Data processing: speech signal processing, linguistics, language translation, and audio compression/decompression inventions

20080109207 - Group foreign language teaching system and method: A method and system for teaching a foreign language to a user who has knowledge of a base language is disclosed. The method and system may include delivering a video presentation simultaneously to a plurality of users. The method and system may also include simultaneously delivering a plurality of mixed... Agent: Kenyon & Kenyon LLP

20080109208 - Interactive conversational speech communicator method and system: The compact and portable interactive system allows person-to-person communication in a typed language format between individuals experiencing language barriers such as the hearing impaired and the language impaired. The communication system includes a custom configuration having a display screen and a keyboard, a data translation module for translating the original... Agent: Nixon Peabody, LLP

20080109209 - Semi-supervised training for statistical word alignment: A system and method for aligning words in parallel segments is provided. A first probability distribution of word alignments within a first corpus comprising unaligned word-level parallel segments according to a model estimate is calculated. The model estimate is modified according to the first probability distribution. One or more sub-models... Agent: Carr & Ferrell LLP

20080109211 - Game of defending statements with persuasive arguments: A game of defending statements with persuasive arguments consisting of a tossing bag, a “frequency” block, two equivalent “equation” blocks; three “verb” blocks and ten “noun” blocks, a number of which are shook inside the bag, then tossed onto a table top by a so-called author who then must form... Agent: John J. Welch, Jr., Esq.

20080109213 - Pointer-oriented object acquisition method for abstract treatment of information of al of al of a cyborg or an android based on a natural language: The pointer-oriented object acquisition method for abstract treatment of information of the computer system of Al of a cyborg or an android based on a natural language, in which three pointers are created in the computer main memory (in RAM) of the computer system of Al of a cyborg or... Agent: Mr. Boris Kaplan

20080109210 - Removing bias from features containing overlapping embedded grammars in a natural language understanding system: A method of removing bias from an action classifier within a natural language understanding system can include identifying a sentence having a target embedded grammar that overlaps with at least one other embedded grammar and selecting a group of overlapping embedded grammars including the target embedded grammar and at least... Agent: Cuenot & Forsythe, L.l.c.

20080109212 - Semantics-based method and apparatus for document analysis: A system and method for producing semantically-rich representations of texts to amplify and sharpen the interpretations of texts. The method relies on the fact that there is a substantial amount of semantic content associated with most text strings that is not explicit in those strings, or in the mere statistical... Agent: Moster Wynne, P.c.

20080109214 - System and method for computerized psychological content analysis of computer and media generated communications to produce communications management support, indications and warnings of dangerous behavior, assessment of media images, and personnel select: At least one computer-mediated communication produced by or received by an author is collected and parsed to identify categories of information within it. The categories of information are processed with at least one analysis to quantify at least one type of information in each category. A first output communication is... Agent: Antonelli, Terry, Stout & Kraus, LLP

20080109215 - High frequency reconstruction by linear extrapolation: High frequency components of audio signals are reconstructed from the aspects of envelope and fine detail. The envelopes of the high frequency components are found through linear extrapolation of signals with frequencies lower than a cutoff frequency point. One method of reconstructing high frequency components is based on the linear... Agent: Rosenberg, Klein & Lee

20080109216 - Application and communication network for filtering vocal information: The invention concerns an application for filtering vocal information transmitted in a communication network between transmitters and receivers, said application comprising a system for marking of a transmitter by a receiver, said system being adapted to enable the receiver to associate a filtering mark with said transmitter, said marking system... Agent: Sughrue Mion, Pllc

20080109217 - Method, apparatus and computer program product for controlling voicing in processed speech: An apparatus for providing control of voicing in processed speech includes a spectra approximation element and a comparing element. The spectra approximation element may be configured to compute a voiced contribution and an unvoiced contribution for each of a reference speech sample and a processed speech sample. The comparing element... Agent: Alston & Bird LLP

20080109218 - System and method for modeling speech spectra: A system and method for modeling speech in such a way that both voiced and unvoiced contributions can co-exist at certain frequencies. In various embodiments, three spectral bands (or bands of up to three different types) are used. In one embodiment, the lowest band or group of bands is completely... Agent: Foley & Lardner LLP

20080109219 - Adpcm encoding and decoding method and system with improved step size adaptation thereof: An ADPCM method and system comprise dividing a voice signal into a plurality of frames, pre-coding for each of the frames for determining a suitable step size modulation function and maximum step size that will induce better SNR for the frame it is corresponding to, and encoding for each of... Agent: Rosenberg, Klein & Lee

20080109220 - Input method and device: Input of dictated information in an information processing apparatus is controlled. Utterances of speech are detected and interpreted as words. Word by word confirmation of the interpreted words is detected, the confirmation being associated with an adjustable timeout period. The timeout period may be adjusted according to a number of... Agent: Perman & Green

