CareWheels

System Equipment

Participants were equipped with 1.5 GHz P4 PC workstations that had been retrofitted with 802.11b wireless network connections, ActiveHome X10 power-line control interfaces, USB connected video cameras and VoiceArray microphones connected to 16-bit audio PC cards. Component selection for these prototypes was limited to off-the-shelf technologies that could be modularized into flexible building blocks. These hardware and software modules were then assembled to construct the usability test-bed, the most significant feature of which is a multi-modal user interface. Participants had the choice of whether to use their keyboard & mouse, RF-remote control or a voice-controlled Anthropic Agent to access system functions and generate events.

Merlin, the Anthropic Agent, consists of an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) interface built with Microsoft Agent, including the Speech Application Programming Interface Recognition and Text-to-Speech engines. Participants access Merlin via IVR to run programs and SmartHome functions by saying the attention phrase: “Merlin old chap” followed by their desired commands.

While this first prototype is desktop PC-centric, efforts were made to un-tether the Participants from their PCs as much as feasible. For example, digital signal processor- based VoiceArray microphones were used to enable high-accuracy voice recognition up to 3 meters away from the PC without the need to wear a headset microphone. Likewise the remote controls use radio frequency signaling to activate SmartHome functions throughout the home.

System Equipment List

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