A wireless, programmable, sound-activated and voice-operated remote
control transmitter can be used to add hands-free speech control
operation to a plurality of remotely controlled appliances manufactured
by various manufacturers, each of which is normally controlled with one
or more signals from an associated remote control transmitter. The
present invention may be pre-programmed with a universal library of codes
for controlling various appliance categories and appliances produced by
various manufacturers within each category. The present invention may
also be programmed using the controlled appliances' remote control
transmitters and one or more operators' spoken commands. Once programming
is complete, there is no need for the operator to manually operate the
present invention, allowing true hands-free voice control of the remotely
controlled products. The programmable transmitter structure includes
means for independently aligning the output signal transmitter and voice
input microphone with the remotely controlled appliance and the operator,
respectively. Voice commands are organized into a plurality of linked
recognition vocabulary sets, each representing a subset of the complete
voice command vocabulary available. These subsets are structured in a
fashion that is intuitive to the user because the structure is consistent
with controlled appliance operation. The invention discloses a scheme by
which a user can easily navigate via voice commands between recognition
sets to attain access to the intended voice commands.