20080109221 - Mass-scale, user-independent, device-independent voice messaging system: A mass-scale, user-independent, device-independent, voice messaging system that converts unstructured voice messages into text for display on a screen is disclosed. The system comprises (i) computer implemented sub-systems and also (ii) a network connection to human operators providing transcription and quality control; the system being adapted to optimise the effectiveness... Agent: Synnestvedt Lechner & Woodbridge LLP

20080109222 - Advertising using extracted context sensitive information and data of interest from voice/audio transmissions and recordings: Method and apparatus that use voice/audio recognition and analysis technologies to deliver assigned context sensitive information and data of interest (keywords, phrases, mood, etc.). Context sensitive information and data of interest can be extracted from any voice/audio transmissions and voice/audio recordings (or any transmission or recording that includes voice/audio) for... Agent: Edward Liu

20080109223 - Information processing apparatus, method and program: An information processing apparatus whereby advice having appropriate content can be given at an appropriate timing with regard to a method of user utterance, thereby making it possible to reduce the probability of misrecognition due to the method of utterance. An execution unit executes processing that conforms to the result... Agent: Morgan & Finnegan, L.l.p.

20080109224 - Automatically providing an indication to a speaker when that speaker's rate of speech is likely to be greater than a rate that a listener is able to comprehend: The present invention discloses a solution that automatically informs a speaker to decrease his or her speaking rate, when that rate likely exceeds a rate that a listener can understand. This can be accomplished by determining a speaking rate for the speaker, which is compared against a speaking rate threshold.... Agent: Patents On Demand, P.a.

20080109225 - Speech synthesis device, speech synthesis method, and program: A speech piece editing section (5) retrieves speech piece data on a speech piece the read of which matches that of a speech piece in a fixed message from a speech piece database (7) and converts the speech piece so as to match the speed specified by utterance speed data.... Agent: Eric Robinson

20080109226 - Web integrated interactive voice response: One embodiment of a representative system for web integrated interactive voice response includes an interactive voice response system adapted to provide a plurality of voice menus to a user over a telephone and a graphical user interface system adapted to provide a plurality of menus in a graphical format to... Agent: Thomas, Kayden, Horstemeyer & Risley, LLP/ At&t Delaware Intellectual Property, Inc.

20080109227 - Voice control system and method for controlling computers: The voice control system includes a KVM switch and an audio device. The audio device receives a voice command, transforms the voice command into a command signal and outputs the command signal to the KVM switch for controlling the KVM to manage computers. A method for managing the computers by... Agent: Thomas, Kayden, Horstemeyer & Risley, LLP

20080109228 - Automatic translation method and system based on corresponding sentence pattern: Provided are an automatic speech translation system and a method for obtaining accurate translation performance with a simple structure. Because input and output sentences are written in different languages, automatic speech translation requires techniques for processing different languages. Repetition of text processing like morpheme analysis or sentence parsing in conventional... Agent: Lowe Hauptman Ham & Berner, LLP

20080109230 - Multi-pass variable bitrate media encoding: An encoder uses multi-pass VBR control strategies to provide constant or relatively constant quality for VBR output while guaranteeing (within tolerance) either compressed file size or, equivalently, overall average bitrate. The control strategies include various techniques and tools, which can be used in combination or independently. For example, in a... Agent: Klarquist Sparkman LLP

20080109229 - Sound data processing apparatus: A sound data processing apparatus includes a digital signal processor capable of decoding sound data, a buffer memory functioning as a ring buffer for successively storing the decoded sound data, a data reading controller configured to read sound data from the buffer memory, a DAC-FIFO buffer or a DIT-FIFO buffer... Agent: Cantor Colburn, LLP

20080103756 - Method and apparatus for providing a contextual description of an object: A method for providing a contextual description of an object includes receiving a first object associated with a user. The first object has a first object type representing one of a place, an event, and a person and includes a first attribute associated with the respective place, event, or person.... Agent: Scenera Research, LLC

20080103758 - Apparatus and method for language translation of toolkit menu: A method for language translation of a toolkit menu is provided, which includes receiving, by a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) toolkit module, the toolkit menu from a SIM card module, determining, by the SIM toolkit module, whether a language of the toolkit menu matches a user-defined language, and translating, by... Agent: The Farrell Law Firm, P.C.

20080103757 - Technique for improving accuracy of machine translation: A system for translating messages is provided. The system includes a parsing unit that parses a first message and a second message in which the same content is respectively described in a first language and a second language that are different from each other so as to generate a first... Agent: Akerman Senterfitt

20080103759 - Interface and methods for collecting aligned editorial corrections into a database: A method for providing aligned editorial corrections to a database is discussed. The method includes receiving a first text in a language and organizing the first text into one or more sentences. The method further includes editing a copy of the first text to create a second text. The second... Agent: Westman Champlin (microsoft Corporation)

20080103760 - Identifying semantic positions of portions of a text: A computer executable method includes determining semantic positions in a semantic space of portions of a text. Once the semantic positions of portions of the text have been determined, an action is performed with respect to the text based on the determined semantic positions.... Agent: Hewlett Packard Company

