Remote NLP Voice Control for Network-Enabled Faucets
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional faucets with built-in voice recognition capabilities have limited speech recognition capabilities, cannot be easily updated, and have a restricted operating range, requiring users to be physically close to the faucet for voice activation.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a network-enabled faucet system that offloads complex speech recognition and language understanding to remote natural language processing (NLP) servers, allowing users to issue voice commands from any device with a microphone, enabling remote operation and integration with the latest NLP technologies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If built-in voice recognition engines are implemented in faucets, then voice activation capability is provided, but speech recognition accuracy and flexibility are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the complex speech recognition and natural language processing functions from the faucet hardware and relocates them to remote cloud-based NLP servers. The faucet retains only basic microphone input and command execution capabilities, while leveraging external computing resources for sophisticated voice processing, thereby achieving high speech recognition accuracy without increasing local device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a network communication intermediary that connects the faucet to remote NLP servers. This intermediary enables the transmission of voice commands and processing results between the simple faucet hardware and the sophisticated cloud-based processing systems, allowing complex speech recognition capabilities to be accessed without embedding complex hardware in the faucet
2Adaptability or versatility
If built-in voice recognition engines are installed in faucets, then voice control functionality is achieved, but system updates become difficult and expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the voice recognition processing logic from embedded hardware to external cloud services. This extraction transforms the system from one requiring hardware updates to one where software updates can be deployed remotely on the NLP servers, making the system easily updatable without physical intervention at the faucet location
Solution Approach 2:
The patent makes the voice processing capability universal by using cloud-based NLP servers that can serve multiple faucets and be updated centrally. The same updated processing algorithms and language models can be applied across all connected faucets simultaneously, providing easy system-wide updates without individual hardware modifications
3Ease of operation
If built-in microphones are used in faucets, then voice command detection is enabled, but operating range is limited to a few feet
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses the user's existing audio devices (smartphones, tablets, computers with microphones) as intermediaries to capture voice commands. These devices have superior microphones compared to built-in faucet microphones, enabling voice command detection from much greater distances. The intermediary device relays the captured voice data to the faucet system for processing
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the voice capture function from the faucet itself and relocates it to the user's personal audio devices. By utilizing the microphone capabilities of these external devices, the system achieves extended operating range without requiring enhanced microphone hardware in the faucet
Data Source
AI summary
A faucet system comprising a faucet; an electronic valve associated with the faucet; and a faucet controller associated with the electronic valve; wherein the faucet controller is configured to receive a faucet command from a command server; and actuate the electronic valve upon receiving the faucet command; wherein the command server is configured to receive a speech-based command from a natural language processing (NLP) server; generate the faucet command from the speech-based command and transmit the faucet command to the faucet controller; and wherein the NLP server is remote to the faucet.