NATURAL-LANGUAGE

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a communication method between devices located in a same local network. More particularly, the invention relates to a method enabling devices using different communication protocols to communicate with each other.

BACKGROUND

In the past years, with the developing of communication networks, and more particularly wireless networks, a new kind of devices, called connected devices or smart devices, appeared.

The Internet of things (IoT) is the inter-networking of those connected devices, vehicles, etc. embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity that enable these connected devices to collect and exchange data. These connected devices may also be sensed or controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure, creating opportunities for more direct integration of the physical world into computer-based systems, and resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy.

Typically, IoT is expected to offer advanced connectivity for the connected devices, systems, and services that goes beyond machine-to-machine (M2M) communications and covers a variety of protocols, domains, and applications. The connected devices may refer to a wide variety of devices such as heart monitoring implants, biochip transponders on farm animals, electric clams in coastal waters, automobiles with built-in sensors, current market examples include home automation (also known as smart home devices) such as the control and automation of lighting, heating (like smart thermostat), ventilation, air conditioning systems, air purifiers, ovens or refrigerators/ freezers that use Wi-Fi for remote monitoring, etc. The connected devices located in a network, such as a home network, may use different communication protocols to transmit data or receive instructions from remote communication equipments or to communicate with other devices in the local network, for example, depending on their manufacturers. Thus, because of their heterogeneity, connected devices located in a same network may not be able to communicate with each other because they do not use the same communication protocols. This leads to a cumbersome situation in which an end-user needs to question himself about the compatibility of the connected devices he introduces in his local network.

Therefore, there is a need for a solution for making compatible connected devices which are currently not compatible. The present invention has been devised with the foregoing in mind.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a communication method between a first device and a least one second device, the method being executed by the first device and comprising :

- converting a set of instructions to be executed by the at least one second device into a set of natural-language instructions to be executed by said at least one second device,

- emitting, through a second interface, at least a second message comprising said set of natural- language instructions to be executed by said at least one second devices.

Such a method enables a first device located on a local network, e.g. a home network, to agnostically command a second device. Indeed, converting sets of instructions, intended for one of the second devices located in the local network, received by the first device in different formats and according to different protocols into natural-language makes it possible to command a second device which would not be capable to communicate with the first device otherwise. This is the case for example when the first device and the second devices are manufactured by different companies, each having developed proprietary communication protocols which are not interoperable. The first device and the second devices are within "earshot", e.g. they may be located in a same local network.

The method described above takes advantage of the use of natural-language to command other devices in the local network which enables to reduce the amount of integration required for two devices manufactured by different companies to cooperate. Indeed, there is no longer a need for the two devices to discover and authenticate each other, to determine which commands are supported by each of the two devices, when natural language is used for exchanging commands.

One of the advantages of using natural-language for commanding devices in a local network is that those devices are made substitutable. The end-user no longer needs to question himself about the compatibility of the devices of his local network, he may introduce any new device in his local network as long as the newly introduced device is capable to process instructions issued in natural- language.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the method comprises, prior to converting said set of instructions to be executed by the at least one second device :

- receiving, on a first interface, at least a first message comprising said set of instructions to be executed by at least one of the second devices.

According to an embodiment of the invention, emitting, through said second interface, said second message comprising said set of natural-language instructions to be executed by said at least one second device, consists in converting an electro-magnetic signal carrying said set of natural- language instructions to be executed by said at least one second device into a sound.

In this embodiment of the invention, the second interface of the first device emits sounds corresponding to the set of natural-language instructions to be executed by one of the second devices located in the local network as if the set of natural-language instructions were voiced by the end-user themselves. The second device, to which the set of natural-language instructions is intended, acquires sounds corresponding to the set of natural-language instructions to be executed by the second device and converts these sounds into an electro-magnetic signal carrying said set of natural-language instructions. Once this set of natural-language instructions is received, it is then processed and executed by the second device.

The sounds emitted by the first device may be voice recordings of the end-user voice, voicing the set of natural-language instructions and played by the second interface of the first device.

The sounds emitted by the first device may be synthetized by the second interface of the first device.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the set of instructions to be executed by said at least one second device received on said first interface of the first device being a first set of natural- language instructions expressed in a first language, the method comprises :

- converting said first set of natural-language instructions expressed in a first language into said set of natural-language instructions to be executed by said at least one second device expressed in a second language, prior to emitting said set of natural-language instructions to be executed by said at least one second device expressed in a second language through said second interface.

