Download Personal voice operated reminder system

Oct. 18, 2012
US 2012/0265535 A1
[0015]
According to the present invention, there is also
provided a system for playing back a reminder message to a
of reminders when the reminder system is moved to the user’s
ear or in a position close to the user’s ear.
user comprising: an voice input element con?gured to receive
a reminder message by voice; a controller con?gured to create
RELATED APPLICATION
a rule for playing back the reminder message or a portion
thereof to a user, the controller being also con?gured to deter
mine when the rule is triggered; and an voice output element
con?gured to output said reminder message or a portion
thereof to the user when the rule is triggered.
US. provisional application having Ser. No. 61/240,257,
?led Sep. 7, 2009, the speci?cation of which is incorporated
herein by reference in its entirety.
[0016]
[0017] According to the present invention, the personal
voice reminder system may be implemented in a multi-pur
pose device such as a cellular phone. The implementation
may be in software or ?rmware using components also used
by the cellular phone for telephony such as a microphone,
speaker, display, storage element and controller. The imple
mentation may also include the addition of one or more ele
ment not used by the cellular phone for telephony.
The invention may also use additional sensors such
This application claims the bene?t of priority to
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The present invention can be a device that is worn on
the wrist on the side opposite a watch, in place of a watch, or
it can be part of a piece of jewelry such as a bracelet or
necklace. This invention might also be held in a persons
pocket or purse.
[0018]
[0022]
[0023] In order to understand the invention and to see how
it may be carried out in practice, a preferred embodiment will
now be described, by way of non-limiting example only, with
reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
[0024] FIG. 1A is a block diagram of a personal device
based system for voice operated reminders, according to an
embodiment of the present invention;
[0025] FIG. 1B is a diagram showing examples of remind
ers with the portions of the reminder identi?ed.
[0026] FIG. 2 is a ?owchart of a method for recording and
playing back voice operated reminders, according to an
embodiment of the present invention;
[0027]
FIG. 3 is a ?owchart of a method for incorporating
other devices such as proximity sensors to re?ne the identi
user noti?cation, automatic delays of reminders, playback of
date and time, reminder triggered commands, according to an
embodiment of the present invention; and
?cation and/or recognition of voice, position and/or motion
based control inputs. For example, one such control input
[0028] FIG. 4 is a ?owchart of a method for allowing speci
?cation of commands in place of playback of a reminder,
commonly available in touch screen cellular phones is a prox
imity sensor used to detect the touch screens proximity to the
users face. Normally this sensor input is used to disable the
according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0029] FIG. 5A is a block diagram of a personal device
based system with additional elements allowing use of loca
as those commonly present in certain cellular phones and
phone’s touch screen input to prevent spurious commands
tion and activity based rules for playback of reminders, and
from the touch screen touching the user’s face. The same
the creation of known locations and activities, according to an
input may be used when the cellular phone in a position to
accept an incoming call that it is in close proximity to the
embodiment of the present invention;
[0030] FIG. 5A is diagram showing relative positions pos
user’s face as wouldbe normally the case when the user wants
to speak to another person using the cellular telephone. This
use of the proximity sensor is complementary and opposite to
the current and intendeduse of the proximity sensor to disable
touch screen control inputs.
[0019]
sibly used to determine the intended use of the reminder
system, according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0031] FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a position activated
system, according to an embodiment of the present invention;
[0032] FIG. 7 is a representative grammar for reminder
speci?cation and commands.
The rules for playing back the reminder will be
normally extracted from the voice input allowing natural
speci?cation of both the reminder and the criteria for playing
back the reminder in a single utterance. The words used to
create the rule for playing back the reminder may be retained
in the reminder to be played back for clarity or may be
removed for brevity. If the utterance contains multiple time
criteria, the complete utterance may be played back at each of
the several times indicated by the criteria, allowing the user to
resolve ambiguity in the utterance.
[0020] The rules for playing back the reminder may include
additional criteria based on location and/or user activity.
Location and/ or user activity criteria may be used alone, used
in combination with time criteria, or used to limit the appli
cation of time criteria in creating the rules for playback of the
reminders.
[0021] Interaction with the reminder system may be con
trolled by common means such as buttons, taps or gestures or
may be based on detected motions or positions of the
reminder system. For example acceptance of reminders when
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
[0033]
Described herein are embodiments of the current
invention for a personal voice reminder system. Examples of
reminding capabilities include reminders based on time, loca
tion and/or activity.
[0034] As used herein, the phrase “for example,
such as”
and variants thereof describe non-limiting embodiments of
the present invention.
[0035] Reference in the speci?cation to “one embodi
ment”, “an embodiment”, “some embodiments”, “another
embodiment”, “other embodiments”, “various embodi
ments”, or variations thereof means that a particular feature,
structure or characteristic described in connection with the
embodiment(s) is included in at least one embodiment of the
invention. Thus the appearance of the phrase “one embodi
ment”, “an embodiment”, “some embodiments”, “another
embodiment”, “other embodiments” “various embodi
ments”, or variations thereof do not necessarily refer to the
same embodiment(s).
the reminder system is moved to the user’s mouth or in a
[0036]
position near the user’s mouth, and analogously for playback
ti?c terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly
Unless de?ned otherwise, all technical and scien