Abstract: A data model for an information repository (10) models data as objects (12), the relationships (14) or interdependencies between the data, their physical storage or access information (18) and rules or methods of accessing the data (16).

Abstract: A method of using a computer (11) to perform a multi-stage vector quantization process (13a). At each stage of the process (13a) subsequent to the first stage, input vectors from the previous stage are used to search a codebook (13b) for code-vectors that minimize distortion. (FIG. 2) The search is structured so that each stage is performed with an outer loop that calculates components of distortion that do not depend on the input vector value. An inner loop, which does depend on input vector values, is used to calculate distortion values and to maintain a list of the current best output code-vectors. (FIG. 3). The first stage is a special case, having only one input vector, but is otherwise performed like the subsequent stages.

Abstract: The present invention includes a video encoder optimized so as to be implemented using general purpose DSPs or as software executable on a general purpose microprocessor. The present invention includes a modified motion detector module (50) which classifies blocks in the currently processing image as moving or stationary. Blocks classified as moving are then processed by an modified motion compensation module (52) which uses a center-biased orthogonal searching procedure to match the block with a previously processed image. A zero block detector module (54) determines whether the block will generate a zero-valued block after being processed by a transform module 18 and a quantization module 20. If a zero-valued block is predicted, the transformation module 18 and the quantization module 20 are bypassed.

Abstract: A method to provide automatic content-based video indexing from object motion is described. Moving objects in video from a surveillance camera 11 detected in the video sequence using motion segmentation methods by motion segmentor 21. Objects are tracked through segmented data in an object tracker 22. A symbolic representation of the video is generated in the form of an annotated graphics describing the objects and their movement. A motion analyzer 23 analyzes results of object tracking and annotates the graph motion with indices describing several events. The graph is then indexed using a rule based classification scheme to identify events of interest such as appearance/disappearance, deposit/removal, entrance/exit, and motion/rest of objects. Clips of the video identified by spatio-temporal, event, and object-based queries are recalled to view the desired video.

Abstract: An improved filtering method for use in an enhancement filter in a mixed excitation linear prediction (MELP) speech coder or a postfilter in a codebook excitation linear prediction (CELP) speech coder is disclosed which includes two filters. The first filter (62) has a transfer function of ##EQU1## where P is the set of prediction coefficients, .alpha. and .beta. are scaling factors, z is the inverse of the unit delay operation used in the transform representation of the transfer functions and sig-prob is signal probability estimator value and the second filter (65) has a transfer function of 1-.mu.z.sup.-1 * sig-prob, where .mu.= a scaling factor. The sig-prob is the signal probability value based on a comparison of power of the signals in a current frames to a long term estimate of noise power in signal probability estimator (63). The sig-prob value is 1 if the power of the signals is greater than the noise power plus 30 dB and the sig-prob is zero if the power is less than noise power plus 12 dB.

Abstract: An improved error detection and error concealment for Viterbi decoding of convolutionally encoded data is provided. The most sensitive part of the data is parity encoded and sent with parity and this data with the next most sensitive data are convolutionally encoded and sent with the least sensitive data over a transmission channel to a receiver. At the receiver the convolutionally encoded data is decoded using the Viterbi algorithm. The decoder compares the parity computed from decoded data with the decoded parity and if they are not equal generates a Bad Frame Indicator (BFI) flag and also determines which decoded parameters are likely bad and hence generates a Bad Parameter Indicator (BPI) flag for those parameters, by determining the confidence levels for the parameters and comparing against pre-selected thresholds. The decision to discard a decoded parameter is dependent on the BFI flag and the BPI flag of that parameter.

Abstract: A video encoder optimized so as to be implemented using general purpose DSPs or as software executable on a general purpose microprocessor includes a modified motion detector module (50) which classifies blocks in the currently processing image as moving or stationary. Blocks classified as moving are then processed by an modified motion compensation module (52) which uses a center-biased orthogonal searching procedure to match the block with a previously processed image. A zero block detector module (54) determines whether the block will generate a zero-valued block after being processed by a transform module 18 and a quantization module 20. If a zero-valued block is predicted, the transformation module 18 and the quantization module 20 are bypassed.

Abstract: The present invention is a method for estimating software operation and performance measures using a goal/question/metric paradigm. In the present invention, each goal is associated with questions and metrics and stored to memory as a tree. The nodes in the tree are then interconnected in accordance with boolean logic relationships. A minimal path is determined through the tree. Probabilities are then assigned to each node and used in assigning an overall probability to the top node or goal. A percentage contribution to the overall probability is then assigned to each node. The probabilities, minimal path and percentage contributions are then used in determing an action plan to use during development of the software to ensure software operation and performance accordingly.

Abstract: The present invention is a video answer machine which includes a video data recorder (26) for accepting and recording an outgoing video message, an audio data recorder (22) for accepting and recording an outgoing audio message, and data storage (19) for storing said outgoing video message and said outgoing audio message. Also included in he video answering machine is a control module (12) for accepting an incoming call from a caller, for determining a device type associated with the incoming call, for responding to the incoming call using either the outgoing video message or the outgoing audio message in accordance with the associated device type and for accepting either an audio response or a video response from the caller in accordance with said associated device type.

