Abstract: A multi-sensory attention alert device for a vehicle includes a sensor arrangement, a warning signal emission arrangement for emitting haptic, acoustic and optical warning signals to the vehicle driver, and a control unit for analyzing and assessing the recorded measurement values and for controlling the warning signal emission arrangement. The direction of a potential source of danger can be indicated by emitting warning signals that address multiple sensory organs of the driver, and the direction of an interface can be indicated whose operation, by the driver, constitutes a counter measure for avoiding the dangerous situation.

Abstract: A multi-sensory attention alert device for a vehicle includes a sensor arrangement, a warning signal emission arrangement for emitting haptic, acoustic and optical warning signals to the vehicle driver, and a control unit for analyzing and assessing the recorded measurement values and for controlling the warning signal emission arrangement. The direction of a potential source of danger can be indicated by emitting warning signals that address multiple sensory organs of the driver, and the direction of an interface can be indicated whose operation, by the driver, constitutes a counter measure for avoiding the dangerous situation.

Abstract: A vehicle navigation system includes various interlinked facilities including a user input/output facility and a position determining facility. The navigation system is arranged to physically interface with a data communication facility pertaining to a personal digital assistant that includes a coordinate driven display, a geometrically or coordinate-wise organized input mechanism, and input keys.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method for selecting a locality name in a motor vehicle navigation system by voice input by means of a speaker-independent voice input system. A first list contains all locality names. In a second list, the locality names are entered which have already been entered once into the system, the phonemes being additionally entered. In the case of a repeated voice input of a locality name, the search is first performed in the second list.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method for selecting a locality name in a motor vehicle navigation system by voice input by means of a speaker-independent voice input system. A first list contains all locality names. In a second list, the locality names are entered which have already been entered once into the system, the phonemes being additionally entered. In the case of a repeated voice input of a locality name, the search is first performed in the second list.

Abstract: The invention proposes an emergency call system for a motor vehicle for automatically transmitting an emergency call to an external receiving station. The motor vehicle has measuring means, for example in the form of a radar system (6), for determining the relative speed and the distance of the vehicle in relation to another vehicle or an obstacle. If the current relative speed exceeds a predetermined limit value for a given distance, it is assumed that a collision is unavoidable, and an emergency call by a transmitter (3) provided in the motor vehicle is activated. Advantageously, the vehicle position, ascertained by means of a navigation system (4), is transmitted to the receiving station with the emergency call. The invention also provides for the emergency call system to be connected to further sensors (6), suitable for detecting a collision, so that the emergency call can be revoked if an actual collision is not reported by such a sensor within a predetermined time period.

Abstract: A vehicle navigation system includes various interlinked facilities including a user input/output facility and a position determining facility. The navigation system is arranged to physically interface with a data communication facility pertaining to a personal digital assistant that includes a coordinate driven display, a geometrically or coordinate-wise organized input mechanism, and input keys.

Abstract: A dashboard includes a microphone with a microphone capsule, which is connected to an electronic unit, in the dashboard of a motor vehicle. The microphone is a directional microphone in the form of a slotted-tube type microphone or of a parabolic mirror type microphone and is aligned with a driver's position.

Abstract: A receiver which includes a control circuit (7) for delivering encoded messages, derived from a radio signal, to at least one storage device (12, 28), for receiving control data, derived from the encoded messages, from at least one storage device (12, 28), and for forming a speech text for an audio circuit (69) and a display text for a display device (13) from the control data. In order to achieve an acceptable speech text quality, a speech segment memory (14) for storing predetermined speech segments of at least one language is coupled to the control circuit (7). The control circuit (7) forms a speech text with at least a part of the message for which speech segments are stored in the speech segment memory (14). The control circuit (7) is also arranged to form a display text with at least all parts of the message which are not contained in the speech text and for which no speech segments are present in the speech segment memory (14).

Abstract: The invention relates to an input system for at least location and/or street names, including an input device, a data source arrangement which contains at least one list of locations and/or streets, and a control device which is arranged to search location or street names, entered via the input device, in a list of locations or streets in the data source arrangement. In order to simplify the input of location and/or street names, the data source arrangement contains not only a first list of locations and/or streets with alphabetically sorted location and/or street names, but also a second list of locations and/or streets with location and/or street names sorted on the basis of a frequency criterion. A speech input system of the input device conducts input in the form of speech to the control device. The control device is arranged to perform a sequential search for a location or street name, entered in the form of speech, as from the beginning of the second list of locations and/or streets.

Abstract: The invention relates to a broadcast receiver, comprising a control circuit (7) for applying encoded messages, derived from a broadcast signal, to at least one storage device (12, 28), for receiving control data, derived from the encoded messages, from at least one storage device (12, 28), and for forming the messages from the control data in a form suitable for a display device (13) and/or a speech synthesizer circuit (14). In order to accelerate access to the control data, a reading device (16) for reading data from an external first storage device (28) and a second storage device (12) are coupled to the control circuit (7). Moreover, the first storage device (28) is intended to store region-specific control data and the second storage device (12) is intended to store traffic-specific control data.

