HANDS-FREE, VOICE-OPERATED REMOTE CONTROL TRANSMITTER

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 system 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 system 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 system, allowing true hands-free voice control of the remotely controlled products. 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. As such, the system allows a user to easily navigate via voice commands between recognition sets to attain access to the intended voice commands.