Voice Control Interactive Whiteboard Appliance
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Teleconferencing technologies are cumbersome to control, requiring users to navigate complex menus and memorize icons, which can hinder novice users' ability to utilize features effectively, impacting their credibility during presentations.
Innovation Solution
An interactive whiteboard appliance equipped with voice control capabilities, utilizing a microphone to capture voice inputs, transmit them to a speech-to-text service, and execute corresponding commands, allowing hands-free operation and intuitive control without prior knowledge of menu flows or icons.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional menu navigation and icon-based control are used, then the device provides comprehensive control capabilities, but the ease of operation deteriorates due to complex menus and memorization requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical interaction system (buttons, menus, icons requiring hand operation and visual search) with a voice-based acoustic system. Users speak natural language commands instead of navigating complex graphical interfaces, eliminating the need to memorize icon locations and menu hierarchies while maintaining full control capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a voice recognition system as an intermediary between the user and the device's control system. This intermediary translates spoken natural language into device commands, bridging the gap between user intent and device execution without requiring direct interaction with complex menus or icons.
2Ease of operation
If voice control is implemented, then the ease of operation improves through hands-free control, but the device complexity increases due to additional processing requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the complex speech-to-text processing and voice command interpretation functions from the main device into a separate cloud-based service. The device only needs to capture audio and transmit it to the external service, which returns interpreted commands. This removes the bulk of processing complexity from the device while maintaining voice control functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an external speech-to-text service as an intermediary that handles the computationally intensive tasks of voice recognition and command interpretation. This external mediator absorbs the processing complexity, allowing the device itself to remain relatively simple while still providing advanced voice control capabilities.
3Loss of time
If voice commands are processed locally, then the response time is faster, but the loss of information increases due to privacy concerns and data security requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an external speech-to-text service as an intermediary that processes voice data in a secure, isolated environment. This mediator handles the sensitive speech-to-text conversion remotely, preventing raw voice data from being stored on the device and reducing privacy risks while maintaining functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent embeds the speech-to-text processing function within an external service infrastructure that provides built-in security and privacy protections. The device nests its voice capture capability within this larger, secure processing ecosystem, leveraging the external service's security measures rather than implementing them locally.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus for providing voice command functionality to an interactive whiteboard appliance is provided. An interactive whiteboard appliance comprises: one or more processors; a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions embodied thereon, the instructions when executed by the one or more processors cause performance of: detecting, during execution of an annotation window on the interactive whiteboard appliance, a voice input received from a user; storing, in an audio packet, a recording of the voice input; transmitting the audio packet to a speech-to-text service; receiving, from the speech-to-text service, a command string comprising a transcription of the recording of the voice input; using voice mode command processing in a command processor, identifying, from the command string, an executable command that is executable by the interactive whiteboard appliance; causing the application of the interactive whiteboard appliance to execute the executable command.