Patent ID: 8340975

Claim:
An interactive, self-contained, speech recognition control device that is adapted for use in an automated building control system in which a plurality of functionally identical devices are positioned at different locations throughout a building space to enable a system user to control the actions of the system, via speech commands only, from various locations within the building space, as well as to enable such device to audibly interact with the system user, said device comprising a housing operatively supporting: (a) a microphone for converting spoken words, emanating from a system user located within said building space, to corresponding electrical signals; (b) a programmable microcontroller, operatively coupled to the microphone and comprising embedded software and circuitry serving to: (i) continuously monitor said electrical signals in order to recognize when a trigger phrase from an expected vocabulary has likely been spoken, (ii) produce a weighted signal having a value representing the quality of a just-recognized trigger phrase, and (iii) in the event the value of said weighted signal exceeds the respective values of all weighted signals produced by other devices located within said building space that have simultaneously recognized the same trigger phrase, produce audible user interactions and system control signals by which a desired effect, reflective of speech commands uttered by the system user and recognized by said device, is achieved within the building space by automated mechanisms that respond to said system control signals; (c) a transmitter operatively coupled to said microcontroller for selectively transmitting said weighted signal and said system control signals into said building space; (d) a receiver, operatively coupled to said microcontroller, for receiving (i) weighted signals emanating from one or more other functionally identical interactive speech recognition control devices within said building space, and/or (ii) coordination signal derived from said weighted signals by an independent coordinating controller; and (e) audio output circuitry through which said microcontroller can transmit audible sounds to interact with and provide indications of the system status to the system user.