20080103762 - Providing a position-based dictionary: A computer executable method includes receiving word senses associated with respective definitions, and providing a position-based dictionary that assigns the word senses to respective semantic positions in a semantic space.... Agent: Hewlett Packard Company

20080103761 - Method and apparatus for automatically determining speaker characteristics for speech-directed advertising or other enhancement of speech-controlled devices or services: In addition to conveying primary information, human speech also conveys information concerning the speaker's gender, age, socioeconomic status, accent, language spoken, emotional state, or other personal characteristics, which is referred to as secondary information. Disclosed herein are both the means of automatic discovery and use of such secondary information to... Agent: Glenn Patent Group

20080103763 - Audio processing method and audio processing apparatus: Samples of a component having a frequency less than a predetermined frequency in an input audio signal that is a digital signal having a predetermined sampling frequency are written in a memory. A harmonic-overtone signal having a frequency N times a frequency of the input audio signal is generated by... Agent: Wolf Greenfield & Sacks, P.C.

20080103764 - Wireless communication apparatus and wireless communication method: When a sound presence/absence detector (12) detects a sound absence interval, a non-modulated carrier signal is outputted in an area used to transmit speech data that are included in transmission data having a frame structure and that correspond to the sound absence interval. That is, an FSK modulator (14) causes... Agent: Handley Law Firm, PLLC Roger N. Chauza, PC

20080103765 - Encoder delay adjustment: The present invention provides methods and apparatus for adjusting an algorithmic time delay of a signal encoder. An input signal is sampled at a predetermined sampling rate. When look-ahead operation is initiated, the algorithmic time delay is increased by the look-ahead time duration. When look-ahead operation is terminated, the algorithmic... Agent: Banner & Witcoff, Ltd.

20080103766 - Audience response detection interactive presentation tool: The invention is directed to an audience response detection interactive presentation tool. An interactive method for controlling a presentation in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention includes: presenting a slide to an audience during a presentation; activating a noise level measuring system; measuring audience noise as a pointer... Agent: Hoffman, Warnick & D'alessandro LLC

20080103767 - Methods and systems for parasitic sensing: Methods and systems of parasitic sensing are shown and described. The method includes, measuring, at a first time using one or more electrical elements native to a domain, a parameter of a circuit within the domain and measuring, at a second time using the one or more electrical elements native... Agent: Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP

20080103768 - System and method of acoustic detection and location of fire sprinkler water discharge: A system and method to detect acoustic signals from fire sprinkler heads discharging water and to locate such devices in a public building, airport, sports stadium or other structure which can include a system to measure speech intelligibility. Time and frequency domain analysis are carried out to establish the presence... Agent: Honeywell International Inc.

20080103769 - Methods and apparatuses for myoelectric-based speech processing: A method for myoelectric-based processing of speech. The method includes capturing a myoelectric signal from a user using at least one electrode, wherein the electrode converts an ionic current generated by muscle contraction into an electric current. The method also includes amplifying the electric current, filtering the amplified electric current,... Agent: Cohen & Grigsby, P.C.

20080103770 - Method and apparatus for identifying conversing pairs over a two-way speech medium: One embodiment of the present method and apparatus for identifying a conversing pair of users of a two-way speech medium includes receiving a plurality of binary voice activity streams, where the plurality of voice activity streams includes a first voice activity stream associated with a first user, and pairing the... Agent: Patterson & Sheridan LLP IBM Corporation

20080103771 - Method for the distributed construction of a voice recognition model, and device, server and computer programs used to implement same: A method for the distributed construction of a voice recognition model that is intended to be used by a device comprising a model base and a reference base in which the modeling elements are stored. The method includes the steps of obtaining the entity to be modeled, transmitting data representative... Agent: Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP Attn: Patent Docket Dept.

20080103772 - Character prediction system: When characters are provided, probabilities for each character are multiplied by the most heavily weighted word that could possibly be derived from the characters provided. The products are compared, and the greatest product is predicted to show the path to the word that the user presumably is entering. Second, third,... Agent: Greenberg & Lieberman, LLC

20080103773 - Providing a topic list: A computer executable method includes receiving word senses represented as semantic positions in a semantic space. The word senses are grouped into clusters based on semantic positions of the word senses in the semantic space. Labels for the respective clusters are provided that correspond to topics of the topic list.... Agent: Hewlett Packard Company

20080103774 - Heuristic for voice result determination: A method of and a system for processing speech. A spoken utterance of a plurality of characters can be received. A plurality of known character sequences that potentially correspond to the spoken utterance can be selected. Each selected known character sequence can be scored based on, at least in part,... Agent: Cuenot & Forsythe, L.L.C.

