Abstract: A connector system for printed circuit boards uses extensions of the traces of the printed circuit board as connector pins by supporting the malleable traces with isolated support pillars. This eliminates the need for electrical junctions between the connector and the printed circuit board. The support pillars provide the necessary mechanical properties for the connector pins. The conductive trace may be adhered to one side of the support or may be draped over the top to cover both sides and may be plated with the material of the support to provide a uniform electrical conductivity over the surface of the formed pin.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a method of improving the recognition accuracy of an in-vehicle speech recognition system. The method of the present invention selectively adapts the system's speech engine to a speaker's voice characteristics using an N-best matching technique. In this method, the speech recognition system receives and processes a spoken utterance relating to a car command and having particular speaker-dependent speech characteristics so as to select a set of N-best voice commands matching the spoken utterance. Upon receiving a training mode input from the speaker, the system outputs the N-best command set to the speaker who selects the correct car command. The system then adapts the speech engine to recognize a spoken utterance having the received speech characteristics as the user-selected car command.