Patent Publication Number: US-2016231818-A1

Title: Method for controlling an electronic device using a gesture command and a voice command

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a method for controlling an electronic device, and more particularly, a method for controlling an electronic device using a gesture command and a voice command to perform the at least one function. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     Advancement in technology has allowed users to use gestures to control electronic devices. Though the use of gestures may be more convenient than using conventional remote controllers, the use of gestures alone to control electronic devices can still result in some problems. The problems include the sensitivity to light of the sensor for sensing the gesture, complicated gestures to make, redundancy of different gestures, and limited variety of usable gestures. If the sensitivity of the sensor is not high enough, background light prevents the sensor from determining a correct gesture. In some cases, gestures made are too similar to each other and are determined to have the same meaning when detected by the sensor. And, since only gestures are used to control the electronic device, a variety of gestures must be set to represent all the controls of the electronic device. Therefore, the gestures used to control the electronic device are more complicated to be able to differentiate the gestures from one another. Thus, there is a need to develop a technology able to increase the convenience and accuracy for controlling the electronic devices. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An embodiment of the present invention presents a method for controlling an electronic device. The method comprises turning on the electronic device having a motion sensor and a sound sensor, detecting a gesture command using the motion sensor, detecting a voice command using the sound sensor, determining at least one function corresponding to a combination of the gesture command and the voice command, and controlling the electronic device to perform the at least one function. 
     These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  illustrates a flowchart of a method for controlling an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIGS. 2 to 4  illustrate examples of applications of the method in  FIG. 1 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       FIG. 1  illustrates a flowchart of a method for controlling an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The steps of the method for controlling the electronic device may include but is not limited to the following steps: 
     Step  101 : turn on the electronic device having a motion sensor and a sound sensor; 
     Step  102 : detect a gesture command using the motion sensor; 
     Step  103 : detect a voice command using the sound sensor; 
     Step  104 : determine at least one function corresponding to a combination of the gesture command and the voice command; and 
     Step  105 : control the electronic device to perform the at least one function. 
     In step  101 , the electronic device having a motion sensor and a sound sensor may be turned on. The electronic device may be a device having a motion sensor and a sound sensor such as a mobile phone having a microphone as the sound sensor and a camera as the motion sensor, a television having a microphone as the sound sensor and a camera as the motion sensor, or a camera having a microphone as the sound sensor and a camera as the motion sensor. Though, the present invention may not be limited to the above mentioned devices. The electronic device may also include a memory to store gesture commands and voice commands and a processor to identify and perform a function corresponding to the gesture commands and the voice commands. 
     Furthermore, it should be noted that the motion sensor is not limited to being a camera. The motion sensor may be any component able to sense any type of motion, of which may include a touch screen able to detect motion occurring on the touch screen or an accelerometer able to determine if the electronic device is in motion. The abovementioned motion sensors are only examples and are not meant to limit the present invention. 
     In step  102 , the gesture command may be detected by the motion sensor; and in step  103 , the voice command may be detected by the sound sensor. Steps  102  and  103  may be simultaneously performed or consecutively. If performed consecutively, step  102  is not limited to being performed before step  103 . In some embodiments, step  103  may be performed before performing step  102 . The order of detecting the gesture command and the voice command may be interchangeable from each other. 
     After the gesture command and/or a voice command have been detected, the combination of the gesture command and the voice command may be validated by comparing the combination of the gesture command and the voice command to combinations of gesture commands and voice commands stored in a memory. The combinations may not be limited to having only one gesture command and only one voice command. The number of gesture command and the number of voice command may vary depending on the need of the circumstance. Furthermore, the gesture commands and the voice commands in the memory may be user defined or pre-programmed. 
     In step  104 , the at least one function corresponding to a combination of the gesture command and the voice command may be determined. After the gesture command and the voice command have been validated to be an existing gesture command and voice command in the memory, a corresponding at least one function of the gesture command and the voice command in the memory may be determined. A gesture command paired with different voice command may perform different at least one function. In the same way, a voice command paired with different gesture command may perform different at least one function. 
     In step  105 , the electronic device may be controlled to perform the at least one function. After the at least one function has been determined by looking through the memory, the at least one function may be performed by the electronic device. The electronic device may use a user interface to control the electronic device and control the motion sensor and the sound sensor used to respectively detect the gesture commands, as well as control the electronic device to perform the corresponding at least one function. 
