An alarm clock that can audibly tell the time in response to a spoken command, and perform other tasks e.g. change radio stations by interactively recognising further spoken commands. The clock comprises a dc power source 12, a microphone 26, pulse generator 28 and 30, microprocessor 10, speech receiving and recognising circuitry 32, speech synthesising 40, alarm generating 44 and outputting means 42, memories 50 and 52 and a display 36. The alarm may take the form of an audible tone, a radio or a separately connected light. The clock can be trained to recognise different peoples voices who can then control the clock, the radio, initial set-up parameters including time, alarm, radio frequency etc. and synthesise speech to appraise the user of the time, alarm time, radio frequency etc.
A speaking alarm clock that can perform tasks by recognising spoken commands