Voice Program Guide Matching for Hotel Room Channel Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current hotel technology faces challenges in integrating different electronic systems, leading to complex and error-prone installation processes, and guest discomfort with hotel-provided devices due to concerns over privacy and hygiene, particularly with voice-controlled systems like in-room iPads that raise privacy concerns and germ transmission issues.
Innovation Solution
A data gate apparatus and method that facilitates communication between various hotel systems by learning and adapting to different interface formats, allowing seamless integration and reducing the need for manual coding, combined with a voice-controlled system that enables guests to use their own devices for room control, eliminating the need for hotel-provided devices and addressing privacy concerns.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If hotel systems are directly connected using dedicated connections, then each system can communicate properly with connected systems, but the installation process becomes complex and error-prone
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a data gate as an intermediary device that mediates communication between multiple hotel systems. Instead of direct dedicated connections between each system pair, all systems connect through the data gate which handles message routing, format conversion, and protocol translation, thereby simplifying installation while maintaining reliable communication.
2Ease of operation
If hotel provides in-room devices like iPads for guest control, then guests can control room devices, but privacy concerns and germ transmission issues arise
Solution Approach 1:
The patent allows guests to use their own personal devices (smartphones, tablets) as copies of the hotel's control interface. The guest's personal device runs a hotel-provided application that communicates with room systems, eliminating the need for physical hotel-provided devices in rooms. This maintains ease of operation while addressing privacy and hygiene concerns since guests interact with their own familiar devices.
3Ease of operation
If preconfigured devices are provided in each room, then voice control functionality is available, but initial cost requirements and maintenance burden increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal control system where a single data gate serves multiple rooms and multiple functions. Instead of provisioning individual control devices in each room, the system uses guests' personal devices universally across all rooms, with the data gate handling centralized control logic. This eliminates the need for extensive device provisioning and maintenance while maintaining voice control availability.
Data Source
AI summary
A voice-controlled system for allowing a guest of a hospitality establishment to play desired media content on an in-room device includes one or more servers coupled to a network and a plurality of in-room devices. A user device captures audio from a microphone and converts the audio into a text transcript utilizing a voice-to-text conversion service. The user device passes the text transcript to the servers where a particular room of the hospitality establishment with which the user device is currently associated is determined. The servers check a program guide for the particular room in order to determine a channel on which a program name determined according to the text transcript is currently playing, and determine one or more target in-room devices of the particular room. The servers send commands causing the target in-room devices to play the channel on which the program name is currently playing.