Abstract: Disclosed are methods, systems, devices, apparatus, media, design structures, and other implementations, including a method that includes receiving a source document, applying one or more pre-processes to the source document to produce contextual information representative of the structure and content of the source document, and transforming the source document, based on the contextual information, to generate a question-and-answer searchable document.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods, systems, devices, apparatus, media, and other implementations, including a method that includes obtaining a query set (e.g., a universal set of questions), performing a question-and-answer (Q-A) search on one or more documents using the query set to produce answer data responsive to one or more questions included in the query set, with the answer data characterizing concepts associated with the one or more documents, and deriving structured output information for the one or more documents based on the answer data produced in response to performing the Q-A search.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods, systems, devices, apparatus, media, design structures, and other implementations, including a method that includes receiving a source document, applying one or more pre-processes to the source document to produce contextual information representative of the structure and content of the source document, and transforming the source document, based on the contextual information, to generate a question-and-answer searchable document.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods, systems, devices, apparatus, media, design structures, and other implementations, including a method that includes receiving, at a local device from a remote device, query data representative of a question relating to source content of a source document, and determining whether one or more pre-determined questions stored in a question-answer cache maintained at the local device matches the query data according to one or more matching criteria. The method further includes obtaining from the question-answer cache, in response to a determination that at least one of the pre-determined questions matches the query data received from the remote device, at least one answer data item, associated with at least one pre-determined question, corresponding to an answer to the question relating to the source content.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods, systems, devices, apparatus, media, design structures, and other implementations, including a method that includes receiving, at a local device from a remote device, query data representative of a question relating to source content of a source document of a repository of a plurality of source documents, with the source content being associated with transformed content accessible from the local device. The method further includes generating, in response to determination, at the local device, of a match between the query data and at least one portion of the transformed content, output data comprising one or more of a pointer to access, in the source document accessible from the remote device, at least one portion of the source document corresponding to the at least one portion of the transformed content, or a copy of the at least one portion of the source document.

Abstract: Disclosed are implementations that include a method including obtaining at a local device, a question-and-answer data item representative of a question-and-answer pair relating to source content of a source document, with the question-and-answer data item being associated with question-and-answer history information representative of historical information and access information for the question-and-answer data item, and determining based on the question-and-answer history information whether to perform data refinement operations on the question-and-answer data item.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods, systems, devices, apparatus, media, design structures, and other implementations, including a method that includes receiving a source document, applying one or more pre-processes to the source document to produce contextual information representative of the structure and content of the source document, and transforming the source document, based on the contextual information, to generate a question-and-answer searchable document.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods, systems, devices, apparatus, media, design structures, and other implementations, including a method that includes receiving, at a local device from a remote device, query data representative of a question relating to source content of a source document, and determining whether one or more pre-determined questions stored in a question-answer cache maintained at the local device matches the query data according to one or more matching criteria. The method further includes obtaining from the question-answer cache, in response to a determination that at least one of the pre-determined questions matches the query data received from the remote device, at least one answer data item, associated with at least one pre-determined question, corresponding to an answer to the question relating to the source content.

Abstract: Systems, methods, apparatuses and computer program products for image calibration and analysis are described. One aspect provides quantitatively analyzing a representation of a dermatological condition of an image; and providing one or more outputs responsive to said quantitatively analyzing said representation of said dermatological condition of said image. Other embodiments are described.

Abstract: Systems, methods, apparatuses and program products for analyzing and/or monitoring the condition of skin are provided. Various embodiments provide for accessing images of the skin, analyzing the characteristics of skin conditions as represented by the images, and providing outputs useful for analyzing and/or monitoring conditions of the skin. Certain embodiments provide for automated analysis of skin conditions such as moles and/or wrinkles. The automated analysis may include for example characterization of a skin condition and comparison to similar skin conditions of a patient or of other patients.

Abstract: Systems, methods, apparatuses and program products for analyzing and/or monitoring the condition of skin are provided. Various embodiments provide for accessing images of the skin, analyzing the characteristics of skin conditions as represented by the images, and providing outputs useful for analyzing and/or monitoring conditions of the skin. Certain embodiments provide for automated analysis of skin conditions such as moles and/or wrinkles. The automated analysis may include for example characterization of a skin condition and comparison to similar skin conditions of a patient or of other patients.