20080103775 - Voice recognition method comprising a temporal marker insertion step and corresponding system: This voice recognition method comprises a decoding stage during which an enunciated word is identified on the basis of voice signal models described with the aid of voice units, each voice signal model representing a word belonging to a predefined vocabulary, and also comprises organizing voice signal models into an... Agent: Mckenna Long & Aldridge LLP

20080103776 - Real time monitoring & control for audio devices: Various embodiments are disclosed relating to the real-time monitoring and control for audio devices. An apparatus may include a peripheral audio device configured to operate in an operational mode or a debug mode, the peripheral audio device including an audio enhancement logic configured to include at least one tunable parameter.... Agent: Brake Hughes Bellermann LLP C/o Intellevate

20080103777 - Voice user interface with personality: The present invention provides a voice user interface with personality. In one embodiment, a method includes executing a voice user interface, and controlling the voice user interface to provide the voice user interface with a personality. The method includes selecting a prompt based on various context situations, such as a... Agent: Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.l.l.c.

20080103778 - Mobile terminal having function for reporting credit card loss and method using same: Disclosed is a mobile terminal having a function for automatically conducting a credit card loss report. When a user selects a lost credit card from a credit card loss report menu, the mobile terminal accesses an Automated Response System (ARS) of the related credit card company and automatically conducts the... Agent: The Farrell Law Firm, P.C.

20080103780 - Speech recognition for internet video search and navigation: Speech representing a desired video site or video subject is detected and digitized at a TV remote, and then sent to a TV. The TV or in some embodiments an Internet server communicating with the TV use speech recognition principles to recognize the speech, enter a database using the recognized... Agent: Rogitz & Associates

20080103779 - Voice recognition updates via remote broadcast signal: A method is provided for remotely and dynamically updating voice recognition commands available for controlling a device in a vehicle comprising the steps of: (a) receiving a broadcast signal comprising voice recognition data; (b) filtering the received broadcast signal by separating the voice recognition data from a remainder of the... Agent: O'melveny & Myers LLP Ip&t Calendar Department La-1118

20080103781 - Automatically adapting user guidance in automated speech recognition: A speech recognition method includes receiving input speech from a user, processing the input speech to obtain at least one parameter value, and determining an experience level of the user using the parameter value(s). The method can also include prompting the user based upon the determined experience level of the... Agent: General Motors Corporation C/o Reising, Ethington, Barnes, Kisselle, P.C.

20080103782 - Communication device with a function of audio modulation and method for audio modulation: A method for audio modulation is provided. The method including: obtaining the digital audio signals of the caller in the process of communications; analyzing the digital audio signals and obtain a voice frequency of the caller; reading a voice frequency of the user from a memory, and calculate the rate... Agent: PCe Industry, Inc. Att. Cheng-ju Chiang J

20080103783 - Apparatus and method for measuring quality of sound encoded with a variable band multi-codec: Provided are a method and apparatus for measuring sound quality in a variable band multi-codec. The sound quality measurement apparatus includes: a recording file receiving/generating unit receiving a first recording file in which a natural sound is recorded, and a second recording file obtained by converting the natural sound into... Agent: Ladas & Parry LLP

20080097741 - Text analysis, transliteration and translation method and apparatus for hieroglypic, hieratic, and demotic texts from ancient egyptian: A system for translating a body of text in an initial language into a target language, that comprises an input device for imputing a body of text comprising a plurality of elements, a first analyzer for analyzing said text and identifying one or more possible characters of said initial language... Agent: Stites & Harbison PLLC

20080097742 - Computer product for phrase alignment and translation, phrase alignment device, and phrase alignment method: A unified-evaluated-value computing unit quantitatively combines a translation probability between words computed by a corpus-based statistical-value computing unit, dictionary information computed by a dictionary-information referring unit, and syntactic structure information computed by a syntactic-structure-value computing unit, to compute a unified evaluated-value as an index for phrase alignment.... Agent: Patrick G. Burns, Esq. Greer, Burns & Crain, Ltd.

20080097743 - Translation system and method of providing translation service: A translation system is provided, which comprises: a translation server comprising guidelines for writing original text that serve as criteria for determining whether errors exist in the original text, an original text controller determining whether the original text conforms to the guidelines for writing original text, and a translation engine... Agent: Lowe Hauptman Ham & Berner, LLP

20080097744 - Context-free grammar: In one embodiment, a method comprising accessing a first data object and a second data object of a data structure representing electronic content, the second data object being associated with the first data object, selecting, based on first content included in the first data object, a grammar rule included in... Agent: Schwegman, Lundberg & Woessner/adobe

20080097745 - Text analysis, transliteration and translation method and apparatus for hieroglypic, hieratic, and demotic texts from ancient egyptian: A system for translating a body of text in an initial language into a target language, that comprises an input device for imputing a body of text comprising a plurality of elements, a first analyzer for analyzing said text and identifying one or more possible characters of said initial language... Agent: Stites & Harbison PLLC

20080097747 - Method and apparatus for using a language assistant: A medical diagnostic system comprises a processor for acquiring diagnostic imaging data of a patient. A language assistant module stores a plurality of audio files associated with a plurality of phrases. The plurality of audio files are in at least one language which is different than a predetermined primary language.... Agent: Dean D. Small The Small Patent Law Group LLP

