remote or even grab their phone  802 , the guest may simple say, “Hey Siri, good night.” The system of  FIG.  8    takes this command, associates it with the guest&#39;s room  830 , and shuts down the various in-room devices such as a lamp  822  and TV  816  and/or any other in-room devices  816 ,  818 ,  820 ,  822 ,  824 ,  826 . 
     The command “good night” in the above example corresponds to a shutdown script processed by the hotel app server  812  and may be more complicated than simply shutting off all the in-room devices  816 ,  818 ,  820 ,  822 ,  824 ,  826 . For instance, a particular user may prefer to only dim a certain light  822  in order to have a night light. Another user may prefer to have background music playing on TV  816  at night for a certain time period (or even all night). Likewise, temperature using AC  824  and/or heater  826  may be set to preferred setting for sleeping. The system may have any number of voice commands that act as macros or scripts to perform a number of functions in the room in response to receiving a voice command. Variables in the commands may be adjusted on a user specific basis such as to set a particular user&#39;s preferred temperature etc. 
     In some embodiments, the voice control system enables a full “No-Touch” room where the user can control everything in the guest room  830  without needing to touch anything in the room  830 . The ability to arrive into the hotel room  830  and simply say, “Hey Siri, turn on the lights.” Now the user is in the room  830  and can see what they are doing with the lights on. The next thing a typical user wants to do is turn the TV  816  on. This can be done by the user saying, “Hey Siri, Turn on the TV.” If the user finds it a bit warm in the room  830 , the user may cool it off by saying, “Hey Siri, set the temperature to 70°.” Now that the room is set up the way the user likes it, the user may get even more sophisticated in voice commands. This is where tight integration with the technology on the property really starts to shine. For instance, the user may check the news by saying, “Hey Siri, put CNN on the TV.” In another example, the user may watch their favourite TV show. The user may not themselves know what channel its on and honestly, the user may not want to go searching through a program guide. No problem, the technology will do the work for the user. The user just needs to say, “Hey Siri, put Game of Thrones on the TV.” The hotel app server  812  checks the interactive program guide (IPG) for the user&#39;s room&#39;s TV  816  and changes to the appropriate channel that is currently playing “Game of Thrones.” 
     Especially for international customers, a benefit of the system of  FIG.  8    is that the guest may watch desired programming such as sports events without knowing the local channel line up. When a guest is in a foreign land, the guest typically has no idea what channels are used for the sports channels. Just like before, the guest can let the system of  FIG.  8    find the channel itself given a suitable voice command from the user. With technology like Siri and other voice assistants, the system can determine what the user means when they say their favourite sports team or other phrases that might be more confusing or ambiguous if it were received from another user. For instance, working with a tightly integrated system in the hotel  800 , a user from the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada may be able to simply say, “put the flames game on.” This would be translated to the Calgary Flames hockey team as the target programming because the guest device  802  and/or the voice-to-text server  838  and/or the hotel app servers  812  already knows this user&#39;s location and preferences including local sports teams. 
     The gateway  806  may be integrated with or a part of the data gate  200  described earlier in this document for even better functionality. This allows any desired interactions between different systems such as allowing the guest device  802  to interact with any connected system of  FIG.  6    for example without needing to reprogram the various interfaces of a first system if one of the other vendors changes its interface type or format. For instance, the hotel app server  812  may also be coupled to the data gate  200  thereby allowing the user to use voice commands to retrieve information and otherwise interact with any of the serves coupled to the data gate  200 . Not only would the system of  FIG.  8    find a TV channel that has hockey on it but it would find the right game with the Calgary Flames team knowing who the user is and what their preference is even as the user travels all around the word. This may even include sending video on demand from a video on demand (VOD) server  210  coupled to the data gate  200  thereby allowing the user to watch the “flames game” (or any desired content) at a hotel anywhere in the world even if the hotel would not otherwise provide that content to other guests. 
     These are just a few of the examples of what this technology can do in the guest room  830 . No longer do people have to fiddle with remote controls or foreign input devices. They no longer need to scan or search through countless channels to find what they want. Adding voice control that they are familiar with drastically streamlines all these activities. A guest may be up and running in their room  830  within seconds. 