Abstract: Systems, methods, apparatuses and computer program products for image calibration and analysis are described. One aspect provides quantitatively analyzing a representation of a dermatological condition of an image; and providing one or more outputs responsive to said quantitatively analyzing said representation of said dermatological condition of said image. Other embodiments are described.

Abstract: Methods and arrangements for representing the speech waveform in terms of a set of abstract, linguistic distinctions in order to derive a set of discriminative features for use in a speech recognizer. By combining the distinctive feature representation with an original waveform representation, it is possible to achieve a reduction in word error rate of 33% on an automatic speech recognition task.

Abstract: A method for generating a frequency warping function comprising preparing the training speech of a source and a target speaker; performing frame alignment on the training speech of the speakers; selecting aligned frames from the frame-aligned training speech of the speakers; extracting corresponding sets of formant parameters from the selected aligned frames; and generating a frequency warping function based on the corresponding sets of formant parameters. The step of selecting aligned frames preferably selects a pair of aligned frames in the middle of the same or similar frame-aligned phonemes with the same or similar contexts in the speech of the source speaker and target speaker. The step of generating a frequency warping function preferably uses the various pairs of corresponding formant parameters in the corresponding sets of formant parameters as key positions in a piecewise linear frequency warping function to generate the frequency warping function.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method, a system and a computer program product for text-to-speech synthesis. The computer program product comprises a computer useable medium including a computer readable program, where the computer readable program when executed on the computer causes the computer to operate in accordance with a text-to-speech synthesis function by operations that include, responsive to at least one phrase represented as recorded human speech to be employed in synthesizing speech, labeling the phrase according to a symbolic categorization of prosodic phenomena; and constructing a data structure that includes word/prosody-categories and word/prosody-category sequences for the phrase, and that further includes information pertaining to a phone sequence associated with the constituent word or word sequence for the phrase.

Abstract: A technique for producing speech output in a text-to-speech system is provided. A message is created for communication to a user in a natural language generator of the text-to-speech system. The message is annotated in the natural language generator with a synthetic speech output style. The message is conveyed to the user through a speech synthesis system in communication with the natural language generator, wherein the message is conveyed in accordance with the synthetic speech output style.

Abstract: A technique for producing speech output in an automatic dialog system is provided. Communication is received from a user at the automatic dialog system. A context of the communication from the user is detected in a context detector of the automatic dialog system. A message is provided to the user from a text-to-speech system of the automatic dialog system in communication with the context detector, wherein the message is provided in accordance with the detected context of the communication.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and a computer program product to generate an audible speech word that corresponds to text. The method includes providing a text word and, in response to the text word, processing pre-recorded speech segments that are derived from a plurality of speakers to selectively concatenate together speech segments based on at least one cost function to form audio data for generating an audible speech word that corresponds to the text word. A data structure is also provided for use in a concatenative text-to-speech system that includes a plurality of speech segments derived from a plurality of speakers, where each speech segment includes an associated attribute vector each of which is comprised of at least one attribute vector element that identifies the speaker from which the speech segment was derived.

Abstract: A driving directions system loads into memory a limited subset of prerecorded, spoken utterances of geographic names from a mass media storage. The subset of spoken utterances may be limited, for example, to the geographic names within a predetermined radius (e.g., a few miles) of the driver's present location. The present location of the driver may be manually entered into the driving directions system by the driver, or automatically determined using a global positioning system (“GPS”) receiver. As the vehicle moves from its present location, the driving directions system loads into memory new names from the mass media storage and overwrites, if necessary, those which are now geographically out of range. Based on the current location of the driving, the driving directions system can audibly output geographic names from the run-time memory.

Abstract: Examples of paralinguistic events (e.g., breaths, coughs, sighs, etc.) are recorded. A text-to-speech (“TTS”) engine may insert the examples into a stream of synthetic speech using, for example, markup. The synthetic speech may include a combination of normal text and paralinguistic text.