20080097746 - Server device, method used in server device, and computer program: A server device which can provide a client device with information in a plurality of languages includes a supportable language recognizing unit recognizing a plurality of supportable languages using language identification information, a requested language recognizing unit recognizing a requested language desired by the client device using the language identification... Agent: Sughrue Mion, PLLC

20080097748 - System for enterprise knowledge management and automation: The present invention is directed to a system for managing business knowledge expressed as statements, preferably sentences using a vocabulary, where such statements may be automated by the generation of programming language source code or computer program instructions. As such, the present invention also manages software design specifications that define,... Agent: Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, LLP

20080097749 - Dual-transform coding of audio signals: Methods, devices, and systems for coding and decoding audio are disclosed. At least two transforms are applied on an audio signal, each with different transform periods for better resolutions at both low and high frequencies. The transform coefficients are selected and combined such that the data rate remains similar as... Agent: Wong, Cabello, Lutsch, Rutherford & Brucculeri, L.L.P.

20080097750 - Channel reconfiguration with side information: During production, at least one audio signal is processed in order to derive instructions for channel reconfiguring it. The at least one audio signal and the instructions are stored or transmitted. During consumption, the at least one audio signal is channel reconfigured in accordance with the instructions. Channel reconfiguring includes... Agent: Gallagher & Lathrop, A Professional Corporation

20080097751 - Encoder, method of encoding, and computer-readable recording medium: An SBR encoder includes a filter bank that receives an input signal, a time/frequency grid generator that controls a number of bits of various parameters, a parameter calculator that calculates various parameters, a parameter coding unit that encodes the parameters, a multiplexer that multiplexes encoded data, an upper-limit number-of-bit storage... Agent: Bingham Mccutchen LLP

20080097752 - Apparatus and method for expanding/compressing audio signal: In an audio signal expanding/compressing apparatus adapted to expand or compress, in a time domain, a plurality of channels of audio signals by using similar waveforms, a similar-waveform length detection unit calculates similarity of the audio signal between two successive intervals for each channel, and detects a similar-waveform length of... Agent: Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP

20080097754 - Automatic system for temporal alignment of music audio signal with lyrics: An automatic system for temporal alignment between a music audio signal and lyrics is provided. The automatic system can prevent accuracy for temporal alignment from being lowered due to the influence of non-vocal sections. Alignment means of the system is provided with a phone model for singing voice that estimates... Agent: Rankin, Hill & Clark LLP

20080097753 - Time authentication system, terminal device, time authentication method for conversation voice data for use therein, and program thereof: A time authentication system provided can detect an alteration of the case, in which either of the speakers of a conversation makes the alteration, and can verify, in the case of no alteration, that a conversation voice has occurred at a time within a range. When a speaker #1 terminal... Agent: Mcginn Intellectual Property Law Group, PLLC

20080097755 - Fast lattice vector quantization: Methods, devices, and systems for coding and decoding audio are disclosed. Digital samples of an audio signal are transformed from the time domain to the frequency domain. The resulting transform coefficients are coded with a fast lattice vector quantizer. The quantizer has a high rate quantizer and a low rate... Agent: Wong, Cabello, Lutsch, Rutherford & Brucculeri, L.L.P.

20080097756 - Method of and apparatus for analyzing audio content and reproducing only the desired audio data: A method of detecting and reproducing data comprises the steps of receiving a first signal comprising data, analyzing the data comprised by the first signal, categorizing the data into at least two categories of data defined as first category and second category; and reproducing the data when it is of... Agent: Philips Intellectual Property & Standards

20080097757 - Audio coding: Quantized audio data may be represented by a codevector that is associated to a point of an outer shell of a rectangular truncated lattice. For indexing this codevector, number and positions of non-zero components of the codevector are determined. Moreover, signs of the non-zero components are determined. An index is... Agent: Ware Fressola Van Der Sluys & Adolphson, LLP

20080097758 - Inferring opinions based on learned probabilities: An opinion system infers the opinion of a sentence of a product review based on a probability that the sentence contains certain sequences of parts of speech that are commonly used to express an opinion as indicated by the training data and the probabilities of the training data. When provided... Agent: Perkins Coie LLP/msft

20080097759 - Method and apparatus for remote control in portable terminal: Provided is a method and apparatus for remotely controlling a second-party terminal in a portable terminal during call communication. The method includes transmitting a screen displayed in a display unit to the second-party terminal when a remote control event is created, and recognizing a speech signal transmitted from the second-party... Agent: The Farrell Law Firm, P.C.