     At the end of the night, the guest just needs to say, “Hey Siri, Good night.” The TV  816  shuts off, the thermostat (and/or AC/heater  824 ,  826 ) is set to the guest&#39;s preferred sleeping temperature, the “do not disturb” is set, and the lights gently dim off. When that person then wakes up they may say, “Good Morning”, and the lights  822  turn on and the TV  816  turns on to their favourite TV station. Embodiments such as  FIG.  8    enable the guest to do all this without having to touch anything that is not already the guest&#39;s and doing it all from the user&#39;s own device  802  that they trust. The result is like having two-hundred different houses in one place that a user&#39;s phone or other device  802  could interact with and the user has no need to set up or otherwise manually link their guest device  802  to any of the in-room devices  816 ,  818 ,  820 ,  822 ,  824 ,  826  within each of the guest rooms  830  as the user travels to different locations. The system of  FIG.  8    automatically detects that the user is located at the hotel  800  from central authentication  600  or even global position system (GPS) coordinates on the user&#39;s device  802  or other means. The system automatically detects that the user is associated with a particular guest room  830  from the PMS&#39;s  808  room bookings  832 , and then looks up the various in-room devices that are associated with that room  830  from the room-to-device table  834 . 
     Any desired voice command scripts such may be user customized or provided to all users as desired. For example, a “Hey Siri, Movie time” command may dim the lights  822 , close the blinds, and turn the TV on to the pay-per-view movie selection channel. Users may be enabled to record sequences of commands and store them as a macro and/or tag sequences of commands to any voice command. These may be stored within the user&#39;s guest preferences in the hotel guest services  602  account such as within a loyalty program user profile for the guest. The guest may then access these macros at any hotel  800  as they travel to different places during vacation or business or even at home. 
       FIG.  9    shows a flowchart of a method of controlling a guest room  830  using voice commands according to an exemplary embodiment. The steps of  FIG.  9    may be performed by the processors of the user&#39;s guest device  802 , the data gate  200 , and the hotel app server  812  for instance, and may be in conjunction with optional input from the user in the form of voice or other UI commands or other processes of computer devices in the system. The steps of the flowchart are not restricted to the exact order shown, and, in other configurations, shown steps may be omitted or other intermediate steps added. 
     At step  900 , the process beings upon the guest device  802  starting a voice capture process. For instance, this may be done by the guest device  802  detecting a predetermined voice capture trigger phrase such a “Hey Siri” for an Apple device. Alternatively, this may occur in response to the user pressing a particular button or otherwise manually activating a voice capture function on the guest device  802 . The user device captures the voice audio from a microphone of the guest device  802  and stores a resulting audio file within a memory of the guest device  802 . 
     At step  902 , the guest device  802  sends the audio file to a cloud-based voice-to-text server  838 . This step may correspond to the default action of a factory-included voice command processor built in to the guest device  802 . For instance, Sin on an Apple device will automatically send captured audio files to an Apple-provided voice-to-text server  838 . 
     At step  904 , the voice-to-text server  838  converts the received audio file into corresponding text. The voice-to-text server  838  may have separate parameters and decoding options associated with each user. In this way, the guest device  802  will appear to get better and better at recognizing and decoding a particular user&#39;s voice the more that user utilizes the voice capture functionality. After conversion to text, the voice-to-text server  838  sends the text transcript down to the guest device  802  from which the corresponding audio file was originally received. 
     At step  906 , the guest device  802  receives the text transcript from the voice-to-text server  838 . 
