Abstract: A solar cell includes an absorber layer formed of a CIGAS, copper, indium, gallium, aluminum, and selenium. A method for forming the absorber layer provides for using an indium-aluminum target and depositing an aluminum-indium film as a metal precursor layer using sputter deposition. Additional metal precursor layers such as a CuGa layer are also provided and a thermal processing operation causes the selenization of the metal precursor layers. The thermal processing operation/selenization operation converts the metal precursor layers to an absorber layer. In some embodiments, the absorber layer includes a double graded chalcopyrite-based bandgap.

Abstract: A behavior recognition system and method by combining an image and a speech are provided. The system includes a data analyzing module, a database, and a calculating module. A plurality of image-and-speech relation modules is stored in the database. Each image-and-speech relation module includes a feature extraction parameter and an image-and-speech relation parameter. The data analyzing module obtains a gesture image and a speech data corresponding to each other, and substitutes the gesture image and the speech data into each feature extraction parameter to generate image feature sequences and speech feature sequences. The data analyzing module uses each image-and-speech relation parameter to calculate image-and-speech status parameters.

Abstract: A phonetic variation model building apparatus, having a phoneme database for recording at least a standard phonetic model of a language and a plurality of non-standardized phonemes of the language is provided. A phonetic variation identifier identifies a plurality of phonetic variations between the non-standardized phonemes and the standard phonetic model. A phonetic transformation calculator calculates a plurality of coefficients of a phonetic transformation function based on the phonetic variations and the phonetic transformation function. A phonetic variation model generator generates at least a phonetic variation model based on the standard phonetic model, the phonetic transformation function and the coefficients thereof.

Abstract: The invention provides a fabrication method for a chalcopyrite powder. The fabrication method includes: (a) mixing a Group IB compound and a Group IIIA compound in a solvent; (b) drying or precipitating the solution of step (a) to obtain a precursor containing Group IB and Group IIIA elements; (c) mixing a solution or powder containing a Group VIA compound with the precursor; and (d) heating the mixture of step (c) to obtain the chalcopyrite powder.

Abstract: A method of constructing a model of recognizing English pronunciation variations is used to recognize English pronunciations with different intonations influenced by non-English native languages. The method includes collecting a plurality of sound information corresponding to English expressions; corresponding phonetic alphabets of the non-English native language and English of a region to International Phonetic Alphabets (IPAs), so as to form a plurality of pronunciation models; converting the sound information with the pronunciation models to form a pronunciation variation network of the corresponding English expressions, thereby detecting whether the English expressions have pronunciation variation paths; and finally summarizing the pronunciation variation paths to form a plurality of pronunciation variation rules. Furthermore, the pronunciation variations are represented by phonetics features to infer possible pronunciation variation rules, which are stored to form pronunciation variation models.

Abstract: A phonetic variation model building apparatus, having a phoneme database for recording at least a standard phonetic model of a language and a plurality of non-standardized phonemes of the language is provided. A phonetic variation identifier identifies a plurality of phonetic variations between the non-standardized phonemes and the standard phonetic model. A phonetic transformation calculator calculates a plurality of coefficients of a phonetic transformation function based on the phonetic variations and the phonetic transformation function. A phonetic variation model generator generates at least a phonetic variation model based on the standard phonetic model, the phonetic transformation function and the coefficients thereof.

Abstract: A behavior recognition system and method by combining an image and a speech are provided. The system includes a data analyzing module, a database, and a calculating module. A plurality of image-and-speech relation modules is stored in the database. Each image-and-speech relation module includes a feature extraction parameter and an image-and-speech relation parameter. The data analyzing module obtains a gesture image and a speech data corresponding to each other, and substitutes the gesture image and the speech data into each feature extraction parameter to generate image feature sequences and speech feature sequences. The data analyzing module uses each image-and-speech relation parameter to calculate image-and-speech status parameters.

Abstract: The invention relates to a multi-thread power gating control design, setting idle components into a sleep mode to reduce power consumption due to current leakage. Based on compiler techniques, the invention arranges predicted-power-gating instructions into every thread of a may-happen-in-parallel region. A predicted-power-on instruction determines whether the corresponding component has been powered on, and powers on the component when it has not been powered on yet. A predicted-power-off instruction determines whether the component is required in the rest of the may-happen-in-parallel region, and powers off the component when it is required later.

Abstract: The invention provides a fabrication method for a chalcopyrite powder. The fabrication method includes: (a) mixing a Group IB compound and a Group IIIA compound in a solvent; (b) drying or precipitating the solution of step (a) to obtain a precursor containing Group IB and Group IIIA elements; (c) mixing a solution or powder containing a Group VIA compound with the precursor; and (d) heating the mixture of step (c) to obtain the chalcopyrite powder.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for multimedia data management are disclosed. The method provides an indexing and retrieval scheme for digital photos with speech annotations based on image-like patterns transformed from the recognized syllable candidates. For annotated spoken content, the recognized n-best syllable candidates are transformed into a sequence of syllable-transformed patterns. Eigen-image analysis is further adopted to extract the significant information to reduce the dimensionality. Vector quantization is applied to quantize the syllable-transformed patterns into feature vectors for indexing. The invention of indexing scheme reduces the dimensionality and noise of data, and achieves better performance of 16.26% for speech annotated photo retrieval.

Abstract: A unit selection module for Chinese Text-to-Speech (TTS) synthesis includes a probabilistic context free grammar (PCFG) parser, a latent semantic indexing (LSI) module, and a modified variable-length unit selection scheme; any Chinese sentence is firstly input and then parsed into a context-free grammar (CFG) by the PCFG parser; wherein there are several possible CFGs for every Chinese sentence, and the CFG (or the syntactic structure) with the highest probability is then taken as the best CFG (or the syntactic structure) of the Chinese sentence; the LSI module is then used to calculate the structural distance between all the candidate synthesis units and the target unit in a corpus; through the modified variable-length unit selection scheme, tagged with the dynamic programming algorithm, the units are searched to find the best synthesis unit concatenation sequence.