20080097760 - User-initiative voice service system and method: A voice service system which includes a database storing information and is connected with a plurality of terminals by a communication network, comprising a call connection unit for transmitting-receiving a signal, on a voice service to/from each of the terminals, a voice processing unit for interpreting a voice instruction received... Agent: Blakely Sokoloff Taylor & Zafman

20080097761 - Motion picture watermarking technique: Watermarking of a motion picture release print occurs by providing on at least one soundtrack at least one tone of a particular frequency on at least one location unique to the release print. Typically, placement of the particular frequency tone occurs on location(s) where the tone will have minimal impact... Agent: Joseph J. Laks Thomson Licensing LLC

20080097762 - Multicultural and multimedia data collection and documentation computer system, apparatus and method: A computer system apparatus and method uses a display (20) to present a query (40, 50, 60) and responses (41-45) to the query (40, 50, 60) in a first language. The user may select the most appropriate response (41-45) to the given query (40, 50, 60) or may select a... Agent: Joseph S. Heino, Esq. Davis & Kuelthau, S.c.

20080097764 - Analysis filterbank, synthesis filterbank, encoder, de-coder, mixer and conferencing system: An embodiment of an analysis filterbank for filtering a plurality of time domain input frames, wherein an input frame comprises a number of ordered input samples, comprises a windower configured to generating a plurality of windowed frames, wherein a windowed frame comprises a plurality of windowed samples, wherein the windower... Agent: Glenn Patent Group

20080097766 - Method, medium, and apparatus encoding and/or decoding multichannel audio signals: A method, medium, and apparatus encoding and/or decoding a multichannel audio signal. The method includes detecting the type of spatial extension data included in an encoding result of an audio signal, if the spatial extension data is data indicating a core audio object type related to a technique of encoding... Agent: Staas & Halsey LLP

20080097763 - Combined audio coding minimizing perceptual distortion: An audio encoder in which two or more preferably different encoders cooperate to generate a joint encoded audio signal. Encoding parameters of the two or more encoders are optimized in response to a measure of distortion of the joint encoded audio signal in accordance with a predetermined criterion. The distortion.... Agent: Philips Intellectual Property & Standards

20080097765 - Generic on-chip homing and resident, real-time bit exact tests: Details of media encoding and decoding devices which support generic homing sequences, and methods for operating such devices are disclosed. The use of generic homing sequences may permit an embodiment of the disclosed invention to support real-time, bit-exact testing of existing and future media encoding and decoding devices. An embodiment... Agent: Mcandrews Held & Malloy, Ltd

20080091405 - Method and system for analyzing various languages and constructing language-independent semantic structures: A method and computer system for analyzing sentences of various languages and constructing a language-independent semantic structure are provided. On the basis of comprehensive knowledge about languages and semantics, exhaustive linguistic descriptions are created, and lexical, morphological, syntactic, and semantic analyses for one or more sentences of a natural or... Agent: Patterson & Sheridan, L.L.P.

20080091406 - System and method for a cooperative conversational voice user interface: A cooperative conversational voice user interface is provided. The cooperative conversational voice user interface may build upon short-term and long-term shared knowledge to generate one or more explicit and/or implicit hypotheses about an intent of a user utterance. The hypotheses may be ranked based on varying degrees of certainty, and... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20080091409 - Customizable mathematic expression parser and evaluator: A customizable, portable, object-oriented expression parser and evaluator provides the ability to customize syntactic and semantic elements of expression parsing and evaluation via class inheritance and interface implementation. The customizable expression parser/evaluator provides independence from a fixed variable resolution process, provides flexibility in the data types used for representing numbers... Agent: Woodcock Washburn LLP (microsoft Corporation)

20080091410 - Method for forming words: A method of forming words utilizing a character actuator unit in which the character actuators are segregated into certain categories. First and second categories are employed and activated simultaneously to generate the beginning and ending of a word. First and second actuating categories may be combined with third and fourth... Agent: Theodore J. Bielen Jr. Bielen, Lampe, & Thoeming

20080091411 - Method for identifying a meaning of a word capable of identifying several meanings: A series of methods and systems for identifying a meaning or plurality of meanings of a word are disclosed for registering, searching and/or retrieving information. In one embodiment, a person identifies a word and a meaning is selected or added. In addition, the methods further suggest the implementation of other... Agent: Frank John Williams

20080091408 - Navigation system for text: A computer retrieval system includes memory which stores instructions for (1) receiving a user query in a natural language, (2) identifying text strings from an associated knowledge base, each containing at least one expression (word or multi-word expression) which is matched with at least one expression of the user query,... Agent: Fay Sharpe / Xerox - Rochester

20080091412 - Business listing search: A method of operating a voice-enabled business directory search system includes receiving category-business pairs, each category-business pair including a business category and a specific business, and establishing a data structure having nodes based on the category-business pairs. Each node of the data structure is associated with one or more business... Agent: Fish & Richardson P.C.