Abstract: A video encoder optimized so as to be implemented using general purpose DSPs or as software executable on a general purpose microprocessor includes a modified motion detector module (50) which classifies blocks in the currently processing image as moving or stationary. Blocks classified as moving are then processed by an modified motion compensation module (52) which uses a center-biased orthogonal searching procedure to match the block with a previously processed image. A zero block detector module (54) determines whether the block will generate a zero-valued block after being processed by a transform module 18 and a quantization module 20. If a zero-valued block is predicted, the transformation module 18 and the quantization module 20 are bypassed.

Abstract: A system and method for managing change in software systems and applications manages change for both transient and persistent objects in a domain independent, non-intrusive, object-oriented fashion. The system and method are designed and implemented as a combination of two abstract machines consisting of a set of inter-face functions visible to the application, and an internal or private state which is hidden from such application. Applications use the interface functions to obtain the services of this change management system and method. Since the internal state of such system and method is outside the application, change management is provided as a service without the need for altering or adding onto application data structures and interfaces.

Abstract: A method for determining the position of a die on a wafer table after a wafer (20) has been cut includes stepping the wafer table (22) a series of one die lengths diagonally and after each step compare the die pattern to a reference die to determine street widths between dies. The widths are then averaged. This averaged street width is added to the die length to at the computer (26) to determine the jump distance between good dies. The distance from the reference die is continuously updated and this is used with the average street width to compute the next die position to jump. If the jump to the next die is unsuccessful, jump back to mid-point and if that is unsuccessful, reiterate mid-point jumps until successful.

Abstract: A method and system for enrolling speed dial names includes providing speaker dependent templates and associated telephone numbers and providing a penalized garbage model for unrecognized speech. When a request for a new template is received it is determined if the list of speed dial names is full (Step 201) and is not it is determined if that name is too similar (Step 205) to a name already on the speed dial list. If so, that name is rejected but if not it is determined if the speed dial name is too short (Step 302), and if not; too short or if the user wants to enter the short name the system asks the user to repeat the speed dial name and if a match it is entered. If not a match the system will swap the first and second utterance and compare to see if a match.

Abstract: Improved speech recognition is achieved according to the present invention by use of between word and/or between phrase coarticulation. The increase in the number of phonetic models required to model this additional vocabulary is reduced by clustering 19, 20 the inter-word/phrase models and grammar into only a few classes. By using one class for consonant inter-word context and two classes for vowel contexts, the accuracy for Japanese was almost as good as for unclustered models while the number of models was reduced more than half.

Abstract: This is a speech recognition method for modeling adjacent word context, comprising: dividing a first word or period of silence into two portions; dividing a second word or period of silence, adjacent to the first word, into two potions; and combining last portion of the first word or period of silence and first portion of the second word or period of silence to make an acoustic model. The method includes constructing a grammar to restrict the acoustic models to the middle-to-middle context.

Abstract: A novel approach to parameter encoding is presented which improves coding efficiency and performance by exploiting the variable rate nature of certain classes of signals. This is achieved using an interpolative variable frame-rate breakpointing scheme referred to as adaptive frame selection (AFS). In the approach described in this report, frame selection is achieved using a recursive dynamic programming algorithm; the resulting parameter encoding system is referred to as adaptive frame selection using dynamic programming (AFS/DP). The AFS/DP algorithm determines optimal breakpoint locations in the context of parameter encoding using an arbitrary objective performance measure, and operates in a fixed bit-rate, fixed-delay context with low computational requirements. When applied to the problem of low bit-rate coding of speech spectral and gain parameters, the AFS/DP algorithm is capable of improving the perceptual quality of coded speech and robustness to quantization errors over fixed frame-rate approaches.

Abstract: This invention consists of three enhancements to HMM-based automatic language identification systems. The three enhancements are: (i) language-discriminant acoustic model training and recognition, (ii) an acoustic model pruning procedure that picks only those phonetic models which are considered useful for language identification, and (iii) a neural network-based language classification method that uses knowledge-based features derived from phone sequences output by the HMM phonetic recognizers.

Abstract: A method for calculating the use of resources in a multi-task, multi-resource environment, such as a factory that produces more than one product and that has at least one machine that can process more than one product. The resources are grouped into resource groups according to the tasks they process. The method includes solving an iterative algorithm, whose solution is a fractional value representing the effective number of resources per resource group. This value can be used in usage formulas where the number of resources per group is used to determine how tasks should be allocated.

Abstract: To overcome the problem of poor representation of the background noise, the present invention includes a noise parameter generator (40) which uses a weighted average of auto-correlation values of the input signal generated during the noise-analysis phase. The weighting function gives less weight to the auto-correlations during the first few frames (as they may contain speech) and more weight to frames towards the end of this phase. Also included, to overcome the bursty nature of comfort noise, is a comfort noise generator (50) which gradually changes the nature of the signal from speech to pseudo-random noise after the speech-burst. The comfort noise generator (50) of the present invention excites the auto-regressive filter corresponding to the noise model with a weighted combination of the past excitation and pseudo-random noise.

Abstract: A quantizer and a low bit rate communication system using the quantizer is described. The quantizer includes a 3-bit and 5-bit encoder where the 3-bit encoder provides the encoded gain for a first half of a sampled frame of speech and the second encoder for the second half of the frame of speech. A special 3-bit code is provided when a steady state is determined by comparing the 3-bit code and neighboring 5-bit codes. The decoder in the system when detecting the special code provides an average of the 5-bit codes if the decoded 5-bit code is within 5 dB of the previous 5-bit code.