or Persistent-mode high-temperature superconducting shim coils to enhance spatial magnetic field homogeneity for superconducting magnets By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 24 Feb 2015 08:00:00 EST A persistent-mode High Temperature Superconductor (HTS) shim coil is provided having at least one rectangular shaped thin sheet of HTS, wherein the thin sheet of HTS contains a first long portion, a second long portion parallel to first long portion, a first end, and a second end parallel to the first end. The rectangular shaped thin sheet of high-temperature superconductor has a hollow center and forms a continuous loop. In addition, the first end and the second end are folded toward each other forming two rings, and the thin sheet of high-temperature superconductor has a radial build that is less than 5 millimeters (mm) and able to withstand very strong magnetic field ranges of greater than approximately 12 Tesla (T) within a center-portion of a superconducting magnet of a superconducting magnet assembly. Full Article
or Oxide superconductor cabling and method of manufacturing oxide superconductor cabling By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 24 Feb 2015 08:00:00 EST Disclosed are an oxide superconductor tape and a method of manufacturing the oxide superconductor tape capable of improving the length and characteristics of superconductor tape and obtaining stabilized characteristics across the entire length thereof. A Y-class superconductor tape (10), as an oxide superconductor tape, comprises a tape (13) further comprising a tape-shaped non-oriented metallic substrate (11), and a first buffer layer (sheet layer) (12) that is formed by IBAD upon the tape-shaped non-oriented metallic substrate (11); and a second buffer layer (gap layer) (14), further comprising a lateral face portion (14a) that is extended to the lateral faces of the first buffer layer (sheet layer) (12) upon the tape (13) by RTR RF-magnetron sputtering. Full Article
or Method of manufacturing base material for superconducting conductor, method of manufacturing superconducting conductor, base material for superconducting conductor, and superconducting conductor By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 17 Mar 2015 08:00:00 EDT A method for manufacturing a base material 2 for a superconductive conductor which includes: a conductive bed layer forming process of forming a non-oriented bed layer 24 having conductivity on a substrate 10; and a biaxially oriented layer forming process of forming a biaxially oriented layer 26 on the bed layer 24. Full Article
or High temperature superconducting tape conductor having high critical ampacity By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 17 Mar 2015 08:00:00 EDT The invention relates to a high temperature superconducting tape conductor having a flexible metal substrate that comprises at least one intermediate layer disposed on the flexible metal substrate and comprising terraces on the side opposite the flexible metal substrate, wherein a mean width of the terraces is less than 1 μm and a mean height of the terraces is more than 20 nm, and that comprises at least one high temperature superconducting layer disposed on the intermediate layer, which is disposed on the at least one intermediate layer and comprises a layer thickness of more than 3 μm. The ampacity of the high temperature superconducting tape conductor relative to the conductor width is more than 600 A/cm at 77 K. Full Article
or Superconducting electromagnet device, cooling method therefor, and magnetic resonance imaging device By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 24 Mar 2015 08:00:00 EDT A superconducting magnet device is configured to include: a refrigerant circulation flowpath in which a refrigerant (R) circulates; a refrigerator for cooling vapor of the refrigerant (R) in the refrigerant circulation flowpath; a superconducting coil cooled by the circulating refrigerant (R); a protective resistor thermally contacting the superconducting coil and having an internal space (S); a high-boiling-point refrigerant supply section for supplying a high-boiling-point refrigerant having a higher boiling point than the refrigerant (R) and frozen by the refrigerant (R) to the internal space (S) in the protective resistor; and a vacuum insulating container for at least accommodating the refrigerant circulation flowpath, the superconducting coil, and the protective resistor. Full Article
or Layered superconductor device By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 24 Mar 2015 08:00:00 EDT A layered superconductor device includes multiple layers of a single crystal superconducting material having intermittent layers of superconducting material dispersed in a pattern with a second material such that each layer of the multiple layers a single crystal superconducting material are interconnected via superconducting material, allowing for a continuous current path, and a thickness of the superconducting material never exceeds a first predetermined thickness. Full Article
or Substrate for superconducting compound and method for manufacturing the substrate By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 31 Mar 2015 08:00:00 EDT Provided are a substrate for a superconducting compound and a method for manufacturing the substrate which can realize the excellent adhesive strength simultaneously with high orientation of copper. An absorbed material on a surface of a copper foil to which rolling is applied at a draft of 90% or more is removed by applying sputter etching to the surface of the copper foil, sputter etching is applied to a nonmagnetic metal sheet, the copper foil and the metal sheet are bonded to each other by applying a pressure to the copper foil and the metal sheet using reduction rolls, crystals of the copper in the copper foil are oriented by heating a laminated body formed by such bonding, copper is diffused into the metal sheet by heating with a copper diffusion distance of 10 nm or more, and a protective layer is laminated to a surface of the copper foil of the laminated body. Full Article