Abstract: The invention relates to a broadcast receiver, comprising a control circuit (7) for delivering encoded messages, derived from a broadcast signal, to at least one storage device (12, 28), for receiving control data, derived from the encoded messages, from at least one storage device (12, 28), and for forming the messages from the control data in a form suitable for a display device (13) and/or a speech synthesizer circuit (14). In order to reduce the data file, given control data is stored under a respective escape code in at least one storage device (12, 28). The control data stored under an encoded message or an escape code in at least one storage device (12, 28) contains at least one spelling of a first language and given spellings of predetermined further languages if they deviate from the first language. A spelling is to be understood to mean herein, for example a phonetic notation. The control circuit (7) selects the required spelling from the control data of the escape code.

Abstract: A broadcast receiver, comprises a control circuit (7) for delivering encoded messages, derived from a broadcast signal, to at least one storage device (12, 28), for receiving control data, derived from the encoded messages, from at least one storage device (12, 28), and for forming the messages from the control data in a form suitable for a display device (13) and/or a speech synthesizer circuit (14). In order to reduce the data file, the control data stored under an encoded message in at least one storage device (12, 28) contains at least one spelling of a first language and given spellings of predetermined further languages if they deviate from the first language. A spelling is to be understood to mean a phonetic notation. The spellings of all further languages comprise a respective introductory separating mark.

Abstract: The invention relates to a broadcast receiver, comprising a control circuit (7) for applying encoded messages, derived from a broadcast signal, to at least one storage device (12, 28), for receiving control data, derived from the encoded messages, from at least one storage device (12, 28), and for forming messages from the control data in a form suitable for a speech synthesizer circuit (14). The control data contains phonetic notations which are composed of phonetic characters. The speech synthesizer circuit (14) is capable of converting a given number of phonetic characters into announcements. In order to enable speech output in a language not envisaged thus far, at least one storage device (28) stores given phonetic characters which cannot be converted by the speech synthesizer circuit (14) and with which at least one substitute character (convertible phonetic character) is associated.

Abstract: A circuit arrangement for speech recognition carries out an analysis of a speech signal, extracting characteristic features. The extracted features are represented by spectral feature vectors which are compared with reference feature vectors stored for the speech signal to be recognized. The reference feature vectors are determined during a training phase in which a speech signal is recorded several times. A recognition result essentially depends on a quality of the spectral feature vectors and reference feature vectors. A recognition result essentially depends on a quality of the spectral feature vectors and reference feature vectors. A recursive high-pass filtering is performed in the time domain on the spectral feature vectors. Influences of noise signals on the recognition result are reduced by this and a high degree of speaker independence of the recognition is achieved.

Abstract: The invention relates to an arrangement for communication with a subscriber. The arrangement includes a spectral analysis unit for producing short-time spectral values (Y(i)) of received signals (E) which signals are at times subscriber's speech signals superimposed by echoes of transmission signals (S) transmitted to the subscriber, a echo cancelling unit for estimating short-time spectral values of the echoes (X.sub.w (i)) and for producing difference values (D(i)) between the short-time spectral values (Y(i)) of the received signals (E) and the estimated short-time spectral values (X.sub.w (i)) of the echoes, and speech recognition unit for evaluating the difference values (D(i)).

Abstract: The invention relates to a broadcast receiver, comprising a control circuit (7) for delivering encoded messages, derived from a broadcast signal, to at least one storage device (12, 28), for receiving control data, derived from the encoded messages, from at least one storage device (12, 28), and for forming the messages from the control data in a form suitable for a display device (13) and/or a speech synthesizer circuit (14). In order to reduce the data file, at least one storage device (12, 28) is provided to store given control data under an escape code. The control data associated with an encoded message contains at least one first main component and at least one first subsidiary component and the control data associated with an escape code contains a second main component and at least one second subsidiary component. The main component may be, for example an orthographic notation of a language and the subsidiary components may be phonetic notations of a plurality of languages.

Abstract: Speech recognition produces test signals from the speech signal which are compared with predetermined reference signals so as to form scores. Each subsequent test signal is compared with reference values which are situated within a predetermined neighborhood of the reference value which has been determined to be optimum for the preceding test signal. In dependence on this neighborhood, transition values in conformity with the transition probabilities are added to the scores. In order to enhance the results notably in the case of different speeds of speaking of the instantaneous speaker, it is proposed to adapt these transition values in dependence on the speed of speaking. A further improvement can be achieved by also adapting the reference values themselves to the relevant speaker's pronunciation. This adaptation can also be iteratively performed in a number of steps.

Abstract: The invention relates to a device for generating announcement information. When the complete announcement information is generated via natural speech information, a large storage capacity is required. The device aims to enable a plurality of different announcement information to be generated without requiring a large storage capacity. To this end, there is proposed a device for generating announcement information including an input unit, a storage unit for storing natural speech information, a speech generator for generating synthetic speech information and a multiplexer for combining the natural speech information and the synthetic speech information to form the announcement information.