A superconducting thin film material exhibiting excellent superconducting properties and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. A superconducting thin film material includes a substrate, and a superconducting film formed on the substrate. The superconducting film includes an MOD layer formed by an MOD process, and a gas-phase-formed layer formed on the MOD layer by a gas-phase process. Since the MOD layer is formed first and then the gas-phase-formed layer is formed in this manner, degradation of the properties of the gas-phase-formed layer due to heat treatment in the step of forming the MOD layer (heat treatment in the MOD process) can be prevented.

Apparatus and methods are provided for using automatic speech recognition to analyze a voice interaction and verify compliance of an agent reading a script to a client during the voice interaction. In one aspect of the invention, a communications system includes a user interface, a communications network, and a call center having an automatic speech recognition component. In other aspects of the invention, a script compliance method includes the steps of conducting a voice interaction between an agent and a client and evaluating the voice interaction with an automatic speech recognition component adapted to analyze the voice interaction and determine whether the agent has adequately followed the script. In yet still further aspects of the invention, the duration of a given interaction can be analyzed, either apart from or in combination with the script compliance analysis above, to seek to identify instances of agent non-compliance, of fraud, or of quality-analysis issues.

An image processing apparatus including: image processor which processes broadcasting signal, to display image based on processed broadcasting signal; communication unit which is connected to a server; a voice input unit which receives a user's speech; a voice processor which processes a performance of a preset corresponding operation according to a voice command corresponding to the speech; and a controller which processes the voice command corresponding to the speech through one of the voice processor and the server if the speech is input through the voice input unit. If the voice command includes a keyword relating to a call sign of a broadcasting channel, the controller controls one of the voice processor and the server to select a recommended call sign corresponding to the keyword according to a predetermined selection condition, and performs a corresponding operation under the voice command with respect to the broadcasting channel of the recommended call sign.

Current human-to-machine interfaces enable users to interact with a company's database and enter into a series of transactions (e.g., purchasing products/services and paying bills). Each transaction may require several operations or stages requiring user input or interaction. Some systems enable a user to enter a voice input parameter providing multiple operations of instruction (e.g., single natural language command). However, users of such a system do not know what types of commands the system is capable of accepting. Embodiments of the present invention facilitate communications for user transactions by determining a user's goal transaction and presenting a visual representation of a voice input parameter for the goal transaction. The use of visual representations notifies the user of the system's capability of accepting single natural language commands and the types of commands the system is capable of accepting, thereby enabling a user to complete a transaction in a shorter period of time.

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 generate a plurality of windowed frames, wherein a windowed frame comprises a plurality of windowed samples, wherein the windower is configured to process the plurality of input frames in an overlapping manner using a sample advance value, wherein the sample advance value is less than the number of ordered input samples of an input frame divided by two, and a time/frequency converter configured to provide an output frame comprising a number of output values, wherein an output frame is a spectral representation of a windowed frame.

An apparatus and an article of manufacture for controlling a voice site using a haptic input modality include validating a haptic input from an instrument capable of accessing a voice site, processing the haptic input on a server to determine a voice site command corresponding to the haptic input, and processing the voice site command at the server to control an interaction with the voice site.

A decoding apparatus (10) is disclosed which includes: a storing means (11) for storing encoded audio signals including multi-channel audio signals; a transforming means (40) for transforming the encoded audio signals to generate transform block-based audio signals in a time domain; a window processing means (41) for multiplying the transform block-based audio signals by a product of a mixture ratio of the audio signals and a first window function, the product being a second window function; a synthesizing means (43) for overlapping the multiplied transform block-based audio signals to synthesize audio signals of respective channels; and a mixing means (14) for mixing audio signals of the respective channels between the channels to generate a downmixed audio signal. Furthermore, an encoding apparatus is also disclosed which downmixes the multi-channel audio signals, encodes the downmixed audio signals, and generates the encoded, downmixed audio signals.

An apparatus for processing an audio signal and method thereof are disclosed. The present invention includes receiving a downmix signal and side information; extracting control restriction information from the side information; receiving control information for controlling gain or panning at least one object signal; generating at least one of first multi-channel information and first downmix processing information based on the control information and object information, without using the control restriction information; and, generating an output signal by applying the at least one of the first multichannel information and the first downmix processing information to the downmix signal, wherein the control restriction information relates to a parameter indicating limiting degree of the control information.

According to one embodiment, an audio controlling apparatus includes a first receiver configured to receive audio signal, a second receiver configured to receive environmental sound, a temporary gain calculator configured to calculate temporary gain based on environmental sound received by second receiver, a sound type determination module configured to determine sound type of main component of audio signal received by first receiver, and a gain controller configured to stabilize temporary gain that is calculated by temporary gain calculator and set gain, when it is determined that sound type of main component of audio signal received by first receiver is music.

Methods and apparatus to generate and use content-aware watermarks are disclosed herein. In a disclosed example method, media composition data is received and at least one word present in an audio track of the media composition data is selected. The word is then located in a watermark.

Computer-implemented systems and methods are provided for suggesting emoticons for insertion into text based on an analysis of sentiment in the text. An example method includes: determining a first sentiment of text in a text field; selecting first text from the text field in proximity to a current position of an input cursor in the text field; identifying one or more candidate emoticons wherein each candidate emoticon is associated with a respective score indicating relevance to the first text and the first sentiment based on, at least, historical user selections of emoticons for insertion in proximity to respective second text having a respective second sentiment; providing one or more candidate emoticons having respective highest scores for user selection; and receiving user selection of one or more of the provided emoticons and inserting the selected emoticons into the text field at the current position of the input cursor.

A method (700, 800) and apparatus (100, 200) processes audio frames to transition between different codecs. The method can include producing (720), using a first coding method, a first frame of coded output audio samples by coding a first audio frame in a sequence of frames. The method can include forming (730) an overlap-add portion of the first frame using the first coding method. The method can include generating (740) a combination first frame of coded audio samples based on combining the first frame of coded output audio samples with the overlap-add portion of the first frame. The method can include initializing (760) a state of a second coding method based on the combination first frame of coded audio samples. The method can include constructing (770) an output signal based on the initialized state of the second coding method.

An apparatus for decoding data segments representing a time-domain data stream, a data segment being encoded in the time domain or in the frequency domain, a data segment being encoded in the frequency domain having successive blocks of data representing successive and overlapping blocks of time-domain data samples. The apparatus includes a time-domain decoder for decoding a data segment being encoded in the time domain and a processor for processing the data segment being encoded in the frequency domain and output data of the time-domain decoder to obtain overlapping time-domain data blocks. The apparatus further includes an overlap/add-combiner for combining the overlapping time-domain data blocks to obtain a decoded data segment of the time-domain data stream.

An encoder for providing an audio stream on the basis of a transform-domain representation of an input audio signal includes a quantization error calculator configured to determine a multi-band quantization error over a plurality of frequency bands of the input audio signal for which separate band gain information is available. The encoder also includes an audio stream provider for providing the audio stream such that the audio stream includes information describing an audio content of the frequency bands and information describing the multi-band quantization error. A decoder for providing a decoded representation of an audio signal on the basis of an encoded audio stream representing spectral components of frequency bands of the audio signal includes a noise filler for introducing noise into spectral components of a plurality of frequency bands to which separate frequency band gain information is associated on the basis of a common multi-band noise intensity value.

Some embodiments of the inventive subject matter include a method for detecting speech loss and supplying appropriate recollection data to the user. Such embodiments include detecting a speech stream from a user, converting the speech stream to text, storing the text, detecting an interruption to the speech stream, wherein the interruption to the speech stream indicates speech loss by the user, searching a catalog using the text as a search parameter to find relevant catalog data and, presenting the relevant catalog data to remind the user about the speech stream.

A system and methods for matching at least one word of an utterance against a set of template hierarchies to select the best matching template or set of templates corresponding to the utterance. Certain embodiments of the system and methods determines at least one exact, inexact, and partial match between the at least one word of the utterance and at least one term within the template hierarchy to select and populate a template or set of templates corresponding to the utterance. The populated template or set of templates may then be used to generate a narrative template or a report template.

A speech recognition system, method of recognizing speech and a computer program product therefor. A client device identified with a context for an associated user selectively streams audio to a provider computer, e.g., a cloud computer. Speech recognition receives streaming audio, maps utterances to specific textual candidates and determines a likelihood of a correct match for each mapped textual candidate. A context model selectively winnows candidate to resolve recognition ambiguity according to context whenever multiple textual candidates are recognized as potential matches for the same mapped utterance. Matches are used to update the context model, which may be used for multiple users in the same context.

A biometric voice command and control switching device has a microphone assembly for receiving a currently spoken challenge utterance and a reference utterance, and a voice processing circuit for creating electronic signals indicative thereof. The device further includes a memory for storing the electronic signals, and a processor for comparing the electronic signals to determine if there is a match. If there is a match, an interface circuit enables the operable control of the controlled device.

A messaging response system is disclosed wherein a service providing system provides services to users via messaging communications. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, multiple respondents servicing users through messaging communications may appear to simultaneously use a common “screen name” identifier.

A speech recognition method including the steps of receiving a speech input from a known speaker of a sequence of observations and determining the likelihood of a sequence of words arising from the sequence of observations using an acoustic model. The acoustic model has a plurality of model parameters describing probability distributions which relate a word or part thereof to an observation and has been trained using first training data and adapted using second training data to said speaker. The speech recognition method also determines the likelihood of a sequence of observations occurring in a given language using a language model and combines the likelihoods determined by the acoustic model and the language model and outputs a sequence of words identified from said speech input signal. The acoustic model is context based for the speaker, the context based information being contained in the model using a plurality of decision trees and the structure of the decision trees is based on second training data.

A method of signal processing according to one embodiment includes calculating an envelope of a first signal that is based on a low-frequency portion of a speech signal, calculating an envelope of a second signal that is based on a high-frequency portion of the speech signal, and calculating a plurality of gain factor values according to a time-varying relation between the envelopes of the first and second signal. The method includes attenuating, based on a variation over time of a relation between the envelopes of the first and second signals, at least one of the plurality of gain factor values. In one example, the variation over time of a relation between the envelopes is indicated by at least one distance among the plurality of gain factor values.

An audio signal decoder has a time warp contour calculator, a time warp contour data rescaler and a warp decoder. The time warp contour calculator is configured to generate time warp contour data repeatedly restarting from a predetermined time warp contour start value, based on time warp contour evolution information describing a temporal evolution of the time warp contour. The time warp contour data rescaler is configured to rescale at least a portion of the time warp contour data such that a discontinuity at a restart is avoided, reduced or eliminated in a rescaled version of the time warp contour. The warp decoder is configured to provide the decoded audio signal representation, based on an encoded audio signal representation and using the rescaled version of the time warp contour.

A multilingual electronic transfer dictionary provides for automatic topic disambiguation by including one or more topic codes in definitions contained the dictionary. Automatic topic disambiguation is accomplished by determining the frequencies of topic codes within a block of text. Dictionary entries having more frequently occurring topic codes are preferentially selected over those having less frequently occurring topic codes. When the topic codes are members of a hierarchical topical coding system, such as the International Patent Classification system, an iterative method can be used with starts with a coarser level of the coding system and is repeated at finer levels until an ambiguity is resolved. The dictionary is advantageously used for machine translation, e.g. between Japanese and English.

An apparatus for encoding an audio signal having a stream of audio samples has: a windower for applying a prediction coding analysis window to the stream of audio samples to obtain windowed data for a prediction analysis and for applying a transform coding analysis window to the stream of audio samples to obtain windowed data for a transform analysis, wherein the transform coding analysis window is associated with audio samples within a current frame of audio samples and with audio samples of a predefined portion of a future frame of audio samples being a transform-coding look-ahead portion, wherein the prediction coding analysis window is associated with at least the portion of the audio samples of the current frame and with audio samples of a predefined portion of the future frame being a prediction coding look-ahead portion, wherein the transform coding look-ahead portion and the prediction coding look-ahead portion are identically to each other or are different from each other by less than 20%; and an encoding processor for generating prediction coded data or for generating transform coded data.

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for navigating electronic texts. According to an aspect, a method may include determining text subgroups within an electronic text. The method may also include selecting a text seed within one of the text subgroups. Further, the method may include determining a similarity relationship between the text seed and one or more adjacent text subgroups that do not include the selected text seed. The method may also include associating the text seed with the one or more adjacent text subgroups based on the similarity relationship to create a text cluster.

A time warp contour calculator for use in an audio signal decoder receives an encoded warp ratio information, derives a sequence of warp ratio values from the encoded warp ratio information, and obtains warp contour node values starting from a time warp contour start value. Ratios between the time warp contour node values and the time warp contour starting value are determined by the warp ratio values. The time warp contour calculator computes a time warp contour node value of a given time warp contour node, on the basis of a product-formation having a ratio between the time warp contour node values of the intermediate time warp contour node and the time warp contour starting value and a ratio between the time warp contour node values of the given time warp contour node and of the intermediate time warp contour node as factors.

An error concealment method and apparatus for an audio signal and a decoding method and apparatus for an audio signal using the error concealment method and apparatus. The error concealment method includes selecting one of an error concealment in a frequency domain and an error concealment in a time domain as an error concealment scheme for a current frame based on a predetermined criteria when an error occurs in the current frame, selecting one of a repetition scheme and an interpolation scheme in the frequency domain as the error concealment scheme for the current frame based on a predetermined criteria when the error concealment in the frequency domain is selected, and concealing the error of the current frame using the selected scheme.

Methods and systems are described for generating media playlists, or selecting a media asset, according to a “shape” selected by a user. Specifically, a user may “shape” the playlist by designating specific sub-categories of media assets that should be presented at selected times in the playlist. The media application then interpolates the sub-categories for a media asset between the selected times such that adjacent media assets have smooth categorical transitions (e.g., feature incremental changes in the range of sub-categories).

In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a social graph that includes a plurality of nodes and edges, receiving from a first user a voice message comprising one or more commands, receiving location information associated with the first user, identifying edges and nodes in the social graph based on the location information, where each of the identified edges and nodes corresponds to at least one of the commands of the voice message, and generating new nodes or edges in the social graph based on the identified nodes or identified edges.

A service distribution device is provided that, when acquiring services to be used in an information terminal mounted in a vehicle or used in its passenger compartment, recognizes service availability beforehand, thereby improving usability of the services. A service distribution device includes an information correlation unit for correlating information that denotes service utilization conditions in relation to travel condition of the vehicle with the services. The service distribution device distributes to an information terminal the information that denotes the service utilization conditions correlated by the information correlation unit along with contents of the relevant service so that the information and the contents can be visibly displayed on a display unit in the information terminal.

An information processing apparatus according to this invention, being capable of communicating with a Web server via a network, receives from the Web server a response to a processing request issued to a Web application of the Web server. The information processing apparatus changes, when screen control information described in a header of the response contains information which designates priority of a screen display by a Web browser of the information processing apparatus, priority of the screen display by the Web browser to the designated priority. When an event to display a screen other than a screen by the Web browser occurs while the Web browser presents a screen display corresponding to the response, the information processing apparatus inhibits an interrupt display by the event in order for the designated priority.

An electronic device and a method for providing a menu are disclosed. The electronic device displays a plurality of words on the screen, detects a first action specifying selection of at least one of the displayed words, searches an option item related to the word selected by the first action, generates at least one menu item based on the selected word and the searched option item, and displays the generated menu item in a first area of the screen.

A computerized method of presenting information from a variety of sources on a display device. Specifically the present invention describes a graphical user interface for organizing the simultaneous display of information from a multitude of information sources. In particular, the present invention comprises a graphical user interface which organizes content from a variety of information sources into a grid of tiles, each of which can refresh its content independently of the others. The grid functionality manages the refresh rates of the multiple information sources. The present invention is intended to operate in a platform independent manner.

Methods and apparatus to automatically link process control graphics to process control algorithm information are described. An example method involves displaying a first process control image including process control algorithm information and displaying adjacent to the first process control image a second process control image to include process control graphics. The method automatically links at least some of the process control algorithm information to a graphic in the second process control image in response to user inputs associated with the first and second process control images.

An electronic device for text prediction in a virtual keyboard. The device includes a memory including an input determination module for execution by the microprocessor, the input determination module being configured to: receive signals representing input at the virtual keyboard, the virtual keyboard being divided into a plurality of subregions, the plurality of subregions including at least one subregion being associated with two or more characters and/or symbols of the virtual keyboard; identify a subregion on the virtual keyboard corresponding to the input; determine any character or symbol associated with the identified subregion; and if there is at least one determined character or symbol, provide the at least one determined character or symbol to a text prediction algorithm.

A message screen display comprises a static non-scrollable display area for display of at least part of a first message, the first message having an associated first message time. The message screen display further comprises a scrollable display area for display of at least part of a second message, the second message having an associated second message time. The message screen display further comprises a feature applied to at least part of the first message that varies based on time as referenced to the associated first message time.

Techniques for sorting and filtering a list in a space-constrained viewing area are described. A filter widget and a list of items are displayed in a view of an electronic display screen. In response to user input selecting the filter widget, and without changing to a different view, a filter category overlay is displayed in the view to provide various selectable filter categories. In response to selection of a filter category, a visual depiction of the selected filter category is displayed in the view. The list of items is filtered according to the selected filter category and displayed in the view without changing to any other view. Subsequently added visual depictions are linearly stacked in the view. Further, a filter modification overlay, which provides selectable filtering attributes, is displayed upon selection of a visual depiction.

To freely establish a peripheral equipment selection operating environment of excellent operability which can remarkably reduce an operation burden which is applied until construction information of selectable peripheral equipment can be confirmed and can easily confirm the construction information of the selectable peripheral equipment by everyone by a simple operating instruction, a CPU obtains construction information of a printer that is being selected and default setting on the basis of a selection instructing state relative to a selectable printer candidate on a network and allows them to be caption-displayed at a position near the position indicated by a cursor on a printer selection picture plane displayed on a CRT.

In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, a method for proximity based input is provided, comprising: detecting presence of an object in close proximity to an input surface, detecting a displayed virtual layer currently associated with the object on the basis of distance of the object to the input surface, detecting a hovering input by the object, and causing a display operation to move at least a portion of the associated virtual layer in accordance with the detected hovering input.

A method includes displaying a first application view. A first input is detected, and an application view selection mode is entered for selecting one of concurrently open applications for display in a corresponding application view. An initial group of open application icons in a first predefined area and at least a portion of the first application view adjacent to the first predefined area are concurrently displayed. The initial group of open application icons corresponds to at least some of the concurrently open applications. A gesture is detected on a respective open application icon in the first predefined area, and a respective application view for a corresponding application is displayed without concurrently displaying an application view for any other application in the concurrently open applications. The open application icons in the first predefined area cease to be displayed, and the application view selection mode is exited.

A handheld electronic device includes a reduced QWERTY keyboard and is enabled with a disambiguation routine that is operable to disambiguate text input. In addition to identifying and outputting representations of language objects that are stored in the memory and that correspond with a text input, the device is able to perform a spell check routine during input of a text entry and to learn and automatically correct mistakes typically made by the particular user.

The present invention introduces an aliased selection system with audible cues to allow a user of a handheld computer system locate a desired item from a list of item. The aliased selection system allows a user to spell out a desired item by activating an input that specifics a subset that containing a next letter. In one embodiment, two different subsets are used: A to M and N to Z. When the user has entered information on enough letters such that the number of possibilities fits entirely on a display screen then a first audible cue is given. The user may enter additional information on until a single list item is uniquely identified. Once a single item is uniquely identified, the system emits a second audible cue that informs the user that a single item has been specified. The aliased selection system allows a user to select a desired item from a list with a single hand and without looking at the display screen. However, the user may shorten the selection process by looking at the display screen.

Systems and methods whereby, for example, one or more functional elements can be established and/or employed. Such functional elements might serve a number of purposes. For instance, such functional elements might be employable in interoperating with devices, software, and/or the like, in working with entities, and/or the like. Such functional elements may, for example, be arrangeable in an associative and/or hierarchical manner.

Methods and devices for minimizing and maximizing displayed output associated with applications are provided. More particularly, an application presented as two or more pages in a portrait mode can be minimized to present one of the two or more pages following a minimization operation. The page that continues to be displayed can comprise a primary or preferred page, while the page that is dismissed can comprise a secondary or ancillary page. With respect to a maximization operation received with respect to a page of an application results in the display of an additional page associated with that application. Maximization can include controlling the respective screens on which first and second pages of the maximized application are displayed.

A method and apparatus to mark-up an electronic document (i.e., a second electronic document) that is superimposed on a first electronic document keeping the first electronic document unchanged. The second electronic document is optionally viewed concurrently with the first electronic document. The second electronic document is capable of being viewed or modified using different application programs so long as the different application programs process the format used by the second electronic document. The second electronic document is saved as a separate document independent of the first electronic document.

A composition having a mixture of the below compounds having a mole ratio of at least 1:20. Ar1 and Ar2 are independently selected aromatic groups. A composition comprising phthalonitrile compounds that comprise at least 5 mol % of the first compound below. A method of: providing a solution of a dichloroaromatic compound having an electron-withdrawing group bound to each aromatic ring containing one of the chloride groups; a dihydroxyaromatic compound or anion thereof; an organic transition metal complex or a transition metal salt; an alkaline hydroxide base; and a solvent; and heating the solution to a temperature at which the dichloroaromatic compound and the dihydroxyaromatic compound react to form a dimetallic salt of an aromatic ether oligomer. The molar ratio of the dihydroxyaromatic compound to the dichloroaromatic compound is greater than 2:1. Water formed during the heating is concurrently distilled from the solution.

The present invention relates to I- and II-type crystals of L-α-glyceryl phosphoryl choline, and to a method for preparing same. More particularly, the present invention relates to noble I- and II-type anhydride crystals of L-α-glyceryl phosphoryl choline, which have a higher purity than conventional liquid L-α-glyceryl phosphoryl choline, and one advantage of which is that formulations and dosages of pharmaceuticals are easily modified, and another advantage of which is that the hygroscopicity of the crystals are much lower than that of conventional polymorphic crystals, providing excellent stability during storage. The present invention also relates to a method for preparing the I- and II-type crystals of L-α-glyceryl phosphoryl choline. The I-type crystal of L-α-glyceryl phosphoryl choline is characterized by having an onset temperature of 147° C. and an absorption peak of 150° C. based on differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) analysis, and by having diffraction patterns where 2θ-diffraction angles are 9.8±0.2°, 12.0±0.2°, 14.3±0.2°, 15.8±0.2°, and 19.6±0.2° based on X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The II-type crystal of L-α-glyceryl phosphoryl choline is characterized by having an onset temperature of 62° C. and an absorption peak of 66° C., and an onset temperature of 141° C. and an absorption peak of 145° C. based on DSC analysis, and having diffraction patterns where 2θ-diffraction angles are 10.3±0.2°, 12.2±0.2°, 13.4±0.2°, 14.8±0.2°, and 20.6±0.2° based on XRD analysis.

The present invention relates to novel isocyanate and isothiocyanate compounds, to pharmaceutical compositions comprising them, and to the use thereof in the treatment of cancer diseases in humans and animals. The novel isocyanate and isothiocyanate compounds are distinguished, as compared with the known isocyanate and isothiocyanate compounds, by improved therapeutical breadth, i.e. fewer side effects while having high anti-tumor activity.

Provided is an efficient technology for synthesizing diamino acids (diamino acid derivatives). Disclosed is a manufacturing method for diamino acid derivatives wherein the fluorenyl groups of the diamino acid derivative starting materials represented by General Formula [II] or [IV] are removed.

The present invention provides carbonate prodrugs which comprise a carbonic phosphoric anhydride prodrug moiety attached to the hydroxyl or carboxyl group of a parent drug moiety. The prodrugs may provide improved physicochemical properties over the parent drug. Also provided are methods of treating a disease or condition that is responsive to the parent drug using the carbonate prodrugs, as well as kits and unit dosages.