Voice Assistant Audio Source Location Verification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Voice-activated assistant devices are prone to unintended or unauthorized activation, leading to privacy violations and unauthorized transactions due to accidental or malicious detection of activation commands, especially from audio sources like televisions and radios.
Innovation Solution
The system identifies the location of audio sources relative to the voice-activated assistant device and prevents recording or execution of subsequent commands if the activation command originates from an unauthorized source, using microphone triangulation and user-defined relative locations to differentiate between authorized and unauthorized activations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If voice-activated assistant devices continuously monitor for activation commands, then the device can respond quickly to user commands, but the device becomes vulnerable to unauthorized activation from audio sources like televisions and radios
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by assigning different authorization statuses to different spatial locations around the device. The system determines the geographic location of audio sources and creates authorized zones (where activation is permitted) and unauthorized zones (where activation is blocked). This resolves the contradiction by maintaining sensitive monitoring only in authorized locations while blocking unauthorized activation attempts from other locations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary layer between the activation command detection and the command execution. The system inserts a location verification step that checks whether the detected activation command originates from an authorized source before allowing the voice command to be processed. This intermediary authorization check prevents unauthorized activation while preserving quick response to legitimate commands.
2Reliability
If the device records all subsequent commands after detecting an activation word, then no command is lost, but privacy violations occur when activation is triggered by unauthorized sources
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by determining the authorization status of the audio source before the voice command is recorded or processed. The system proactively checks the location and authorization status of the activation source in advance, and only then proceeds to record subsequent commands. This prevents privacy violations by ensuring that commands are only recorded when the activation originated from an authorized source, while maintaining reliable command detection for legitimate users.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the system blocks all activation commands from predefined audio source locations, then unauthorized activation is prevented, but legitimate commands from those locations are also blocked
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the authorization status of locations configurable and changeable over time. Instead of static blocking, the system allows users to dynamically add or remove authorized locations and audio sources. The authorization database can be updated to reflect changing environmental conditions, such as moving devices or changing usage patterns. This resolves the contradiction by preventing unauthorized activation from unauthorized locations while allowing legitimate commands from authorized locations to proceed normally.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution effectively reduces the occurrence of unauthorized transactions and enhances privacy by ensuring that only intended commands from recognized sources trigger actions, preventing accidental or malicious activations from audio devices like televisions and radios.
Implementation Method 1
detecting, using the microphones, a directionality or a directionality and distance of an audio source providing the activation command
Data Source
AI summary
A voice activated assistant activation prevention system includes a database storing audio source information describing a relative location of an audio source. The system is configured to monitor, using at least one microphone, for an activation command that is associated with a recording of a subsequent instruction command and a sending that subsequent instruction command through a network. When the system detects, using first audio information received by the at least one microphone, a first instance of the activation command, it determines a source location of the first instance of the activation command. If the system matches the source location of the first instance of the activation command to the relative location of the audio source described by the audio source information in the database, the system may prevent the sending though the network of an instruction command that immediately follows the first instance of the activation command.