Voice Operated Alarm System

Abstract

An alarm device that will set off an audible alarm at a predetermined time. The alarm will sound until it receives a verbal command, at which time the alarm will stop. After a predetermined interval, the alarm will again sound until a verbal command is received. The foregoing will be repeated until a manual switch is actuated that disables the alarm or until such time as it is reset automatically by the alarm mechanism.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The idea of using the human voice to control or operate an alarm, a radio or a variety of other devices, including toys, has been known for some time. In such devices, a speaker which receives the sound waves of a certain amplitude will produce an output that is amplified and used to operate a switch to accomplish the desired result. There are also known a variety of alarm devices that are electrically powered and are used to awaken a person at a preset time, or remind a person of an appointment or that a predetermined cooking time period has expired, etc. Such devices normally operate on a preset time interval or are actuated upon a preset time of day being reached. Frequently, the person who wishes to be reminded is sleeping, preoccupied with other things, or may be even slightly absent-minded. If this occurs, the person can manually shut off the alarm and forget to take the action for which the alarm reminded him. Most persons have experienced this at some time during their lives. Particularly in connection with alarm clocks used to awaken people in the morning, there have therefore been developed what are termed "snooze alarms" which will repeatedly sound an alarm at predetermined intervals after the initial alarm until the person manually operates a switch which is usually not easily accessible without the person being wideawake. With such snooze alarms, however, the individual must manually operate a "snooze" alarm switch to shut off the alarm and actuate the system for the periodic "snooze" alarms. This does require some effort and at times defeats the purpose of allowing the individual some additional time to doze in the morning. It is, therefore, an object of the invention to improve upon alarms of this type.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention provides a system which may be applied to any alarm device where it is desired to sound an alarm at predetermined intervals, such as alarm clocks used for awakening, appointment reminders, cooking timers, etc. The system of the invention includes a voice operated switch which will turn off the alarm when a voice command is received. By use of a timer circuit, the alarm will repeat itself after a predetermined interval unless a manual switch is actuated which will disable the circuit and the alarm. The system of the invention accomplishes this in a unique way and allows the alarm to sound until the voice command is received without the sound produced by the alarm shutting itself off. The system of the invention provides the foregoing features with a relatively simple and trouble-free electronic circuit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the system of the invention; and

FIG. 2 is a detailed schematic diagram of the circuitry for an alarm device constructed according to the principles of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

OF THE INVENTION

The invention as described herein can be applied to any alarm device, such as an alarm clock, that is used as an awakening device, an appointment reminder, cooking time reminder, etc. The embodiment of the invention described herein is compatible with any alarm clock movement where the alarm movement can be adapted to operate an electrical switch either mechanically, electrically or otherwise. The embodiment shown is one in which the alarm produced is an interrupted electronic tone rather than a continuous tone. However, the principles of the invention are applicable to a system in which a continuous tone is produced.

Referring now to the drawings, the system is electrically powered from a power supply 10 which includes 115 volt A-C power source 12 that is converted through transformer 14 and bridge circuit 16 into a direct current power supply of two different voltages supplied through a 9 volt D-C output line 20 and 5 volt D-C output line 20. The 5 volt output line 20 is connected and supplies all of the basic components except for speaker 22 which is connected to the 9 volt line 20. The 5 volt line 20 is connected to each of the components at the points indicated in FIG. 2.

The system includes a voice microphone 24, the output of which is amplified by amplifier 26 to a level sufficient to create an output signal on one of the input lines 28 to the off-timer 30 whenever a sound of sufficient amplitude is picked up by microphone 24. Preferably, there is provided a potentiometer 32 that regulates the amplitude of sound which will produce an output from the voice microphone 24 to the amplifier 26. The other input line 34 to off-timer 30 is coupled to the output of the disable-timer 36, both input lines 28 and 34 being connected to AND gate 38 in the off-timer 30. AND gate 38 will produce an output only when there is an input on both of the input lines 28 and 34. When there is an output from AND gate 38, and thus an output signal from off-timer 30, the oscillator-chopper 40 will be locked in its "disable" mode as more fully described hereinafter. Chopper 40 is a gate oscillator designed to create two modes either the "disable" mode or the "enable" mode. In the enable mode, chopper 40 produces an output to the tone oscillator 42 which drives the speaker 22 and produces a "beep" for a brief interval, preferably around 100 to 500 milliseconds. When the chopper 40 is in the enable mode, it will also produce an output pulse on input line 44 to the disable-timer 36. The other input line 46 to disable-timer 36 is connected to the output of off-timer 30. Input lines 44 and 46 to disable-timer 36 are connected to AND gate 48 which will produce an output on line 34 from disable-timer 36 only if simultaneously there are no inputs on either of the input lines 44 or 46.