20080091413 - Systems and methods for building an electronic dictionary of multi-word names and for performing fuzzy searches in the dictionary: The present invention automatically builds a contracted dictionary from a given list of multi-word proper names and performs fuzzy searches in the contracted dictionary. The contracted dictionary of proper names includes two linked trie-based dictionaries: a first dictionary is used to store single word names, each word name having an... Agent: Hoffman, Warnick & D'alessandro LLC

20080091407 - Apparatus performing translation process from inputted speech: A speech translating apparatus includes a input unit, a speech recognizing unit, a translating unit, a first dividing unit, a second dividing unit, an associating unit, and an outputting unit. The input unit inputs a speech in a first language. The speech recognizing unit generates a first text from the... Agent: Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP

20080091414 - Perceptible signals giving an impression of continuous pace change: A perceptible signal is provided, which is a repetition of a time-limited perceptible signal sequence. The time-limited perceptible signal sequence comprises at least two sets of signal elements, each of which constituting a general trend in signal characteristics as well as interval. The general trend in the end of one... Agent: Douglas T. Johnson Miller & Martin

20080091416 - Method, medium and apparatus enhancing a bass signal using an auditory property: Provided are a method, medium and apparatus for enhancing an acoustic signal using an auditory property. An acoustic signal is enhanced by generating a plurality of harmonic signals based on a predetermined acoustic signal frequency, selecting harmonic signals, which exist in an area masked by the predetermined harmonic signal, from... Agent: Staas & Halsey LLP

20080091415 - System and method for canceling acoustic echoes in audio-conference communication systems: Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to a frequency-domain coder/decoder for an audio-conference communication system that includes acoustic-echo-cancellation functionality. In one embodiment of the present invention, an acoustic echo canceller is integrated into the frequency-domain coder/decoder and ameliorates or removes acoustic echoes from audio signals that have been... Agent: Hewlett Packard Company

20080091417 - Pitch conversion method and device: In a pitch conversion method and device which can reduce data throughput while suppressing a degradation of sound quality due to a pitch conversion as much as possible, an input signal pitch pattern per predetermined processing unit and a target pitch pattern are inputted, and a degradation degree indicating how... Agent: Staas & Halsey LLP

20080091418 - Pitch lag estimation: Autocorrelation values are determined as a basis for an estimation of a pitch lag in a segment of an audio signal. A first considered delay range for the autocorrelation computations is divided into a first set of sections, and first autocorrelation values are determined for delays in a plurality of... Agent: Ware Fressola Van Der Sluys & Adolphson, LLP

20080091419 - Audio encoding device and audio encoding method: There is provided an audio encoding device capable of generating an appropriate monaural signal from a stereo signal while suppressing the lowering of encoding efficiency of the monaural signal. In a monaural signal generation unit (101) of this device, an inter-channel prediction/analysis unit (201) obtains a prediction parameter based on... Agent: Greenblum & Bernstein, P.L.C

20080091420 - Apparatus and method for reproducing audio data: An apparatus is used for reproducing digitized and compressed encoded audio data from a portable audio storage device. The apparatus includes a data reader, a processor, a volume adjusting module, and an output module. The data reader is for reproducing compressed encoded audio signals of the digitized and compressed encoded... Agent: North America Intellectual Property Corporation

20080091421 - Device and method for voice activity detection: A device includes a sound signal analyser configured to determine whether a sound signal comprises speech. The device further includes a microphone system configured to discriminate sounds emanating from sources located in different directions from the microphone system so that sounds only emanating from a range of directions are included... Agent: Myers Bigel Sibley & Sajovec, P.A.

20080091422 - Speech recognition method and apparatus therefor: A speech recognition method includes inputting an audio signal including a speech signal and a non-speech signal, discriminating a signal mode of the audio signal, processing the audio signal according to a discrimination result of the discriminating to separate substantially the speech signal from the audio signal, and subjecting the... Agent: Oblon, Spivak, Mcclelland Maier & Neustadt, P.C.

20080091423 - Generation of domain models from noisy transcriptions: A method of building a domain specific model from transcriptions is disclosed. The method starts by applying text clustering to the transcriptions to form text clusters. The text clustering is applied at a plurality of different granularities, and groups topically similar phrases in the transcriptions. The relationship between text clusters... Agent: Frederick W. Gibb, Iii Gibb & Rahman, LLC

20080091424 - Minimum classification error training with growth transformation optimization: Hidden Markov Model (HMM) parameters are updated using update equations based on growth transformation optimization of a minimum classification error objective function. Using the list of N-best competitor word sequences obtained by decoding the training data with the current-iteration HMM parameters, the current HMM parameters are updated iteratively. The updating... Agent: Westman Champlin (microsoft Corporation)

20080091425 - Voice print recognition software system for voice identification and matching: Positive identification of local inhabitants plays an important role in modern military, police and security operations. Since terrorists use all means to masquerade as local inhabitants, the identification of terrorist or hostile suspects becomes an increasingly complicated task. The instant software solution will assist military, police and security forces in... Agent: Mchale & Slavin, P.A.

