Visual indication of an operational state

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9779757-B1
Application number	US-201213561840-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jul 30, 2012
Priority date	Jul 30, 2012
Publication date	Oct 3, 2017
Grant date	Oct 3, 2017

Abstract

Architectures and techniques to visually indicate an operational state of an electronic device. In some instances, the electronic device comprises a voice-controlled device configured to interact with a user through voice input and visual output. The voice-controlled device may be positioned in a home environment, such as on a table in a room of the environment. The user may interact with the voice-controlled device through speech and the voice-controlled device may perform operations requested by the speech. As the voice-controlled device enters different operational states while interacting with the user, one or more lights of the voice-controlled device may be illuminated to indicate the different operational states.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a cylindrically shaped housing;
a microphone residing at least partly within the housing;
a plurality of lights arranged along a perimeter of a top portion of the housing;
one or more processors; and
one or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:
receiving an audio signal from the microphone;
determining an utterance of a user from the audio signal, the utterance specifying an operation to be performed by the apparatus;
determining a direction of the user relative to the apparatus;
illuminating one or more of the plurality of lights in a particular pattern to indicate that the apparatus has determined the direction of the user, wherein the particular pattern is one of a plurality of patterns,
wherein an individual pattern of the plurality of patterns corresponds to an individual operational state of a plurality of operational states of the apparatus, wherein the individual pattern provides a visual indication of the individual operational state of the apparatus, and wherein the individual operational state is based at least in part on the operation to be performed by the apparatus specified by the utterance; and
performing the operation specified by the utterance.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the particular pattern comprises less than all of the plurality of lights along the perimeter of the top portion of the housing in the direction of the user determined by the apparatus.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , the acts further comprising:
determining an amplitude of the utterance; and
altering an intensity of the one or more of the plurality of lights in the particular pattern based at least in part on the amplitude of the utterance.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein determining the amplitude of the utterance comprises determining a volume of the utterance or a frequency of the utterance.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , the acts further comprising:
determining an additional sound from the audio signal;
determining a direction of a source of the additional sound; and
illuminating one or more additional lights of the plurality of lights that are in the direction of the source of the additional sound.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein illuminating the one or more additional lights of the plurality of lights that are in the direction of the source of the additional sound comprises altering an intensity of the one or more additional lights based at least in part on changes in an amplitude of the additional sound.

7. An apparatus comprising:
a microphone;
a plurality of lights;
one or more processors; and
one or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:
receiving an audio signal from the microphone;
determining, based at least in part on the audio signal, a direction of a source of sound;
illuminating at least one of the plurality of lights in the direction of the source;
determining an utterance from the audio signal, wherein the utterance corresponds to an operational state of the apparatus;
illuminating the at least one of the plurality of lights in a particular pattern to indicate an operation associated with the operational state, wherein the particular pattern is one of a plurality of patterns, wherein the particular pattern of the plurality of patterns corresponds to the operational state of a plurality of operational states of the apparatus, wherein the particular pattern provides a visual indication of the operational state of the apparatus, and wherein the operational state is based at least in part on the operation to be performed by the apparatus associated with the utterance; and
performing the operation specified by the utterance.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of lights comprise at least one of discrete segments of a single integrated light or multiple discrete lights and wherein a first one of the plurality of lights is adjacent to a second one of the plurality of lights.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of lights are arranged in a circle or ellipse near a top portion of the apparatus.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein at least a portion of the audio signal represents the utterance spoken by a user, the utterance being associated with awaking the apparatus from an inactive state to the operational state of the plurality of operational states.

11. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the illuminating the at least one of the plurality of lights in the particular pattern comprises illuminating each light of the plurality of lights in the particular pattern corresponding to the operational state of the plurality of operational states of the apparatus.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , further comprising:
based at least in part on the determining the direction of the source of the sound and after illuminating each light of the plurality of lights in the particular pattern corresponding to the operational state of the apparatus, illuminating a first subset of lights of the plurality of lights that are positioned in the direction of the source of the sound.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , further comprising:
determining that the source of the sound has changed to a changed direction relative to the apparatus; and
based at least in part on the determining that the source of the sound has changed to the changed direction, illuminating a second subset of lights of the plurality of lights that are closest to the one or more lights of the plurality of lights that are positioned in the changed direction of the source of the sound.

14. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the audio signal includes a request to perform the operation associated with the apparatus.

15. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of operational states comprises at least one of the apparatus:
powering on,
powering off,
preparing to perform speech recognition on the audio signal,
tracking the source of sound associated with the audio signal,
performing speech recognition on the audio signal,
identifying an error due to an inability of the apparatus to identify another utterance in the audio signal,
adjusting volume of the apparatus,
determining or authenticating an identity of a user,
connecting to a network,
updating software,
transferring data to or from the apparatus,
identifying an error on the apparatus or another apparatus associated with the apparatus,
running an application, or
turning off the microphone of the apparatus.

16. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein a light of the plurality of lights comprises at least one of a light-emitting diode, a fluorescent light, an incandescent light, a laser, or a portion of a flat panel display.

17. A method implemented at least in part by an electronic device that includes a microphone and one or more lights, the method comprising:
receiving an audio signal from the microphone;
determining an utterance of a user from the audio signal, the utterance comprising a request from the user;
determining a direction of the user relative to the electronic device;
causing the electronic device to enter an operational state based at least in part on the request;
causing at least one of the one or more lights to illuminate in the direction of the user relative to the electronic device;
causing the at least one of the one

Assignees

• Blanksteen Scott I
• Hart Gregory M
• Rogers Iii Charles S
• Langhammer Heinz-Dominik
• Webber Ronald Edward
• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Blanksteen Scott I
• Hart Gregory M
• Rogers Iii Charles S
• Langhammer Heinz-Dominik
• Webber Ronald Edward

Classifications

• G10L2015/223

  Execution procedure of a spoken command · CPC title

• G01S3/80

  using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves · CPC title

• G10L21/10 Primary

  Transforming into visible information · CPC title

• G06F3/167

  Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback · CPC title

• H04R2430/01

  Aspects of volume control, not necessarily automatic, in sound systems · CPC title