Abstract: A monitor especially adaptable for fetal heart monitoring receives signals from acoustic transducers each of which includes a base member, a polymer sheet having a pair of electrodes disposed over major, opposing surfaces of the polymer sheet, the polymer sheet disposed adjacent an exterior portion of the base member, a cap affixed to the base member and electrical circuitry carried by the acoustic transducer and coupled to the electrodes on the polymer sheet.

Abstract: A method of acoustic monitoring includes transducing acoustic energy from a first acoustic transducer attached to a first location on a patient the acoustic energy from the first transducer, comprising desired acoustic energy to be monitored and interfering acoustic energy and transducing acoustic energy from a second acoustic transducer, attached to a second, different location on a patient, the acoustic energy from the second transducer, comprising desired acoustic energy to be monitored and interfering acoustic energy. The method also includes converting the acoustic energy sensed at the first and second locations into first and second electrical signals and processing the first and second electrical signals to digitally remove interfering acoustic energy present in the second signal to provide an electrical signal representative of the acoustic signal that is being monitored.

Abstract: An apparatus for detecting a fetal heartbeat includes circuitry to convert acoustic energy representative principally of a maternal heartbeat into a first electrical signal and circuitry to convert acoustic energy representative of a maternal heartbeat and a fetal heartbeat into a second electrical signal. The apparatus also includes circuitry to process the first and second electrical to provide an electrical signal principally representative of the fetal heartbeat and circuitry to determine pitch periods of the signal principally representative of the fetal heart beat.

Abstract: A fetal heart monitor device includes a channel to receive a first signal representative of acoustic energy principally from a maternal heartbeat and a second signal representative of acoustic energy including a fetal heart beat. The device includes a computing device including a processor, a memory operatively coupled to the processor and non-volatile storage operatively coupled to the processor, the non-volatile storage storing a computer program including instructions to cause the processor to process the first and second electrical signals into an electrical signal representative of the acoustic energy emitted by the fetal heart.

Abstract: A method for speech synthesis includes combining principal components corresponding to a phoneme with a set of coefficients to produce a signal representing a synthesized expression of the phoneme. The method may also include applying the synthesized expression to a transducer to generate synthesized speech. The method may include generating the phoneme from text.

Abstract: A method of speech recognition includes determining principal components of received speech over a series of pitch periods and comparing the principal components of the received speech to stored principal components to find a set of the stored principal components that have a specified degree of similarity to the determined principal components of the received speech. The method may include determining the pitch period of the received speech. The method may include sending a signal based on comparing the principal components of the received speech to stored principal components.