or Methods of splicing 2G rebco high temperature superconductors using partial micro-melting diffusion pressurized splicing by direct face-to-face contact of high temperature superconducting layers and recovering superconductivity by oxygenation annealing By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 31 Mar 2015 08:00:00 EDT Disclosed is a splicing method of two second-generation ReBCO high temperature superconductor coated conductors (2G ReBCO HTS CCs), in which, with stabilizing layers removed from the two strands of 2G ReBCO HTS CCs through chemical wet etching or plasma dry etching, surfaces of the two high temperature superconducting layers are brought into direct contact with each other and heated in a splicing furnace in a vacuum for micro-melting portions of the surfaces of the high temperature superconducting layers to permit inter-diffusion of ReBCO atoms such that the surfaces of the two superconducting layers can be spliced to each other and oxygenation annealing for recovery of superconductivity which was lost during splicing. Full Article
or Superconducting film-forming substrate, superconducting wire, and superconducting wire manufacturing method By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 07 Apr 2015 08:00:00 EDT A tape-shaped superconducting film-forming substrate is disclosed, which includes a film-forming face for forming a laminate including a superconducting layer thereon, a rear face that is a face at a side opposite to the film-forming face, a pair of end faces connected to the film-forming face and the rear face, and a pair of side faces connected to the film-forming face, the rear face, and the pair of end faces, in which each of the pair of side faces includes a spreading face that spreads toward an outer side in an in-plane direction of the film-forming face from an edge part of the film-forming face toward the rear face side. A superconducting wire and a superconducting wire manufacturing method are also disclosed. Full Article
or Electrochemical system and method for electropolishing superconductive radio frequency cavities By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 14 Apr 2015 08:00:00 EDT An electrochemical finishing system for super conducting radio frequency (SCRF) cavities including a low viscosity electrolyte solution that is free of hydrofluoric acid, an electrode in contact with the electrolyte solution, the SCRF cavity being spaced apart from the electrode and in contact with the electrolyte solution and a power source including a first electrical lead electrically coupled to the electrode and a second electrical lead electrically coupled to the cavity, the power source being configured to pass an electric current between the electrode and the workpiece, wherein the electric current includes anodic pulses and cathodic pulses, and wherein the cathodic pulses are interposed between at least some of the anodic pulses. The SCRF cavity may be vertically oriented during the finishing process. Full Article
or Ceramic substrate and process for producing same By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 14 Apr 2015 08:00:00 EDT A ceramic substrate includes a substrate body formed of ceramic and having a pair of surfaces each assuming a rectangular shape as viewed in plane, and a metallization layer formed on the surface of the substrate body and adapted to braze a metal frame thereon. A composite material layer is disposed between the surface of the substrate body and the metallization layer and is formed such that a ceramic portion, a metal portion 10m formed of a metal similar to a metal component of the metallization layer or a metal which, together with a metal component of the metallization layer, forms an all proportional solid solution, and a glass portion exist together. The thickness of the composite material layer is thinner than that of the metallization layer. A plating layer is deposited on the surface of the metallization layer. Full Article
or Terminal structure of superconducting cable conductor and terminal member used therein By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 14 Apr 2015 08:00:00 EDT In a terminal structure of a superconducting cable conductor, a terminal portion of the superconducting cable conductor is connected with a terminal member of a good conductor. The terminal portion includes a superconducting layer disposed on an outer periphery of a central support; and an insulating layer surrounding the superconducting layer. The insulating layer and the superconducting layer are partially removed to expose the central support and the superconducting layer in this order from an end of the superconducting cable conductor. The terminal member includes a metal sleeve which includes a first cylindrical portion whose inner surface is in close contact with an exposed portion of the central support; a second cylindrical portion which is soldered around an exposed portion of the superconducting layer; and a third cylindrical portion into which the insulating layer is inserted. Full Article
or Techniques for protecting a superconducting (SC) tape By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 14 Apr 2015 08:00:00 EDT Techniques for protecting a superconducting (SC) article are disclosed. The techniques may be realized as an apparatus for protecting a superconducting (SC) article. The apparatus may comprise a porous sleeve configured to fit around the superconducting (SC) article. The porous sleeve may be made of non-conductive, dielectric material. Full Article
or Superconducting structure comprising coated conductor tapes, in particular stapled perpendicularly to their substrate planes By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 14 Apr 2015 08:00:00 EDT A superconducting structure (1) has a plurality of coated conductor tapes (2; 2a-2o), each with a substrate (3) which is one-sided coated with a superconducting film (4), in particular an YBCO film, wherein the superconducting structure (1) provides a superconducting current path along an extension direction (z) of the superconducting structure (1), wherein the coated conductor tapes (2; 2a-2o) provide electrically parallel partial superconducting current paths in the extension direction (z) of the superconducting structure (1), is characterized in that the coated conductor tapes (2; 2a-2o) are superconductively connected among themselves along the extension direction (z) continuously or intermittently. A more stable superconducting structure with which high electric current strengths may be transported is thereby provided. Full Article
or Device and method for the densification of filaments in a long superconductive wire By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 21 Apr 2015 08:00:00 EDT A device for the high pressure densification of superconducting wire from compacted superconductor material or superconductor precursor powder particles, has four hard metal anvils (5, 6, 7, 8) with a total length (L2) parallel to the superconducting wire, the hard metal anvils borne in external independent pressure blocks (9, 10, 11), which are in turn either fixed or connected to high pressure devices, preferably hydraulic presses. At least one of the hard metal anvils is a free moving anvil (6) having clearances of at least 0.01 mm up to 0.2 mm towards the neighboring hard metal anvils (5, 8), so that no wall friction occurs between the free moving anvil and the neighboring anvils. This allows for high critical current densities Jc at reduced pressure applied to the hard metal anvils. Full Article
or Energy storage device and operating method By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 21 Apr 2015 08:00:00 EDT In order to store excess kinetic energy, an energy storage device and an operating method are described, in which the kinetic energy can be partially converted into electrical energy by a first electric machine using at least two electric machines arranged on a shaft and can be partially converted into additional kinetic energy, such as rotational energy, by a second electric machine. The method for energy storage of excess kinetic energy provides for converting kinetic energy partially into electric energy and partially into additional kinetic energy, such as rotational energy. Full Article
or Method of producing superconducting conductor, superconducting conductor, and substrate for superconducting conductor By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 21 Apr 2015 08:00:00 EDT A method for producing a superconductive conductor includes: a base material preparation process of preparing a base material having a groove formed on at least one face thereof; a superconducting layer formation process of forming a superconducting layer on a surface of the base material at a side at which the groove is formed; and a cutting process of cutting completely through the base material along the groove. Full Article
or Layered superconductor device By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 21 Apr 2015 08:00:00 EDT A layered superconductor device includes multiple layers of a single crystal superconducting material having intermittent layers of superconducting material dispersed in a pattern with a second material such that each layer of the multiple layers a single crystal superconducting material are interconnected via superconducting material, allowing for a continuous current path, and a thickness of the superconducting material never exceeds a first predetermined thickness. Full Article
or Systems, methods, and apparatus for calibrating, controlling, and operating a quantum processor By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 21 Apr 2015 08:00:00 EDT Quantum annealing may include applying and gradually removing disorder terms to qubits of a quantum processor, for example superconducting flux qubits of a superconducting quantum processor. A problem Hamiltonian may be established by applying control signals to the qubits, an evolution Hamiltonian established by applying disorder terms, and annealing by gradually removing the disorder terms. Change in persistent current in the qubits may be compensated. Multipliers may mediate coupling between various qubits and a global signal line, for example by applying respective scaling factors. Two global signal lines may be arranged in an interdigitated pattern to couple to respective qubits of a communicatively coupled pair of qubits. Pairs of qubits may be communicatively isolated and used to measure a response of one another to defined signals. Full Article
or Oxide superconductor, oriented oxide thin film, and method for manufacturing oxide superconductor By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 05 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT According to one embodiment, an oxide superconductor includes an oriented superconductor layer and an oxide layer. The oriented superconductor layer contains fluorine at 2.0×1016-5.0×1019 atoms/cc and carbon at 1.0×1018-5.0×1020 atoms/cc. The superconductor layer contains in 90% or more a portion oriented along c-axis with an in-plane orientation degree (Δφ) of 10 degrees or less, and contains a LnBa2Cu3O7-x superconductor material (Ln being yttrium or a lanthanoid except cerium, praseodymium, promethium, and lutetium). The oxide layer is provided in contact with a lower surface of the superconductor layer and oriented with an in-plane orientation degree (Δφ) of 10 degrees or less with respect to one crystal axis of the superconductor layer. Area of a portion of the lower surface of the superconductor layer in contact with the oxide layer is 0.3 or less of area of a region directly below the superconductor layer. Full Article
or Additive manufacturing method for SRF components of various geometries By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 05 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT An additive manufacturing method for forming nearly monolithic SRF niobium cavities and end group components of arbitrary shape with features such as optimized wall thickness and integral stiffeners, greatly reducing the cost and technical variability of conventional cavity construction. The additive manufacturing method for forming an SRF cavity, includes atomizing niobium to form a niobium powder, feeding the niobium powder into an electron beam melter under a vacuum, melting the niobium powder under a vacuum in the electron beam melter to form an SRF cavity; and polishing the inside surface of the SRF cavity. Full Article