     At step  908 , the guest device  802  determines whether the text should be passed to a hotel app on the guest device  802  and/or elsewhere on the network. In some embodiments, the voice command text is only passed to the hotel app when the user is currently checked into a compatible hotel  800 . For instance, upon check-in to guest room  830 , the PMS  808  may send a message to the user&#39;s guest device  802  informing a hotel app running on the guest device  802  that the user is now checked in to the hotel  800 . The hotel app running on the guest device  802  then registers itself with Siri as a voice controlled app to which future voice command text transcripts should be passed. Thereafter, Siri will automatically pass received text transcripts to the hotel app on the guest device  802 . After the guest checks out of guest room  830 , the PMS  808  may send a message to the hotel app running on the guest device  802  that the user has now checked out. The hotel app then dynamically unregisters itself from Siri so that future text transcripts are not passed to the hotel app. A similar process may also be performed on non-Apple devices. In general, a hotel app running on the guest device  802  simply registers itself to receive text transcripts of voice commands in response to receiving a first message or other notification that the user has checked in to a compatible hotel  800 , and then unregisters itself to receive text transcripts in response to receiving a second message or other notification that the user has checked out of the hotel  800 . Again, messages sent to/from the guest device  802  from the PMS  808  (and/or other systems) may be passed via data gate  200  to ensure easy integration between different systems regardless of interface types or changes of formatting of other systems over time. 
     In some embodiments, the decision of whether to pass the text record to the hotel app at step  908  can be based upon an authentication result of the hotel app and/or another service at the hospitality establishment  800 . For instance, after the user of the guest device  802  successfully authenticates for Internet access at the HSIA controller  204 , the HSIA controller  204  may send or otherwise trigger a first message being sent to the hotel app running on the guest device  802  to register itself for receiving voice command text records. Upon the user&#39;s Internet access expiring, the HSIA controller  204  may then send or otherwise trigger a second message being sent to the hotel app running on the guest device  802  to deregister itself for receiving voice command text records. In this way, the result of step  908  will be “yes” whenever the guest device  802  is authorized to access the Internet  836  from the hotel&#39;s guest LAN  804 . A similar process can also be utilized to enable passing voice command text records to the hotel app at step  908  whenever the user is logged in to any service at the hotel  800 . For example, if the user purchases bandwidth to stream Netflix to their in-room TV  816 , for the period of time that this service is enabled, the answer to step  908  may be “yes”. 
     Likewise, the hotel app on the guest device  802  may monitor to what computer network it is connected and then register itself and/or deregister itself to receive text records in response to determining the guest device is connected to the computer network of a compatible hotel  800 . For instance, the guest device  802  in  FIG.  8    may automatically detect that it is connected to a known hotel&#39;s guest LAN  804  and therefore register the hotel app to receive text transcripts of voice commands. Once the guest device  802  disconnects from the guest LAN  804 , the hotel app is automatically deregistered so it won&#39;t receive text records. Detecting whether the guest device  802  is connected to a particular computer network may be performed in some embodiments by providing one or more services only on the LANs of compatible computer networks. For example, the hotel app may query the connected LAN using a protocol such as the multicast Domain Name System (mDNS) protocol looking for a specific service only found on compatible hotel LANs. 
     Other ways of configuring the guest device  802  to pass text records to the hotel app may also be performed according to different embodiments. For instance, the hotel app running on the guest device  802  can register and unregister itself to receive text transcripts in response to the current GPS location of the guest device  802  corresponding with the known location of a compatible hotel. The hotel app on the guest device  802  may include a plurality of coordinates of compatible hotels and will trigger the registration upon the location of the guest device  802  moving within a threshold proximity of a compatible hotel. This may be beneficial for compatibility with establishments that do not require guests to check in/out, for example. 
     In yet other examples, the voice command and/or its corresponding text transcript may be utilized at step  908  to determine whether to forward the text to the hotel app. For instance, if the voice command includes the name of the hotel app, then the text record will be passed to the hotel app. Examples of this include voice commands and corresponding transcripts such as, “Hey Siri, use the Hotel App to turn on the lights” and “Hey Siri, turn on the lights using the Hotel App.”. Of course, the term “Hotel App” in the above examples could be changed to any brand-specific or other predetermined phrase in actual deployments. 
     In yet other configurations, Bluetooth detection of a controllable in-room device  816 , RFID detection of the proximity to a room  830  or an in-room device  822 , or direct WiFi to an in-room device  818  may be utilized for automatic registration or enabling passing text transcripts to the hotel app at step  908 . 
     Any combination and permutation of the above examples and embodiments may be utilized to decide at step  908  whether to enable a guest device&#39;s  802  room control functionality for the hotel room  830 . 