The reset switch 50 is a three-way switch operable by the alarm mechanism 52 of any alarm device such as an alarm clock movement. When the alarm 52 is not set to produce an alarm, a signal is produced on line 54 which resets the timer 56 in the off-timer 30 which in turn produces an output signal on line 46 to lock the chopper 40 in the disable mode, thereby preventing any tone from being produced by oscillator 42 and speaker 22. When the alarm 52 is set to call for an audible alarm, switch 50 will be reset (electrically, mechanically or otherwise) so that a signal is now produced on line 58 that removes the lock on the chopper 40 which will then go into the enable mode and produce an output to tone oscillator 42 to drive speaker 22 thereby producing an audible tone or "beep" for a very brief predetermined interval. At the same time, during the enable mode, chopper 40 produces a signal on line 44. Since there is no output on line 46 from off-timer 30, AND gate 48 will not produce an output and there will be no output from disable-timer 36 thus preventing any output from off-timer 30 which would lock the chopper 40 in the disable mode. This is so that during the enable mode the sound of the beep produced by speaker 22 will not itself lock the chopper in the disable mode thereby shutting off the tone oscillator 42 immediately after the initial beep. After the predetermined brief interval of the initial "beep" produced from speaker 22 during the enable mode, the chopper 40 will go into the disable mode in which there is no output to tone oscillator 42 and thus no "beep" produced by speaker 22. The disable mode continues for a predetermined time (preferably 1 to 2 seconds) that is greater than the time of the enable mode. During the disable mode of chopper 40, there is no output on input line 44 to disable-timer 36. Since there is no output at this time from off-timer 30 on line 46, AND gate 48 will produce an output which will actuate timer 49 thus producing an output on line 34 for the predetermined 1 to 2 second interval of the disable mode. If during this interval, voice microphone 24 picks up sound of a sufficient amplitude, voice amplifier 26 will produce an output on line 28, and therefore an output will be produced from AND gate 38 actuating timer 56 and producing an output from off-timer 30 on line 46. An output on line 46 will lock the chopper in the disable mode and thus prevent any further "beep" from speaker 22 for the interval of time set by timer 56. Preferably this is a "snooze" interval of maybe 10 minutes. After the preset interval determined by timer 56, the signal will be removed from line 46 thus unlocking chopper 40 and allowing it to go into the enable mode in which the tone oscillator 42 is activated to produce a beep from speaker 22.

If during the interval in which timer 40 of disable-timer 36 is producing an output to off-timer 30 there is no voice or other sound picked up by voice microphone 24, the chopper 40 will return to the enable mode, activate tone oscillator 42 and produce a "beep" on speaker 22. Thus, an interrupted tone at intervals of 1 to 2 seconds will be continuously produced until such time as a sound is picked up by voice microphone 24 during the disable mode of chopper 40. If this occurs, the chopper 40 will be locked into the disable mode for the preset interval determined by timer 56 after which interval the interrupted beep will be produced until voice microphone 24 again picks up a sound during the disable mode of the chopper 40.

Since the described cycle will continue for a predetermined time (1 or 2 hours) to sound an interrupted audible alarm at intervals of 5 to 15 minutes (depending upon the setting of timer 56) as long as power is supplied to the system, there is provided a manual switch (not shown) which when actuated will remove the signal from line 58 in reset switch 50 and produce a signal on line 54 that will reset off-timer 30 and lock the chopper 40 in the disable mode so that no tone can be produced by speaker 22 until the alarm 52 is again set to call for an alarm and removes the signal from reset line 54 to the alarm line 58. A signal on reset line 54 also resets the off-timer 30 so that when alarm 52 again calls for a "beep" from speaker 22 the timer 56 will be at a zero setting.

