Abstract: It is a robotics visual and auditory system provided with an auditory module (20), a face module (30), a stereo module (37), a motor control module (40), and an association module (50) to control these respective modules.

Abstract: An automatic speech recognition system includes: a sound source localization module for localizing a sound direction of a speaker based on the acoustic signals detected by the plurality of microphones; a sound source separation module for separating a speech signal of the speaker from the acoustic signals according to the sound direction; an acoustic model memory which stores direction-dependent acoustic models that are adjusted to a plurality of directions at intervals; an acoustic model composition module which composes an acoustic model adjusted to the sound direction, which is localized by the sound source localization module, based on the direction-dependent acoustic models, the acoustic model composition module storing the acoustic model in the acoustic model memory; and a speech recognition module which recognizes the features extracted by a feature extractor as character information using the acoustic model composed by the acoustic model composition module.

Abstract: A first domain satisfying a first condition concerning a current utterance understanding result and a second domain satisfying a second condition concerning a selection history are specified. For each of the first and second domains, indices representing reliability in consideration of the utterance understanding history, selection history, and utterance generation history are evaluated. Based on the evaluation results, one of the first, second, and third domains is selected as a current domain according to a selection rule.

Abstract: A language understanding device includes: a language understanding model storing unit configured to store word transition data including pre-transition states, input words, predefined outputs corresponding to the input words, word weight information, and post-transition states, and concept weighting data including concepts obtained from language understanding results for at least one word, and concept weight information corresponding to the concepts; a finite state transducer processing unit configured to output understanding result candidates including the predefined outputs, to accumulate word weights so as to obtain a cumulative word weight, and to sequentially perform state transition operations; a concept weighting processing unit configured to accumulate concept weights so as to obtain a cumulative concept weight; and an understanding result determination unit configured to determine an understanding result from the understanding result candidates by referring to the cumulative word weight and the cumul

Abstract: A moving object 1 equipped with ultra-directional speaker is provided with an emitter 44 for measuring a distance to a target 11 to which it is to provide a voice by using an ultrasonic transmit sensor 45 and an ultrasonic receive sensor 46 thereof, and for emitting an output signal having a predetermined sound level which is adjusted by an amplifier 34 with sound level adjusting function. The moving object 1 can thus transmit a voice having an optimal volume only to the specific target through parametric action.

Abstract: A voice recognition system (10) for improving the toughness of voice recognition for a voice input for which a deteriorated feature amount cannot be completely identified. The system comprises at least two sound detecting means (16a, 16b) for detecting a sound signal, a sound source localizing unit (21) for determining the direction of a sound source based on the sound signal, a sound source separating unit (23) for separating a sound by the sound source from the sound signal based on the sound source direction, a mask producing unit (25) for producing a mask value according to the reliability of the separation results, a feature extracting unit (27) for extracting the feature amount of the sound signal, and a voice recognizing unit (29) for applying the mask to the feature amount to recognize a voice from the sound signal.

Abstract: An automatic system for temporal alignment between a music audio signal and lyrics is provided. The automatic system can prevent accuracy for temporal alignment from being lowered due to the influence of non-vocal sections. Alignment means of the system is provided with a phone model for singing voice that estimates phonemes corresponding to temporal-alignment features or features available for temporal alignment. The alignment means receives temporal-alignment features outputted from temporal-alignment feature extraction means, information on the vocal and non-vocal sections outputted from vocal section estimation means, and a phoneme network, and performs an alignment operation on condition that no phoneme exists at least in non-vocal sections.

Abstract: A system or the like is provided that is capable of interacting with a user while appropriately eliminating an inconsistency between a user's speech and a recognized speech. According to the interactive system 100 of the present invention, an ith-order query Q1 for asking a user's meaning is generated based on an ith-order output linguistic unit yki related to an ith-order input linguistic unit xi (i=1, 2, --) included in the recognized speech. Thereby, it is determined whether there is an inconsistency between the user's meaning and the ith-order input linguistic unit xi on the basis of an ith-order response Ai recognized as a user's response to the ith-order query Qi.

Abstract: An ultra-directional speaker having a modulator 33 for modulating an ultrasonic carrier signal with an input electric signal from an audible sound signal source, and an emitter 44 for emitting an output of the modulator 33 is mounted in a moving object 1 having a target tracking system for sensing a target in a surrounding space in real time using the above-mentioned emitter 44. The moving object equipped with ultra-directional speaker can therefore transmit a voice only to a specific target through parametric action caused by the nonlinearity of finite amplitude of ultrasonic wave.

Abstract: A moving object 1 equipped with ultra-directional speaker is provided with an emitter 44 for measuring a distance to a target 11 to which it is to provide a voice by using an ultrasonic transmit sensor 45 and an ultrasonic receive sensor 46 thereof, and for emitting an output signal having a predetermined sound level which is adjusted by an amplifier 34 with sound level adjusting function. The moving object 1 can thus transmit a voice having an optimal volume only to the specific target through parametric action.

Abstract: A robot auditory apparatus and system are disclosed which are made capable of attaining active perception upon collecting a sound from an external target with no influence received from noises generated interior of the robot such as those emitted from the robot driving elements.

Abstract: Robotics visual and auditory system is provided which is made capable of accurately conducting the sound source localization of a target by associating a visual and an auditory information with respect to a target.

Abstract: Provided in accordance with the invention are a sound source identifying apparatus and method whereby objects as sound sources can be determined as to their locations with higher accuracy by using sound information and image information thereof and are separated from mixed sounds with certainty by using position information thereof. The sound source identifying apparatus (10) is constructed to include a sound collecting part; an imaging part; a sensing part; an image processing part; a sound processing part; and a control part.

Abstract: The invention is directed to an auditory robot for a human or animal like robot, e.g., a human like robot (10) having a noise generating source such as a driving system in its interior. The apparatus includes a sound insulating cover (14) with which at least a head part (13) of the robot is covered; a pair of outer microphones (16; 16a and 16b) installed outside of the cover and located at a pair of positions where a pair of ears may be provided spaced apart for the robot, respectively, for collecting an external sound primarily; at least one inner microphone (17; 17a and 17b) installed inside of the cover for primarily collecting a noise from the noise generating source in the robot interior; and a processing module (18) on the basis of signals from the outer and inner microphones for removing from sound signals from the outer microphones (16a and 16b), a noise signal from the internal noise generating source.