     At step  910 , the text transcript is simply processed by the guest device  802  in the normal manner as it would be without the involvement of the hotel app. For instance, Siri may already be preconfigured to work with lights or other controllable devices in the user&#39;s home. Step  910  just acts as the regular process, i.e., the default action(s) of voice commands by the guest device  802 . In this way, when the hotel room control functionality is enabled (i.e., “yes” branch of step  908 ), the user&#39;s voice commands captured by the guest device  802  will operate the lights  822  and other in-room devices  816 ,  818 ,  820 ,  822 ,  824 ,  826  in the guest&#39;s assigned hotel room  830 ; however, when the hotel room control functionality is not enabled (i.e., “no” branch of step  908 ), the user&#39;s voice commands captured by the guest device  802  will operate other preconfigured lights and controllable devices outside of the hotel  800  such as those installed in the user&#39;s home or office. 
     At step  912 , the guest device  802  passes the text transcript to the hotel app. Assuming the hotel app is running on the guest device  802 , this may involve Siri or another voice assistant running on the guest device  802  internally passing the text record via any predetermined application programming interface (API). For instance, Siri or another voice assistant may be preconfigured to pass text from voice commands to any number of registered apps on the guest device  802 . In some embodiments, the hotel app or a portion of the app may be running on another device such as on the hotel app server  812  and this step involves the guest device  802  sending the text record to the other device (e.g., hotel app server  812 ) via the guest LAN  804  and/or the Internet  836 . 
     At step  914 , the hotel app (running on either the guest device  802  and/or another device such as the hotel app server  812 ) sends a message with a command corresponding to the text transcript along with user information to the room controller  820 . For example, assuming the text records corresponds to the voice command “turn on the TV”, the hotel app will send a command corresponding to turning on the TV along with a user identifier associated with the guest device  802  from which the voice command text transcript was received. 
     At step  916 , the room controller  820  checks the room bookings  832  to confirm that the identified user is indeed currently registered in a particular guest room  830  of the hotel  800 . For example, this may be done by the room controller  820  searching the room bookings  832  to find a room identifier currently associated with the user identifier received at step  914 . Assuming a valid room  830  is found, control proceeds to step  920 ; otherwise, if no room is found, control proceeds to step  918 . 
     At step  918 , because no valid room is found, the room controller  820  sends back an error message to the hotel app and/or to an association process/server or other control server. The error message may specify the problem and require the user of the guest device  802  or other servers in the system to take specific action to fix the problem such as re-authenticating, rechecking in to the room  830 , re-pairing the guest device  802  with a particular room  830 , attempting an auto-authentication or auto-pairing process, and/or purchasing more HSIA Internet access time, for example. 
     At step  920 , the room controller  820  checks the room-to-device table  834  in order to determine the specific network address(es) of one or more target in-room controllable devices that are required to complete the action specified by the voice command text transcript received by the room controller at step  914 . For instance, assuming the guest&#39;s room  830  is “room  101 ” and the command is “turn on the TV”, the room controller  820  may search the room-to-device table to find the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the TV  816  in “room  101 ”. For more complicated commands such as “good night”, the room controller  820  may need to find the IP addresses of a plurality of in-room devices  816 ,  818 ,  820 ,  822 ,  824 ,  826  of “room  101 ” in order to send all the network messages required to perform the script that corresponds to the voice command. Examples include turning off the TV  816  and STB  816 , turning off the lights  822 , and setting the thermostat to a desired temperature. 
     At step  922 , the room controller  820  sends one or more network messages to the IP addresses found at step  920  in order to cause each of the target in-room controllable devices  816 ,  818 ,  820 ,  822 ,  824 ,  826  of the target room to perform the actions required to carry out the voice command. This step may involve the room controller  820  sending IP datagrams and/or opening TCP connections with the various devices and sending commands. It may also involve the room controller  820  operating a web-based interface of the target controllable device. As the actions required for a room controller  820  to effect commands and control one or more target controllable devices are well-known in the art, further details of this step are omitted herein for brevity. 
     According to some embodiments of the invention, a universal data gate  200  converts between interface format types of interconnected systems. The data gate  200  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. 
