Voice XML Console for Warehouse Voice Recognition
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Solution Overview
Problem
Distribution centers face challenges in managing smaller individual order sizes with larger overall volumes, requiring improved speed and accuracy in warehouse operations such as picking and packing, where existing solutions are inadequate.
Innovation Solution
A web-enabled console application interfaces with portable devices to process voice XML data, enabling voice recognition and output, barcode scanning, and keypad input, allowing for efficient communication between warehouse management systems and portable devices like PDAs, RFID tag readers, and smartphones, using text-to-speech and automatic speech recognition technologies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional warehouse management systems are used, then existing solutions can be maintained, but speed and accuracy of warehouse operations cannot be improved sufficiently
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments information presentation into multiple modalities (visual display, voice output, text input, voice recognition) allowing workers to process information through different channels simultaneously, improving both speed and accuracy of warehouse operations
Solution Approach 2:
The console application provides universal interfaces that support multiple communication protocols and devices (PDAs, RFID readers, smartphones), enabling a single system to serve multiple functions and improve overall operational efficiency
2Ease of operation
If voice XML processing is implemented, then hands-free operation is enabled, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The web-enabled console application acts as an intermediary between the warehouse management system and portable devices, handling voice XML processing and conversion to standard web formats, thereby enabling hands-free operation without requiring complex voice processing capabilities in each portable device
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces manual keyboard input with voice recognition technology, converting speech to text and commands, which enables hands-free operation while the server-side processing handles the complexity of voice interpretation
3Productivity
If multimodal input/output is used, then communication efficiency is improved, but information processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The console application serves as a mediator that receives data from the warehouse management system, converts it to appropriate formats for different modalities (visual, voice, text), and transmits to portable devices, thereby improving communication efficiency while centralizing processing complexity in the server application
Data Source
AI summary
The invention provides a method and apparatus, including computer program products, for interfacing communication between a warehouse management system and a portable device, the device being adapted for processing voice XML data, the method comprising: receiving, from the warehouse management system, GUI screen data comprising visual content; generating voice XML data one the basis of the visual content, the voice XML data comprising at least one portion which is representative of voice information; and transmitting the generated voice XML data to the device.