20080091426 - Adaptive context for automatic speech recognition systems: A system improves speech recognition includes an interface linked to a speech recognition engine. A post-recognition processor coupled to the interface compares recognized speech data generated by the speech recognition engine to contextual information retained in a memory, generates a modified recognized speech data, and transmits the modified recognized speech... Agent: Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione

20080091427 - Hierarchical word indexes used for efficient n-gram storage: Systems and methods are provided for compressing data models, for example, N-gram language models used in speech recognition applications. Words in the vocabulary of the language model are assigned to classes of words, for example, by syntactic criteria, semantic criteria, or statistical analysis of an existing language model. After word... Agent: Banner & Witcoff, Ltd.

20080091428 - Methods and apparatus related to pruning for concatenative text-to-speech synthesis: The present invention provides, among other things, automatic identification of near-redundant units in a large TTS voice table, identifying which units are distinctive enough to keep and which units are sufficiently redundant to discard. According to an aspect of the invention, pruning is treated as a clustering problem in a... Agent: Blakely Sokoloff Taylor & Zafman

20080091429 - Enhancement to viterbi speech processing algorithm for hybrid speech models that conserves memory: The present invention discloses a method for semantically processing speech for speech recognition purposes. The method can reduce an amount of memory required for a Viterbi search of an N-gram language model having a value of N greater than two and also having at least one embedded grammar that appears... Agent: Patents On Demand, P.A.

20080091430 - Method and apparatus for predicting word prominence in speech synthesis: A method and apparatus is provided for generating speech that sounds more natural. In one embodiment, word prominence and latent semantic analysis are used to generate more natural sounding speech. A method for generating speech that sounds more natural may comprise generating synthesized speech having certain word prominence characteristics and... Agent: Blakely Sokoloff Taylor & Zafman

20080091431 - Method and apparatus of generating text script for a corpus-based text-to speech system: A method of text script generation for a corpus-based text-to-speech system includes searching in a source corpus having L sentences, selecting N sentences with a best integrated efficiency as N best cases, and setting iteration k to be 1; for each case n of the N best cases, selecting Mk+1... Agent: Lin & Associates Intellectual Property, Inc.

20080091432 - System and method for voice control of electrically powered devices: A method and system for controlling electrically powered devices, such as a light or a television, using a spoken command. The method and system of this invention desirably assists physically disabled persons with daily living, such as within an office or residence, allowing the person to operate lights, appliances, and... Agent: Pauley Petersen & Erickson

20080091434 - Building a dictionary based on speech signals that are compressed: Systems and methods for training voice activation control of electronic equipment are disclosed. One example method includes receiving a selection corresponding to at least one command used to control the electronic equipment. The method further includes instructing a user to speak, and responsive to the instruction, receiving a digitized speech... Agent: Scientific-atlanta, Inc. Intellectual Property Department

20080091433 - Control system: A system has a speech control interface operable to provide a speech sequence to which a user response is required before system functionality is operational. A user response can be provided via a spoken command. The system is operable, in response to interruption of the speech sequence to permit a... Agent: Posz Law Group, PLC

20080091435 - Business listing search: A method of operating a voice-enabled business directory search system includes selecting a subset of speech recognition language models from a larger set of speech recognition language models based on a type of business provided by a user, identifying weight values for the selected language models, and recognizing an identifier... Agent: Fish & Richardson P.C.

20080091436 - Audio channel conversion: A device (1) for converting a first number (M) of input audio channels into a second, larger number (N) of output audio channels comprises: decorrelation units (3) for decomposing the input audio channels into a set of decorrelated auxiliary channels, at least one upmix unit (4) for combining the decorrelated... Agent: Philips Intellectual Property & Standards

20080091438 - Audio signal decoder and resource access control method: The audio signal decoder of the present invention includes a first decoding unit which decodes a first encoded audio signal, a second decoding unit which decodes a second encoded audio signal, a memory which stores data under decoding as well as data decoded by the first and second decoding units,... Agent: Greenblum & Bernstein, P.L.C

20080091437 - Control mechanism for audio rate adjustment: A system and method for controlling rate adjustment of audio data to prevent underflow or overflow. In a dual audio/video system, a device can receive two input transport streams. To prevent underflow or overflow of audio data when audio data from a first transport stream is displayed in accordance with... Agent: Law Office Of Duane S. Kobayashi

20080091439 - Hybrid multi-channel/cue coding/decoding of audio signals: Part of the spectrum of two or more input signals is encoded using conventional coding techniques, while encoding the rest of the spectrum using binaural cue coding (BCC). In BCC coding, spectral components of the input signals are downmixed and BCC parameters (e.g., inter-channel level and/or time differences) are generated.... Agent: Mendelsohn & Associates, P.C.

20080091440 - Sound encoder and sound encoding method: A sound encoder having an improved quantization performance while suppressing an increase of the bit rate to a lowest level. In a second layer encoding unit (40), a standard deviation calculating section (408) calculates the standard deviation &sgr;c of a first layer decoding spectrum after decoding scale factor ratio multiplication... Agent: Greenblum & Bernstein, P.L.C