The system has been described as producing an interrupted beep alarm. However, the system could be designed to produce a continuous tone from oscillator 42 at a predetermined frequency. If the system were so designed, a filter (not shown) would have to be provided in the voice amplifier circuit 26 to filter out the frequency of the tone so that the tone of the alarm itself would not shut itself off. If the system were so designed, there would be no necessity for the chopper 40 and disable-timer 36 which would then be replaced with a filter in the voice amplifier circuit 26. While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been described in sufficient detail to enable one skilled in the art to practice the invention, a specific example of the circuitry including values and other pertinent information is set forth in FIG. 2.

The invention has been described in connection with a "snooze" type alarm used for awakening a person from his sleep. However, it is obvious that the principles of the invention could be applied to any alarm device in which it is desired to turn off an alarm by a voice or other sound for a predetermined interval after which the alarm would again sound to provide a second warning. It will be further obvious to those skilled in the art that various revisions and modifications can be made to the specific embodiment shown herein without departing from the spirit and principles of the invention. It is my intention, however, that all such revisions and modifications as are obvious to those skilled in the art will be included within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

I claim:

1. A voice-operated alarm system comprising, alarm means for producing an audible alarm, actuating means for actuating said alarm means, detection means for picking up a sound within the normal range of the human voice and converting said sound into an output signal, means coupling said output signal to said alarm means so as to shut off said audible alarm, timing means coupled to and actuated by said output signal to prevent said audible alarm from sounding for a predetermined time interval after which said alarm will again start sounding, and means for selectively disabling said timing means and output signal to prevent said alarm from sounding until actuated by said actuating means.

2. The voice-operated alarm system of claim 1 in which said alarm means includes an audio oscillator that produces an intermittent audible sound, and means are provided so that said detection means is disabled during the time that said alarm means is producing an audible sound.

3. The voice-operated alarm system of claim 2 in which said last mentioned means includes a gate oscillator coupled to said audio oscillator and operating in two modes, a disabled mode and an enable mode, said gate oscillator being coupled to said audio oscillator and producing an output to activate said audio oscillator only during the enable mode.

4. The voice-operated alarm system of claim 3 in which there is a second timing means coupled to said gate oscillator, said second timing means being also coupled to said first mentioned timing means to prevent the said output signal from activating said first timing means during the enable mode of said gate oscillator.

5. The voice-operated alarm system of claim 1 in which said last mentioned means is a manually operable switch, and said activating means is adapted for use in connection with a clock mechanism upon passage of a predetermined time.

6. The voice-operated alarm system of claim 5 in which said alarm means includes an audio oscillator that produces an intermittent audible sound, and means are provided so that said detection means is disabled during the time that said alarm means is producing an audible sound.

7. The voice-operated alarm system of claim 6 in which the last mentioned means of claim 6 includes a gate oscillator coupled to said audio oscillator and operating in two modes, a disabled mode and an enable mode, said gate oscillator being coupled to said audio oscillator and producing an output to activate said audio oscillator only during the enable mode.

8. The voice-operated alarm system of claim 7 in which there is a second timing means coupled to said gate oscillator, said second timing means being also coupled to said first mentioned timing means to prevent the said output signal from activating said first timing means during the enable mode of said gate oscillator.

9. A voice-operated alarm system for use in connection with a clock mechanism that produces a signal when a predetermined time is reached, said system comprising a voice microphone and amplifier for picking up sound within the normal range of the human voice and converting said sound into an output signal, an audio oscillator and speaker coupled thereto for producing an audible sound, a gate oscillator coupled to the input of said audio oscillator and operable in two modes, an enable mode and a disable mode, said tone oscillator being activated only when said gate oscillator is in the enable mode, a first timer having one input coupled to the output of said voice microphone and amplifier, a second timer coupled to said gate oscillator and having its output coupled to a second input of said first timer, the inputs to said first timer being gated so as to actuate said first timer only if there are simultaneously signals on both of said inputs, said second timer having two input lines, one coupled to said gate oscillator and the other to said first timer, said inputs being gated so that said second timer produces an output signal only if there are simultaneously signals on both of its inputs, and means for activating said system only when said signal is received from said clock mechanism.

10. The voice-operated alarm system of claim 9 in which said means includes a reset switch that holds said gate oscillator in the disable mode until said signal is received from said clock mechanism.

11. The voice-operated alarm system of claim 10 in which said means is manually operable to reset said gate oscillator in the disable mode until a signal is received from said clock mechanism.