---

---

---

---

Science RSS News Feeds

---

---

Email a Friend Printer Friendly

Voice-controlled electronics

September 20, 2002

Not only older and disabled people have trouble coping with the blessings of modern information technology. A lot of users have at some point ultimately faced exasperation in trying to understand printed user instructions for computers or answering machines, although the situation has meanwhile somewhat improved: Integrated electronic handbooks - in some cases, including help functions - or the show view feature on video recorders make it easier to carry out complicated settings. How convenient it would be, if there were an intelligible interface that could understand the command: “Record the detective series on channel one this evening!” - and the video recorder does just that. To enhance communication between people and their equipment is also the aim of the EMBASSI project (electronic multimedia usage and service assistance). It is one of six related lead projects that have been sponsored by the German federal ministry for education and research BMBF since 1999.

Scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research IGD and their project colleagues focus on household electrical appliances and electronic equipment. “We enhanced the classic remote control device through functions which can control different kinds of devices,” explains Dr. Thomas Kirste, who is the project manager at the Rostock branch of the Institute. “When you are sitting in an armchair and wish to watch television, you can dim each lamp individually and roll down the blinds without standing up.” This selectivity is made possible by tiny infrared sensors attached to each device. The direction in which the remote control is pointed determines which device is activated. The next stage is a voice analysis system and a camera with image processing which identify the user’s wishes. “If someone is sitting in one corner of the room and says ‘lamp out’, the system realizes that the user only means the reading lamp in that corner,” explains Dr. Thorsten Tödtmann from Grundig, also a project partner.

An interface with a deliberately simple design displayed on a monitor screen serves as a further input device. When, for instance, the voice input system has analyzed that the video recorder should record an episode of a detective series in the evening, all detective series in the television guide transmitted via satellite are displayed on the screen. In case the system has not long since realized the user’s particular penchant to “Columbo”, the remote control can be used to easily select the desired program.

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft