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"You have to budget the number of fuzzy rules you use to control a system. It turns out, you can state the optimality principle in three words: 'patch the bumps.'"
- Bart Kosko

Voice-Activated Door  
  A door that opens upon verbal command.  

He had pounded out only a few sentences when there was a purr from the announcer. He glared at the door for a full minute before he decided to admit he was there:

“Come in,” he growled. His voice activated the relays which unlocked the door and issued an invitation for the visitor to enter.

Technovelgy from Assignment to Aldebaran, by Kendall Foster Crossen.
Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1953
Additional resources -

Compare to the Detectophone from Ralph 124c 41 + (1911), by Hugo Gernsback, as far as I know the first reference to a voice-activated machine in sf.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Assignment to Aldebaran
  More Ideas and Technology by Kendall Foster Crossen
  Tech news articles related to Assignment to Aldebaran
  Tech news articles related to works by Kendall Foster Crossen

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