Abstract: A method of constructing a model of recognizing English pronunciation variations is used to recognize English pronunciations with different intonations influenced by native languages. The method includes collecting a plurality of sound information corresponding to English expressions; corresponding phonetic alphabets of the native language and English of a region to International Phonetic Alphabets (IPAs), so as to form a plurality of pronunciation models; converting the sound information with the pronunciation models to form a pronunciation variation network of the corresponding English expressions, thereby detecting whether the English expressions have pronunciation variation paths; and finally summarizing the pronunciation variation paths to form a plurality of pronunciation variation rules. Furthermore, the pronunciation variations are represented by phonetics features to infer possible pronunciation variation rules, which are stored to form pronunciation variation models.

Abstract: The invention relates to a multi-thread power gating control design, setting idle components into a sleep mode to reduce power consumption due to current leakage. Based on compiler techniques, the invention arranges predicted-power-gating instructions into every thread of a may-happen-in-parallel region. A predicted-power-on instruction determines whether the corresponding component has been powered on, and powers on the component when it has not been powered on yet. A predicted-power-off instruction determines whether the component is required in the rest of the may-happen-in-parallel region, and powers off the component when it is required later.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for multimedia data management are disclosed. The method provides an indexing and retrieval scheme for digital photos with speech annotations based on image-like patterns transformed from the recognized syllable candidates. For annotated spoken content, the recognized n-best syllable candidates are transformed into a sequence of syllable-transformed patterns. Eigen-image analysis is further adopted to extract the significant information to reduce the dimensionality. Vector quantization is applied to quantize the syllable-transformed patterns into feature vectors for indexing. The invention of indexing scheme reduces the dimensionality and noise of data, and achieves better performance of 16.26% for speech annotated photo retrieval.

Abstract: A demosaicking method and apparatus for color filter array interpolation in digital image acquisition systems is provided. The method includes a data-training phase and a data-practice phase. In the data-training phase of this invention, a huge volume of image samples are received for statistical analysis and compared with their corresponding full-color images. The optimal samples are then recorded in a database. In the data-practice phase of this invention, the images of color filter array are reconstructed. The present invention not only significantly improves the image quality but also reduces undue hardware cost. Furthermore, it has an advantage of ease of hardware implementation. All the color relationships of neighboring pixels are recorded in a database for statistical analysis. The database is not limited to only one set. It is also pretty flexible, and can be adjusted or updated depending on desired applications.

Abstract: A demosaicking method and apparatus for color filter array interpolation in digital image acquisition systems is provided. The method includes a data-training phase and a data-practice phase. In the data-training phase of this invention, a huge volume of image samples are received for statistical analysis and compared with their corresponding full-color images. The optimal samples are then recorded in a database. In the data-practice phase of this invention, the images of color filter array are reconstructed. The present invention not only significantly improves the image quality but also reduces undue hardware cost. Furthermore, it has an advantage of ease of hardware implementation. All the color relationships of neighboring pixels are recorded in a database for statistical analysis. The database is not limited to only one set. It is also pretty flexible, and can be adjusted or updated depending on desired applications.

Abstract: This invention relates to a unit selection module for Chinese Text-to-Speech (TTS) synthesis, mainly comprising a probabilistic context free grammar (PCFG) parser, a latent semantic indexing (LSI) module, and a modified variable-length unit selection scheme; any Chinese sentence is firstly input and then parsed into a context-free grammar (CFG) by the PCFG parser; wherein there are several possible CFGs for every Chinese sentence, and the CFG (or the syntactic structure) with the highest probability is then taken as the best CFG (or the syntactic structure) of the Chinese sentence; the LSI module is then used to calculate the structural distance between all the candidate synthesis units and the target unit in a corpus; through the modified variable-length unit selection scheme, tagged with the dynamic programming algorithm, the units are searched to find the best synthesis unit concatenation sequence.

Abstract: A molding machine for producing a continuous extrusion molding product with varying profile includes a die with an inlet for receiving molten material, a channel, an outlet, and shaping knives rotatable around axes non-parallel to the flow direction of the molten material between first and second operational positions. Shaping knives have molding surfaces and together define a first contour in the outlet when the shaping knives are in their first operational positions, and define a second contour in the outlet when the shaping knives are in their second operational positions. Shaping knives can be rotated around axes perpendicular or oblique to the flow direction of molten material.

Abstract: A molding machine for producing a continuous extrusion molding product with varying profile includes a die with an inlet for receiving molten material, a channel, an outlet, and shaping knives rotatable around axes non-parallel to the flow direction of the molten material between first and second operational positions. Shaping knives have molding surfaces and together define a first contour in the outlet when the shaping knives are in their first operational positions, and define a second contour in the outlet when the shaping knives are in their second operational positions. Shaping knives can be rotated around axes perpendicular or oblique to the flow direction of molten material.

Abstract: A molding machine for producing a continuous extrusion molding product with varying profile includes a die with an inlet for receiving molten material, a channel, an outlet, and shaping knives rotatable around axes non-parallel to the flow direction of the molten material between first and second operational positions. Shaping knives have molding surfaces and together define a first contour in the outlet when the shaping knives are in their first operational positions, and define a second contour in the outlet when the shaping knives are in their second operational positions. Shaping knives can be rotated around axes perpendicular or oblique to the flow direction of molten material.