or Increased normal zone propagation velocity in superconducting segments By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 12 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT There is described herein a superconducting segment and method of making same comprising one or several layers with very high electrical resistivity, acting as a current flow diverter when the current transfers from the superconductor to the stabilizer. The purpose of this current flow diverter is: i) to increase the contact resistance between the superconductor and the stabilizer, by reducing the contact area, and ii) to force the current to flow along a specific path, so as to increase momentarily the current density in a specific portion of the stabilizer. The consequence of i) and ii) is that heat generated at the extremities of the normal zone is increased and spread over a longer length along the superconducting segment, which increases the NZPV and thus, the uniformity of the quench. Full Article
or Computing numeric representations of words in a high-dimensional space By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 19 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for computing numeric representations of words. One of the methods includes obtaining a set of training data, wherein the set of training data comprises sequences of words; training a classifier and an embedding function on the set of training data, wherein training the embedding function comprises obtained trained values of the embedding function parameters; processing each word in the vocabulary using the embedding function in accordance with the trained values of the embedding function parameters to generate a respective numerical representation of each word in the vocabulary in the high-dimensional space; and associating each word in the vocabulary with the respective numeric representation of the word in the high-dimensional space. Full Article
or Email administration for rendering email on a digital audio player By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 19 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for email administration for rendering email on a digital audio player. Embodiments include retrieving an email message; extracting text from the email message; creating a media file; and storing the extracted text of the email message as metadata associated with the media file. Embodiments may also include storing the media file on a digital audio player and displaying the metadata describing the media file, the metadata containing the extracted text of the email message. Full Article
or Sound localization for user in motion By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 19 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Methods, apparatus, and computer programs for simulating the source of sound are provided. One method includes operations for determining a location in space of the head of a user utilizing face recognition of images of the user. Further, the method includes an operation for determining a sound for two speakers, and an operation for determining an emanating location in space for the sound, each speaker being associated with one ear of the user. The acoustic signals for each speaker are established based on the location in space of the head, the sound, the emanating location in space, and the auditory characteristics of the user. In addition, the acoustic signals are transmitted to the two speakers. When the acoustic signals are played by the two speakers, the acoustic signals simulate that the sound originated at the emanating location in space. Full Article
or Automated communication integrator By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 19 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT An apparatus includes a plurality of applications and an integrator having a voice recognition module configured to identify at least one voice command from a user. The integrator is configured to integrate information from a remote source into at least one of the plurality of applications based on the identified voice command. A method includes analyzing speech from a first user of a first mobile device having a plurality of applications, identifying a voice command based on the analyzed speech using a voice recognition module, and incorporating information from the remote source into at least one of a plurality of applications based on the identified voice command. Full Article
or Method and system for facilitating communications for a user transaction By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 19 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT 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. Full Article
or Using a physical phenomenon detector to control operation of a speech recognition engine By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 19 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A device may include a physical phenomenon detector. The physical phenomenon detector may detect a physical phenomenon related to the device. In response to detecting the physical phenomenon, the device may record audio data that includes speech. The speech may be transcribed with a speech recognition engine. The speech recognition engine may be included in the device, or may be included with a remote computing device with which the device may communicate. Full Article
or Method for classifying audio signal into fast signal or slow signal By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 19 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Low bit rate audio coding such as BWE algorithm often encounters conflict goal of achieving high time resolution and high frequency resolution at the same time. In order to achieve best possible quality, input signal can be first classified into fast signal and slow signal. This invention focuses on classifying signal into fast signal and slow signal, based on at least one of the following parameters or a combination of the following parameters: spectral sharpness, temporal sharpness, pitch correlation (pitch gain), and/or spectral envelope variation. This classification information can help to choose different BWE algorithms, different coding algorithms, and different postprocessing algorithms respectively for fast signal and slow signal. Full Article
or Keyword assessment By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 19 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Methods, systems, and techniques for keyword management are described. Some embodiments provide a keyword management system (“KMS”) configured to determine the effectiveness of multiple candidate keywords. In some embodiments, the KMS generates multiple candidate keywords based on an initial keyword. The KMS may then determine an effectiveness score for each of the candidate keywords, based on marketing information about those keywords. Next, the KMS may process the candidate keywords according to the determined effectiveness scores. In some embodiments, processing the candidate keywords includes applying rules that conditionally perform actions with respect to the candidate keywords, such as modifying advertising expenditures, modifying content, or the like. Full Article