       FIGS. 2 to 4  illustrate examples of applications of the method in  FIG. 1 .  FIG. 2  illustrates an example of using the method in  FIG. 1  to control a television.  FIG. 3  illustrates an example of using the method in  FIG. 1  to control a game console. And,  FIG. 4  illustrates an example of using the method in  FIG. 1  to control a camera. 
     According to the example in  FIG. 2 , a television set  210  may be controlled using a combination of gesture command  201  and voice command  202 . Conventionally, to control the television set, a remote control is usually used. But a remote control may easily get lost or may get broken as time passes. Thus, eliminating the use of a remote control may be preferable to a user  200 . When watching a television set  210 , the volume may be turned up so that the whole room may hear. And it is also common practice to have a conversation while watching a program on the television set  210 . To eliminate any false detection of a voice command. As shown in  FIG. 2 , a gesture command  201  may be combined with a voice command  202  to control the television set  210 . The gesture command  201  may indicate a mute function. Thus, upon detection of the gesture command  201 , the television set  210  may be muted. By muting the television set  210 , the user  200  may eliminate any noise coming from the television set and allow the sound sensor to have a better detection of the voice command  202 . The user  200  may then follow with a voice command  202 , such as “volume up”, “volume down”, “channel up”, or “channel down”. The voice command  202  may be delivered while the gesture command  201  is still being performed and detected by the motion sensor. Note that the above mentioned gesture command and voice commands are only an example of implementing an embodiment of the present invention and is not meant to limit the scope of the invention. 
     According to the example in  FIG. 3 , a game console  310  may be controlled using a combination of gesture command  301  and voice command  302 . Conventionally, a game console may be controlled using a controller or by using gestures. When the game console is controlled using gestures alone, some of the gestures may be a little difference in motion as compared to other gesture&#39;s motions. Thus, the motion sensor of the game console may not be able to differentiate the gestures and not be able to control the game console properly. As shown in  FIG. 3 , when a targeting game is being played using a game console  310 , a gesture command  301  may be used to simulate a targeting weapon such as a gun. The gesture command  301  may be used to point to a specific location of the target. To shoot the targeting weapon, a voice command  302  may be used. The voice command may be “bang” or “piu”. The voice command  302  may be delivered while the gesture command  301  is still being performed and detected by the motion sensor. Note that the above mentioned gesture command and voice commands are only examples of implementing an embodiment of the present invention and is not meant to limit the scope of the invention. 
     In another embodiment of the present invention, the game console may be used to play an arcade game such as racing. When playing a racing game, the gesture command may be used to control the direction. The gesture command may be gestures similar to actions made when driving a car. The voice commands may be used to control sub functions of the game such as the speed or the brake. 
     According to the example in  FIG. 4 , a camera  410  may be controlled using a combination of gesture command  401  and voice command  402 . Conventionally, taking a self-portrait using a camera is very difficult to do since the user needs to click on the control or a timer needs to be used to take a picture. Thus, several pictures need to be taken to be able to take a preferred picture. As shown in  FIG. 4 , when taking a self-portrait using the camera  410 , the camera  410  may be positioned to capture a desired location. The user  400  may stand in the position and take the time to pose. When the user  400  is ready to take the picture, the user may give a gesture command  401  and a voice command  402 . In  FIG. 4 , the gesture command  401  may be “V” shape formed by the fingers of the user and the voice command  402  may be words such as “cheese”. The use of the combination of the gesture command  401  and the voice command may allow the user  400  to capture a preferred picture. Note that the above mentioned gesture command and voice commands are only an example of implementing an embodiment of the present invention and is not meant to limit the scope of the invention. 
     Furthermore, in the abovementioned examples, the at least one function performed by the electronic device may not be executed if only the gesture command or the voice command is detected by the electronic device. Thus, increasing the accuracy of controlling the electronic device and prevent the electronic device for executing unwanted functions. 
     The embodiment of the present invention presents a method for controlling an electronic device by using a combination of a gesture command and a voice command. The electronic device may comprise a motion sensor to detect the gesture command, a sound sensor to detect the voice command, and a memory to store gesture commands, voice commands, and corresponding functions. The gesture commands, voice commands, and corresponding functions stored in the memory may be in a form of database or a lookup table and may be edited or reprogrammed according to a preference of the user. Thus, allowing a user to have a more convenient and more accurate control of the electronic device. 
     Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.