Patent ID: 7752050

Claim:
A multi-user voice control system for use in an endoscopic imaging system, the multi-user voice control system comprising: a first input channel to receive speech of a first user of the endoscopic imaging system; a second input channel to receive speech of a second user of the endoscopic imaging system, wherein the first and second input channels are formed in a single device; a selection unit to select the first input channel or the second input channel by applying a selection priority to the first and second input channels, wherein the selection unit comprises a voice activity detector (VAD) module to determine a first signal received on the first input channel when the first user starts speaking exceeds a first threshold and to determine whether a second signal received on the second input channel exceeds a second threshold, wherein the first threshold is less than the second threshold; an automatic speech recognizer (ASR) to recognize speech received on a channel selected by the channel selector; and a control unit to enable the multi-user voice control system to control a device in the endoscopic imaging system in response to speech recognized by the ASR.