Frank Maleno at Heat-Fab uses voice commands to control a spot welder.

Necessity, we often hear, is the mother of invention. If that is true, then resourcefulness is the father, says Beulah Henry, a prolific American inventor of the early twentieth century. Those qualities are what guided Lloyd Green to invent the Active Listening Voice Command System.

Green, chairman of Heat-Fab Inc. (www.heat-fab), a manufacturer of gas and hearth venting products and systems, had to do something. He had long thought that the foot pedals used to operate production machinery put operators off balance, contributed to back problems and increased operator fatigue. When an operator of one of Green's metal forming machines was nearly injured because he was unable to reach the foot pedal to stop the machine, Green knew he could not just add safety to his list of concerns. He had to do something about it. The safety and comfort of his operators were necessities.

To think and talk through the problem, Green his son Howard, a technology and marketing who recently provided services to technology companies that specialize in wireless and software systems.

Pulling together their individual knowledge technology and manufacturing, the two men invented the Active Listening Voice Command System, which is designed to improve operator safety and productivity. The system was developed only after much research and many trials, and it led to the Greens founding a new company, VLH Controls (www.vlhcontrols.com)

The Active Listening Voice Command System combines embedded voice recognition with wireless technology, and integrates with the controllers used for resistance welders, seam welders and other capital equipment that require either manual or semiautomatic operation. The system allows machine operators to speak directly into headphones to actuate machine operations. Communication from the operator's headset to the machine controller is accomplished through a secure wireless link. Machine foot pedals and switches are eliminated. Each ALVC system includes a wireless headset with noise-canceling microphone, a personal computer running the ALVC system software, a site-specific command grammar and an USB-based interface module that delivers signals to an existing machine controller.

Frank Maleno, an assistant team leader with Heat-Fab, says the voice-activated system installed on his team's automated circumferential welder has allowed him and his team members to place a tube into the welding cycle and use that welding-cycle time to assemble and align the next two tubes to be welded. Previously, a machine operator had to stay at the machine and hold down the pedal. Having a voice actuator almost doubles the productivity of the work center, says Maleno.

Green says the increase in productivity was an unanticipated — but welcomed — benefit.