Such an embodiment of the invention enables end-users speaking in a first language to instruct via the first device a second device to execute an action while said second device is configured to process instructions issued in a second language.

For example, a French speaking end-user may introduce a Chinese speaking second device in his local network and be able to instruct said Chinese speaking second device by issuing natural- language instructions voiced in French.

These natural-language instructions voiced in French are concerted in natural-language instructions expressed in Chinese by the first device.

Another object of the invention is a device capable of communicating with at least another device, the device comprising a processor configured to :

- convert a set of instructions to be executed by the other device into a set of natural-language instructions to be executed by said other device, - emit, through a second interface of said device, at least a second message comprising said set of natural-language instructions to be executed by said other device.

According to an embodiment of the invention, said processor is further configured to :

- receive, on a first interface of said device, at least a first message comprising said set of instructions to be executed by the other device, prior to convert said set of instructions.

According to an embodiment of the invention, said processor is further configured to :

- convert an electro-magnetic signal carrying said message comprising said set of natural- language instructions to be executed by said other device into a sound,

- emit said sound through said second interface.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the set of instructions to be executed by said other device received on said first interface being a first set of natural-language instructions expressed in a first language, said processor is further configured to :

- convert said first set of natural-language instructions expressed in a first language into said set of natural-language instructions to be executed by said other device expressed in a second language, prior to emit said set of natural-language instructions to be executed by said other device expressed in a second language through said second interface.

According to an embodiment of the invention, said device is a gateway interfacing the local network with at least another communication network.

Some processes implemented by elements of the invention may be computer implemented. Accordingly, such elements may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a "circuit", "module" or "system". Furthermore, such elements may take the form of a computer program product embodied in any tangible medium of expression having computer usable program code embodied in the medium. Since elements of the present invention can be implemented in software, the present invention can be embodied as computer readable code for provision to a programmable apparatus on any suitable carrier medium. A tangible carrier medium may comprise a storage medium such as a floppy disk, a CD-ROM, a hard disk drive, a magnetic tape device or a solid state memory device and the like. A transient carrier medium may include a signal such as an electrical signal, an electronic signal, an optical signal, an acoustic signal, a magnetic signal or an electromagnetic signal, e.g. a microwave or RF signal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, and with reference to the following drawings in which:

FIG. 1 represents a communication system, comprising a plurality of connected devices in which the method according to an embodiment of the invention is executed;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an example of the device according to an embodiment of the invention,

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an example of the devices according to an embodiment of the invention,

FIG. 4 is a flow chart for explaining a process for controlling a plurality of devices, for example, located in a same communication network using natural-language instructions according to an embodiment of the invention,

FIG. 5 is a flow chart for explaining a process of communication between devices using natural-language instructions according to an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present principles can be embodied as a system, method or computer readable medium. Accordingly, aspects of the present principles can take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment, (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, and so forth) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that can all generally be referred to herein as a "circuit", "module", or "system". Furthermore, aspects of the present principles can take the form of a computer readable storage medium. Any combination of one or more computer readable storage medium(a) may be utilized.

Figure 1 represents a communication system, comprising a plurality of connected devices 10-

13. A device 10, such as a gateway, interconnects a first communication network WAN, such as the Internet or more generally a broadband network, and a second communication network LAN, such as a local network and more particularly a home network. A plurality of devices 11-13 are located in the home network LAN and are connected to the device 10 by means of wired links, such as Ethernet links, or wireless links, such as through a Z-Wave connection, an Alljoyn connection, or a Zig Bee connection, etc.

More generally, the devices 10-13 may be within earshot one from another. Thus, the devices 10-13 may not be located on a same local network.

The device 11 may be for example a device capable of controlling lights in a garden. The device 11 controls the lights through a Z-Wave controller.

The device 12 may be for example a device capable of controlling a garage door. The device

12 controls the garage door through an Alljoyn controller.

The device 13 may be for example a device capable of controlling a water heater. The device

13 controls the water heater through a Zig Bee controller.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the devices 10-13 embed interfaces supporting natural-language based communication so that the device 10 is capable of issuing natural-language instructions to the devices 11-13 instead of using a dedicated communication protocol for issuing instructions to each devices 11-13.

