Group Hotword Coordination for Low-Power Multi-Device Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing speech-enabled devices struggle to efficiently respond to user queries due to the high computational cost of continuous speech recognition, and users must issue separate commands to multiple devices within a network, leading to inefficient and unnatural interactions.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a group hotword system that allows multiple assistant-enabled devices to be assigned a shared hotword, enabling them to wake up from a low-power state and collaborate to perform operations in response to a single user query, with optional leader election and collaboration routines based on device properties.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If continuous speech recognition is performed on multiple devices, then speech recognition accuracy is improved, but energy consumption and computational cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the speech recognition task into two parts: hotword detection (performed continuously at low power) and full speech recognition (performed only when hotword is detected). This allows devices to maintain speech recognition capability while significantly reducing energy consumption by keeping most processing functions dormant until activated.
Solution Approach 2:
Devices operate in periodic cycles, alternating between low-power sleep mode and active processing mode. The hotword detector periodically monitors audio input at minimal power consumption, and only transitions to full speech recognition mode when triggered, creating an efficient periodic operation pattern that balances accuracy and energy usage.
2Reliability
If multiple devices independently monitor for hotwords, then response coverage is improved, but system complexity and coordination overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple devices are merged into a coordinated group where they share the hotword monitoring responsibility. When any device detects the hotword, it triggers a collaborative response protocol that activates relevant devices based on their capabilities and proximity, reducing individual device complexity while maintaining comprehensive coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
A central coordinator or cloud service acts as an intermediary to manage the group of devices. The intermediary receives hotword detections from any device, determines which devices should respond based on query analysis, and coordinates their activation, thereby simplifying individual device logic while achieving reliable multi-device response coverage.
3Speed
If devices remain in active state to quickly respond to queries, then response speed is improved, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary hotword detection in advance while devices are in low-power state. The hotword detector is pre-configured and continuously monitors for the trigger phrase, so when the hotword is spoken, the device can wake up immediately without needing to be fully active, achieving fast response with minimal energy consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
Different parts of the device operate at different power levels: the hotword detection function operates continuously at minimal power, while the main processor and speech recognition engine remain dormant until activated. This local differentiation of operational states allows the system to maintain responsiveness while minimizing overall energy consumption.
Data Source
AI summary
A method includes a first assistant-enabled device (AED) receiving an assignment instruction assigning a group hotword to a selected group of AEDs that includes the first AED and one or more other AEDs. Each AED is configured to wake-up from a low-power state when the group hotword is detected in streaming audio by at least one of the AEDs. The method also includes receiving audio data that corresponds to an utterance spoken by the user and includes a query that specifies an operation to perform. In response to detecting the group hotword in the audio data, the method also includes triggering the first AED to wake-up from the low-power state and executing a collaboration routine to cause the first AED and each other AED in the selected group of AEDs to collaborate with one another to fulfill performance of the operation specified by the query.