     According to some embodiments of the invention, voice based room control is enabled by automatically activating the voice control on a guest device  802  when the guest is checked in to a hotel room  830 . Text corresponding to voice commands captured from the user&#39;s voice is passed to a hotel app. The system automatically pairs the guest device  802  with the user&#39;s assigned room  830  and determines which in-room controllable devices are to be operated by the user&#39;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. 
     Although the invention has been described in connection with preferred embodiments, it should be understood that various modifications, additions and alterations may be made to the invention by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, although the above-description has focused on a hotel for illustration purposes, the present invention is equally applicable to any hospitality related location or service including but not limited to hotels, motels, resorts, hospitals, apartment/townhouse complexes, restaurants, retirement centers, cruise ships, busses, airlines, airports, shopping centers, passenger trains, libraries, coffee shops, hotspots, etc. Additionally, in addition to the above described hospitality examples, the invention is applicable outside the hospitality industry such as at a home or corporate environment. 
     Although the above flowchart of FIG. 9  and related description was described in conjunction with a hotel app running on the guest device  802 , it is not a requirement that the guest device  802  must run a hotel specific application to perform the receipt of text records at step  906 . In other embodiments, the functionality described herein as being performed by the hotel app could instead be built in to the operating system or be included in another application running on the guest device  802  such as the Siri application or other voice assistants. Likewise, the hotel app equivalent functionality is not limited to be being performed on only the guest device  802 . For instance, the decision of step  908  could be moved from the guest device  802  to any other network location such as being performed by the cloud-based voice-to-text server  838 . Likewise, other steps of  FIG.  9    may be moved to be performed on a computer server such as the hotel app server  812 , for example. 
     In another example of a modification of  FIG.  9   , in some embodiments, the text transcript of voice commands received at step  906  are always passed to hotel app, i.e., the output of step  906  proceeds directly to step  912 . However, the hotel app only utilizes the text command if one of the conditions described above for step  908  is true. In other words, the decision of “pass to hotel app?” step  908  is moved to after step  912  and is renamed something like, “hotel app active?” If the hotel app is active such as because the user is currently checked in to the hotel, then the flowchart will proceed to step  914 ; otherwise, the hotel app can just send the text record to the default app (i.e., default action step  910 ). 
     In another example, text transcripts are always passed to the hotel app server  812  whenever the hotel app server  812  is detected on any network accessible to the guest device  802 . The hotel app server  812  operates as a proxy behind the scenes, possibly in conjunction with the PMS  808  and/or other services at the hotel  800 , in order to figure out which controllable devices are authorized for use by the guest device  802  (if any) and to operate those authorized controllable devices in dependence upon the user&#39;s voice commands. 
     In this disclosure, the term “guest device” is intended to mean any user device operated by a guest of the hospitality establishment  800 . Although it is beneficial for many of the reasons described herein that the guest device  802  be owned by the user, this is not a strict requirement and the same technology could also be applied when the guest device  802  is owned or otherwise provided by the hotel. For instance, because the guest device  802  does not need to be programmed in advance to work with any specific in-room devices  816 ,  818 ,  820 ,  822 ,  824 ,  826 , the design of  FIG.  8    and  FIG.  9    beneficially allows the guest device  802  to be moved from room to room  830  within the establishment  800  and the system will always make sure the correct room&#39;s in-room devices  816 ,  818 ,  820 ,  822 ,  824 ,  826  are controlled. In other words, it is not required that the user preprogram their guest device  802  with the IP addresses or other configuration details of the specific in-room devices  816 ,  818 ,  820 ,  822 ,  824 ,  826 . Instead, the system will just work and ensure that the voice commands control the appropriate in-room devices specific the guest&#39;s assigned hotel room  830 . If the guest changes rooms  830  (or hotels  800 ), further voice commands will now control the new in-room devices. This configuration free operation of guest device  802  is beneficial for individual users because their own devices such as mobile phones and computers do not need to be preprogrammed with the network addresses of their room&#39;s  830  various in-room controllable devices  816 ,  818 ,  820 ,  822 ,  824 ,  826 . The same benefit also applies to hotel owned guest devices  802  such as a hotel-provided in-room iPad or other device. Deployment and maintenance is greatly simplified as the guest devices  802  may easily be moved from room to room at any time without requiring a complicated setup procedure to be performed by the hotel  800  each time the guest device  802  switches rooms  830 . All that is required is that the system authenticate the guest device  802  and pair it with a particular room  830 . If the guest device  802  is provided by the hotel  800 , the authentication and pairing may be as simple as hotel staff entering a hidden configuration menu on the guest device  802  in order to enter a room number or other room identifier. From that point on, the system will recognize the guest device  802  as being paired with the new room. 