Figure 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an example of the device 10 according to an embodiment of the invention. The device 10 may be, for example, a home gateway interfacing a home network with a broadband network or an access point of a local network. More generally, the device 10 is a device capable of communicating with a plurality of other devices.

The device 10 comprises a processor 201, a storage unit 202, an input device 203, a display device 204, and an interface unit 205 which are connected by a bus 206. Of course, constituent elements of the device 10 may be connected by a connection other than a bus connection. The device 10 further comprises at least one network interface 207 for communicating with the broadband network. Such a network interface 207 is for example configured to receive and transmit data from and to a DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer) using xDSL (x Digital Subscriber Line) or from and to an OLT {Optical Line Termination) through an optical fiber or from a eNodeB (evolved Node B) of a LTE (Long Term Evolution) network.

The processor 201 controls operations of the device 10. The storage unit 202 stores at least one program capable of, upon reception on the interface unit 205, the input device 203, or the network interface 207, of at least a set of instructions to be executed by at least one of the devices 11-13, converting the received set of instructions into a set of natural-language instructions, and controlling a transmission interface 208, embedded in the device 10 and connected to the bus 206, capable of transmitting the set of natural-language instructions to one of the devices 11-13. The program stored on the storage unit 202 is to be executed by the processor 201, as well as parameters used by computations performed by the processor 301, intermediate data of computations performed by the processor 301, and so on are stored as well on the storage unit 202. The processor 201 may be formed by any known and suitable hardware, or software, or a combination of hardware and software. For example, the processor 201 may be formed by dedicated hardware such as a processing circuit, or by a programmable processing unit such as a CPU (Central Processing Unif) that executes a program stored in a memory thereof.

The storage unit 202 may be formed by any suitable storage or means capable of storing the program, data, or the like in a computer-readable manner. Examples of the storage unit 202 include non-transitory computer-readable storage media such as semiconductor memory devices, and magnetic, optical, or magneto-optical recording media loaded into a read and write unit. The program causes the processor 201 to perform, upon reception of at least a set of instructions to be executed by at least one of the devices 11-13, a process for converting the received set of instructions into a set of natural-language instructions, and controlling the transmission interface 208 capable of transmitting the set of natural-language instructions to one of the devices 11-13, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure as described hereinafter with reference to figures 4 and 5.

The input device 203 may be formed by a keyboard, a pointing device such as a mouse, or the like for use by the user to input commands or instructions to be executed by the devices 11-13. The output device 204 may be formed by a display device to display, for example, a Graphical User Interface (GUI). The input device 203 and the output device 204 may be formed integrally by a touchscreen panel, for example.

The interface unit 205 provides an interface between the device 10 and an external apparatus. The interface unit 205 may be communicable with the external apparatus via cable or wireless communication.

Figure 3 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an example of the devices 11-13 according to an embodiment of the invention.

The devices 11-13 each comprise a processor 301, a storage unit 302, an input device 303, a display device 304, and an interface unit 305 which are connected by a bus 306. Of course, constituent elements of the devices 11-13 may be connected by a connection other than a bus connection.

The processors 301 control operations of the devices 11-13. The storage units 302 each store at least one program capable to convert a set of natural-language instructions received from the device 10 into instructions that can be executed by the processor 301, as well as parameters used by computations performed by the processors 301, intermediate data of computations performed by the processors 301, and so on. The processors 301 may be formed by any known and suitable hardware, or software, or a combination of hardware and software. For example, the processors 301 may be formed by dedicated hardware such as a processing circuit, or by a programmable processing unit such as a CPU {Central Processing Unit) that executes a program stored in a memory thereof.

The storage units 302 may be formed by any suitable storage or means capable of storing the program, data, or the like in a computer-readable manner. Examples of storage units 302 include non- transitory computer-readable storage media such as semiconductor memory devices, and magnetic, optical, or magneto-optical recording media loaded into a read and write unit. The program causes the processors 301 to perform a process for converting a set of natural-language instructions received from the device 10 into instructions executable by the processors 301 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure as described hereinafter with reference to figure 4.

The input devices 303 may be formed by a keyboard, a pointing device such as a mouse, or the like for use by the user to input commands, to make user's selections of parameters used for selecting the transmission interface to be used. The output devices 304 may be formed by a display device to display, for example, a Graphical User Interface (GUI). The input devices 303 and the output devices 304 may be formed integrally by a touchscreen panel, for example.

