Tadashi Yoshidome

Experiment on operating methods of an electric wheelchair for a system of detecting position and direction

In this paper, we propose a voice-controlled electric wheelchair with a system for detecting the position and direction. Thus far, we have studied systems that incorporated voice instructions with our indoor navigation equipment using RF tags. An operating method which is different in order to clarify the problem of the operation method of an existing wheelchair was measured in the same environment. We then evaluated the results from the viewpoint of the usability of each operation in order to determine the most suitable assisting operation. We found that it is very effective to memorize one of the possible stopping positions and the angles of rotations to desired directions, which could adequately assist the movement of a wheelchair.

Remote control system of home electrical appliances using speech recognition

This paper discusses a remote control system of home electrical appliances using speech recognition. It is very convenient system for not only visual-impaired people but also elderly people to control household appliances based on the speech commands. The goal of our system is that the many kinds of household appliances such as television, video recorder and air conditioner are controlled based on the speech commands. The feature of our remote control system is that the system has human friendly interface just as persons communicate with each other. When the system did not recognize a persons speech command, the system asks once more for a speech command to repeat what a person said. The experimental results for our system have clarified its effectiveness.