     In yet another example of a modification, the voice-to-text conversion of step  904  could also be done locally by a voice-to-text service provided within the guest device  802  or by a server on premise at the hospitality establishment  800 . This may be beneficial in some applications for increased user privacy or when there is no connection available to the Internet  836 . 
     Again, any of the above-described devices may be integrated with one another via the data gate  200 , and it is to be understood that each of the above-described devices includes one or more processors coupled to a storage medium holding processor executable instructions. For instance, by one or more processors of the guest device  802  executing software instructions of the hotel app, the guest device  802  is made operable to perform the above-described operations of the hotel app. Likewise, by one or more processors of the data gate  200  executing software instructions from a coupled storage medium, the one or more processors are operable to perform the above-described operations of the data gate  200 . 
     In yet other embodiments, the functionality of any or all of the above-described devices may be merged together. For instance,  FIG.  10    illustrates a computer server  1000  including one or more processors  1002  coupled to a first network interface  1004 , a second network interface  1006 , a third network interface  1008 , one or more storage devices  1010 , and a real-time clock chip  1012 . The first network interface  1004  is coupled to the Internet  836 , the second network interface  1006  is coupled to the guest LAN  804 , and the third network interface  1008  is coupled to the in-room device LAN  814 . Especially for the data gate  200  functionalities, the server  1000  may also include any number of different types of communication interfaces in addition to network interfaces. Examples of other communication interface include serial interfaces  1016  that might be utilized by legacy serial devices  1016 . Other communications interfaces may be included to support any desired wired and wireless protocols and interconnection hardware. The one or more storage devices may be implemented as a combination of hard drive(s) and random access memory, for example, and store therein a number of software modules and associated data. Specifically, the storage device(s)  1010  in this embodiment include software modules providing functions of the data gate  200 , the HSIA controller  204 , the network gateway  806 , the room controller  820 , the room-to-device table  834 , and the hotel app server  812 . The clock chip  1012  may be utilized to measure time such as to calculate and/or monitor expiry times for the room control functionality and/or other services provided by the server  1000 . 
     Other software modules and data  1014  may be included as desired. For instance, in another embodiment, the data gate  200 , gateway  806 , PMS  808 , database storage device  834 , hotel app server  812  and room controller  820  may all be implemented on a single computer server  1000  in some embodiments, and the computer server  1000  located in an on premise location such a server room of the hotel  800 , for example. 
     The above-described devices, modules, flowcharts, and other functionality may be implemented by software executed by one or more processors operating pursuant to instructions stored on a tangible computer-readable medium such as a storage device to perform the above-described functions of any or all aspects of the access controller. Examples of the tangible computer-readable medium include optical media (e.g., CD-ROM, DVD discs), magnetic media (e.g., hard drives, diskettes), and other electronically readable media such as flash storage devices and memory devices (e.g., RAM, ROM). The computer-readable medium may be local to the computer executing the instructions, or may be remote to this computer such as when coupled to the computer via a computer network such as the Internet. The processors may be included in a general-purpose or specific-purpose computer that becomes any of the above-described devices as a result of executing the instructions. 
     In other embodiments, rather than being software modules executed by one or more processors, the above-described devices, modules, flowcharts, and other functionality may be implemented as hardware modules configured to perform the above-described functions. Examples of hardware modules include combinations of logic gates, integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays, and application specific integrated circuits, and other analog and digital circuit designs. 
     Unless otherwise specified, features described may be implemented in hardware or software according to different design requirements. In addition to a dedicated physical computing device, the word “server” may also mean a service daemon on a single computer, virtual computer, or shared physical computer or computers, for example. All combinations and permutations of the above described features and embodiments may be utilized in conjunction with the invention.