or Apparatus for processing an audio signal and method thereof By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT 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. Full Article
or Audio controlling apparatus, audio correction apparatus, and audio correction method By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT 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. Full Article
or Systems and methods for identifying and suggesting emoticons By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT 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. Full Article
or Extracting information from unstructured text using generalized extraction patterns By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for extracting information from unstructured text. Fact pairs are used to extract basic patterns from a body of text. Patterns are generalized by replacing words with classes of similar words. Generalized patterns are used to extract further fact pairs from the body of text. The process can begin with fact pairs, basic patterns, or generalized patterns. Full Article
or Adaptive grouping of parameters for enhanced coding efficiency By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT The present invention is based on the finding that parameters including: a first set of parameters of a representation of a first portion of an original signal and a second set of parameters of a representation of a second portion of the original signal can be efficiently encoded when the parameters are arranged in a first sequence of tuples and a second sequence of tuples. The first sequence of tuples includes tuples of parameters having two parameters from a single portion of the original signal and the second sequence of tuples includes tuples of parameters having one parameter from the first portion and one parameter from the second portion of the original signal. A bit estimator estimates the number of necessary bits to encode the first and the second sequence of tuples. Only the sequence of tuples, which results in the lower number of bits, is encoded. Full Article
or Method and apparatus for processing audio frames to transition between different codecs By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT 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. Full Article
or Encoder, decoder and methods for encoding and decoding data segments representing a time-domain data stream By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT 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. Full Article
or Audio encoder, audio decoder, methods for encoding and decoding an audio signal, and a computer program By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT 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. Full Article
or System and methods for matching an utterance to a template hierarchy By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT 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. Full Article
or System, method and program product for providing automatic speech recognition (ASR) in a shared resource environment By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT 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. Full Article
or Systems, methods, and apparatus for gain factor attenuation By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT 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. Full Article
or Apparatus and method for encoding and decoding an audio signal using an aligned look-ahead portion By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 02 Jun 2015 08:00:00 EDT 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. Full Article
or Method, system, and computer readable medium for creating clusters of text in an electronic document By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 21 Jul 2015 08:00:00 EDT 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. Full Article
or Time warp contour calculator, audio signal encoder, encoded audio signal representation, methods and computer program By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 29 Mar 2016 08:00:00 EDT 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. Full Article
or Error concealment method and apparatus for audio signal and decoding method and apparatus for audio signal using the same By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 21 Jun 2016 08:00:00 EDT 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. Full Article
or Methods and systems for creating a shaped playlist By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT 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). Full Article
or Voice commands for online social networking systems By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT 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. Full Article
or Method for configuring displets for an interactive platform for analyzing a computer network performance By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A method for configuring an interactive platform for monitoring the performance and the quality of a computer network, the monitoring data being suitable to be displayed on a dynamic page of type webpage in a form of graphic components called “displets”; including providing, on the interactive platform a configuration interface in which are defined, for at least one given user, filtering criteria for displaying displets, the criteria being defined in the form of parameters for configuring the rights of the at least one user. Full Article
or Information processing apparatus, information processing system, information processing apparatus control method, and storage medium By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT 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. Full Article
or Electronic device and method for providing menu using the same By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT 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. Full Article