The interface units 305 provide an interface between the devices 11-13 and an external apparatus. The interface units 305 may be communicable with the external apparatus via cable, wireless communication.

Figure 4 is a flow chart for explaining a process for controlling a plurality of devices, for example, located in a same communication network using natural-language instructions according to an embodiment of the invention.

In a step 401, a first set of instructions to be executed by one of the devices 11-13 is received through the interface unit 205, the input device 203, or the network interface 207 of the device 10. For example, the device 10 may receive a message comprising the set of instructions to be executed by one of the devices 11-13 through the network interface 207 and via an xDSL link or a radio link. In another example, the device 10 may receive the set of instructions through either the input device 203 when the message comprises written natural-language instructions or through the interface unit 205, which in this case is a microphone, when the message comprises voiced natural-language instructions. An end-user can issue instructions for one of the devices 11-13 by sending messages to the device 10 by different means such as for example an application, which may be loaded on a mobile device, by direcriy voicing the instructions to the device 10 or through a dedicated API {Application Programming Interface) embedded in the device 10.

When the received set of instructions comprises instructions issued according to a communication protocol used by one of the devices 11-13, such as Zig Bee, i.e. the instructions are not issued in natural-language, the processor 201 converts the received set of instructions into a set of natural-language instructions such as "heat the water" or "turn on the lights", in a step 402.

Known methods exist for converting instructions issued according to a communication protocol into natural-language instructions. An example of such a method is given in table 1 :

Table 1

Then, the set of natural-language instructions obtained during step 402 is transmitted through the transmission interface 208 in a step 403.

When the received set of instructions already consists in natural-language instructions, the processor 201 transmits said set of natural-language instructions to the device 11-13 for which the instructions are intended through the transmission interface 208 during step 403.

The set of natural-language instructions to be transmitted to one of the devices 11-13 may be voiced to the device 11-13 or written and sent in a message to the device 11-13.

When the set of natural-language instructions is to be voiced to the device 11-13, the processor 201 converts an electro-magnetic signal carrying said set of natural-language instructions into a sound in a step 404.

This sound is then emitted by the transmission interface 208 during step 403. The emitted sound may be a voice recording of the end-user voice played by the transmission interface 208, or may be synthetized by the transmission interface 208.

When the set of natural-language instructions is written, the processor 201 generates a message comprising the written set of natural-language instructions, such as a message according to HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) or MQTT (Message Queue Telemetry Transport) protocol for example, which is then transmitted by the transmission interface 208 during step 403.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the device 10 may receive a first set of natural- language instructions expressed in a first language, such as French for example, through the interface unit 205, the input device 203, or the network interface 207. The processor 201 thus converts, in a step 405, this first set of natural-language instructions expressed in a first language into a second set of natural-language instructions expressed in a second language such as Chinese for example, prior to emitting said set of natural-language instructions during step 403. The second set of natural-language instructions expressed in a second language may be voiced to the device 11-13 or written and sent in a message to the device 11-13.

Figure 5 is a flow chart for explaining a process of communication between devices using natural-language instructions according to an embodiment of the invention. In a step 501, a set of natural-language instructions to be executed is received by one the devices 11-13 through the interface unit 305.

The set of natural-language instructions received by one of the devices 11-13 may be voiced by the device 10 or written and sent in a message by the device 10

When the set of natural-language instructions is voiced by the device 10, the processor 301 converts a sound carrying said set of natural-language instructions into an electro-magnetic signal in a step 502.

When the set of natural-language instructions is written, the interface unit 305 receives a message comprising the written set of natural-language instructions, such as a message according to HTTP or MQTT for example.

The processor 301 then converts the received set of natural-language instructions into a set of instructions issued according to a communication protocol used by the device 11, 12, 13, in a step 503.

Known methods exist for converting natural-language instructions into instructions issued according to a communication protocol.

Although the present invention has been described hereinabove with reference to specific embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments, and modifications will be apparent to a skilled person in the art which lie within the scope of the present invention.

Many further modifications and variations will suggest themselves to those versed in the art upon making reference to the foregoing illustrative embodiments, which are given by way of example only and which are not intended to limit the scope of the invention, that being determined solely by the appended claims. In particular the different features from different embodiments may be interchanged, where appropriate.