Samsung patents smart speaker that keeps private chats off the main speaker
This filing describes a smart speaker that checks if a voice command comes from a specific "privacy device." If the command is from that private device, the speaker sends the answer back to that device instead of playing it out loud. If the command is from any other source, the speaker plays the answer normally through its built-in speaker.
In the filing’s own words
An electronic apparatus includes a communication interface configured to communicate with an external device; a speaker; a memory storing at least one instruction; and at least one processor operatively connected to the communication interface, the speaker, and the memory, wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the at least one instruction to: based on a voice signal being received from an external device through the communication interface, identify whether the external device is a privacy device; based on identifying that the external device is a privacy device, output a response signal regarding the voice signal to the external device through the communication interface; and based on identifying that the external device is not a privacy device, output a response signal regarding the voice signal through the speaker.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. An electronic apparatus comprising: a communication interface configured to communicate with an external device; a memory storing at least one instruction; an audio output unit; and at least one processor operatively connected to the communication interface and the audio output unit, wherein the at least one instruction, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively, causes the electronic apparatus to: receive a user voice input from the external device through the communication interface; based on the external device from which the user voice input is received corresponding to a privacy device, control to transmit information corresponding to the user voice input to the external device through the communication interface; and based on the external device not corresponding to a privacy device, control to output a response signal corresponding to the user voice input through the audio output unit.
Facts
- Company
- Samsung (SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.)
- Official title
- ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND CONTROL METHOD THEREFOR
- Publication number
- US20260290340A1
- Application number
- 19675962
- Filed
- May 13, 2026
- Published
- Sep 24, 2026
- Inventors
- 4
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
G10L 15/22 Physics & computingG10L 15/28 Physics & computingG10L 21/034 Physics & computingG10L 2015/228 Physics & computingMore from Samsung in Audio & voice
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.